Pedersen & Partners, a leading international executive search firm with offices in 46 countries, is set to strengthen its presence in the Gulf region, with special focus on Saudi through key appointments.

Ewan Walton, formerly country manager for Saudi Arabia, has been promoted as head of Gulf region; Amjed Shacker, who joined the firm in October last year as Principal, has been appointed as the new country head for Saudi Arabia based out of Riyadh.

'Shacker’s marketing and communications background makes for a logical fit with Pedersen & Partners, given the extent of his contacts, knowledge of the market, as well as understanding of the business development cycle needed in our industry,' commented Michael Al-Nassir, the partner in charge of the Middle East, Africa & India region.

Shacker boasts of a 20-year carrer in strategic corporate communications and marketing services in Saudi with exposure to key sectors such as investments, telecoms, real estate, education, healthcare, military training support, public sector, utilities among others.

He began his career as a news anchor for Channel 2 of Saudi Arabian Television in the late 80s, and was the executive manager of corporate communications at Kingdom Holding Company for almost eight years.

He continued his career in communications through several high level positions including; Corporate Communications for the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (Sagia), CEO of Buchanan Middle East (a JV with the London-based financial communications firm Buchanan Communications), was the Corporate Communications VP of ACWA Power Projects and the owner of DCC, a marketing services and PR firm.

Ewan Walton has over 13 years of experience in executive search and recruitment advisory in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region with a special focus on Saudi Arabia and the Gulf.

Before joining Pedersen, he was a partner and the managing director at KPMG leading their executive search practice. Prior to that, Walton co-founded in 2001 one of the first executive search firms in the GCC region, which grew to be the largest in the region at the point of its acquisition in 2006.

Walton will continue to be based in Riyadh as he works on continued expansion and strengthening of the Pedersen & Partners presence regionally throughout the Gulf.

'With Shacker on board as the new country manager and Ewan as Gulf head, Pedersen & Partners is well positioned for further expansion in the region offering an international level of sophistication to clients with the needed local understanding of the market,' he added.-TradeArabia News Service