The QFC Regulatory Authority appointed Professor Robin Callender Smith to be a CDRS Independent Adjudicator in September 2013.

Professor Robin Callender Smith is an international arbitrator, mediator and adjudicator at ARBITA, his London Chambers. He specialises in financial, regulatory and privacy arbitration. He is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitration, a CEDR-qualified Mediator and a Panel Adjudicator for the Society of Computers and the Law (SCL). He was a member of the UK energy regulator Ofgem’s independent Enforcement Decisions Panel and a non-executive member of the UK’s Chartered Insurance Institute. He was also formerly Deputy Chairman of the Regulatory Decisions Committee of the Financial Conduct Authority. He worked as a Tribunal Judge for ten years and is Honorary Professor of Media Law at Queen Mary, University of London (QMUL), where he completed his PhD. 

He is the author of Celebrity and Royal Privacy, the Media and the Law (Sweet & Maxwell 2015) and an Editor of Sweet & Maxwell’s Encyclopedia of Data Protection and Privacy. He has spent over 40 years as a media lawyer for national newspapers and ten years in the City of London dealing with significant financial takeovers and mergers as well as issues relating to compliance, corporate governance and professional standards in the financial services sector. Professor Callender Smith has been a barrister for over 45 years and is a former elected member of the UK Bar Council and Gray’s Inn Barristers’ Committee. He is a Vice President of London Youth, London’s largest youth charity.

The QFC Regulatory Authority appointed Salman Al Ansari as a CDRS Independent Adjudicator in June 2022.

Salman A. Al-Ansari is ranked as a leading lawyer in corporate and commercial law by Chambers and Partners. He advises clients on all facets of their operations in the Middle East, from corporate formation, structuring, mergers and acquisitions, finance and securities to intellectual property, real estate & construction and dispute resolution. Mr Al-Ansari’s in-depth academic experience, along with his knowledge of local laws, allows him to efficiently advise clients on the legal complexities of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Recently, Mr Al-Ansari advised on one of the largest mergers and disputes in the State of Qatar.  Mr Al-Ansari led a team of lawyers to draft and negotiate the Law No. 10 of 2021 regarding the Measure of hosting the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.

Before joining Al-Ansari & Associates, Mr Al-Ansari worked at a leading international firm and as a full-time lecturer of law for three years at Qatar University College of Law, where he taught courses such as Company Law. Mr Al-Ansari led the restructuring of the football sector to create the first players’ union and the first sports dedicated arbitration institution as part of the progress towards the 2022 FIFA World Cup, hosted by the State of Qatar.