It is terrific to be able to celebrate five years with MRG today. I wanted to reflect on the challenging yet exhilarating time it has been for me and the wider global team.
As the Regional Managing Director of MRG Asia, I am based in Malaysia and look after the Asia Pacific region with offices in India and Malaysia, as well as playing a substantial part in the growth of the Middle East region with an office in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Coming from the UK, but having not lived there for 17 years, I feel entirely at home in Malaysia; I am happily married with a child and love what Malaysia offers, i.e. great food, low cost of living and great weather.
MRG Global (Asia) was kicked off with the Lendlease RPO on their landmark Malaysia project TRX. While this was a client that I knew very well, providing RPO services to such a reputable client certainly took some understanding and effort. Looking back on that time, it was a great team effort and a very successful two years. Shortly after the Lendlease RPO started, a colleague moved to Neom, the then-largest project in the world in Saudi Arabia. Neom was initially a challenge, which we overcame by strategically working with the client and upsizing our team.
In addition to our work in the Middle East, the growth of Malaysia has always been a critical development point for us, and we now have a great team with repeat clients across Malaysia and Asia. MRG Asia immersed itself in the local markets, gaining new clients and senior candidates globally and notably understanding the different ways of working in respective countries. As such, we have seen large up and down trends in the APAC and Middle East markets due to the ramp-up of PIF investments globally in Saudi Arabia, as well as the surge in Advanced Technologies and Mission Critical Infrastructure projects, mainly Data Centres becoming mainstay industries in the APAC region.
The MRG Global team are a pleasure to work with, whether it be the team in South Africa, our MRG Consult business, or the India, UK and Malaysia teams; each team member gives 100% and is valued 100%. The broader culture of the MRG Group can be described as forensic in how they work, inclusive in how they treat candidates, clients, and staff members, and inventive and relentless in how they service senior candidates and clients.
My goals over the next five years are to continue the growth of the Malaysian / Asian business and become one of the most recognised real estate and built environment executive search agencies in the Malaysian and Asian markets. We will accomplish this by strategically working with specific clients to offer a wide range of services while focusing on RPO, project recruitment, and retained search. At the same time, I will continue my passion for placing senior candidates into giga projects and blue chip companies globally, but with a focus on Saudi Arabia.
I have learnt a massive amount along the way; the most important thing is to have a presence in the marketplace continually and to be constantly networking, either with senior clients or candidates; standing still doesn’t pay dividends at all, and I hold great value in the need for continual networking and market research.
I look forward to embracing all the possibilities the next five years at MRG will offer.