GCGRA appoints Ahmad Hesham as General Counsel and Board Secretary

The General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority (GCGRA) has appointed Ahmad Hesham PhD as General Counsel and Board Secretary. 

Hesham brings more than 25 years of international legal, regulatory and public policy experience, having advised governments, regulators and public institutions on legislative and governance matters across multiple jurisdictions.

Before joining the GCGRA, Hesham served as General Counsel and Senior Legal Advisor to the UAE's Minister of Human Resources and Emiratisation for more than eight years, a role in which he was involved in drafting significant labour policy reforms. 

These included the UAE's labour law and its executive regulation, the domestic workers law and its executive regulation and the law on unified general rules of labour, along with the country's first unemployment insurance policy and Emiratisation regulations.

Hesham also served as VP of Egypt's State Council, a senior administrative judicial body, and as Senior Legal Advisor to the Chairperson of the Egyptian Competition Authority, where he worked on amendments to Egypt's competition law. 

Between 2016 and 2021, he worked as an international consultant for the United Nations, advising on the drafting and amendment of economic legislation across the Middle East and North Africa, contributing to competition law reforms in Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Palestine and Tunisia and preparing draft competition laws for Lebanon and Palestine.

Hesham holds a joint PhD from Vrije Universiteit Brussel and Ghent University, an LL.M from the American University and a master's degree from Cairo University. He is fluent in Arabic and English and has working knowledge of French and Dutch.

The appointment follows the GCGRA's naming of Ciarán Carruthers as CEO in June 2026. Carruthers, who previously led Crown Resorts and served as COO of Wynn Macau, took on the role as the regulator continues to build out the UAE's commercial gaming framework, which holds exclusive jurisdiction to regulate, license and supervise commercial gaming across the country.