Specialist consultancy, engineering and advisor AESG has switched co-founder Saeed Al Abbar’s role to group-wide CEO and set itself a target of growing its manpower by 45% as it looks to continue its international expansion.

Appointing global directors for each of lines of business, the firm says the consolidation of service teams under unified global divisions will ‘enable AESG to now deploy the best skills and resources from all its international offices on projects worldwide’.

In addition to Al Abbar’s new responsibilities, Phillipa Grant and Nivine Issa have been respectively elevated to global director of sustainability and global director of environment.

Both Grant and Issa have also taken up equity partnership in the firm, “demonstrating their long-term commitment to AESG and highlighting the company’s leadership in gender equality in the field,” said AESG.

In recent years, the company has established offices in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and the United Kingdom, and continued to deliver large-scale projects across the Middle East, Europe and Asia.

Under the direction of its newly appointed global directors will scale its headcount up to 140 professionals through 2021. This process will include establising a regional headquarters in Singapore as it looks to replicate its highly successful Middle East and Europe strategy in Asia.

Meanwhile, Middle East, Asia, and Australia project veteran Peter Downer has been recruited to take on the position of global director of fire and life safety with AESG looking to “draw from the experience and expertise of a business leader who has worked with large multinational construction consultancy firms.”

An industry veteran of over 35 years Downer served as the SVP at Jensen Hughes where he led the Asia region which included offices in China, Malaysia, Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong and Macau.

“2021 is set to be a significant growth year for AESG as we build on the momentum we have established,” said Al Abbar. “While the Middle East will remain a focal market for us, we are also seeing steady growth in our business in the UK and Europe, as well as a surge in opportunities in Asia.

Each of AESG’s newly appointed global directors will be tasked with leading teams, driving the growth of their service lines, and ensuring best practices are implemented across regions.

Al Abbar added: “Our reorganisation perfectly positions us to capitalize on these opportunities as we draw on the brightest and most qualified talent from each market to drive our success across the vast geography of our operations.”

“AESG has successfully navigated the challenges of the current year, and as developers look to enhance and optimize the efficiency, sustainability, safety, and manageability of their investments, our comprehensive portfolio of specialist services is now more relevant than ever. We maintain a highly optimistic outlook with confidence that our commitment to maintaining service excellence through our ongoing expansion will further validate our position as a leading global consultancy firm,” concluded Al Abbar.