TAM expands partner team with executive Osama Ashri

Saudi digital solutions and management consultancy company TAM has kicked off the year with a new partner among its ranks.

Appointed a member of the partnership per 1 January 2024, Osama Ashri brings over two decades of experience to TAM, including as an executive in government, investments, public sector, and academics.

At TAM, Ashri will focus on expanding the firm’s work in the domains of ecosystem strategy and development, stakeholder engagement, innovation, and entrepreneurship. He becomes a member of the senior leadership team.

Riyadh-based TAM helps government entities across Saudi Arabia conceptualise and deliver strategic initiatives and projects in areas such as capability development, policy innovation, and public engagement. The firm’s digital division comprises eight solutions, while its training arm has trained over 10,000 Saudi nationals since its inception in 2011.

Last year, TAM listed on the Parallel Market of the Saudi Exchange (Tadawul), with the aim to fuel its ambitious growth agenda. Abdullah Yousef, Managing Director and CEO, said the hire of Ashri kickstarts the firm’s people growth agenda for 2024, and signals its intent for deepening its expertise across in-demand segments such as entrepreneurship and innovation.

The acting CEO of the Saudi Entrepreneurial Ecosystem, and formerly the CEO of the Saudi Venture Capital and Private Equity Association and a champion of the Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program, Ashri is a leading figure in the entrepreneurship space.

He also held multiple private sector leadership roles dedicated to cultivating regional entrepreneurship ecosystems, and spent time in academics as a researcher and lecturer in the domain.

Ashri contributed to several publications in the landscape, including ‘Navigating Saudi Arabia's Entrepreneurship Ecosystem’, ‘The Role of Universities as Catalysts within Entrepreneurial Ecosystems’, and ‘The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor of Saudi Arabia’.

Yousef also praised Ashri’s background in strategy execution and stakeholder engagement – two other domains that are part of his areas of focus at TAM. Over the past three years, Ashri served as Deputy Secretary General of the Royal Commission for Makkah City & Holy, mandated with overseeing and facilitating the delivery of the Makkah City Strategy (Makkah plays a central role in the kingdom’s ambition to draw 30+ million religious tourists a year by 2030).

Osama Ashri earned an MBA from Babson College and has completed programs at tier-one US business schools such as Harvard Business School, MIT Sloan School of Management, and Stanford University.

Alongside his role at TAM, Ashri is a member of the Board of Directors of Wadi Makkah Ventures.