our people

In search of her next challenge, Asma came to the UAE to work on the launch of du, the UAE’s first integrated telecommunications provider as acting Executive Vice President of HR. Here, Asma led the successful integration of 250 people managing all internal communication, developing compensation and benefits and the successful integration of an Oracle-based HRMS system.

Prior to setting up PeopleFirst Asma acted as Principle HR Consultant to the Abu Dhabi Airports Company (ADAC). Reporting directly to the Chairman, Asma led the successful transition of 650 people from one entity to another. Asma was also requested to act as the HR Strategic Advisor to the Chairman and CEO for all the ADAC subsidiaries.

Following this, Asma joined Abu Dhabi Aircraft Technologies to lead the transformation programme following Mubadala acquiring these assets. Asma led all aspects of the HR transformation; organizational redesign, introduction of performance management, all HR policies and procedures.

Born and educated in the United Kingdom, Asma holds an MBA together with a Diploma in Management Studies from Kingston University, London.

Sarah is a leading training and learning solutions specialist with 15 years experience in teaching, training and performance management.

Her role with PeopleFirst  involves  working closely with clients to design, develop and implement training solutions that meet the specific needs of our clients businesses.

Sarah started her HR career with Marks & Spencer giving her a solid and best-in-class training ground. Here, Sarah specialised in learning solutions and performance management, designing and delivering a broad range of training programmes for head office and senior professionals.

After 7 years at Marks & Spencer, Sarah’s passion and dedication for training took her to BPP Business School, London where she tutored HR professionals across many courses, all accredited by the Chartered Institute of Personal Development (CIPD); facilitating workshops, writing course materials and leading student assessments.

Sarah holds an MBA from Henley Management College, an MA in Personnel & Development and is a CIPD Chartered Member.

Matilda brings with her more than 12 years experience across different industry sectors from the European and Middle Eastern Markets. She has diverse HR experience with leading blue chip organisations such as Siemens, Price Waterhouse Coopers and the Telenor Group.

Matilda’s expertise lies in improving business performance by delivering HR strategies which translate strategic business plans into defined human resources initiatives and activities. She has acted as HR business partner to senior management, influencing and building effective relationships and delivering value added services to the businesses.

The experience Matilda has gained from various organisations has resulted in a broad and thorough knowledge of best practice HR management tools and designing various HR solutions including performance management systems, competency frameworks, job analysis and job evaluation.

Matilda holds a BA in Business Psychology from Mid Sweden University.

Dana has 11 years experience in Psychology and Human Resources. She has worked in national and multinational organisations holding senior roles in various industries including private integrated security services, HR consultancy, healthcare, army and air force. As a Psychologist, Dana brings with her experience in counselling, psychological assistance, therapeutic support, psychometrics and group dynamics. She has also held specialist and managerial roles in organisations with more than 10,000 employees where she was responsible for various strategic and transactional HR initiatives such as manpower analysis, HR policies, procedures and workflows, recruitment, performance management, training and internal communication functions.

Dana holds a Bachelor Degree in Psychology, Master's degree in Psychoanalytical Psychotherapy and she is certificated by Romanian Psychologists Association as expert in military, organisational and labour psychology. She has participated in national and international conferences and has written various articles published in military publications. 

Azra brings a wealth of experience in process development, organisational skills and overall co-ordination from a variety of industries; telecoms, banking and insurance.

Azra joined du, the integrated telecoms provider in the UAE, in 2006 where she worked in recruitment and employee services at a time of exponential growth as the organisation grew from 80 to over 1000 employees. Azra was involved in most aspects of recruitment, on-boarding, preparation of contracts and job descriptions. With her enthusiasm and dedication apparent, Azra took additional responsibilities of planning and organising training and delivering induction programmes across the company.

At PeopleFirst Azra provides HR consulting services across a variety of industries. She holds an MA in Human Resource Management and is a member of the CIPD.

Roxana has over 14 years experience in Psychology and Human Resources across a variety of industries including HR consultancy, banking, media, hospitality, retail and education in both private and government sectors.

Partnering with the British Council in Romania, Roxana developed and conducted assessment centres for the selection of 246 public managers as part of a Young Professionals Scheme. In the context of Romania's pre-accession to the European Union this programme aimed to contribute to the modernisation and strengthening of managerial capacity at all levels in central and local public administration and contributed to far-reaching reform.

Roxana holds two Master's degrees in the Socio-Psychology field and has attended more than 200 hours of training for counseling and psychological assessment. She is accredited to use over 25 psychological tests including MBTI.

Kiran brings with her 9 years of diverse HR experience with leading national and multi national organisations of Pakistan such as Muslim Commercial Bank Ltd., GlaxoSmithKline and Aga Khan University. The experience gained from these institutions has resulted in her having a good understanding of HR best practices used across banking, pharmaceutical and health care sectors.

Kiran specialises in learning and development having held various senior roles in this area in a number of organisations. Her experience positions her as a well qualified individual in managing the full training life cycle from training analysis through to evaluation. These positions have also resulted in her gaining a thorough knowledge of best practice HR management tools. She has experience in designing solutions related to developing and implementation of competency framework and career development, resourcing and organisational effectiveness.

She holds an MBA in HRM from the Institute of Business Management, Pakistan.

Carmelita has 15 years experience in office management and administration. She is proficient in handling day-to-day operations of the office and in processing all forms of business documentation including technical reports, minutes, contracts and various other types of written and electronic communications. She has worked in multi cultural environment in various industries such as telecommunications, construction, recruitment, and project development.

Carmelita holds a diploma in Computer Technology from Technological University of the Philippines and has obtained various trainings in IT application software, customer service relations and personality development.

Sue is a HR Professional with broad experience across different industry sectors. She has 16 years of experience leading HR teams in three major blue-chip companies. She specialises in global recruitment and management development focusing on assessment centres for recruitment and development.

She has worked with senior teams on talent management, redundancy counseling and outplacement at all levels. Sue has worked with a wide platform of clients, from SME’s to national and multi-nationals, including GlaxoSmithKline, Black & Decker, Johnson & Johnson, and Kone plc. Sue is known for her professional expertise, common sense, strategic approach to business issues and also for a positive view about people and their potential for success. Sue has experience in using a variety of techniques in coaching programmes, including NLP to help speed and consolidate the process of change to meet clients’ desired outcomes. Sue is Chartered Member of the Institute of Personnel and Development.

Margaret has over 20 years experience in occupational psychology, employee assessment and counseling. She has worked in the capacity of Psychologist with various leading organisations in Europe and Middle East.

Margaret currently provides organisational psychology services such as recruitment, development, coaching, and training to a variety of organisations within the Middle East and has experience working with oil and gas, banking, financial, legal, telecommunications and media in both public and private sectors. She specialises in the design and delivery of assessment and delivery centres, occupational ability tests, personality tests, 360 profiles.

Margaret is certified in clinical neuropsychology, counseling skills, counseling theory, occupational testing, personality testing, cognitive behavioural coaching and stress management. She is a Chartered Occupational Psychologist and is an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society. She holds an MA (Hons) in Psychology.

Vinita has more than 8 years of wide ranging experience in all areas of HR in operations and strategy and has worked in several large, multinational companies including National Bank of Kuwait, State Street Bank, Carrier Corporation and Turner Construction. She has conducted recruitment events in several countries such as the US, Egypt and South Africa, and sourced candidates during the construction industry boom. She has developed, trained on and administered performance appraisal systems and has designed and conducted training for HR Managers on salary and incentive plans.

Her areas of specialisation include performance management, compensation and HR policy and procedure development.

Vinita holds a Master’s degree in Human Resource Management from Purdue University, USA and a Bachelor in Business Administration from Northeastern University, USA.

Annett has been working in the Middle East in various capacities for more than ten years. She has been involved in assessment and development centres and has assessed supervisory through to senior management level. Assessment and development centres designed and run by Annett included ability exercises, personality assessment tools, simulation exercises, performance assessment methods, interest inventory and 360 degree tools. Annett has worked across a variety of industries and projects; these include the oil and gas industry, telecoms and airport services.

Annett is a qualified executive coach and has been involved in various coaching projects throughout the Gulf working for companies like: Qtel, Mashreqbank, Merck-Serono and Ashridge. She helps clients to enhance their performance and look beyond self-imposed borders. During the last few years Annett has coached professionals from the public as well as private sector.

Annett has also worked on leadership programmes in the UAE. Her strength are: time-management, organizational skills and flexibility. She is a team-player but also likes the challenge of working independently.

Rajesh is a very experienced HR specialist with particular expertise in the travel and transport sectors. His experience is at senior HR levels having served as HR Director and as a senior interim manager in several companies.

He has considerable expertise in delivering change management and the HR aspects of mergers and acquisitions. His knowledge and experience of HR in aviation and industrial environments is considerable and well respected.

He possesses substantial experience in managing organisational development especially during periods of transformational change. He is an excellent trouble shooter and problem solver with a commercial focus and is well suited to both short or long term assignments.

Rajesh has an MA in Human Resource Management and is a member of the CIPD as well as having over 20 years experience as an HR practitioner.