Agamjeet Dang: Why Executive Access Chose Abu Dhabi Over Dubai for Its First Move Outside India - Business Today Middle East
This story first appeared in the July issue of Business Today Middle EastAfter 31 years building one of India’s most respected leadership advisory firms, Executive Access is expanding into the GCC. Agamjeet. . .
This story first appeared in the July issue of Business Today Middle EastAfter 31 years building one of India’s most respected leadership advisory firms, Executive Access is expanding into the GCC. Agamjeet Dang, CEO of Executive Access, speaks to Business Today Middle East about why the firm chose Abu Dhabi Global Market over Dubai, and what that decision reveals about the business it intends to build. Executive Access has spent 31 years building its reputation in India. What made the Middle East the right market for your first move outside it, and why now?Executive Access started out as the India office of an Asia-centric search firm back in 1995, and over three decades we have grown into one of the largest and most diversified leadership advisory firms in the country. For much of that time India kept us busy – there was always more to build at home – and we built our reputation deliberately, on relationships, discretion and a genuine understanding of leadership rather than transactional search. Having established that depth, we now feel primed to extend it beyond India. So, when we did decide to move, both the market and the timing had to be right. The GCC is one of the few places in the world where ambition matches the pace of change. Governments and businesses across the region are pursuing some of the most significant economic diversification agendas anywhere – across AI, financial services, energy transition, healthcare and advanced manufacturing. That kind of transformation demands a very different calibre of leadership, and that is precisely the conversation we have been having with boards and CEOs for three decades. The timing also reflects how closely India and the GCC are now tied. Capital, talent and ambition are flowing between the two regions at a pace we have not seen before, and very few firms genuinely understand both ends of that corridor. After 31 years of building depth at home, we felt ready to extend that understanding into a market where it is genuinely needed – rather than expanding for the sake of a flag on the map. “The GCC is one of the few places in the world where the ambition matches the pace of change. ”You choseADGMas your base rather than Dubai, which is the more obvious entry point for most firms. What does that decision say about the kind of business you are building here?It says a great deal about who we are building this business for. ADGM has established itself as one of the most respected financial and business ecosystems in the world, and it attracts a particular kind of organisation – sovereign investors, financial institutions, family offices and serious global businesses that take governance and leadership seriously. That is exactly the company we want to keep. We are not setting out to be the highest-volume search firm in the region. We are building a leadership advisory practice – anchored in board, governance, succession and family business work – for clients who think about leadership as a long-term, institutional question rather than an immediate vacancy. Basing ourselves in ADGM places us at the centre of that ecosystem. Dubai is a remarkable market, and we will absolutely serve clients there. But the choice of Abu Dhabi and ADGM as our home reflects the kind of firm we are: deliberate, relationship-led, and focused on depth over scale. You have flagged AI-ready leadership as a priority demand across the GCC. What are boards and CEOs actually asking for when they use that language, and how does it change the search brief?It is a phrase that gets used loosely, so it is worth being precise. When boards and CEOs in the region talk about AI-ready leadership, they are almost never asking for someone who can build the technology themselves. They are asking for leaders who understand what AI and digital transformation mean for their industry, their workforce, their customers and their competitive position – and who can lead the organisation confidently through that change. In practice, that changes the brief fundamentally. A traditional search would index heavily on domain pedigree and a track record of running an established operation. The AI-ready brief still values that, but it adds a different set of questions. Can this leader ask the right questions of their technology and transformation teams? Are they comfortable making informed bets under uncertainty? Do they have the adaptability to lead through ambiguity, and the courage to decide before the picture is complete?So we spend far more time assessing judgement, learning agility and change leadership than we once did, alongside the conventional measures of experience. The best candidates are rarely the most technical people in the room. They are the ones who combine genuine digital fluency with the human leadership skills – trust, communication and conviction – that technology cannot replace. “We built our reputation deliberately, on relationships, discretion and a genuine understanding of leadership rather than transactional search. ”The India-UAE business corridor is deepening at pace. Is that a specific strategic focus for EA MENA, or is the ambition broader than that relationship?The India-UAE corridor is a genuine strategic focus, not a by-product. It is one of the most important economic relationships of the next decade, and we are unusually well placed to serve it – with three decades of depth in India and now a strong base in the UAE. For clients operating across both, that bridge is real, and it sits at the heart of what EA MENA offers. That said, the ambition is broader. We think in terms of corridors that strengthen India and connect it to the markets shaping its future, and two stand out for us: the GCC and South East Asia. We want to be a firm with genuine, distinctive strengths across both, not simply a single bilateral specialist. Beyond those corridors, we continue to serve clients globally through our Panorama alliance, which gives us reach into every major economy without diluting our focus. So the honest answer is that the India-UAE relationship is the anchor – but it is not the ceiling. You are entering a market with established players and strong local networks. What is the honest case for why a company here should choose Executive Access over a firm that has been operating in this region for years?The premise of the question assumes we are new to the region, whereas the reality is that Executive Access has invested in bringing together highly experienced executive search leaders, Alister Wellesley (Chief Executive Officer, EA MENA) and Kirti Maini (Director, EA MENA), both with deep roots across the Middle East. Between them, they bring more than four decades of executive search experience in the region. Alister has spent the last eight years advising clients across the GCC and broader Middle East on senior leadership appointments, while Kirti has spent the last fourteen years in executive search across the Middle East. Their networks, market knowledge and understanding of the region’s business culture have been built over many years and across multiple countries. Clients are therefore not choosing between local knowledge and Executive Access; they are gaining both. What differentiates us is the combination of deep regional connectivity, global reach, and the agility of a firm that is singularly focused on delivering exceptional leadership outcomes for its clients.