Description

I help CEOs, boards, and leadership teams turn operational risk and governance from a compliance exercise into strategic growth. If your business is scaling, entering new markets, navigating regulatory complexity, or building a risk function that actually influences decisions, then that's where I operate.

With over 25 years across retail, hospitality, real estate, food and beverage, and multi-brand franchise operations, including building centralised GRC functions spanning 17 countries, 70+ brands, and over 3,000+ retail locations.

My experience is deliberately cross-sector, which means I bring pattern recognition and transferable frameworks, not narrow industry thinking.

I work with family businesses, conglomerates, holding groups, and scaling enterprises who need operational risk and governance to enable growth, not slow it down. I bring operational depth shaped by real P&L accountability, not just advisory theory, complemented by certified expertise in the Bloom Growth Operating System for leadership team alignment.

Typical engagements: ERM framework design, governance and compliance function builds, fractional CRO advisory, risk appetite and board reporting frameworks, operational risk assessments, business continuity development, and strategic risk reviews for market entry or transformation programmes.

Based in Dubai, working across the GCC, MENA, and internationally.

Industry field of expertise

Languages

English
Native or bilingual

Workplace preferences

Can work on-site

Abu Dhabi (up to 50km), Motor City (up to 50km)

Leap Leadership LLC
Partner, GM & Business Development Coach
January 2024 - Today (2 years and 5 months)
Dubai - United Arab Emirates
Partner in a Dubai-based executive advisory and business growth consultancy operating across GCC and UK markets. Provides strategic counsel to CEOs and boards on governance, resilience, security, organisational performance, operational excellence, and leadership development. Drawing on 20+ years of enterprise risk, GRC, and operational leadership experience built across billion dollar, multi-jurisdictional organisations. Works with leadership teams to close strategy-to-execution gaps through structured accountability frameworks, priority management, and operational clarity. Helping deliver measurable commercial outcomes and sustainable business growth. Integrates deep governance and risk expertise with executive coaching capability to help organisations build high-performance, risk-aware cultures rooted in psychological safety and mutual respect, that can scale with confidence.
Corporate Governance Operational Excellence Corporate strategy Coaching Team management
A8 Innovation
Fractional Chief Risk Officer
January 2025 - Today (1 year and 5 months)
Dubai - United Arab Emirates
Strategic Advisor to A8 Innovation, a Dubai-based corporate venture builder and strategic growth partner operating across GCC, Africa, and Asia. Provides senior advisory on corporate risk, resilience, governance, and operational management to founding teams, portfolio companies, and enterprise clients, including global organisations such as Siemens, navigating complex, high-growth markets. Embeds enterprise-grade risk frameworks, governance structures, and operational controls that enable ventures to scale with confidence, maintain regulatory compliance, and protect investor value across multiple jurisdictions.
ALSHAYA GROUP
Group Director (Risk & Asset Protection)
January 2018 - January 2024 (6 years)
Led enterprise-wide governance, risk, security, business continuity, and crisis management across a $6B+ retail operation spanning 17 countries, 3,000+ locations, and 45,000 employees. Managed a $14.5M governance budget and directed 100+ professionals, utilising data-driven reporting, KPI frameworks, and risk analytics to inform board decisions.
• • Built and developed the Group Business Continuity Management framework, crisis management, and emergency management policies aligned with ISO 22301 , establishing 24/7 operational incident escalation management and serving as the primary enterprise point of contact for business risk incidents across 17 countries
• • Directed Group Security operations across MENA, Turkey, and Europe, integrating physical security, executive protection, travel security, and asset protection into a unified, governance led control environment protecting people, assets, profit and reputation
• • Established the Group Fraud and Ethics department, developing corporate fraud investigation, online fraud prevention capabilities and ethical conduct frameworks, creating an intelligence led function that significantly reduced fraud exposure across 3,000+ locations
• • Devised and developed the Group Data Protection Office achieving GDPR, PCI DSS, and ISO 27001 compliance adhering to regulatory guidelines, while managing regulatory relationships across 17 countries
• • Initiated Alshaya's Health & Fire Safety function from the ground up, building the framework, team structure, and risk assessment methodology, recruiting and leading 12 specialist SMEs toward ISO 45001 accreditation
• • Delivered $25M+ operational savings through risk-based CAPEX optimisation, vendor renegotiations, and governance redesign, enabling 40% geographic expansion while strengthening the Group's security and risk profile.