About
I am a strategic People & Performance leader with over 20 years of global experience in driving transformative HR initiatives and aligning people and performance strategies with organizational missions. I have a proven track record of fostering collaborative, innovation-driven cultures and building high-performing teams across the Middle East, USA, Europe, and Asia Pacific. I am skilled in leveraging HR analytics to inform workforce planning and decision-making, while championing career development, continuous improvement, and employee well-being. My success lies in blending strategic vision with hands-on execution, enabling organizations to thrive as employers of choice.
Key Skills
Experience
Advisor | Fractional Chief People & Performance Officer | Various Companies in UAE and Globally
Aug 2023 - Present
Act as a strategic advisor and implementation partner to organisations across the Middle East, US, Central Asia, and Asia Pacific in industries including hospitality, banking, and aviation. Focused on optimising organisational strategy, employee experience, culture, and performance management to drive business outcomes. Redesigned organisations, impacting 300 to 10,000+ employees, enhancing structural efficiency and role clarity. Developed talent and L&D frameworks, improving customer experience scores by 30% across business units. Aligned people initiatives with business strategy, reducing operational inefficiencies by 20% through workforce planning. Led culture transformations, defining values, behaviours, and performance standards to strengthen engagement.
Regional Head, South Asia | Louis Vuitton
Sep 2021 - Aug 2023
Led regional operations across seven markets, driving digital transformation, talent strategy, and performance management to maximise efficiency and market leadership. Spearheaded change initiatives that elevated the South Asia hub from #10 to #1 globally in Louis Vuitton’s 2022 HQ audit. Managed a team of 40+, reporting to Global HQ, overseeing a 120M AED budget. Redesigned organisational structure, redefining roles and competencies, and expanded into 3 new markets. Revamped recruitment and progression processes, enhancing candidate experience and selection outcomes. Established South Asia’s first training academy within 3 months, training 100+ staff on-site and virtually. Implemented talent strategies, achieving 40% internal promotions and building strong talent pipelines. Designed succession planning frameworks, equipping leaders with capabilities to drive growth. Launched coaching programs, raising global customer satisfaction to 85%. Developed regional performance frameworks, boosting team performance by 35% and repeat sales by 30%.
Executive Vice President | Saudi Government
Jul 2019 - Jun 2021
Partnered with the President & CEO to build talent, learning, and organisational strategies across operations, administration, and customer service to drive execution excellence. Led the development of company culture, values, mission, and vision alongside the Executive Board. Managed three direct reports, overseeing a 300M AED budget. Designed organisational structures, job scopes, compensation benchmarks, and talent strategies. Developed recruitment and assessment processes for 20+ job categories, onboarding 50 employees in six months. Created employee policies, ensuring compliance with local labour laws and industry standards. Delivered onboarding, CX, culture, and VIP Protocol training for the first 50 employees while building the L&D team.
Director of Customer Experience, and Learning & Development | Airbnb
Oct 2017 - Jun 2019
Recruited to lead the global team for the newly launched Airbnb Luxe Travel platform and oversee the Luxury Retreats portfolio following its acquisition. Responsible for building and executing talent, learning, and performance strategies to position Airbnb as a luxury travel leader, while driving operational integration, service excellence, and high-performance culture across teams. Led 9 direct reports, overseeing a 360M AED budget. Redesigned organisational structure, improving operational efficiency by 20%. Implemented new recruitment and performance framework strategies impacting over 2000 employees. Developed and launched new onboarding program, including training and mentorship programs. Developed employee policies, ensuring compliance with local labour laws and best practices, in Canada. Designed succession planning, boosting leadership diversity and internal promotions by 30%. Recruited and developed 200+ employees, embedding a high-performance culture. Built the first in-house training and service quality teams for Airbnb Luxury Retreats. Delivered 20,000 hours of training, securing a 3M AED Canadian Government grant. Introduced ‘Learning Lab’, fostering peer-to-peer learning led by SMEs in 30-min sessions.
Director of Learning & Development | Etihad Airways
Mar 2015 - Jun 2017
Promoted to drive Etihad’s luxury brand positioning in North America by developing and executing strategic learning programs for employees, account managers, and trade partners. Focused on enhancing customer experience, brand loyalty, and sales effectiveness across the US and Canada. Reported to the SVP Americas, supporting delivery of a 750M AED sales target. Developed learning strategies covering brand positioning, culture, emotional intelligence, and customer experience. Designed and delivered training programs to 1,000+ account managers and travel partners. Launched cultural awareness events integrating luxury brand partnerships (Louis Vuitton, Tiffany & Co., Chanel) for immersive learning experiences.
Global Head Customer Experience & People Performance | Etihad Airways
Aug 2012 - Mar 2015
Etihad Airways is the National Airline of the United Arab Emirates, headquartered in Abu Dhabi. It has won multiple awards in its sustainability initiatives such as biofuel and innovation in product and services. Recruited to transform the people and performance for the customer experience department, which included a total 8000 employees (cabin crew, Chefs, F&B Managers, Butlers, and global airport and lounge team members). A trusted advisor to the CEO & his senior executives, serving as a value-added partner in people-management practices and culture creation initiatives. Led a team of 18 direct reports overseeing a 300M AED budget to drive organisational development and performance. Designed recruitment and training strategies, expanding workforce from 3,000 to 6,000 in 24 months. Developed employee policies ensuring compliance with local labour laws and industry best practices. Introduced performance management framework designed specifically for frontline staff, including Butlers & Chefs. Launched a peer-to-peer coaching program that scaled from 20 to 200+ coaches, achieving 95% customer satisfaction. Orchestrated innovative training programs for over 8,000 service personnel within 90 days. Led global culture engagement initiatives while managing the launch and operations of 12 global lounges, including hiring and training employees (Dublin, Frankfurt, London, Paris, US, Australia). Led organisational restructure program of Air Serbia (Belgrade), including recruitment and training.
Senior Manager Training & Performance | Royal Jet
Jun 2006 - Jun 2012
Entrusted to transform VVIP customer experience and team performance for Royal Jet, serving UAE Royal Family, global heads of state, and UHNWIs. Led talent development, training, and performance management strategies, resulting in multiple awards from 2007 to 2012. Managed 100+ direct reports, overseeing a 300M AED budget. Designed organisational structures, job scopes, compensation benchmarks, and talent strategies. Developed performance frameworks, defining competencies and metrics, improving team performance by 40%. Launched first in-house training team, delivering programs across different grades including onboarding programs. Created career progression pathways, retaining 50% of top talent with over 10 years tenure.
Trainer & Performance Manager | Emirates Airlines
Jan 1998 - Jan 2006
Education & Certificates
Certified DISC Assessor
DISC Flex, US
Jul 2025
Certified EQ-i 2.0 & 360 Assessor
Multi-Health Systems Inc.
Jun 2025
Certified Talent & Strengths Practitioner
Talent Predix™, UK
Jun 2025
Certified Hogan Assessor
Hogan
May 2025
Certified Hogan 360 Assesor
Hogan 360
May 2025
ICF, PCC - Professional Coaching Certification
Institute of Coaching Federation, US
Apr 2025
Chartered Fellow of CIPD, UK
CIPD, UK
Apr 2025
Masters in International Business
University of Wollongong
Dec 2006
Schedule a Session
Consulting Call
15 min
Free
A 15-min discovery session to align on your goals.
Executive Coaching
60 min
$4800 for 6 sessions
Focused, one-on-one coaching to strengthen executive skills and drive strategic growth.
Leadership Coaching
60 min
$8000 for 10 sessions
Development of core leadership abilities for success in management and team roles.
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