About Us
Who We Are
TMP Holdings, Inc. is a privately-owned investment firm and holding company headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. TMP acquires, develops, finances, manages, and owns private sector ventures on a global basis. TMP Holdings initially focused exclusively on the emerging markets of Central Europe and Eastern Europe. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, TMP was one of the first Western firms to make direct equity and debt investments in the region, with a particular focus on the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania; the Visegrad group of countries, which includes the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia; and the Balkan region, Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, Macedonia, and Slovenia. TMP Holdings was also one of the earliest capital markets investors in emerging Europe. Several of those early investments grew to become the leading players in their respective industries, including
Vimplecom, Hansabank and Nexcom Telecommunications. We have since expanded our geographic focus world-wide and have a U.S. presence throughout California, Arizona, Nevada, Tennessee, Texas, Mississippi, and Pennsylvania. TMP Holdings has global operations in Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Bahrain, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Luxembourg.
TMP Holdings invests and operates across a broad range of industries. These include block chain, entertainment, financial services, logistics, metals and mining, real estate, software, telecom and technology.
Sustainability and environmentally conscious investments are a common denominator in all of TMP Holdings investments. TMP Holdings has been on the forefront of development when it comes to clean energy, hydrogen fuel cell trucks, carbon zero building materials and ethical and sustainable sourcing of minerals.
TMP Holdings maintains a 12 person corporate staff and has over 1,000 employees at its subsidiary companies.
Our Team
Raymond F. Staples, Esq.
CHAIRMAN AND CEO
Mr. Staples is a pioneering entrepreneur and investor in emerging markets. He is the Founder & Chairman of TMP Holdings, Inc. TMP Holdings, Inc. is a global investment firm and holding company headquartered in Beverly Hills, CA. TMP creates, develops and finances private-sector projects on a global basis, with a particular focus on Central and Eastern Europe. Mr. Staples is the Chairman and CEO of the TMP Metals Group, Inc. and its affiliate and subsidiary companies. He is also the Chairman and CEO of the TMP Logistics Group, Ltd. TMP Logistics is an integrated group of trucking and logistics companies focused on developing green solutions for the heavy-duty trucking sector.
Mr. Staples was one of the first American entrepreneurs to make direct investments in Central and Eastern Europe after the fall of Communism. He was an early investor or founder of some of Central and Eastern Europe’s leading companies in telecom, banking and entertainment in more than twelve countries in the region. Mr. Staples is credited with ending the state-owned telecom monopolies in Eastern Europe and opening the region to competition in the market for mobile, fixed and wireless broadband data telecommunications services. He played a significant role in the development of the Prague and Tallinn Stock Exchanges. He also drafted European Commission Directive 2000/C-177/03, which successfully argued for the legalization of Internet Telephony and the licensing of alternative telco providers in Central and Eastern European countries that applied for membership in the European Union.
Mr. Staples received a Juris Doctorate Degree with highest honors in Business Law and International Finance from Harvard Law School. He is also a Phi Beta Kappa graduate from Washington University in St. Louis, where he received his Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude, in Economics.
Riema Keshta
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER
Ms. Keshta is the Vice President and CFO of TMP Holdings, Inc. and its associated companies. TMP is a privately owned investment and holding company headquartered in Beverly Hills, CA. TMP creates, develops, finances, and manages private sector ventures on a global basis. As VP and CFO, Ms. Keshta oversees a group of companies with annual revenues in excess of $5 billion dollars and more than 1,000 employees. Ms. Keshta was recently appointed President and CFO of TMP Capital FZE in Dubai, where she is developing investment opportunities in the United Arab Emirates. Ms. Keshta also serves as VP and CFO of National Freight Holdings, LLC. National Freight is a trucking and logistics holding company that owns several trucking and logistics companies throughout the USA. Ms. Keshta previously served as the CFO of Nexcom Telecommunications. Nexcom was the first and largest non-government-owned telecommunications company in Central and Eastern Europe, operating in 12 countries throughout CEE, as well as the UK, Germany, Canada, and the USA. Ms. Keshta began her business career as the Chief Marketing Director for Wikon Communications in Frankfurt, Germany. Wikon develops remote surveillance and monitoring systems for oil pipelines in the Middle East, North America, and Russia.
Ms. Keshta has a Master of Arts in Comparative Linguistics and Translation in Arabic, German, English, French, and Latin, from the University of Jordan in Amman. She also has a Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude, in English and French Literature, from the University of Jordan. She has Certificates in Accounting, Finance, Investments and Real Estate.
Michael G. Watts
STRATEGIC PLANNING & SPECIAL PROJECTS
Mr. Watts is responsible for strategic planning and special projects for TMP Metals Group, Ltd. Mr. Watts served as a Senior Executive in the Federal Government before joining TMP Metals Group, Ltd. He has over 40 years of senior and executive-level leadership experience in the US Army, state government (Assistant Commissioner), and Federal Government (Senior Executive). Mr. Watts honed his skills in leading organizational change, leading people, delivering results, building coalitions, and applying business acumen in multiple organizations with a wide range of missions in both the US and overseas.
Mr. Watts has a Juris Doctorate from Cumberland School of Law, Samford University (Birmingham, Alabama). He also holds a Master of Arts in Administration of Justice and Human Relations from Webster University (St. Louis, Missouri) and a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice and Political Science from the University of Alabama in Birmingham. Mr. Watts also completed the Senior Managers in Government Course at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
Katie Partridge
MANAGING DIRECTOR AND THE HEAD OF STRATEGY
Katie is also the Founder and CEO of the Saphira Group investment companies. She has successfully advised on over $10 billion in complex cross-border transactions in the past 3 years with Fortune 100 companies, large global privately owned enterprises and entrepreneurs. Building on her 25+ years of experience and relationships in the GCC region she has become a well-known strategic advisor on market entry strategies and business model implementation.
Katie’s institutional investment career includes working at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, Credit Suisse First Boston and Caledonia Investments plc,. Prior to setting up Saphira, Katie was a Managing Director responsible for the real-assets investment arm of WMG Advisors, a large multi-family office. Before that, she served as a Managing Partner at Hannam & Partners / Strand Partners, a privately owned merchant bank that specialises in corporate finance and M&A transactions in the commodities sector.
She is also the Founder and Chairwoman of Johara Global a social enterprise organisation that fosters female leadership and cross-cultural understanding between the Middle East and the West via tailored leadership, social entrepreneurship and mentorship programmes.
Katie believes in making a difference at grassroots level and is a Founding Trustee of The Childhood Trust, a charity that supports the alleviation of childhood poverty and early development struggles of children.
She is an avid supporter of the Arts through patronage of numerous significant organisations.
Katie graduated from Queen Mary University of London with a Bachelor of Science Honours in Economics and Politics.
Jeff Dyment
MANAGING DIRECTOR AND HEAD OF TECHNOLOGY INVESTMENTS
Jeff has had a 30-year career in investment banking, private equity, quant strategies, technology companies and web3 / blockchain platforms. Most recently, he was the founder, CEO and Chairman of Lifetoken Software, Inc., a web3 social rewards platform, and co-founder of Dyme, a native web3 crypto currency.
Jeff was also the co-founder and Managing Partner of Saphira Technology Partners (STP), based in London / New York / KSA where he led an international investment group investing in late-stage >$1 billion venture backed companies. He has spent the last 5 years working in Saudi Arabia on his private equity and technology businesses.
Prior to Saphira, Jeff was the founder and CEO of Vencast.com, Smartrsales, Leadme.com, Fitmoo.com and co-founded events.com. His companies were all leaders in fintech, property tech, healthtech, and using AI to drive sales.
Jeff’s investment banking and quant strategies roles were in NY, TX and CA with Salomon Brothers, Merrill Lynch, ING and Legg Mason on the sell side and as the CEO of Private Equity for Genspring, an $8 billion multi-family office. He was also the CIO of The Drax Group, a $1 billion single family office.
He has been recognized for his achievements as Ernst & Young / HBS Entrepreneur of the Year in 2009 and graduated with an MBA with high Honors from Kellogg where he triple majored.