PwC to establish headquarters in Riyadh to serve Vision 2030 agenda

Saudi capital Riyadh will play host to PwC’s new regional headquarters, with the professional services firm to also establish an Experience Centre and boost its local headcount.

To be based at the King Abdullah Financial District in the Saudi capital Riyadh, PwC says the new HQ is a demonstration of its commitment to the Kingdom’s transformation agenda.

“There is no doubt that Saudi from a regional perspective, with all of the giga projects and all of the transformation that is happening across the sectors, is a huge market for PwC and is a significant one for the Middle East,” country senior leader Riyadh Al Najjar told Arab News. “We wanted to ramp up our presence and show our continued commitment given the massive transformation, and support the execution of Vision 2030 as it happens.”

Having had a presence in the country for the past four decades, PwC’s Saudi branch presently has around 1,500 partners and staff spread across offices in Riyadh, Jedda, Dhahran and Al-Khobar (another base will soon be launched at Al Ula), with a rate of over 40 percent Saudi nationals. These numbers, however, are due to shortly grow – both the local-to-expat ratio and overall headcount – with plans underway for a significant recruitment spree.

As part of PwC’s $12 billion global ‘New Equation’ strategy – which will see it make a concerted tilt toward digital up-skilling and matters of ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) – the firm’s Middle Each branch has committed to effectively doubling its headcount in the region over the next five years, including an annual intake target of 500 graduates. In September, it welcomed 326 fresh faces, over a third of those in Saudi Arabia.

In addition to the new headquarters and expanded headcount, Saudi Arabia will also be the site of PwC’s latest digital Experience Centre in the region, after having previously launched the innovation hub in Dubai in late 2020. “In these centres we combine our capabilities with the best of our technology from around the world to provide opportunities to our clients to collaborate, dream and co-create with us,” said Al Najjar.

Al Najjar believes that the presence of PwC’s HQ in Saudi Arabia can also help to attract other global firms to the country, serving to enhance the Kingdom’s overall business environment.

Since early last year, more than 40 multinational companies have been granted licences to establish their regional headquarters in Saudi Arabia, on the back of a range of new incentives and plans to exclude non-locally-headquartered organisations from receiving government contracts.