A.T. Kearney partner takes up post with Saudi Public Investment Fund

Former A.T. Kearney executive Pascal Armoudom has taken up a role with the Saudi Public Investment Fund’s ultra luxury resort project Amaala.

Pascal Armoudom, long-time A.T. Kearney man and the consulting firm’s former consumer & retail practice leader for Greater China, has taken up a Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer position with Saudi sovereign wealth fund PIF (The Public Investment Fund) – one of the world’s largest such funds, with estimated assets under management exceeding $320 billion. Armoudom has altogether two decades worth of consulting experience.

Graduating with an MBA from ESSEC Business School in 2000 (following on from a previous MBA with Lyon Business School and an earlier career stint at Proctor & Gamble), Armoudom soon after joined the Shanghai branch of global strategy and management consultancy A.T. Kearney – rising as a partner to lead the firm’s consumer & retail segment for Greater China, which is expected to overtake the US as the world’s largest market this year.

After nearly 14 years with A.T. Kearney in Asia, Armoudom returned to Paris to pursue a luxury and consumer country practice leadership role with strategy and management consultancy Kurt Salmon, where he was a partner before crossing again for a second stint at A.T. Kearney prior to Accenture’s purchase of Kurt Salmon in 2016. There he spent three and a half years serving some of the world’s top luxury brands, before recently taking up his new post with PIF.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Armoudom is now serving on the Executive Committee of Amaala – a luxury resort project on Saudi Arabia’s northern Red Sea coast unveiled by PIF toward the end of last year. Dubbed the “Riviera of the Middle East”, Amaala sits alongside NEOM and the Red Sea Project as part of PIF’s investment portfolio of a giga-projects to establish a unique ‘tourism ecosystem’ toward the Kingdom’s economic diversification efforts.

Geographically situated between NEOM and the Red Sea Project over 3,800 square kilometers of land within the Prince Mohammed bin Salman Natural Reserve on the north-western Red Sea Coast, the Amaala development is expected to generate upwards of 20,000 jobs with its first phase scheduled to open in the last quarter of next year and completion set for 2028. Intended as the newest destination on the jet-setter map, the resort will target the top echelon of travellers.

“Amaala represents a unique and transformational luxury experience where full-fledged wellness tourism is integrated alongside a curated mix of arts, culture, and sports offerings that are individually tailored for the ultra-luxury lifestyle, including the availability of a fashion scene, healthy-living services, and year-round sea expeditions,” said project CEO Nicholas Naples, an industry veteran who has delivered high-end luxury resort projects across the globe.

Now, the Reunion Island native Armoudom, who also sits on the board of Camus Wine & Spirits, will be in charge of corporate strategy, performance and innovation development for the multi-billion dollar project in Saudi Arabia – a likely one-time highly unexpected career detour. “I intend to stay at least another ten years in Europe, before perhaps setting sail to the Indian Ocean,” Armoudom said in an interview as a fresh-eyed A.T. Kearney consultant in 2006.