Kenan Nouwailati and Naël Nasr bolster KPMG Consulting in Qatar

KPMG in Qatar has made two senior partner appointments in its consulting practice. Kenan Nouwailati has joined from Accenture, where he was a leader in the firm’s Middle East arm, to lead lead KPMG’s Management Consulting team in Qatar. Naël Nasr has joined the Qatar practice from Bahrain to drive the local growth agenda.

The Big Four firm first opened for business in Qatar in 1978, and forty years down the line the international audit, tax and consulting firm ranks among the largest professional services firms in the country. KPMG in Qatar employes over 250 accountants, advisors, consultants and staff, led by 10 partners, all based in its office in Doha.

This year the firm’s Management Consulting service line, which sits within KPMG Advisory, one of KPMG’s three main divisions, has seen its leadership ranks bolstered with the addition of two highly respected consultants in the region.

Kenan Nouwailati, who joined in summer 2017, adds over 26 years of experience to the firm, including sixteen years in the management consulting industry. Nouwailati joined from Accenture, where he was leading the Energy arm of Accenture Strategy in the Middle East, and led several engagements in sourcing and procurement, supply chain, operations excellence, business performance improvement and technology across sectors, including oil & gas, water, power, chemicals, government, aviation, food, transport and construction.

Before that, Nouwailati worked for Charles River Associates in the UK and the Middle East, latterly serving as Vice President. Charles River Associates is a global consulting firm that offers economic, financial, and strategic expertise to clients, and is the parent of Marakon, an international strategy consultancy boutique.

Earlier in his career, Nouwailati, who has been based in the Middle East for the last nine years, worked for Accenture in his first seven year stint at the firm, and ten years at Halliburton, where he focused on engineering and delivering oil & gas capital projects.

At KPMG, he has been appointed head of Management Consulting for Qatar. He works closely with other leaders such as Issa Habash, Head of Risk Consulting, Venkatesh Krishnaswamy, Head of Deal Advisory, as well as Country Senior Partner Ahmed Abu-Sharkh, to realise the firm’s growth agenda in the consulting landscape.

Naël Nasr, who has been a Partner with KPMG since 2013, joined KPMG in Qatar in April this year, after relocating from Bahrain. For the last four years, he led the Management Consulting practice of KPMG in Bahrain, which is active in four service lines – Business Strategy, Operations Consulting (launched in February 2015), People & Change, and IT Advisory – across various sectors.

He started his career in 1996 with PwC in London, after which he joined Accenture where, during his ten year tenure at the consultancy, he ascended the ranks to Managing Director. Throughout his career with the firm, he worked from four offices (London, Atlanta, Miami and Rome) and most recently served as a leader in the firm’s New Businesses strategy practice. After a short spell in Beirut, Nasr joined the global Big Four accountancy and consultancy at the start of 2013. 

Nasr has strengthened KPMG’s Management Consulting service line – his expertise spans strategy, corporate ventures, finance and performance management, process and organisation transformation, shared services, outsourcing and technology.