Director of Insurance Advisory
Urban Ridge Supplies · Manama, Bahrain
About the RoleAn established regional advisory business is seeking an experienced Director of Insurance Advisory to lead the growth, commercial performance, and delivery of its advisory practice.
The role focuses on building a trusted regional advisory business serving insurance-sector boards, executive teams, regulators, and investors. The successful candidate will develop high-value advisory offerings, originate and convert strategic client engagements, manage practice P&L, and deliver measurable business outcomes across the GCC.
This is a senior leadership opportunity for an entrepreneurial advisory professional with deep insurance-sector expertise, strong commercial acumen, and a proven track record of building client relationships and profitable consulting practices.
Hard RequirementsCandidates must meet the following requirements to be considered:
- 15+ years of relevant professional experience, including substantial management consulting or advisory experience.
- At least 5 years in senior leadership roles, ideally at Director, Executive Director, or equivalent level.
- Strong insurance-sector expertise across one or more areas of general insurance, life and health, takaful, reinsurance, broking, or claims.
- Proven business development track record, including personally originating and converting advisory engagements, expanding key accounts, and managing commercial performance.
- Senior stakeholder management experience, including direct exposure to boards, C-suite executives, and other senior decision-makers.
- Experience leading complex advisory engagements from initial diagnosis through implementation and delivery.
- Fluent business English, with excellent communication, presentation, and proposal-writing skills.
- Willingness to be based in Bahrain and travel regularly across the GCC.
Key Responsibilities1. Business Strategy, P&L and Growth- Define and execute the advisory practice's business strategy, annual plan, and three-year growth roadmap.
- Own practice P&L, including revenue, gross margin, utilization, headcount, operating costs, working capital, and collections.
- Develop high-value, repeatable advisory offerings aligned with market demand.
- Build a qualified pipeline and establish reliable sales and delivery forecasts.
- Report business performance and strategic recommendations to senior group leadership.
2. Business Development and Client Origination- Personally originate and convert new advisory engagements through executive relationships, referrals, partnerships, and targeted campaigns.
- Build relationships with board members, CEOs, C-suite executives, regulators, investors, and other senior stakeholders across the GCC.
- Lead client discovery, opportunity qualification, proposal development, pricing, negotiation, and contracting.
- Expand strategic accounts through cross-selling and follow-on opportunities.
- Maintain disciplined pipeline management, forecasting, and conversion tracking.
3. Client Leadership and Delivery Excellence- Serve as executive sponsor for strategic engagements, ensuring delivery quality, client satisfaction, and commercial performance.
- Translate complex business challenges into actionable recommendations and implementation plans.
- Oversee engagement scope, budgets, milestones, resourcing, risks, and governance.
- Ensure advisory deliverables meet high consulting standards and reflect the GCC insurance environment.
- Resolve delivery challenges and client escalations while maintaining strong relationships.
4. Advisory Portfolio and Market Development- Develop offerings across insurance strategy, transformation, claims improvement, regulatory advisory, governance, digital transformation, M&A, restructuring, and business planning.
- Build reusable methodologies, diagnostic tools, proposal materials, and case studies.
- Represent the business at relevant industry events, roundtables, and executive forums.
- Monitor insurance-market developments, regulatory changes, emerging technologies, and competitor activity.
5. Team Leadership and Capability Building- Build and lead a high-performing advisory team with clear objectives and accountability.
- Recruit, coach, and retain talent while developing succession and capability-building plans.
- Establish scalable delivery models using local, offshore, and specialist resources where appropriate.
- Maintain delivery quality, appropriate utilization, knowledge sharing, and professional development.
6. Governance and Risk Management- Ensure appropriate engagement acceptance, conflict checks, confidentiality, data protection, and quality controls.
- Maintain compliance with applicable laws, regulatory requirements, Group policies, and contractual obligations.
- Collaborate with other business units to develop integrated client solutions without compromising advisory independence.
- Manage specialist partners and subcontractors with clear accountability for quality and commercial outcomes.
Priority Advisory DomainsCandidates should bring relevant expertise across one or more of the following areas:
- Insurance Strategy & Growth: Corporate strategy, market entry, distribution, product strategy, and portfolio development.
- Transformation: Operating models, process redesign, cost optimization, performance improvement, and change management.
- Claims & Technical Advisory: Claims transformation, leakage and recovery reviews, loss-ratio improvement, underwriting, and technical operations.
- Transactions & Restructuring: Commercial and operational due diligence, M&A, post-merger integration, run-off, and market exit.
- Regulatory & Governance: Licensing, regulatory remediation, governance, risk, compliance, and board-level advisory.
- Digital & Analytics: Digital strategy, automation, data analytics, AI use cases, and InsurTech partnerships.
Qualifications and ExperienceEducation- Bachelor's degree in Business, Finance, Economics, Insurance, Engineering, or a related discipline.
- A master's degree or MBA is preferred.
- Relevant professional qualifications such as ACII, FCII, CPCU, actuarial credentials, CFA, CPA/CA, CISA, PMP, or recognized transformation certifications are advantageous where relevant.
Preferred Experience- Current or recent Director, Executive Director, or equivalent experience within a Big Four firm, recognized management consultancy, specialist insurance advisory business, or comparable professional-services organization.
- Prior GCC/MENA consulting experience and a strong regional executive network.
- Strong knowledge of GCC insurance markets and regulatory environments.
- Experience building teams and managing onshore/offshore delivery models.
- Experience managing specialist partners, alliances, and subcontractors.
Leadership Capabilities- Entrepreneurial mindset with strong commercial judgment and practice-building experience.
- Executive presence and the ability to influence and challenge senior stakeholders constructively.
- Excellent analytical thinking, problem structuring, storytelling, and presentation skills.
- Hands-on leadership approach, from originating engagements to overseeing delivery.
- High standards of integrity, independence, discretion, and professional judgment.
- Strong collaboration, cultural awareness, resilience, and adaptability.
First 12 Months: Key Priorities- Assess the existing advisory portfolio, pipeline, delivery model, capabilities, and financial performance.
- Develop a three-year growth plan, annual budget, service portfolio, and talent strategy.
- Build a qualified opportunity pipeline and strengthen account management, proposals, forecasting, and collections.
- Improve engagement governance, quality controls, and portfolio reporting.
- Win and deliver strategic assignments that demonstrate differentiated insurance expertise and generate strong client references.
- Build the leadership and delivery capabilities required to scale the practice