Bassel Khatoun

Bassel Khatoun is the senior managing director, director of research, director of Portfolio Management for Frontier and MENA at Franklin Templeton Investments. In this capacity, he is responsible for ensuring a consistent, robust research process and the ongoing development of timely, high-quality and value-add research ideas by the analyst team.
Mr. Khatoun also serves as Director of Portfolio Management for Frontier and MENA where he is responsible for the investment process, research and performance of the Frontier and MENA team. He is a portfolio manager for the Templeton Frontier Markets Fund and the Franklin MENA Fund.
Mr. Khatoun is a member of the Emerging Markets Equity management committee which sets the overall strategy for the group, provides guidance and thought leadership, coordinates appropriate resources and coverage, and leverages the group’s expertise to add value across its products. He is a board member of Franklin Templeton Investments (ME), formerly Algebra Capital, and has been with the firm since 2007.
He joined Algebra Capital in April 2007 as an equity portfolio manager and was an integral member of the team. During his employment at Algebra Capital, Mr. Khatoun was involved in the establishment of the firm’s flagship equity funds and was a member of the Equity Investment Committee.
Prior to this, Mr. Khatoun worked in the investment banking division of Citigroup in London, where he was involved in a range of mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance transactions across the European and emerging markets financial institutions sector.
Mr. Khatoun holds a B.A. degree with 1st class honors in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) from Oxford University. He is FSA registered in the U.K.