To read 400-word biographies of our coaches based in the Middle East and Africa, click on a country below:
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
FATIMA NAKHJAVANPUR is a highly regarded leadership coach based in the Middle East. She assists Fortune 100 executives, senior professionals, government officials, and their teams to identify and build on their strengths in order to improve in the areas of leadership capacity, succession planning, talent retention, and career transition.
With degrees in business administration and small business management, Fatima has completed the Coaches Training Institute program in Co-Active Leadership, and the Center for Right Relationships program in Organization & Relationship System Coaching. She is recognized by the International Coach Federation as a Master Certified Coach (MCC). In addition, she’s certified by the Hogan organization (HPI, HDS, and MVPI) and by Leadership Circle (360° feedback). Fatima works professionally in Persian, French, and English.
Fatima’s first employer was Chalhoub Inc., a Middle Eastern leader in luxury brands, for which she opened the Iranian market. Later, for Mansoor Ahmed Mohd, a major Middle Eastern distributor of tableware, she served as a marketing executive and developed a new brand identity for the firm. Still later, Fatima was employed by British American Tobacco as a recruitment consultant in the Middle East for its management trainee program.
During 2009, Fatima left the corporate world to pursue her goal of advancing human development through training, consulting, and coaching. Since then, she’s been delivering services throughout the Middle East, and well beyond it, to clients including Dubai International Airports, Emirates NBD Bank, Google, Adidas, Pepsi Cola, Honeywell, British American Tobacco, Unilever, UBS, Oshkosh, Merck Serono, and Cristal Chemicals. She’s worked with more than 50 nationalities.
For Ashridge University and Hult International Business School clients in the Middle East, Fatima provides coaching services and facilitates leadership programs. She also delivers coach training courses for The Co-Active Training Institute.
Fatima is a member of the Dubai Chapter of the International Coach Federation, the Dubai Business Women’s Council, Capital Club, and the Entrepreneurs’ Organization. She has been interviewed on CNN and Dubai One TV, and invited to speak on Dubai Eye Radio. Her articles on coaching have been published in the newspapers “Gulf News” and “7 days.”
Fatima lives with her husband and two boys in Dubai. A student of ancient wisdom, she endeavors to learn from masters how to live a conscious life. She devotes part of her non-professional time to mentoring young female leaders. A world traveler, Fatima participates in yoga and paragliding, and enjoys long walks in nature.
EGYPT
WAHID SHARAF is comprehensively familiar with both Egypt and Western Europe. His decades of experience in global marketing gives him the insight needed to ensure sustained success within culturally diverse contexts. For Wahid, intercultural training and coaching is more than a career choice; it’s a calling.
Born in Europe to a Swiss mother and Egyptian father, Wahid was brought up within the contexts of Egyptian, French, and German cultures. He holds a bachelor of business administration degree from Babson College in the U.S. He is certified as an Evidence-Based Coach by Fielding Graduate University, and accredited at the ACC level by the International Coaching Federation. Wahid holds eight other qualifications from organizations in Europe and the U.S. Among them are Intercultural Coach & Trainer; Cross-Cultural Communications; Conflict Management & Mediation; Immunity-to-Change Facilitator; Transforming Business, Society & Self; and MBTI Steps I & II. He is a fluent speaker of Arabic, German, French, and English.
Wahid has over four decades of experience working as a manager or consultant with large global companies, most with bases or significant activity in the Middle East. As a marketing executive in several high-profile Swiss corporations, Wahid led business negotiations with companies in the Middle East and Far East as well as the rest of Europe. He personally oversaw the creation of multinational partnerships and fostered new sales and marketing opportunities. His diverse industry experiences – across banking, agro-chemical, pharmaceutical, aviation, and engineering – have made him a versatile and resourceful advisor to his clients. [At Wahid’s request, GROVEWELL is not naming any companies with which he has been associated.]
As a consultant and coach to executive teams in global corporations, Wahid developed solutions that promoted effective cross-cultural interaction between his clients and their culturally diverse markets. Leveraging cultural differences, his clients have become able to maximize success in a wide variety of complex circumstances. Building bridges between European, Middle Eastern, and Asian markets became second nature for him.
Wahid has fused his broad industry and cultural knowledge with a 30-year martial arts journey to form a uniquely embodied and integrated approach to cross-cultural competence coaching. Incorporating the philosophies and techniques of Aikido and other martial arts into each day has shaped his outlook, his thought process, and his deliveries to clients and coachees.
Wahid spends much of his spare time practicing his favorite sports, Aikido and horseback riding. He also enjoys reading world history, traveling, and photography.