Strategy& Partner to speak at Middle East travel retail conference

Retail and consumer expert Karl Nader, Partner at Strategy&, will address guests at this month’s Middle East and Africa Duty Free Association (MEADFA) conference to be held in Dubai.

The line-up of speakers has been announced for the annual MEADFA conference on the 29-30th of January in Dubai, following the event’s postponement and relocation from Beirut in November amid security concerns over political instability in the Lebanese Republic.

The two-day conference brings together key figures and stakeholders from the Middle Eastern and African duty-free and travel retail industry to share ideas and discuss the present and future issues shaping the dynamic regional sector, with presentations from business leaders in the aviation and retail fields.

Among the guest speakers for this year’s conference is Karl Nader, Consumer and Retail co-leader in the Middle East for management consulting firm Strategy&, which is part of the PwC network. Nader will share his expert insights on the rapidly-evolving consumer demographics of the Gulf and Levant for the ‘Climate in Retail’ discussion, which seeks to address the issue of rising e-commerce for brands and retailers in the region through strategies to better engage younger consumers in a bid to adapt.

Nader has been with Strategy& since 2005 as a specialist in consumer goods, retailing and distribution, with broad experience in corporate, retail and distribution strategy, category management, promotions and pricing, organisational design, and business restructuring. Prior to joining the firm, Nader had worked as a Senior Consultant for Accenture in its UK retail practice.

Since joining Strategy& in the Middle East, Nader has established himself as a regional authority on the Consumer and Retail markets, and currently operates out of the firm’s Beirut office – which it opened in around 2000 (in its former Booz & Company guise) as the first top-tier US-origin management consultancy in the country to do so.

Another speaker on the bill is Faisal Sultan Salim Al Mamari, a Senior Manager with the Omani body overseeing the development of the new Muscat International Airport, which has engaged airport consultants Munich Airports International to help guide the project.