FTI Consulting appoints seven new Senior Managing Directors in the Middle East
FTI Consulting has begun the year with the promotion of 53 professionals to Senior Managing Director – including seven based in the Middle East.
David Abt is a member of the Corporate Finance & Restructuring practice and specializes in corporate strategy, business transformation and transaction services across the telecom, media and technology landscape. He has served C-suite clients on advisory projects in Europe, the Middle East and Africa for more than a decade.
Abt’s experience ranges from defining growth strategies for tech and infrastructure companies to developing and implementing AI strategies across various client profiles. He also supports end-to-end business transformation and optimization programs such as infrastructure carve-outs, cost efficiencies and commercial turnarounds for telecom operators and has significant experience creating national agendas for sovereign wealth funds, regulators and giga-projects.
Prior to joining FTI Consulting in 2015, Abt worked with McKinsey & Company in its German business.
Robin Bachmann advises governments and development companies on regional and city development, combining strategy consulting with urban planning expertise to turn vision into spatial, economic and investment programs. He has more than 10 years of experience developing strategies, concept masterplans, feasibility studies, business cases, governance models and institutional performance improvement programs.
A member of the Corporate Finance & Restructuring practice, Bachmann has led the development of strategies and concept masterplans for major economic and infrastructure projects, including a regional corridor linking two GCC cities and an economic city strategy and concept masterplan. He has also designed national and regional competitiveness programs to boost private investment, job creation and sustainable socioeconomic development.
James Church-Morley is a member of the Economic & Financial Consulting practice. He has been based in Dubai for the past six years, after spending time in FTI Consulting’s London and Singapore offices.
He has more than 14 years of professional experience as an accountant and specializes in the assessment of damages in litigation and international arbitration, in performing valuations of both businesses and shares in commercial and contentious contexts, and in forensic accounting matters. Church-Morley has been instructed and provided evidence in LCIA, DIAC, DIFC Court and Abu Dhabi International Arbitration Centre proceedings.
Ravi Dhanak specializes in providing financial due diligence services in M&A situations. He has a track record of supporting private equity, sovereign wealth funds and corporate clients on transactions both domestically and internationally.
Notable recent projects include conducting the buy-side diligence for Agthia on their acquisition of Rivere Water, for Aliph Capital on their investment in Sanipex, and for GDI on their acquisition of Transcorp.
Dhanak began his career with PwC in the UK initially within the Audit function before transferring to the Deals practice. He relocated to the Middle East in 2018 and prior to joining FTI Consulting he was a Director in the Transaction Services practice of KPMG.
Adham Shkeir is an advisor to government entities in the Middle East, specializing in social development, human capital development and culture and economic development. He has more than 12 years of experience developing national strategies, sectoral policies and institutional frameworks, as well as designing and implementing large-scale transformations.
Throughout his career, Shkeir has led strategy and transformation engagements for numerous ministries, authorities, commissions and state-owned enterprises throughout the Middle East. His work includes developing national sectoral strategies, overseeing the establishment of key national entities to drive sectoral development, and designing national policies and frameworks to guide strategic execution.
Shkeir has played a role in shaping labor market strategies, cultural sector development and social policies that enhance inclusion and empowerment. Prior to joining FTI Consulting in 2023, he spent eight years with Kearney.
Naishadh Soneta is an expert in indirect tax. Throughout his career, he has worked with firms such as EY and PwC in India and PwC and WTS Dhruva Consultants in the Middle East. He joined FTI Consulting in early 2023.
Soneta has advised multinational and domestic groups on a wide range of assignments, including end-to-end Goods and Services Tax (GST) and Value-added Tax (VAT) transition and implementation, identification of indirect tax strategy and tax optimization, tax advisory including tax diagnostic reviews and due diligence projects.
In the last five years, Soneta has focused on VAT in the Middle East, having worked on the VAT implementation as well as post-implementation advisory and support for major players in the Gulf Cooperation Council within real estate, oil and gas, education, retail, automotive and healthcare.
Sameep Uchil leads the Middle East M&A Tax practice and has more than 15 years of experience working across multiple countries, including India, the United States and the United Arab Emirates. Uchil has been a part of FTI Consulting’s Middle East M&A Tax practice since its inception.
Uchil specializes in mergers & acquisitions with a focus on acquisition structuring, tax due diligence, deal negotiations on tax aspects and preparation of tax models. Prior to joining FTI Consulting, he worked nine years at EY, where he helped set up an M&A tax desk, and spent two years at KPMG.
Commenting on the leadership appointments, Antoine Nasr, a Senior Managing Director and Head of FTI Consulting in the Middle East, said: “These promotions reflect the continued growth of FTI Consulting in the region, the strengthening of our leadership across key disciplines, and the increasing complexity of the work we are trusted to deliver to high-profile clients on their key strategy, transformation, transactions and crisis needs.”
“They also demonstrate our commitment to recognising ambition, excellence and long-term leadership potential in the Middle East.”
