Investment leadership for the
Gulf’s next capital era.
Sovereign wealth funds, private equity firms, institutional investors and family-office direct programmes turn to JOH Partners for the chief investment officers, sector heads, portfolio CEOs and operating partners shaping the region’s capital allocation decisions.
Investments & PE
Investment leadership for sovereign wealth funds, private equity firms, institutional investors and family-office direct programmes.
The mandate behind Gulf capital’s next decade.
The Gulf is now a net exporter of capital — sovereign funds at $4 trillion AUM, fast-growing PE platforms backing regional consolidation, and family-office programmes professionalising direct investing.
Each of these requires a different leadership shape. We map the talent layer across the region and beyond — investment directors with deep sector specialisation, portfolio CEOs who can hold both strategic and operational complexity, and operating partners who turn investment thesis into execution.
Our investments practice supports board chairs, GPs, LPs and sovereign committees with the disciplined, partner-led search process that makes the difference between a hire that closes and a hire that holds at 24 months.
The seats we’ve closed in Investments.
Sovereign wealth platform
Repositioned investment function around real-asset thesis; closed in 14 weeks.
Mid-market PE firm · $1.5B fund
Built MENA buyout team from outside the region.
PE-backed materials business
First non-family CEO; signed within nine weeks.
$6B family-office programme
Senior hire from a global GP into a captive direct vehicle.
Sponsor with five GCC platforms
Industrial operating partner sourced from Europe.
Sovereign-backed energy platform
Listed-experience CFO into a pre-IPO mandate.
Field notes from Investments & PE.
— Recent insights
View all— Recent episodes
View allBuilding and losing a startup: Peter Schatzberg on virtual kitchens, capital discipline and leadership under pressure
with Peter Schatzberg · Founder and CEO, Sweetheart Kitchen (former)
Family office leadership in the UAE: Obediah Ayton on risk, personal branding and the entrepreneurial mindset
with Obediah Ayton · Founder, Dhabi Hold Co.
Private equity leadership across global markets: Tony Couloubis on turnarounds, M&A and ethical investing
with Tony Couloubis · Principal Investor and Advisor, Multiple (Gulf Capital, SPE Capital Partners, Harith)
— Recent engagements
View allSovereign-adjacent Saudi investment platform
Placed a Chief Strategy Officer into a sovereign-adjacent Saudi investment platform building portfolio-level coherence across direct, indirect and co-investment mandates, in 10 weeks.
Mid-cap GCC private equity firm
Placed a Chief Investment Officer into a mid-cap GCC private equity firm ahead of Fund III deployment, in 9 weeks.
Tell us about the seat.
We’ll tell you who’s right.
Confidential conversations with the partner leading the practice you need. We respond within one business day.