Selected leadership & advisory
Leadership and advisory across AI, digital strategy, growth and market entry, followed by selected completed engagements in Europe and MENA.
Barry Advisory · Updated 27 October 2026
Fred leads the Hub71+AI vertical as part of Hub71’s Growth and Strategy team and oversees end-to-end accelerator delivery in Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala-backed ecosystem.
He is organizing Hub71+AI’s first hackathon with OpenAI, the first OpenAI hackathon with startups in the region.
Official Hub71+AI programme
E-commerce’s share of total revenue rose from 0.1% at Fred’s arrival to over 12% at his departure. E-commerce revenue grew 85× over 18 months, with the final result reported after his engagement.
Product and growth leadership at Merit Incentives in Saudi Arabia; previously advisor to the CEO.
Developed the KSA marketing calendar strategy and built the UAE go-to-market strategy, which was successfully executed.
Abdullah Al-Othaim Markets · Saudi Arabia
E-commerce’s share of total revenue rose from 0.1% at Fred’s arrival to over 12% at his departure. E-commerce revenue grew 85× over 18 months, with the final result reported after his engagement. His close CEO-advisory mandate connected online strategy with retail operations and delivery capability.
Read the full engagement summaryCEO advisory on retail stores and the online strategy for the website, aggregators and marketplaces, including Keeta, HungerStation, Amazon FBA and Noon FBN.
Assortment strategy, picking methods and improvements, picker routing, store layout and planograms. Selection of stores for online fulfilment from a network of more than 400 stores in Saudi Arabia.
Set up an in-house team dedicated to improving the mobile app.
Completed / Past experience
Europe & MENA · Fintech, Web3 & investments · AI · Commerce · Growth
Completed engagement · client confidential
e-commerce growth
Board advisory on AI and digital transformation. 3× conversion; a €2M offshore technology project with a 40% cost reduction.
Board-level AI and digital transformation advisory. The presentation groups e-commerce growth, conversion and the offshore technology project within this completed mandate.
For a comparable retail decision, examine the connection between traffic quality, conversion, operating cost and the team that owns delivery. Growth and cost measures should retain their separate definitions.
Completed engagement · client confidential
reduction in inference costs
CEO advisory on an in-house LLM and local inference. Lower inference costs with the same user base.
CEO advisory for a UAE AI SaaS business moving from pre-seed to seed. The work concerned an in-house LLM and local inference; the reported cost reduction retains the same-user-base qualification.
Compare quality, workload, human review and operating costs before choosing an inference approach. The presentation does not disclose the baseline spend or evaluation protocol; these are not inferred from the headline figure.
Completed engagement · client confidential
runway
CEO advisory on growth and cost optimization. 100% month-on-month growth for three consecutive months.
CEO advisory on growth and cost optimization for a Spanish fashion startup at seed stage. Four times the runway means a longer period before available cash is exhausted under the reported operating scenario.
Evaluate growth and runway together. Record the cash assumptions, contribution economics and length of the observation period. Three consecutive months of reported growth should not be extrapolated into an annual forecast.
Completed engagement · client confidential
funding secured
CEO advisory on fundraising and due diligence. Time-to-close reduced by 30%.
CEO advisory on fundraising and due diligence for a UAE Web3 startup at seed stage. The supplied presentation reports the amount secured and the shorter time to close.
A fundraising brief should connect the business narrative to operating evidence, diligence readiness and the decisions required from the founder. This summary does not disclose investor identities, valuation or transaction terms.
Completed engagement · client confidential
customer lifetime value
CEO advisory on VC meetings and growth operations. 50% lower marketing spend; $275K in Google Cloud and Ads grants.
CEO advisory on venture-capital meetings and growth operations for a UAE B2B marketplace at seed stage. The grant amount, marketing reduction and customer-value figure are separate reported outcomes.
For a comparable marketplace, distinguish buyers from suppliers, define acquisition costs consistently and examine retention by cohort. Grants are a different economic contribution from recurring revenue or customer lifetime value.
Completed engagement · client confidential
of applications screened out
CIO advisory on investment due diligence, using a structured AI and blockchain assessment.
CIO advisory for a family office reviewing AI and blockchain applications. The reported outcome describes applications screened out through structured assessment.
A screening rate describes selectivity, not investment returns. Useful diligence records the thesis, evidence supplied, unresolved assumptions and the reasons for a decision so the investment team can act with context.
Selected completed engagements. Client identities withheld under NDA. Figures are reported results from the company presentation; project scopes and measurement periods vary. These are not guarantees of future performance.