Business & Money | Wednesday 29 March, 2017 5:43 am |

The Pearl Initiative, a leading Gulf business-led non-profit organisation promoting a corporate culture of accountability and transparency as a key driver of competitiveness across the region, will launch a prestigious executive education programme in collaboration with Cambridge Judge Business School. The programme has been specifically tailored for private sector executives in the region, and offers two separate sessions, one catering to executives in Riyadh and another for the Dubai market – both scheduled for May 2017. The initiative is aligned with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, which expresses the government’s long-term goals and expectations, and emphasises its commitment to offer innovative educational programmes in collaboration with the private and non-profit sectors.

Targeting C-suite executives, company owners, directors and senior executives, the intensive two-day course aims to provide the tools to develop corporate governance frameworks, processes and cultures that organisations can adopt to achieve competitive advantage in a global context. The programme will shed light on the contemporary corporate governance landscape and share best practices for implementing sustainable and effective board leadership in the GCC region.

The course will focus on setting strategies and tools to enable better decision-making. Themes to be explored include creation of effective board structures, the role of the individual, and strategies to embed accountability into the work culture. Interactive in nature, the course will allow participants to share their experiences and insights on the above topics.

The programmes will be led by reputed corporate governance expert Dr Simon Learmount, Fellow of the Centre for Business Research (CBR) and Fellow at Pembroke College, Cambridge University and founding Director of the Executive MBA programme at Cambridge Judge Business School.

Carla Koffel, Executive Director of the Pearl Initiative, said: “At such a dynamic time for businesses in the GCC region, it is important that leaders stay up to date with the very latest thinking and approaches to effective business management and how to leverage them for a stronger bottom line.”

She added: “At the Pearl Initiative, we are also conscious of the impact economic and social contexts have on the ways we transact business today. Keeping this in mind, we are excited to partner with Cambridge Judge Business School to bring cutting-edge international learnings to Gulf-based executives in a way that is relevant to the region.”

For his part, Dr Simon Learmount, Professor in Corporate Governance at Cambridge Judge Business School, said: “The GCC region’s businesses are on an impressive growth trajectory, even amid global economic challenges and technological changes. As competition becomes fierce, organisations remain focused on retaining the right talent that can generate wealth in an equitable and ethical way. Corporate governance is integral to this process and is not merely a compliance tool, but is also instrumental to performance and wealth-creation.  In short, it is a business imperative today – no matter how large or small the organisation.”

“Our Executive Education programmes aim to drive further action in this important field. We are excited to partner with the Pearl Initiative, whose in-depth understanding of the local opportunities and challenges will help us offer participants more regionally-tailored discussions that they can benefit from and draw upon in their day-to-day decision-making.”

Executives can enrol for one of the two planned sessions, scheduled for 7 to 8 May in Dubai and 9 to 10 May in Riyadh. At US$1,800 for the Pearl Initiative’s partner companies and US$3,600 for all other organisations, the course fee includes instruction, materials, lunches, refreshments and a programme dinner. Please visit this page to complete registration and for further details.