Sayed Shah

As Founder and Managing Partner of Apex Advisory, Sayed has helped build the firm into a leading regional strategic advisory practice recognised for delivering commercially driven, impact-led advisory services to governments and high-growth businesses across the Gulf. Apex has secured and delivered multi-million-dollar mandates across the UAE and Saudi Arabia, specialising in economic development, investment strategy, and public-private partnership models.

Sayed supported the strategic transformation and commercial growth of RISE Group, which culminated in its successful acquisition by Elevate, a global sports and entertainment group. His contributions focused on repositioning the firm through operating model refinement, strategic planning, and market expansion.

Sayed was Head of Commercial Strategy & Economic Development at Rise Group. Sayed worked with the most senior Government stakeholders across the GCC to deliver investment outcomes in support of RISE strategic objectives. He delivered strategic investment and sustainable economic growth through the commercialisation of government assets and services enabled by the use of PPP models.

Sayed led Corporate Strategy and Business Development for the world's largest outsourcing provider to Governments and Diplomatic Missions. He was responsible for generating significant revenue growth in the business, and for leading it through the COVID pandemic by transforming the global strategy, operating and business models to support a subsequent multi billion $ acquisition. Notable client successes include the following initiatives: Dubai’s Virtual Commercial City Sayed led the strategic development the Virtual Commercial City programme in partnership with Dubai Economy. The initiative enables entrepreneurs across the world to establish a virtual company in the UAE from 20 countries and contributes to the establishment of over 100k companies in Dubai annually. EU e-Residency and Citizen Services Sayed worked with EU Schengen governments to develop the strategy for an innovative e-residency passport and identity initiatives as part of digital government services. These initiatives have been adopted by three EU governments directly contributing to the delivery of citizen services through the COVID crisis providing continuity of service as well as significant cost, efficiency and quality benefits.

Mentor on the Series A Startup Programme at the Sheraa Centre for Entrepreneurship

Sayed's clients included public and private sector organisations across the MENA region with a particular focus on growth strategies, global partnerships and innovation driven government including: Delivering KSA’s Vision 2030 Economic Strategy Sayed was seconded to lead a government agency’s efforts to deliver job creation, attract investment and develop industrial capability in key regions delivering over 2000 new jobs and $250m of PE funding. Increasing the Competitiveness of Oman’s economy Sayed led a project to develop strategic priority initiatives to drive Oman’s economic competitiveness and improve its business capability regionally on behalf of the Royal Court. This included developing an innovative investor e-portal to bring together key cross government support in the form of the investor journey which delivered significant FDI contributions. Accelerating entrepreneurial growth in high tech industries in the UAE Sayed developed a corporate accelerator for a private sector client to deliver support services to start-ups and entrepreneurs to drive product innovation. Sayed utilised his experience in developing accelerators in UK and Turkey to deliver a sustainable funding structure that delivered scale services and product ideation.

Sayed established PA Consulting's Strategy & Economic Development practice in the MENA region into a $2m business in its first year delivering key strategic assignments including: Transforming Riyadh into an international centre for business and innovation Sayed led this strategic assignment to improve the business and innovation ecosystem in the city of Riyadh to establish it as a regional centre for business. Outcomes included specific initiatives for the development of entrepreneurship and SME support ecosystems, FDI attraction strategy and export support and improving the business environment for new businesses entering the market. Building the foundations for privatisation of government services Sayed led a strategic engagement to facilitate the privatisation of government services to improve the quality of public services, champion innovation and reduce the burden on the state by supporting private sector partnerships using PPP models. This included advising Ministers, regulators and private sector business leaders to develop a strategic plan and roadmap to privatisation.

Advised political and commercial leaders in the Gulf to secure high value investment into the UK with a focus on infrastructure and defence sectors Owned relationships with the key sovereign institutions in the Gulf, driving forward the UK Government’s engagement at the highest level with sovereign funds in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar and Kuwait. Overall lead for coordinating HMG investment effort across the Gulf, to bring together the strands of investment across various institutions to drive forward a politically-savvy and effective investment campaign.

Deputy Consul-General at a Diplomatic mission delivering HMG policy goals in Turkey. Sayed led the strategic transformation the UK's diplomatic operations in Turkey into a regional hub for UK trade and investment. Sayed led UK Trade and Investment strategy from Turkey for eight countries across Central Asia and the South Caucasus, delivering the UK Prime Minister's goal of doubling trade between UK and Turkey to £15bn by 2014. Sayed's role as a trusted advisor delivered British business growth and success as he lobbied the most senior Turkish political and business figures to secure opportunities for British businesses. Successes included high value UK business deals worth £500m+ in the Oil and Gas, Financial Services and Construction sectors in Turkey and Central Asia Sayed was appointed to lead the strategic development of the UK Minister for Trade’s Overseas Business Network transformation programme in Turkey, Central Asia and the South Caucasus. He led the strategic transformation of the British Chamber of Commerce of Turkey to develop into a world class institution supporting British Businesses in Turkey and the wider region.

Sayed led the transformation of the FCO's HR Corporate Services and Recruitment function into a technology enabled service driving innovation at the heart of the FCO. Sayed utilised new technology to enable the delivery of online workforce planning, learning and development services to be delivered to the the FCO's global network of Diplomatic Servants at point of need. This transformational approach included re-structuring the organisational and workflow models, developing more efficient and effective processes and upskilling staff. Sayed and his team were highly commended for their performance and the outcome was an innovative, high quality service that allowed the FCO to respond to global crises more effectively.

Appointed by the UK’s Secretary of State for Communities to lead a Commission on improving social and community interaction. Seconded into the role to ensure successful delivery in tight time-scales. Programme managed the COIC’s work streams. Initiated risk analysis, milestone monitoring, effective budget monitoring and a programme management structure to deliver the findings to UK Parliament in a timely fashion. Advised the Secretary of State for Communities on effective implementation of the COIC’s findings which delivered reductions in inter-community tension in England and Wales. Delivered policy led strategy solutions to public sector organisations including central government, local authorities and Non-Departmental Public Bodies (NDPB). Led the organisational redesign of the department resulting in savings of £5m per annum. Worked with local government institutions to deliver economic regeneration and growth initiatives to drive social cohesion.

Business Transformation and Change Management Sayed led the behavioural change management work stream of the Cabinet Office change management programme, developing a streamlined organisational design following a restructuring process Sayed delivered key behavioural change management strategies and processes in accordance with new board- level objectives, resulting in a successful transition to the new organisational structure incorporating new and more efficient ways of working within Cabinet Office Head of Fast Stream Diversity & Marketing Sayed was responsible for setting marketing strategy and promoting the FS brand. He advised central government departments on issues of diversity and social policy, negotiating agreement and building consensus for strategic policy decisions on diversity and equalities strategy and policy delivery Sayed led a team providing strategic direction for and overall management of the Fast Stream Diversity Programmes across all major central government departments, successfully increasing the diversity of the Fast Stream and Senior Civil Service by 50% Delivered a diversity and equalities policy review as part of the UK Presidency of the European Union, reporting directly to the European Commission in Brussels, advising a number of states with regard to diversity and equalities best practice

Accenture Strategy - Government & Public Sector Urban regeneration strategy Delivered a strategic policy review of urban regeneration initiatives for a central government department Worked with the largest UK gov local authorities to develop and implement urban regeneration strategy and policy to drive inclusive economic growth in London and the South East Sayed was the lead change consultant in business transformation programme at a large professional services client. I led a team to deliver a cost reduction and streamlining initiative, utilising Accenture “As is – To Be” methodologies to re-structure the client’s organisational structure, successfully delivering our objectives in a pressurised environment.