Pamela Thomson-Hall on WTW’s next phase of growth in the Middle East
Under the leadership of Pamela Thomson-Hall, CEO for all markets outside North America and Western Europe at WTW, the global professional services firm is chasing its next phase of growth in the Middle East. We sat down with Pamela to discuss the region’s importance and development, the growth plans, and how its expertise enables clients to excel in managing insurance, risk, and workforce challenges.
In your role as CEO for International, how do you see the Middle East fitting into the firm’s broader growth agenda?
The Middle East is one of the most dynamic parts of our international business. It comprises of economies that are rapidly transforming, governments that are strategically investing for long-term growth, and clients who are thinking beyond the short-term horizon. That creates strong demand for the kinds of insight-led solutions WTW provides, whether it is helping businesses manage complex risks, rethink workforce strategies, or navigate new regulations.
From my perspective leading international markets, this region presents a unique opportunity to scale broking and consulting businesses with real impact. The GCC currently has a pipeline of projects valued at more than $2.7 trillion, with Saudi Arabia alone accounting for approximately $1.5 trillion.
Additionally, energy remains pivotal. According to the International Energy Agency, Middle East upstream oil and gas investments are expected to total around $130 billion in 2025, representing about 15 percent of global spending.
Such significant commitments create a clear demand for specialised risk management, strategic advisory, and talent solutions, which are exactly the capabilities that define WTW’s strengths. It is no surprise therefore that we are investing in the region, opening new insurance and reinsurance businesses, as we did in Saudi Arabia early this year, and consolidating our existing businesses in the region to build out our presence and service offerings.
As you look across your international portfolio, where do you see the most alignment between WTW’s global capabilities and the region’s evolving priorities?
What strikes me about the Middle East is how closely its priorities mirror some of the most significant themes we’re seeing across other high-growth markets. There’s a shared emphasis on accelerating infrastructure delivery, improving regulatory maturity, strengthening insurance penetration, and planning for future workforce needs.
For us, that creates a clear opportunity to bring our global insights to the region, contextualising them for local relevance. This helps clients apply lessons learned from other growth markets in a way that reflects local expectations. That level of intersection is rare and valuable, and it’s a key reason the Middle East remains a priority across our international portfolio.
Could you tell us more about WTW’s plans in the UAE and Saudi Arabia?
In both markets, we’re focusing on sectors where transformation is well underway – energy, infrastructure, healthcare, and financial services. Clients are navigating shifting regulations, growing operational complexity, and an urgent need to build resilience across people and risk functions.
In the UAE, the insurance sector is forecast to grow between 10 and 20 percent in 2025, according to S&P, and there’s also a renewed focus on localisation. The government has set a target of 50-60% Emiratisation in the insurance industry by 2030, which is prompting companies to think more seriously about workforce planning, talent development, and internal mobility. These are areas where we’re deeply engaged both for our clients and for ourselves.
In Saudi Arabia, the picture is equally dynamic. Total insurance revenues rose by double digits in 2024, driven by health, motor, and property cover. But alongside that growth, the industry is also evolving structurally.
The new Saudi Insurance Authority is implementing stricter capital and reinsurance rules, which is accelerating consolidation and raising the bar for compliance. We’re helping clients navigate this transition, whether that’s an insurer adapting to capital requirements or a large organisation reassessing how it manages project-related risk.
We are also investing heavily in local top talent and training entry level and other talent to ensure the workforce for us and across the industry is sustainable not just for today but also for tomorrow. That’s why we’ve established dedicated insurance and reinsurance broking entities in the Kingdom to meet that rising demand with precision and on-the-ground capability.
What challenges and opportunities are your clients most focused on in the current environment and how is WTW helping them respond?
Our clients are dealing with two major shifts. First, the scale and complexity of construction projects in Saudi Arabia and the UAE are testing the limits of traditional insurance models. When you’re covering a $50 billion development from the ground up, standard policies aren’t enough; you need bespoke, often multi-line solutions tailored to evolving risks.
At the same time, solvency reforms, pricing pressures, and rising operational costs are pushing insurers toward consolidation and more disciplined business models. There’s also growing focus on talent, not just to meet localisation targets, but to build the technical depth needed to support more complex products and client demands.
Our role is to help clients connect the dots between risk, regulation, and resilience. That might mean redesigning an insurance programme to reflect new exposures or working with leadership teams to assess how solvency rules and reinsurance quotas affect their portfolios. Increasingly, we bring together advanced risk analytics and expert actuarial and consulting services to create customized solutions that fit our clients’ business needs and goals.
Our risk and insurance analytics provide data-driven insights and, when combined with our industry knowledge, give our clients a clear understanding of their insurance and risk portfolios. This clarity helps them to anticipate financial challenges, reduce uncertainty, and boost profitability. Because this also involves applying predictive data, clients can move from reacting to risk to anticipating it.
Risk and broking are highly competitive fields in the region. How does WTW define its edge in this environment?
Our advantage lies in our ability to integrate across disciplines, combining insights on people, risk, and capital into a single strategic lens. That’s what enables us to advise a CEO on growth risk, a CFO on capital protection, and a CHRO on workforce engagement all through connected insights.
To be more specific, in our broking businesses, our strategy is focused on specialty with dedicated teams providing end-to-end insurance broking and risk management advice, drawing on leading analytical and technology capabilities. We are a truly global broker with frictionless collaboration, something our competitors are not able to do. For our clients, this means they benefit from specialty expertise, and our industry-focused lens that combines global standards with local knowledge and experience.
Clients increasingly value this integrated way of working, particularly in the Middle East where decisions tend to be long-term and multi-dimensional. We also differentiate ourselves strongly through our investment in analytics. Our proprietary tools in areas like insurance placement benchmarking and workforce scenario modelling help clients move beyond intuition and lagging indicators to evidence-based, predictive planning.
WTW has previously spoken about AI as an enabler. What are you seeing in the UAE in terms of real-world adoption, and how are you applying these tools internally or with clients?
The UAE has taken a trailblazing, bold and structured approach to AI, and that’s created an ecosystem where innovation is encouraged and adoption happens quickly. It even appointed the world’s first dedicated minster of AI when Omar Sultan Al Olama took up position in 2017. PwC expects AI to contribute over $96 billion to the UAE’s GDP by 2031, which shows just how central it is to the country’s economic strategy.
For WTW, this offers a real opportunity to partner with clients who are eager to use technology in a meaningful way. For our insurance partners, we have Radar, an AI-driven tool that brings next-generation machine learning to pricing and underwriting decisions, helping insurers improve both accuracy and agility. For life insurers, we’ve enhanced our RiskAgility Financial Modeller with AI capabilities to speed up forecasting and streamline reporting.
On the people side, we introduced WTW’s Expert HR AI Assistant, a conversational tool that helps HR teams make faster, better-informed decisions around pay, benefits, and talent planning.
These tools are designed to empower, not replace, expertise. They free up time, surface insights that might otherwise be missed, and improve consistency across complex systems. In markets like the UAE and Saudi Arabia, where the pace of transformation is high, this kind of support can be a significant differentiator for business leaders.
What can clients in the Middle East expect from WTW over the next phase of growth?
With our existing business operations across the GCC and rapid expansion in Saudi Arabia, we’re better positioned to deliver deeper, more localised value, and give clients in the GCC more direct access to our specialist expertise and strong global placement capabilities.
Whether they’re navigating risk, rethinking workforce strategy, or preparing for regulatory change, we want to be the partner they call first. This next chapter for WTW in the region is about moving with our clients, not ahead of them, not behind them, but shoulder to shoulder to support their growth.
