Martial Dahan joins Dubai office of Duval Union Consulting

Duval Union Consulting has added Martial Dahan to its team. Appointed a Consultant, the French serial entrepreneur joins the firm’s Dubai office.

Before joining Duval Union Consulting, a Belgian-origin management consultancy with offices in Ghent (Belgium), Amsterdam (the Netherlands) and Dubai (UAE), Dahan worked five years as an entrepreneur. In the period, he co-founded three start-ups in France: Pitch my Job, a French video recruitment platform; Spitch, a video based social media platform, and ;MyC2V, a video resume solution. “As far as I remember, I’ve always been a disruptor and working on my own start-ups for the past five years allowed me to grow many skills I will now be able to apply in my new consultancy role,” said Dahan.

In a bend from the traditional consultancy recruitment path (consulting firms typically hire young professionals with a business/economics or beta background), it was Dahan’s different and stand-out background that convinced the consultancy’s partnership to bring him on board. “I have a very atypical profile and many companies would have been hesitant. However, Duval Union Consulting is not a traditional consulting firm – they are led by entrepreneurs, speakers, innovators, and the team consists of rock & roll people.”The consulting firm, which specialises in digital transformation, is led by Belgians Jo Caudron and Dado Van Peteghem. The pair are most known for their award-winning book 'Digital Transformation – Prepare your organisation for the future', which to date has been sold in over 55 countries. Leveraging the methodology they introduce in their book, and their track record in the field, consultants Caudron and Van Peteghem have become in-demand conference speakers and subject matter experts for events across the globe.

Dahan has joined Duval’s Dubai office, which was launched in January 2018 after the Belgian consultancy forged a partnership with Chalhoub Group, a luxury retailer with a strong presence in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Duval Union Consulting is helping the Arab company build its digital strategy and technology-driven agenda and supporting the company’s departments and teams with the actual transformation. As part of the joint venture, the partners are also teaming up to help other companies in MENA with their digital endeavours.

French-national Dahan will work closely with among others Nick Vinckier, who relocated from Belgium to Dubai last year to establish and grow the office. “Being part of Duval Union Consulting allows me to mix my creative and disruptive mindset with the amazing digital transformation methodologies developed by the firm. I’m really excited to participate in the development of the firm and help major companies in the region tackle disruption,” commented Dahan. Other consultants for Duval Union in Dubai include fellow entrepreneur Asmae Lemniei, and Maëlle Basselot, a digital business whiz who crossed from partners the Chalhoub Group.

Last month, the MENA branch of Duval Union Consulting released a book on corporate venturing in the Middle East region.