BrazilExperts from BCG and L.E.K. Consulting to speak at education event in Dubai
Education market experts from global advisories The Boston Consulting Group and L.E.K. Consulting have been scheduled to speak at next month’s International and Private Schools Education Forum conference in Dubai.
Held across the 21-23 September in Dubai’s International Academic City, the International and Private Schools Education Forum (IPSEF) conference will see education sector stakeholders and decision-makers from across the world convene for a series of workshops, roundtables, and keynote presentations from a variety of industry experts.
Representing platinum event sponsor L.E.K Consulting at the conference will be Ashwin Assomull – a founder of the firm’s Education practice and current leader of its Southeast Asian branch – along with associate and L.E.K. Senior Manager for the firm’s global education practice Chinmay Jhaveri, while BCG Principal in Dubai Maya El Hachem will present on behalf of the MBB strategy and management firm.
Together, the consultants have more than 40 years of experience, working for a diverse cross-section of leading firms in almost every corner of the globe. Assomull, who was made Partner at L.E.K. earlier this year and is currently based in Singapore, originally crossed from Parthenon, where he was a Partner in the firm’s leading Education Practice. Prior to joining Parthenon’s Middle East base, Assomull was a Director at Deloitte, including a stint with the Big Four firm in India, and earlier spent four years as a consultant and manager with PwC.
Assomull’s colleague Jhaveri is likewise a Parthenon alumnus, starting out as a principal with the firm in Mumbai before going on as a Vice President to lead cases and business development efforts for the firm’s Centre of Excellence in Education. Earlier, Jhaveri spent four years as an associate and senior associate in transaction advisory services with Ernst & Young. BCG’s El Hachem meanwhile, spent over seven years with Booz & Company (now Strategy&) as a senior associate and engagement manager in the Middle East.
In a recent BCG report on the GCC education sector, authored by El Hachem and noted education expert and BCG Partner & Managing Director Leila Hoteit, the firm concluded an expected doubling of the K-12 private education market over the next five years, growing to a worth of $26 billion by 2023. For the UAE, 73 percent of the nation’s total students were enrolled in private education last year.
Likewise, according to the latest data from specialist education analysis firm ISC Research – released ahead of the IPSEF conference, the number of private international schools in the Middle East has ballooned from approximately 1,150 to nearly 1,600 in the space of the past five years – with the UAE featuring the clear greatest number, recorded at some 624 schools.
With the full figures to be presented at the event, IPSEF co-founder Rhona Greenhill said of the current sector; “The growth of the international schools' market in the Middle East further confirms the role education plays in the development agenda of governments in the region. A number of initiatives have been set in place to enable private companies to establish local branches or independently set-up international schools and help support the growth of the education sector as a whole in this part of the world.”
Greenhall also pointed to a unique experience for IPSEF delegates; “This year's edition promises an unconventional conference experience with yoga sessions and healthy debates happening in a boxing ring, thanks to the support provided by KHDA which allowed us to use their facilities for our event. With the new set-up, we not only hope to innovate how conferences are being conducted, but also aim to foster better discussions and networking among delegates.”
