WHO WE ARE

Our people

Our clients get senior people from the start. We work as an extension of your leadership team, and we own the outcome with you.

CONTACT US

ACUITYX STAFF A SENIOR CORE

Experience and execution

We’ve run multinational organisations and challenger start-ups, led transformations that leave a legacy, and placed leaders in career-defining opportunities. We do not ‘consult’ in the traditional sense; rather, we collaborate, challenge, and transform. We are practitioners, operators who still enjoy rolling our sleeves up.

Mat Bates

Partner

Andreas Binnmyr​

Partner

Criselda Cruz​

Executive Assistant & Client Relations

Chris D’Amelio

Partner

Mike Elgin

Partner

Stephanie Evans

Principal Associate

Declan Galletis

Head of Corporate Services & Business Development

Amali Hansika

Accountant

Audrey Haution-Swallow

Partner

Holly Joint

Partner

Bernar Kari

Partner

Ewan MacLeod

Partner

Shareefa Nazlun

Executive Assistant

Jodutt Qudsiyeh

Senior Associate

Dan Robinson

Partner

James Swallow

Partner

UAE Advisory

Join us

We value shared expectations, delivering hard things well, and working together to build something of lasting value. At AcuityX, we’ve all chosen careers where complexity is our job and not an obstacle. If you recognise this mindset and share these values, we’d like to hear from you.

GET IN TOUCH

What we think

Explore our insights.

Healthcare
Government
Sport tech
Emerging Technology

Ready for change?

START THE CONVERSATION

Build your future with us

EXPLORE OPPORTUNITIES

WHO WE ARE

ADVISORY PRACTICES

EXECUTIVE SEARCH

CORPORATE SERVICES

WHAT WE THINK

CONTACT

WHO WE ARE

ADVISORY PRACTICES

EXECUTIVE SEARCH

CORPORATE SERVICES

WHAT WE THINK

CONTACT
Mat Bates

Partner

Experience

Mat is a partner at AcuityX with over a decade of executive search experience placing C-suite and senior leaders across the Middle East, North America, Europe, and Africa, spanning education, technology, and government sectors. A former educator turned global consultant, Mat holds an MBA from the University of Newcastle.

Personal highlight

When not working, Mat can be found tackling ultra-endurance challenges, most recently completing the gruelling Alps Man triathlon.

mat.bates@acuityx.ae
Andreas Binnmyr

Partner

Experience

Andreas brings global experience in Human Capital and enterprise transformation. He has led large-scale HR and digital transformations for Fortune 500 and regional leaders, advising executives on strategy, governance, and change. At AcuityX, Andreas is passionate about helping organisations bring their people, technology, and culture together to achieve meaningful and lasting impact.

Personal highlight

Andreas’s family have had connections to the GCC since the 1970s, when he spent his first three years in the region, returning in 2018.

andreas.binnmyr@acuityx.ae
Criselda Cruz

Executive Assistant & Client Relations

Experience

With over two decades of corporate experience across the UAE, Cris has a proven track record in project management, executive support, and client relations. At AcuityX, she ensures every project runs smoothly, bringing organisation skills and care to everything she does.

Personal highlight

Outside the office, Cris is either experimenting in the kitchen or curled up with a real book – nothing, she says, beats the scent of paper. Most proudly, Cris is the mother of a licensed chemical engineer.

mat.bates@acuityx.ae
Chris D’Amelio

Partner

Experience

Chris leads AcuityX’s Sport & Entertainment Practice, working with organisations across the UAE, GCC, and internationally on leadership recruitment, workforce strategy, and transformation. Before moving into executive search, Chris spent nearly two decades working on the delivery of major global events including the London 2012 Olympics, Expo 2020 Dubai, and FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. These projects shaped how he thinks about leadership, and defined what high-performing teams look like under pressure.

Personal highlight

Chris spent years as a competitive road cyclist, racing some of Europe’s biggest races, which showed him early on that individual success is rarely possible without the right people around you.

chris.damelio@acuityx.ae
Mike Elgin

Partner

Experience

For more than 25 years, Mike has led HR and Talent globally across organisations that include GlaxoSmithKline, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, ADQ, and Lunate. He thinks strategically, drives transformation, and tackles local issues with global solutions. His expertise spans across HR, and he partners with leadership teams to unlock talent and drive sustainable business performance and growth. He teaches leadership at business schools in Spain and China and serves on the Advisory Boards of Fundação Dom Cabral in Brazil and the CIPD in the Middle East.

Personal highlight

Before studying for his Master’s degree, Mike’s first career was as a scuba diving instructor teaching people to dive in 8°C waters off the coast of New Zealand.

mike.elgin@acuityx.ae
Stephanie Evans

Principal Associate

Experience

Before pivoting to executive search 5 years ago, Steph served in the Royal Air Force as rotary aircrew, where she developed a sense of teamwork, leadership under pressure, and fun. Today, Steph delivers executive search with a relationship-first focus, and has helped build exceptional teams for businesses across the Middle East and beyond.

Personal highlight

Steph’s toughest but most rewarding sporting challenge was completing the 33rd Marathon des Sables in 2018, a 250km self-sufficient footrace in the Sahara Desert.

steph.evans@acuityx.ae
Declan Galletis

Head of Corporate Services & Business Development

Experience

Declan began his career as a founding member of a commercial finance brokerage in South Africa, rising to lead its funding division before moving into banking at First Abu Dhabi Bank. Today, he combines institutional rigour with entrepreneurial instinct, bringing his structured-finance and credit pedigree to advising international investors and companies on UAE company formation, corporate structuring and restructuring, Golden Visas, immigration, and market entry, supported by contributions across search, advisory, and interim resourcing.

Personal highlight

Declan has just started taking on endurance running and finished his first marathon last year. He is looking at getting into cycling next.

declan@acuityx.ae
Amali Hansika

Accountant

Experience

With over five years of experience in financial reporting, reconciliation, and end-to-end accounting operations, Amali has a strong track record in improving accuracy and streamlining processes across finance functions. As AcuityX’s in-house Accountant, Amali ensures our financial operations run seamlessly.

Personal highlight

When she’s not working with numbers, Amali applies her careful eye to needlework. She is self-taught in cross-stitch and crochet, and particularly proud of the handmade pieces she’s completed as gifts.

amali@acuityx.ae
Audrey Haution-Swallow

Partner

Experience

Audrey’s career spans start-ups, multinationals, and government organisations across France, the UK, and the UAE. She founded and successfully exited Pro Partner Group, and spent several years as Sponsorship Manager at Yas Marina Circuit, experiences that honed her understanding of brands, commercial relationships, and what it takes to build something that lasts. A co-founder of AcuityX, she has evolved from leading Marketing and Communications to serving as Chief of Staff, a shift that reflects her breadth and her instinct for where she can add the most value.

Personal highlight

Beyond the boardroom, Audrey has a love of interiors, an interest she channels into her three Airbnb properties, which she personally designed and decorated, and now manages across three countries.

audrey@acuityx.ae
Holly Joint

Partner

Experience

Holly has spent over 25 years leading start-ups, scale-ups and major transformations at organisations including ADSS, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Miral Experiences, and Accenture. She focuses on creating commercial value by bringing together operating model design, technology, AI, and human performance. She read Classics at Oxford and studied Mandarin in Singapore, two choices that reflect her curiosity and strategic thinking.

Personal highlight

Holly’s proudest sporting achievement is coming last in a 100km ultramarathon in Kazakhstan, a reminder that coming last can still require a fairly unreasonable amount of determination.

holly.joint@acuityx.ae
Bernar Kari

Partner

Experience

Bernar has spent over 30 years working in finance, investment banking, global markets, treasury, strategy, and M&A advising across Asia, Australia, and the Middle East. He built his foundations at HSBC, where he ran the futures desk before rising to Deputy CFO and COO roles across Asia, and spent nearly a decade with NBAD/FAB in the Gulf as CFO of the Investment Banking, Corporate Banking, and International divisions.

Personal highlight

As well as being a dedicated family man, Bernar is passionately committed to an athletic way of life, so he’s often found on the padel or tennis court, in the saddle or the water, or pushing his limits in CrossFit.

bernar.kari@acuityx.ae
Ewan MacLeod

Partner

Experience

Ewan brings more than two decades of technology and digital transformation leadership across Financial Services in the UK, Europe and the Middle East.

He has held senior roles including Group Chief Digital Officer at Nordea Bank and Group Chief Transformation Officer at Sohar International Bank, leading large-scale digital, AI and cultural change agendas, and has advised organisations including Royal Bank of Scotland and Nationwide Building Society.

At AcuityX, Ewan focuses on AI and digital transformation in Financial Services, helping banks and FinTechs navigate strategy, governance and change.

ewan.macleod@acuityx.ae
Shareefa Nazlun

Executive Assistant

Experience

Shareefa brings nearly a decade of experience across administration, operations, education, and client support. With a background in operational analysis, examination services with the British Council in Sri Lanka, and language training, she is currently pursuing an MSc in Project Management.

Personal highlight

Outside work, Shareefa enjoys creative activities such as painting. Since she believes that meticulous organisation brings structure to a busy environment and supports people to do great work, she’s allowed her creativity to brighten the office with a cheerful system of colour-coding

shareefa@acuityx.ae
Jodutt Qudsiyeh

Senior Associate

Experience

Before joining AcuityX, Jodutt worked in debt capital markets in London, where he structured securitisations and funding transactions supporting banks’ capital and liquidity strategy. Today, as part of AcuityX’s advisory practice, Jodutt assists leadership teams and boards across financial services to create value through strategy and transformation, combining financial rigour with a passion for turning strategic ambition into measurable results.

Personal highlight

Jodutt moved to Dubai in 2008, when the city was still mid-transformation, and has enjoyed watching it grow into one of the world’s most ambitious business hubs.

mat.bates@acuityx.ae
Dan Robinson

Partner

Experience

Dan has spent over 20 years in financial services, leading businesses through transformation across strategy, digital, risk, financial crime, and customer domains, primarily with HSBC in Europe and the Middle East. He is drawn to the hard problems: rethinking how organisations work and building the leadership teams needed to do things differently.

Personal highlight

Dan is an engineer at heart and loves understanding how things work. If you can’t find him in the office, he will be off camping somewhere enjoying the outdoors!

dan.robinson@acuityx.ae
James Swallow

Partner

Experience

An entrepreneur, strategic investor and recognised voice on doing business in the UAE and GCC. He co-founded PRO Partner Group (now Sovereign PPG), grew it into the region’s leading Corporate Service Provider and successfully exited, having assisted in the formation and support of over 1,000 companies across the Gulf. Today he acts as a strategic guide, advisor and investor to founders and businesses – covering market entry, structuring, tax and residency, relocation, value creation, fundraising, turnarounds and preparing businesses for sale. Originally from Yorkshire, he holds a degree from the University of Edinburgh and lives in Abu Dhabi with his family and other animals.

Personal highlight

Football runs in the family — James’s father, Barry Swallow, captained York City FC to two promotions in the 1970s, and while James’s roots remain firmly in Yorkshire, he’s Abu Dhabi all the way these days.

james@acuityx.ae