# Sarah Adam **Strategy & Operations** — Dubai, United Arab Emirates > For nearly eight years at Kearney, I’ve helped leadership teams decide where to grow, which opportunities and partners to pursue, and how to turn those choices into workable plans. My work has ranged from corporate strategy and commercial due diligence to new ventures, operating models and implementation across energy, industrials, mining, digital and the public sector in the GCC, Africa and North America. Most recently, I spent six months on secondment to the World Economic Forum, working with companies across mining, electric vehicle, electricity grid and data centre value chains on critical minerals supply chain resilience. I get energy from thoughtful and engaging colleagues who challenge one another and enjoy working through difficult problems together. I like both leading a team and getting into the details myself, especially when I can help turn an idea into something that works in practice. Career Archetype: **All-Terrain Trailblazer** (HB-MG) — One of the first All-Terrain Trailblazers on Saywise ## Links - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/sarah-adam-a24949b1 ## Experience ### Project Fellow, World Economic Forum (2025-08 – 2026-02) Geneva, Switzerland · Seconded from Kearney to the Centre for Advanced Manufacturing and Supply Chains, working in partnership with the Centre for Energy and Materials on critical minerals supply-chain resilience. - Conducted more than 60 interviews with senior leaders across minerals & mining, electric vehicle, electricity grid, and data centre value chains to identify supply risks, commercial trade-offs and potential industry actions - Structured research and detailed analysis, translating findings into a flagship publication ahead of the 2026 WEF Annual Meeting in Davos ### Manager, Kearney (2023-07 – present) Dubai, United Arab Emirates · Lead multidisciplinary teams on corporate strategy, transactions, new ventures, partnerships, and operational transformation for energy, chemicals, and mining entities across the GCC and North America Select engagements: - Led commercial due diligence for $14B petrochemicals acquisition, assessing the market outlook, competitive positioning, business plan feasibility, and value-creation opportunities to inform a GCC energy major's investment decision - Developed the business plan, governance model and 11-workstream activation roadmap for a digital services joint venture projected to generate $375M over five years; aligned more than 35 stakeholders and supported two investment committee approvals - Led an end-to-end critical-minerals assessment for a global energy company, developing supply-demand forecasts and mapping mineral dependencies; evaluated supply concentration, geopolitical and disruption risks, to inform development of mitigation scenarios - Coordinated the “100 days” post-merger integration and activation of a large oilfield services business, involving more than 1,000 employees operations across multiple GCC countries - Identified opportunities to improve efficiency by 20-30% across five processes and five subsidiaries of a GCC energy major, developing the supporting business cases and securing executive backing - Evaluated an industrial IoT market-entry opportunity for a global energy company, assessing market attractiveness, investment criteria, and potential partners and developing joint business cases that helped progress multiple partnerships to signed MoUs ### Associate, Kearney (2021-07 – 2023-06) Dubai, United Arab Emirates · Select engagements: - Designed the procurement operating model for a multibillion-dollar rail, transport and logistics organisation, covering organisation structure, governance, processes and capability requirements - Developed the digital and IT strategy and operating model for a national research organisation, translating strategic priorities into initiatives and an implementation roadmap - Helped design the strategy and lean, digital-first operating model for a new GCC government authority - Defined the strategy and assessed growth opportunities for a private aviation company across new customer segments and service offerings ### Senior Business Analyst, Kearney (2020-01 – 2021-06) Johannesburg Area, South Africa · Select engagements: - Identified and evaluated more than 30 partnership and investment opportunities worth over $15B to support the development of strategic alliances between a GCC country and multiple African countries - Evaluated the non-fuel retail business strategy and prioritised initiatives for a multi-national energy company seeking to diversify downstream revenue and improve profitability - Designed an executive workshop on emissions reduction and decarbonisation for a multi-billion dollar African petrochemicals company ### Business Analyst, A.T. Kearney (2019-01 – 2019-12) City of Johannesburg · Select engagements: - Prepared a 5-year development roadmap for a sub-Saharan African gas company, defining strategic priorities, organisational requirements, and implementation approach - Assessed & modelled market attractiveness of African countries and sectors, using more than 50 socio-economic indicators to develop an international investment strategy ### Intern, Edlow International Company (2018-06 – 2018-12) Washington D.C. Metro Area · Supported project planning and regulatory analysis for the international transport of radioactive materials, including routing, quotations, material classification and compliance requirements ### Intern, Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical System (2014-11 – 2015-02) Magdeburg, Germany · Internship within the Physical and Chemical Foundations of Process Engineering group, with particular focus on crystallisation. Conducted experimental and modelling work on industrial crystallisation, including data analysis in MATLAB. ### Intern, Pelchem SOC Ltd (2014-06 – 2014-07) Pretoria · Investigated the feasibility of replacing water pumps in a fluorine plant to optimise plant operation and minimise energy consumption ## Education ### Master of Science (MSc) in Chemical Engineering, University of Cape Town (2016-01 – 2018-01) Combined Master's across the Catalysis and Bioprocessing Institutes. Six months of Catalysis course-work and 1.5 years of laboratory experiments. Dissertation focused on synthesising silver nanoparticles for antibacterial, water purification purposes to improve drinkability, a pertinent problem to solve in Africa. ### Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Chemical Engineering, University of Cape Town (2012-01 – 2015-01) - Placed on Dean’s Merit List each year of study - Awarded the Gerda van Rosmalen prize: most promising student in Crystallisation & Precipitation course - Invited to join the Golden Key Honour Society as a top achiever within Chemical Engineering ## Skills Corporate Sustainability, Business sustainability, Financial Modeling, Financial Analysis, Strategic Planning, Business Strategy, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, Microsoft Word, Public Speaking, Teamwork, Engineering, Matlab, Process Engineering, Leadership, Research, Chemical Engineering, Project Management, Mathematics, Chemistry, Aspen Plus, Research and Development (R&D), Data Analysis, Team Leadership, Organization Skills, Inorganic Synthesis, Nanoparticles, Communication, Problem Solving, Time Management, Analytical Skills, Aspen, Process Simulation, English, Scilab, TEM, Bacterial Cell Culture, Streak Plating, Management Consulting, Strategy, Organizational Design, Investment Strategies, Program Development, Emerging Markets ## Credentials - **Business Sustainability Management** — Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) (issued 2023-04) - **Python Essential Training** — LinkedIn (issued 2018-10) - **Business Foundations** — LinkedIn (issued 2018-08) - **Finance Foundations** — LinkedIn (issued 2018-08) ## AI Fluency - **Claude** (https://claude.ai) - **Codex** (https://developers.openai.com) - **ChatGPT** (https://chatgpt.com) --- Source: https://saywise.com/member2131 (last modified 2026-10-21T05:34:50.123Z)