It’s destination GCC for corporate top guns from Western and East European countries, with the region seeing over 32 percent jump in CXO level – C-suite executives – hiring this year till date, leadership search firms said. Saudi Arabia and the UAE are seeing the maximum inflow of leadership role executives within GCC from the Western markets
Growing apprehensions over business slowdown in major economies in the face of rising inflation, coupled with persisting geopolitical tensions in the CIS region, is driving the large-scale movement of top level talent from companies across sectors in the West to the GCC region.
Alongside, Middle East-based renewable and energy sectors are also attracting leadership level talents from the West in numbers, with the ongoing COP27 in Egypt and next year’s COP28 in Abu Dhabi acting as catalysts.
“Hiring at leadership levels has seen a record high in 2022 year till date. We have witnessed a 32 percent growth over CXO level hiring as against the same period in 2021,” Amarjeet Dutta, Partner at global leadership search and consultancy EMA Partners Middle East, told Arabian Business.
“The global economic slowdown, coupled with the war situation in the CIS region, has led to significant import of high quality talent into the GCC from these regions,” Dutta said.
Industry insiders said the current surge in high-end talent movement to GCC is expected to continue into the near future as well, driven by the twin-tailwinds of massive expansions and diversifications of companies across sectors in the region and strong government support for corporate growth.
Incubation of near-shore centers and service delivery centers in Egypt and Jordan to feed into global markets will also be an important consideration to witness movement of leadership talent to the GCC region from other markets, they said.
“GCC is emerging as one of the best places to be [for corporate leaders] in the current uncertain economic climate. High oil prices, favorable policy making for new sectors and public sector spending has boosted the local environment, while also steadily attracting international companies to set up bases,” Sandeep Ganediwalla, Dubai-based managing partner at RedSeer Strategic Consultants, a global consultancy for digital services, told Arabian Business.
“Besides, the superior connectivity of this region, along with lower time zone differences between East and West, also mean that the regional headquarters out of GCC can manage Asia, Europe and Africa,” he said.
Dutta said the strong tailwinds to support leadership hiring will continue for the foreseeable future as existing businesses expand, struggling businesses turn around, new businesses emerge, sovereign wealth funds continue to expand footprint globally and tech businesses continue to innovate.
“The sharp vision and ambitions for growth of the region by some of the governments will be another major factor aiding the key leadership hiring momentum in GCC,” he said.
Dutta said aside from top talent movement from the western countries and Eastern Europe to the region, large multinationals in GCC have also created talent fungibility and mobility options for their top executives to ensure that high potential talent is retained to support their ambitious growth plans.
Several regional and local conglomerates, on the other hand, have also grown significantly through the inorganic route, necessitating the requirement for induction of fresh leadership talent for new business initiatives and also to support turning around existing businesses.
Industry insiders said the trend is true across sectors and industries such as emerging, conglomerates, traditional and digital organisations.
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