I bought our Dubai business

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We facilitated a record eight interviews last week from direct applicants from within the group!

Q4 of 2025 was pretty hectic for me for the following reason:

I bought the Middle East half of our business. 

This means I now own the full licensing for MCG Talent across both Asia (where I am based in Hong Kong/Singapore) and the Middle East (where I previously lived in Dubai). 

For the record, while it’s fantastic news, I don’t see it as an achievement yet… but hopefully the path to something I can call one someday. 

I absolutely loved my time in the UAE (and the travels it allowed me across the wider region) and they formed a core part of my 20’s and my experiences there shaped me into who I am today.

It wasn’t nostalgia that drew me back but what I think is the main reason that the UAE will continue to thrive: opportunity. 

Anyone that’s lived there can relate. 

While it might not be everyone’s cup of tea as a destination, that so many people brainlessly opt for marketing it as ‘tax-free’ and ‘sunny’ is a source of massive annoyance to me because it just completely misses the mark. 

I arrived in the UAE in September 2021 an ambitious but not very polished or world-wise individual. I had never been to Asia before and had no idea what awaited me.

Almost four years later, I left for Hong Kong, a Partner (now owner) in a business, widely travelled and a much-better person having had exposure to such a range of cultures and beliefs. 

Living somewhere like the UAE with a 89% expat ratio will do that to you. 

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not an easy place to live for everyone. Your existence is - for the most of us - tied to a work visa and that means it’s hyper-competitive and has a high rate of churn. 

I personally know 10x more people that came and left than are still there. 

One HR Leader described it to me as an like ‘airport lounge’. You’re all there together but for how long and what periods of time = who knows. 

It gives you the platform to pursue opportunity, what you do with that is entirely up to you. 

RE the business, the plan for 2026 is this: At the moment we run APAC and MENA as two separate offices and my plan for this year is to merge the two offices under one combined banner. 

My thinking is that: A) the world is a lot more interconnected than we give it credit for. 

There’s a huge amount of crossover and cross-contamination between our clients and searches running both East-West and West-East. 

They want to work with someone that knows both of these regions beyond the superficial. 

We were founded 16 years ago from a bedsit in Clapham (shoutout Justin McGuire) and have evolved to a level where last year we made placements across 14 countries in MENA and APAC. 

We put our money where our mouth is. I’ve held residency in the UAE/HK/SG and travelled extensively for business (and a bit of leisure) across all of those locations. Our staff are incredibly international and diverse.

I think that’s important. Can you really relate to someone recruiting from markets they’ve never bothered to set foot in? 

B) This leads to a pretty strong USP for our agency. 

While we might class ourselves as a boutique agency, we’re confident the only other people that can say the same as above RE markets are the big PLCs. 

I am under no illusions that it’s a hard task ahead of us. Managing two regions to a high level is a big ask in tough times and fancy words on a newsletter won’t turn the wheel. 

Economies are tight, there’s still a huge amount of disruption globally and I don’t think anyone knows yet how AI will actually impact. 

I’m young (-ish), have big hopes and I genuinely love what I do. I know what works in Recruitment and I can’t wait to roll that out across the business. 

As a priority, we have to find a way to improve the overall candidate experience and maintain our standards in an industry that is going through a huge period of change.

Translating that to real world results is the challenge and I’d love to have you along for the ride - stay tuned! 😎

P.S. If there are any long-time subscribers to the Newsletter here, we are launching something new and I’d love to reward some people with early access. Drop me an email at [email protected] with NEWSLETTER in the subject!

In the meantime, here’s our live roles for the week.

Live Roles - APAC and MENA

For full JDs and more information, please direct CVs to [email protected] with the preferred role in the Subject Line.

APAC

MENA

Made it this far? Thanks for reading! If you reply to this email with a question about the market, I’ll do my best to answer as many as I can.

Make sure to drop me a Connect on LinkedIn for more live roles and day to day across both the Middle East and Asia!