Morgan Stanley’s top private equity power broker has just been poached. David Smoot, a veteran deal maker and co-founder of New York–based Morgan Stanley Private Equity, was lured away by Dubai International Capital, a $12 billion investment firm created with the private funds of Dubai’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum. Smoot will lay the groundwork for DIC’s North American operations, set to launch in 2009. The 38-year-old, who helped Morgan Stanley relaunch its private equity business in 2006, recruit the international investment team and lead due diligence research on 16 transactions in 2007, has temporarily relocated from the Upper West Side of Manhattan to Dubai for some elbow-to-elbow strategic planning sessions with Sameer Al Ansari, executive chairman and CEO of Dubai International Capital, and Sylvain Denis, CEO of DIC Private Equity. The chance to step into the capital-rich heart of the Middle East was too compelling for Smoot to pass up. “In terms of asset management opportunities, the Middle East is probably the world’s highest-growth region right now,” he says. “I wanted to be a part of it.”