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What is the Cooper Fitch difference?
We have been recruiting mid-senior talent since 1997 with over 10,000 appointments across the Middle East. We have specialist technical and recruitment expertise within each of the key vertical markets.
Take a look to see what makes us special as a consultancy firm.
Trefor Murphy
Chief Executive Officer
Trefor is a qualified industrial engineer with experience in both technical and commercial aspects of manufacturing and supply chain management with organizations such as Microsoft, Intel and Trend Technologies. He is the founder and CEO of Cooper Fitch in the United Arab Emirates. Before setting up Cooper Fitch, he was part of the global leadership team for one of the largest international recruitment firms working across Ireland and the United Kingdom. He has spent the past five years in the Middle East with his last role as Managing Director for the MENA region. He brings a wealth of international best practices in search and human resource solutions.
Janie-Lee Brown
Director of Operations
Janie joined the firm in 2012 and is responsible for all operational requirements of the business, including- human resources, legal compliance, finance, policies and procedures along with the quality of client service delivery. She ensures that everything we do is compliant with Cooper Fitch’s best practices and that the quality of our delivery aligns with clients' expectations. Being a partner in the firm with nearly ten years’ industry experience in the Middle East, Janie heads up the people function for Cooper Fitch and has overall responsibility for staff welfare at all grades across the business.
Ebony Thomas
Managing Partner, Manufacturing
Ebony has nearly ten years of global recruitment experience as both - a Consultant and Manager, in the UK, Central Europe and now in the Middle East. Ebony began her recruitment career after graduating from University in 2007. She then spent five years supporting the European market from London focusing on highly specialised technical positions. She relocated to Dubai for a new opportunity in 2013. Ebony is a partner of the firm with her team focusing on providing talent for mid-senior level positions in Supply Chain, Procurement, Manufacturing, Engineering, Quality, HSE, R&D, Human Resources and Technology across the MENA region. She works alongside a variety of local, regional and multinational businesses which have a high demand for technical talent.
Vilius Dobilaitis
Managing Partner, Accounting & Finance, Consulting & Practice
Vilius manages the “Accounting & Finance” and “Consulting & Practice” recruitment divisions within Cooper Fitch for the Middle East. Vilius personally recruits for senior finance professionals specifically across the UAE, KSA, Oman and Qatar regions. Vilius has worked in recruitment in the United Kingdom, Qatar and now for the last three years in the United Arab Emirates. He specializes in senior finance professionals in a range of industries and across Big 4 practice firms. His key industries are Construction, Hospitality, Asset Management, FMCG, Pharmaceutical, Media, Oil and Gas, Automotive and Telecommunications. Vilius holds Economics and Business Management degrees from Newcastle University, UK.
Jack Khabbaz
Associate Director, Advisory | Risk, Audit, Deals & Strategy
Jack joined Cooper Fitch in 2013 as an Associate Director in Advisory and specializes in Risk, Audit, Deals and Strategy. He brings over eighteen years of recruitment, search, consulting and commercial experience from across Australia and the United Arab Emirates.
During Jack's times at Cooper Fitch he has led senior level appointments and managed key accounts across the Big 4, international consulting firms, government entities and industry side clients throughout the Middle East and Africa. His ability to leverage his commercial acumen, team leadership and client advisory experience has allowed international and regional organizations to achieve their core business objectives.
Jack is originally from Sydney and achieved a Commerce degree at the University of Western Sydney. He is fluent in English and is currently learning to speak Arabic.
Alan Hynes
Head of Banking & Financial Services
Alan leads the “Banking & Financial Services” team at Cooper Fitch. He has over three years of experience in financial services recruitment in the UAE and GCC. He covers a broad range of areas within financial services such as asset management, wealth management and investment banking with a particular strength in compliance, regulation, and governance. He has previous experience working as a Fund Accountant with a multinational bank and has completed international work placements in the USA, France, Luxembourg and now, here in the Middle East. Along with being CIPD qualified, he also has a Bachelor’s Degree in Human Resources and French in which he is fluent.
Noona Nafousi
Head of Technical Sales, Real Estate, Property and Construction
Noona joined Cooper Fitch in 2013 with nearly twenty years of experience in attracting top talent into organizations. She ran her own recruitment agency at the age of 26 before being headhunted into a Head of Global Recruitment role for a multinational company. This provided Noona with great exposure into recruiting internationally as well as a unique insight into recruiting in-house versus within an agency. She holds an Economic B.Sc Degree from the University of London and is also a Master NLP Practitioner. Her successful appointments include Sales Engineers to Directors in technical sales with local to international organizations.
Dale McKerrell
Head of Digital & Technology Practice
Dale has over 10 years of IT experience working for a multinational consultancy in the UK for 7 years before moving to the Middle East to pursue a career in recruitment. Dale worked in the professional services space working across Change and Asset management roles before leading a team assisting a large migration of office 365. Dale began his recruitment career as a researcher and was quickly promoted to a consultant focusing purely within the IT space. Utilizing his knowledge of the IT market and ability to quickly pick up and understand technologies, Dale has proven to be a very competent recruiter. He specializes in both commercial and technical roles working with Vendors, SIs, Resellers, and Distributors. Dale also works with a number of customers in the end-user space across multiple industries assisting in sourcing superstar staff for critical implementations as well as key hires within the management team across META markets.
Ahmed Rabie
Project Manager
Ahmed recently joined the Cooper Fitch team in 2017. He is qualified as a Mechatronics Engineer and has achieved several world records for the Egyptian National Swimming team. Ahmed previously worked as a Business Development Engineer with ECS in Cairo and then moved to Dubai to work as a Regional HR Assistant for the multinational institution; IDP Education. His passion and interest in recruitment grew from his background in sales and his experience in the HR department. He is now a bilingual Project Coordinator at Cooper Fitch. Ahmed is a self-driven professional who has acquired a set of transferable skills such as communication skills, self-motivation, adaptability and relationship building skills which he plans to utilise at Cooper Fitch.
Sean Glynn
Senior Consultant | Technical Sales
Sean specializes in recruiting Technical Sales professionals across the Middle East and Africa region. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce, where he majored in Marketing. Sean began his career sharing his vast business and economic knowledge to teach 2nd level education both in his home country Ireland and here in the UAE. He has extensively traveled the world in the past ten years. Living in both - the West and East coast of America at stages, helped him understand diversity and embrace different cultures and ways of living. Sean recently decided to use his versatility by transitioning into a recruitment career to deliver a high calibre service; not only high-quality recruitment services but also additional value-added expertise knowledge.
Amera Gouda
Consultant | Marketing, Digital, PR & Communications
Amera began her recruitment career in 2011. She specializes in hiring Marketing, P.R, Communications and Digital professionals such as Marketing Managers, Marketing Directors, Corporate Communications Managers, P.R Managers, P.R Directors, VP/Head of Marketing and Communications, Digital and Social Media. Amera works with both multinational and regional organizations across all industries and sectors such as FMCG, Banking & Financial Service, Professional Service, Energy, Healthcare and Government entities amongst others within the MENA Region. Amera first started her career in Marketing for a multinational Bank in Australia before transitioning into her recruitment career. Amera can speak Arabic fluently.
Michael Stubbs
Consultant | Strategy
Michael has spent the past two years focusing on the Professional Services industry within the GCC region. He has successfully supported assignments from Senior Associates, Engagement Managers, Directors and Partners, spread across Tier 1, Tier 2 as well as Big 4 organizations with a particular focus on Strategy and Risk. He has managed complex project-based appointments in emerging markets such as Iran but focuses on the entire Gulf region. Throughout his experience, Michael has developed a high calibre of service delivery and strong contacts within the Professional Services Industry, which benefit both his clients and candidates.
Viacheslav Shakhov
Principal Consultant | Tax
Viacheslav (Slav) specializes in recruiting high calibre Accounting, Finance & Tax professionals within industry and practice firms across the Middle East region. He is the Tax recruitment practice leader in Cooper Fitch with a strong exposure in assisting local and multinational industry firms as well as practice organizations in recruiting Tax professionals. His main specializations include Corporate Tax, Transfer Pricing, VAT/Indirect Tax, M&A, International Tax, Human Capital and FATCA. Slav is currently pursuing a Master's degree in International Business and holds a Bachelor’s degree from Australia with extensive work and travel experience in the Middle East region.
Yasmin Izzard
Consultant | Legal
Yasmin specializes in recruiting within the legal market across the Middle East. She has extensive exposure in recruiting for qualified professionals within law practices and in-house, across all disciplines, from secretary to partner level. Examples of positions that she has successfully placed are Paralegals, Associates, and Partners, at relative levels of experience, qualifications, and PQE, in both local and international firms. Yasmin possesses a Bachelor’s (Honours) Degree in Psychology and has been based in the UAE since 2003, ensuring that she has a thorough understanding of the local market. Having recruited for various countries within the ME region, such as UAE, KSA, Iran, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and Jordan, she has extensive exposure within the market and consistently aims to thoroughly understand clients’ needs, and match candidate career aspirations.
Marlene Antalan
Office Manager
Marlene heads the service delivery and support division for Cooper Fitch, ensuring a high level of service to our clients and candidates in the region. She joined the business in 2013 and has been a significant mechanism in building the Cooper Fitch difference. After graduating with a degree in Tourism in the Philippines, Marlene relocated to Dubai to commence her professional career. She contributes a wealth of experience within customer service and back-office administration, having gained valuable experience with a number of sales support and BPO firms in the Philippines and the past six years within the United Arab Emirates.
Christine Mathew
Consultant | Tax & Finance
Christine joined Cooper Fitch in 2017 as an Associate Tax Consultant and specialises in areas such as Banking and Financial Services, Legal and Semi-government organization.
Before joining Cooper Fitch, she achieved her Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration and majored in Human Resouces. She then completed her Post Graduate studies in Human Resource Management in Canada at George Brown College.
Christine is originally from India and is fluent in English and Hindi, she also speaks basic Portuguese.
Kazim Hussain
Consultant | Technology
Kazim specializes in the Datacenter and Cloud industry on the Technology desk across the META region at Cooper Fitch. After successful completion of his Bachelor’s in Business Administration in the UK, Kaz joined the Cooper Fitch Graduate Program as an Associate Consultant in 2016 working purely within the IT space. His knowledge and strong contacts in the IT Market in the region has been fundamental to his success. Kaz has proven to be a resilient recruiter in his space delivering the top Sales, Presales and Technical Talent to major accounts which include Marketing, Pre Sales, Networking Infrastructure, Routing, Switching, IP, MPLS, BGP, OSPF, Ethernet, WLAN, Data Centre, Cloud Computing, Storage, Virtualisation and Software Defined Networking.
Mariam Elsayed
Journalist & Marketing Coordinator
Mariam is a bilingual Marketing Coordinator who handles the website content and social media at Cooper Fitch. She is responsible for creating fruitful marketing strategies, handling marketing campaigns and liaising with other employees. Mariam previously worked as a journalist for multiple magazines and she also has experience working in Public Relations in Marketing and Live Communications agencies. She is a self-driven and efficient employee who has acquired a number of skills at Cooper Fitch.
