Senior Strategy & CEO Advisory
Senior strategic advisory for founders, CEOs and leadership teams facing decisions with real commercial weight. Based in Dubai, working across the GCC and international markets.
There are no junior analysts, no templated frameworks, no hundred-page decks that gather dust. This is not consulting in the traditional sense. This is direct, senior-level advisory from someone who has sat in the chair you are sitting in, inside businesses where the consequences of getting it wrong were immediate and high-impact.
Restaurant strategy consulting for founders and CEOs
Most restaurant and hospitality leaders do not need more information. They need clarity on a specific decision, at a specific moment, from someone who understands what is truly at stake.
That is what this work is. A founder weighing whether to open a second site. A CEO managing a board that wants faster growth than the operations can absorb. An ownership group unsure whether underperformance is a people problem, a positioning problem, or both.
These are the kinds of situations where an experienced external perspective changes outcomes. Not because the answer was complicated, but because the question needed to be properly framed.
When hospitality leaders typically engage
Clients tend to reach out at specific points:
- Assessing whether a growth opportunity is real or just appealing
- Addressing sustained underperformance that internal teams have struggled to diagnose
- Navigating organisational change, leadership transition, or founder succession
- Preparing for investment, partnership discussions, or board-level scrutiny
- Entering an unfamiliar market, particularly the GCC or Middle East, for the first time
- Balancing personal ambition against commercial and operational risk
What these moments share is consequence. The wrong call is expensive, and the right one often looks obvious only in hindsight.
How an engagement works
Every engagement starts with a direct conversation - no pitch, no proposal template. The aim is to understand your situation clearly before anything else happens. Some conversations end here, with a recommendation to pursue a different route. That is still a useful outcome.
If there is a fit, we define a scope together. It might be a short focused piece of work, or a longer advisory relationship spanning several months - built around the decision, not around filling time. I work directly with founders and leadership teams; there is no handoff to anyone else. The work involves clarifying strategic ambition against what the business can actually deliver, identifying where the real commercial and execution risk sits, and developing decision frameworks that hold up under real-world pressure rather than just in the room where they were built.
The output depends on the engagement. Sometimes a structured strategic assessment. Sometimes a series of working sessions. Often both. The emphasis is always on decisions that lead to action.
Hospitality strategy advisory across the GCC
Operating in Dubai and the GCC brings specific considerations that outside advisors often underestimate. Regulatory environments vary between regions. Consumer expectations are shaped by an unusually international demographic. Landlord dynamics, licensing requirements, staffing models, and cost structures all differ materially from London, New York, or Paris.
That perspective works in both directions. I support international brands entering the GCC, and Middle East-based businesses looking to expand into the UK, US, or other international markets. The strategic considerations are different in each case, but the need for experienced, grounded judgement is the same.
My perspective on GCC hospitality strategy comes from working inside this market, not just occasional visits. That matters when the advice needs to survive contact with local reality.
Who this service is for
This advisory is relevant to founder-led restaurant groups, CEOs and leadership teams navigating complexity or change, and ownership groups or investors who need independent, commercially grounded input. It is also used by international brands considering their first move into the Middle East, and by GCC-based operators preparing for expansion into the UK, US, or beyond.
If you are a founder or CEO facing a decision that carries real weight, an initial conversation is often the most useful starting point.
Frequently Asked Questions
Scale, focus, and directness. Larger firms assign teams. I work with you directly. The advice comes from someone who has held P&L responsibility, managed pre-openings, sat in board meetings, and dealt with the consequences of strategic decisions firsthand. There is no layer between us.
It depends entirely on the scope. A focused strategic review might take three to four weeks. An advisory relationship supporting a market entry or expansion decision might run for several months. Some clients retain ongoing advisory access after the initial project. There is no minimum commitment.
Restaurants and hospitality is the core, but the strategic thinking applies more broadly. I have worked with retail, premium food retail, and consumer-facing businesses where the challenges are similar: founder-led, operationally intensive, reputation-sensitive. The sector matters less than the substance of the decision.
Informal and confidential. We talk through what you are facing, what has brought you to seek external input, and whether this kind of support is genuinely useful. No obligation, no follow-up pressure. Some conversations just end with a clearer view of the situation.
Both. My experience spans the UK, US, and Middle East. The depth of local market knowledge is strongest in the GCC, London, and the US - which covers the majority of the situations clients bring.
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