Our leadership team

Samar is a PwC Partner and PwC’s Academy Middle East Leader with more than twenty two years of experience in driving transformation, building organisational capabilities at scale, and leading talent and executive development. 

Samar is an expert in leading the workforce transformation agenda. She has extensively worked with global clients and across the Middle East on learning strategy formulation, executive coaching and talent development, succession planning, transformational leadership and digital learning solutions.

Samar’s driving force as a leader is to create an ecosystem built on care, collaboration and trust to help people unlock their potential and create a positive impact on their lives. She passionately advocates lifelong learning, and is committed to fostering a culture of continuous development through equal opportunities to all for skills-based learning.

Taimur is a PwC Partner and Professional Qualifications Head with 18+ years of experience in the professional education sector and investment management industry. 

Taimur leads the professional qualifications and certifications team that delivers a wide range of globally recognised qualifications to organisations and individuals. He specializes in designing and developing training programmes aimed at building skills and competencies and has been instrumental in introducing professional qualifications pathways in public and private sector organisations in the GCC. Taimur is a veteran in finance and investment management disciples and has upskilled thousands of delegates across the region.  

Mary is a Director with 20+ years of experience in professional services firms as a multi-skilled leader with a proven track record in achieving tangible business outcomes. 

Mary leads the Regional Operations and Project Management function and specialises in the Academy’s operational excellence, resourcing, compliance, and organisational restructuring initiatives. Before this, she managed a portfolio of PwC multinational audit clients in the Middle East as part of the Assurance lines of service. Mary is a CPA specialised in Audit and Assurance and has trained for qualifications such as CPA and ACCA.

Essa is a Director with 15+ years of experience in Technology implementation, Digital upskilling and E-learning.

Essa specialises in advising clients on emerging technologies, IT, cyber and data privacy training. Before joining PwC’s Academy, Essa was involved in different application development, integration and business process automation projects. Essa leads all digital upskilling solutions and has managed several e-learning, technology development and implementation projects for public and private sector clients across the GCC.   

Jouhaina is a Regional Director with 15+ years of experience in the professional education sector responsible for growing the Academy’s business in UAE through leading it’s go-to-market strategy.

Jouhaina has advised public and private sector organisations across the GCC on developing their workforce, backed by her extensive experience in HR, L&D and People Management. Before joining PwC’s Academy, she successfully managed a training business in Dubai creating tailored solutions for corporates and individuals. Jouhaina specialises in anticipating the market needs, assessing the clients skills gap, and developing customised training solutions to match.

Anas is a Regional Director at PwC Academy ME and is based in KSA, he is an industry practitioner with 20+ years of experience in establishing Internal Audit, Risk Management and Corporate Governance functions.

Anas has delivered training in Internal Audit, Corporate Governance and Risk Management to various public and private sector organisations across the GCC. Before joining PwC’s Academy, he led the Corporate Governance function for one of the largest islamic banks in the world. Anas brings financial expertise across sectors and has previously worked in the advisory practice of one of the Big 4 entities in KSA, managing the delivery of mega projects and assignments.

Maryam is a Director and Qatar and Oman Academy Leader with 18+ years of experience in management and training. 

Maryam brings together her extensive international experience, combined with her deep understanding of the region, to develop bespoke solutions for clients. Before joining PwC’s Academy, she specialised in task force and operational business setups for reputed finance, HR and hospitality management organisations across the globe. Having been a trainer herself she focused on experiential learning, identifying training needs and developing staff competencies to achieve outstanding results.