From top left, clockwise, Farzana Baduel, David Gallagher, Christophe Ginisty, Robert Hanvik, and Peter Thomas, the principals involved in the Middle East practice.Folgate Advisors has launched its first regionally focused practices with a team of experts in the Middle East.
Based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Folgate Middle East will help clients in the booming economies of the region bridge the gap between business strategy and international communications.
Four of the firm’s advisors have been named as principals and with three based in the region: Robert Hanvik and Peter Thomas are in Riyadh, Christophe Ginisty is in Bahrain and Farzana Baduel is based in London.
All four have decades of experience based in the Middle East working for some of the region’s largest organisations. They will serve clients directly across the region and help those clients access specialist industry expertise and capabilities from a growing roster of more than 50 senior, highly experienced communications specialists from around the world.
David Gallagher, Founder of Folgate Advisors, will also act as a principal for the practice. The new practice aims to serve both government and corporate entities from across the GCC region looking to tell their story on an international stage, while also supporting international communications agencies, holding groups and other businesses and investment funds looking to invest and establish or scale in the region.
In particular, Folgate anticipates that its global experience in technology (including data and AI), sports, tourism and entertainment, government, healthcare, industry and energy will map closely to demand in the market in those sectors.
From a communications services perspective, it will focus on offering clients board-level counsel driven by many years of providing strategic communications to many of the world’s largest organisations. This will include executive positioning and profiling on the world stage, campaign strategy definition and development, crisis and issues management, market entry counsel, agency selection and evaluation, interim communications leadership and organisational design.
