Senior Associate, Dubai
Nationality: Lebanese
Education: Master’s degree in Engineering from the Saint Joseph University of Beirut.
Q: Welcome back! After working as an associate at Strategy&, you left for a few years before rejoining the firm. What did you do during your time away?
A: In the past few years, I co-founded two startups and I became a patented inventor. First, I led operations for a boutique consulting firm. Second, I worked on a startup in advertising technology, where I had to wear different hats and juggle several administrative functions. I handled budgeting, recruitment, raising capital, international expansions, and more, all of which really pushed me professionally. I felt deeply accountable for the wellbeing of our whole team and the performance of the companies. And finally, I published a patent related to deconstructing the human personality/psyche into its elementary building blocks, and rebuilding it digitally to create an interactive identical clone of the human persona.
I’m so grateful to Strategy& for encouraging me to keep learning, to take risks, and to have a variety of experiences, especially at this relatively early stage of my career. When I saw such an opportunity to try something new, I decided to take a leap of faith and go for it.
Q: What brought you back to Strategy&, and how has your experience been so far with the Activation Hub?
A: After working at startups for two years, securing stellar top-line performance, and operationally reaching autopilot status, I felt like I had completed what I set out to do: to witness a glimpse of the entrepreneurial world and to have an active role in it. I felt ready to return to the corporate world.
Having previously worked at Strategy& and having witnessed firsthand the intellectual caliber of the staff, I set my mind on rejoining the firm. But I wasn’t sure I wanted to travel as much as I had previously. So, when I found out that the Activation Hub was recruiting, I thought that might be the right match for me. It offers an ideal mix of brain-stimulating tasks, new strategic topics every week, game-changing impact, a non-rotating team, no traveling (my lower back is quite thankful), and an optimal work-life balance. In other words, this new role allows me to exercise my hobbies while generating value to the firm.
My experience with the team has been nothing short of outstanding. Everyone is eager to support each other, regardless of seniority. And overall, it has been, hands down, the best team dynamics I’ve experienced in my career.
Q: What excites you most about the work that you do?
A: I like the variety of different workstreams—from strategic proposals to the Knowledge Hub to business development—but if I had to choose a favorite area, I’d say I like the proposals. Already, I’ve worked on topics ranging from the future of gaming, to edutainment centers, to royal art complexes.
Proposals have a fast turnaround so things always remain fresh and they have a high impact: from securing new clients to completely changing a country's vertical, these proposals can turn into long-term projects that generate plenty of value and impact for our region.
Truly, the diversity of topics I work on is a large selling point for me. It satisfies my curiosity. And the fact that I get to do that while also experiencing brilliant team dynamics really makes this job one like no other.
Q: How would you describe the culture and people at the firm?
A: Fast and warm. The culture is focused on productivity and fast turnarounds. At the same time, a strong sense of camaraderie glues teams together, especially on tough projects, and that bond is maintained beyond the office. In fact, some of my closest friends are people that I’ve met at Strategy&.
Q: Outside of the office, you have a number of hobbies. Tell us about your passion for writing and drawing.
A: I've always been a fan of novels—especially ones that combine elements of fantasy to deliver a social or moral message. So, for the past couple of years, I've been working on writing and producing my own manga-style graphic novel for adults. It explores a complex political universe from the perspective of several characters, each with their own agenda of personal needs and growth.
More specifically, the story tackles topics of social corruption, free will, substance addiction and abuse, mental health, and the like. To make things a bit spicier, the characters also possess certain paranormal abilities that can hinder them or catalyze them forward in their personal quests.
I've been working with a team of experienced mangakas and illustrators on this project and we expect to release it later this year, in 2023. Below are some character reference sheets, with development codenames. (The actual names will be different once the story is released.)
Character 1: Codename Wanderer
Character 2: Codename Watcher
Character 3: Codename Deviant
Character 4: Codename Lost
Q: What are some of your other interests away from work?
A: I like to experience as many new activities as possible, but the ones I spend the majority of time on are martial arts, adrenaline adventures (things like skydiving, ziplining, and hopefully soon kitesurfing), kayaking, hiking, gaming, reading books, and playing music (namely, the guitar and the ukulele).
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