AWR Lloyd and Siraj Holding forge strategic alliance to transform Middle East consulting landscape

Alexander Wood was educated at the London School of Economics and Oxford University. An investment banker for Banque Paribas in the 1990s, he focused on the global energy and resources sectors. In 2000, Wood co-founded AWR Lloyd, becoming CEO in 2010. He has focused on Asia and the Middle East for over three decades, and resided with his family in Asia since 2001.

AWR Lloyd has a 25-year track record in providing strategy consulting and M&A advisory services to bluechip corporates, family businesses, private equity and public sector clients.

Last year the Financial Times ranked AWR Lloyd as one of the top 10 fastest growing consulting firms in Asia-Pacific. The firm has offices and teams in Bangkok, Jakarta, Ho Chi Minh City, Mumbai and now Abu Dhabi.

Siraj Holding, chaired by Ahmed Khalaf Al Otaiba, is a dynamic Abu Dhabi-based private investment firm that has grown rapidly since its founding in 2019.

With successful ventures in Islamic finance and Takaful, Siraj Holding is now extending its capabilities into strategic consulting to bring high-impact advisory services to the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa.

In an exclusive interview Wood presents an overview of the collaboration between AWR Lloyd and Siraj Holding and how the partnership is significant for the strategy consulting business in the UAE and Middle East. Excerpts from the interview:

■ With the launch of AWR Lloyd Gulf Partners in collaboration with Siraj Holding, how are you tailoring AWR Lloyd’s Asia Pacific success model to the unique business ecosystems of the UAE, Turkey, and Africa?

AWR Lloyd has always had a long run ambition of covering Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa or APAC-MEA, a meta region constituting two-thirds of global projected real GDP growth between now and 2050. We forecast real GDP growth for MEA of 4.5X 2020-50 versus 2.5X for the world as a whole.

But it’s clear that the economies covered by AWR Lloyd are complex and dynamic requiring localised and focused game plans. Off-the-shelf one-size-fits-all consulting doesn’t work. Long term trust-based relationships, on-the-ground support and a customised approach are critical.

In the Middle East, and the GCC countries in particular, aligning our strategic consulting with national development plans, such as Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 and the UAE’s We the UAE 2031 is essential. And, of course, developing discrete personal relationships with the main business families in the region.

We bring specialist expertise in the areas of energy transition, sustainability transformation, smart infrastructure and regional cross-border investment strategies (e.g. Asia-GCC, GCC-Asia, Turkey-Africa).

However, perhaps most important of all, given the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran, AWR Lloyd brings valuable experience and expertise in crisis resiliency. We advise clients on how to simulate, navigate and mitigate the risks associated with geo-political and polycrisis scenarios.

■ What strategic synergies do AWR Lloyd and Siraj Holding bring to the table through this partnership, and how will clients in the Middle East benefit from the combined strengths of both brands?

The new partnership combines AWR Lloyd’s extensive experience in strategy consulting and transaction advisory with Siraj Holding’s regional insights and networks. Clients in the region are increasingly seeking high-touch, sector-specific advisory services from firms who understand both global markets and local expectations.

AWR Lloyd Gulf Partners is uniquely positioned to deliver on this need. We provide strategic intelligence and transaction management grounded in international best practice, but always customised for the regulatory, cultural, and commercial context of each country and sub-region in which we operate.

■ How does the establishment of AWR Lloyd Gulf Partners advance Siraj Holding’s broader vision for private investment and advisory excellence across the UAE and wider MENA region?

Siraj Holding has consistently demonstrated a forward-looking vision in identifying and investing in key growth sectors. By partnering with AWR Lloyd, Siraj Holding is taking a strategic step toward becoming a multi-disciplinary investment group that can not only deploy capital but also advise on how to optimise, transform, and future-proof businesses throughout the region.

■ Given AWR Lloyd’s reputation in ESG, energy transition, and crisis resiliency across Asia-Pacific, how will your new Gulf based platform inject these specialties into regional sustainability transformations?

The Gulf states are taking a proactive role in the global sustainability landscape, with the UAE hosting COP28 and countries like Saudi Arabia launching multibillion-dollar green initiatives.

Translating these ambitions into implementable actions poses a multitude of challenges. This is where AWR Lloyd Gulf Partners can add tremendous value. We bring a quarter-century of experience in advising clients on energy transition and ESG best practice to a region that is actively rebalancing its energy portfolios and accelerating its sustainability initiatives.

And importantly, AWR Lloyd emphasises that real sustainability is about more than just having net zero plans or the like. It’s about having effective crisis resiliency strategies.

We live in an age of cascading polycrisis: wars, terrorism, climate change, natural disasters, pathogen outbreaks, systemic collapse, mass psycho-social crises and even the threat of nuclear conflict all mean that public and private sector organisations must put in place real and effective contingency plans in place now.

During the pandemic AWR Lloyd worked closely with FHI 360, one of the world’s leading humanitarian emergency NGOs, to provide crisis management and project continuity services to large energy construction clients in the UAE and Iraq.

■ Could you share an example of how AWR Lloyd and Siraj Holding are co creating differentiated advisory capabilities that set Gulf Partners apart from existing consultancies in the UAE?

Most mainstream consultancies in the region offer standardized services from a global playbook. Combining the deeply rooted multi-generational relationships established across the region by the owners of Siraj Holdings with AWR Lloyd’s well-established reputation for innovative and bespoke advisory, AWR Lloyd Gulf Partners offers something very different.

AWR Lloyd Gulf Partners will offer highly customized strategies tailored to each client’s unique context and challenges. Our services are grounded both in global best practice and an in-depth understanding of the region, assisting clients in unlocking long-term value.

Looking ahead, what milestones or impact metrics will define success for AWR Lloyd Gulf Partners in its first 12–18 months, both for the brand collaboration with Siraj Holding and for regional clients?

Succes for AWR Lloyd Gulf Partners will be defined by the tangible impact we create for our clients and the credibility we build as a trusted advisor in the region.

Examples of key milestones include delivering high-impact outcomes such as successful market entry strategies for GCC companies in Asia (e.g. measured in the hundreds of millions of dollars actually invested), Asian family business investments in the Middle East, transformative M&A transactions, and the design of effective crisis resiliency contingency plans for all clients (that demonstrably mitigate damage but also which bring synergistic financial and efficiency gains to organisations in the near term).

Ultimately, success means being recognized not just as another consultancy, but as a strategic partner to the region’s economic actors. We want to be recognised as a consultancy that truly enables regional businesses and institutions to adapt, thrive, and lead amid global change.