American consultancy Heart+Mind Strategies launches Riyadh office

American consulting firm Heart+Mind Strategies has opened a new office in Riyadh, with Saudi Arabia becoming the firm’s third office alongside Washington D.C. and London.

Founded thirteen years ago, Heart+Mind Strategies specialises in helping organisations and top officials (including presidents and prime ministers) with “motivating and persuading the hearts and minds” of their most critical stakeholders.

Using a scientific approach to uncover how people think, feel and make decisions, the consulting firm helps clients apply these insights through a mix of offerings including strategic research, brand design, public policy, reputation management, communications, and crisis management.

Having already worked for a number of clients in Saudi Arabia, including the Kingdom’s Ministry of Education and Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources, Heart+Mind Strategies has now decided to establish an on the ground operation to better serve its local client base – and meet growing demand for its services.

Commenting on the expansion, Jennifer Airey, one of the five co-founders of Heart+Mind Strategies (the others are: Dee Allsop, Michael Dabadie, Beth Forbes, and Jim Hoskins), said: “Our business is about finding a deeper understanding of humans and how they connect to the brands, organisations and experiences around them.”

“With the transformational change happening in Saudi Arabia and the region, it is an exciting time to help clients learn more about what shapes decisions and motivates hearts and minds across a variety of contexts.”

The new Riyadh office is led by Founders and Partners Khalid AlYahya and HE Turki Al-Shabanah.

AlYahya said: “The opening of the Riyadh office – our first in the Middle East and North Africa region – is a significant milestone for Heart+Mind Strategies, enabling us to bring together decades of deep local knowledge in Saudi Arabia and the overall GCC region, and global experiences in many countries around the world.”

“We look forward to ensuring the growth of many brands and organisations in Saudi Arabia and across the region.”

Al-Shabanah added: “As a local partner of Heart+Mind Strategies, we aim to expand the firm’s regional operations by helping provide top-notch services and enriching our client portfolio.”

Across its offices in Washington D.C. and London, Heart+Mind Strategies works for clients such as Amazon, Citi Foundation, Emirates, Fannie Mae, Google, Las Vegas, AstraZeneca, Microsoft, Philips, and UBS. The firm also has working ties with several (former) presidents, prime ministers, presidential runners and high-ranked ministers, although this roster of clients it not disclosed for confidentiality reasons.