Corporate governance training experts  

I have worked closely with Robert on several events and it has always been a great pleasure. He was a remarkable chairperson at the recent 9th Annual Board Secretary Conference in Dubai, as he took charge and was excellent with engaging the delegates throughout the session. Robert’s knowledge on corporate governance is just excellent and he has a very positive attitude toward always willing to share and learn for future improvement… Thank you Robert for being a great leader and someone so easy to work with.

Robert enhanced the quality of my 5th Annual Directors’ Duties: Corporate & Family Boards conference in Dubai this year with his passion and dedication as a Speaker. He played a key role in my conference success with his excellent facilitation of the panel discussion on ‘SafeguardingYour Directorship Accountability Vs Personal Liabilities’. I highly recommend Robert as an excellent speaker. He provided excellent feedback and insights throughout the entire two days and he was a major contribution factor in making this event a successful one.

Robert was brought into the Dubai Properties Group (“DPG”) to enhance the overall governance framework and improve the quality of information provided to the Board and its Committees for decision making. As Chairwomen of DPG’s Executive Human Capital Committee and Vice-Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee I work very closely with Robert to ensure that DPG adopts best practice on governance and compliance. Robert is passionate about corporate governance and is a very capable Board Secretary. There has been a marked improvement in the overall decision making at the DPG Board and its Committees as Robert works closely with senior management and the directors to further enhance the quality of the agendas, the content of meeting packs and information presented by way of business plans or proposals. Robert strives for excellence and is always willing to go the extra mile to ensure that Board and Committee meetings run smoothly and that the directors and senior management are well prepared and fully briefed. In the last 18 months Robert developed the Board Relationship Management Policy and implementation guidelines and conducted awareness sessions with all teams submitting proposals to the directors for their consideration and approval. With Robert’s vast governance and board advisory experience he would be an asset to any organisation.

Robert is a consummate corporate governance professional who provides highly effective company secretarial and advisory services to the Board. He drives discipline and rigor into processes which significantly strengthen the maturity of the Board’s activities and decision making.He successfully works with the Board members and the Group’s senior management to ensure strategic alignment and the implementation of best practice.

It has been pleasure working with Robert for over 5 years at Clyde & Co as well as at Dubai Properties Group. Robert has excellent leadership and managerial skills which always boosts the self-esteem of the team. He is highly knowledgeable and experienced in various Corporate matters including Entity governance and management, Board Support and Compliance and advises the stakeholders on efficiently handling critical transactions.

I worked with Robert on site where he was the Chairperson at the 8th Annual Board Secretary conference in Dubai. He displayed excellent communication and people relation skills whilst facilitating the conference. This ability allows him to create impacts in a short period of time. Most importantly, he has enthusiastically assisted in making the flagship event a great success. His thought leadership skills and insights on both international and local corporate governance and best practice certainly added great value to the conference through his ability to moderate and facilitate in-depth dialogue on the broad range of governance aspects covered during the 3 day event. He is certainly one person you can count on to get the job done. Thank you, Rob!

I engaged Robert as the Chairperson at the Marcus Evans 8th Annual Board Secretary conference, Dubai in May 2016. Robert is indeed a recognised thought leader on strategy, governance and board advisory. Robert played a key role in setting the tone of the conference and was a very responsible, cooperative, proactive, supportive and engaging figure. It was a pleasure working with Robert and I look forward to our next conference together.

Rob was a force of strength. When I was studying for my masters, I would not deny somewhere as we entered the third module, I thought about giving up. Work commitments, a hectic travel made it easy to lose track of what’s really important – personal growth. Rob, like the Jedi, remains a great force of strength and encouraged me on. He gave me his time despite his own hectic schedules.

During our residency in York, I was, on various occasions, in the same discussion group as Rob. During these times, it was clear Rob has a natural presence and led with ease. He made everyone see one another point of views, this is especially interesting as all classmates had strong opinions on the issues to be discussed then. His analysis of the case studies highlighted his thinking process. He could simplify extremely complex cases, further broke them down into smaller issues and by identifying the core issues, able to solve the overall complexity by solving the core issues in the smaller puzzles.

I would say besides possessing a healthy dose of IQ, Rob was also blessed with healthy doses of emotional and social intelligences. I have gained more than a master on graduation day, the friendship of a reliable and intelligent being.

Robert was instrumental in forming the regional translators into a centralised virtual translation team and the use of software to capture know-how to improve efficiency and quality by creating a company brand of Arabic translation. During our work Robert advised on operational matters in the new department and served in a governance role.

It has been my privilege and pleasure to have been able to work on two projects with Rob over the last 5 years or so when he was initially at Clyde & Co, Dubai and more latterly while he was with PWC, Dubai. As a supplier of Translation Productivity solutions within the ME Region, I am pleased to say that these projects led to successful implementations of new technology and working practices to help the Translation Teams in both organisations provide a more efficient and productive service.

On first meeting Rob I found that he very quickly picked up on the potential business and operational benefits Translation Productivity solutions could deliver to Companies and was able to use this knowledge to evaluate how it would benefit both of the Companies he has worked for in the last 5 year or so, even though they each required totally different approaches and set-ups to meet their future needs and aspirations.

In both projects this has led him to carry out detailed feasibility studies to confirm that the perceived benefits would deliver the results required and that their was a solid business case and cost justification to put forward to the Partners for approval.

As part of this whole process Rob reviewed current working practices and operational workflows associated with the task of translating information from request through to delivery and through this was able to see where potential improvements could be made by implementing new or enhanced day-to-day operational and business processes and through the installation and adoption of Translation Productivity software and tools. Once he was happy that he fully understood what was required to improve this whole process and that their was a business case to take this forward, he then evaluated the various solutions available in this specialised market to see which best met their needs from an operational, feature/benefit and cost perspective before making a final recommendation on the referredoption.

Once Rob had received approval to proceed with the project he was then involved in the roll-out process with particular focus on the implementation of the new operational and business processes and the setting up of more efficient and managed Teams. In the case of PWC this included the successful establishment of an Arabic Centre of Excellence to cater for the translation needs of the various PWC Organisations within the Region.

In my own view Rob has a great skill in being able to smoothly and successfully take a project from conception through to implementation and to manage the expectations of Users and Management alike.

Robert and I worked very closely on two high profile reviews for a sovereign wealth fund and a diversified investment company in the Middle East region.

He quickly built rapport with the client as the Legal subject matter expert on both the projects and engaged in thought provoking discussions around best in class corporate governance, compliance frameworks, legal department’s strategic remit as enablers for the business to move forward and policies and procedures review.

I would highly recommend Robert in his ability to advise clients, coach the project team and provide valuable insight whilst encouraging the client to see things from a fresh perspective. He always communicated with impact and presented with a personal flair to all stakeholders. Robert was always around when the team needed assistance and acted as a very good sounding board to exchange ideas. I look forward to working with Robert in the future.

Robert has a deep knowledge of governance and compliance issues and is an expert in all company secretarial matters. He has great communications skills and made a significant contribution to our Corporate Governance and Board Readiness training initiatives.