Viability is a specialist hospitality and real estate consulting firm in Dubai, which has been serving clients throughout the Gulf region since 2006.Viability has one of the most experienced teams in hospitality consulting in the Middle East, gained over more than two decades of advising operators, owners and institutional investors on the various components in the hospitality and real estate value chain, spanning every country in the Middle East except Iraq, as well as many countries in sub-Saharan Africa.Our clients include some of the region’s top names in hotel and real estate development, as well as a number of the world’s leading hotel operators.For more information about Viability Management Consultants, our key services and expertise, please visit our LinkedIn company profile: http://www.linkedin.com/company/viability-management-consultantsWhat makes us different?• Excellent track record of bankable reports (most are banked!)• We take pride in our high quality studies • Attention to detail is our priority• Focused, comprehensive approach to research• Technically informed development recommendations• Detailed, realistic financial analysis using proprietary models• Reports tailored to clients’ needs (by contrast to larger firms’ “production line” approach)• We have the courage to highlight risks• Clients are allocated a dedicated consultant, but always have direct access to Partners

PCFC Hotels is the developer/owner/operator of the QE2 Hotel (www.qe2.com) and a planned future chain of 'smart' branded budget hotels

Articles for a variety of high-quality magazines

Founding partner and General Manager of PKF - The Consulting House in Dubai, a a full member firm of PKF International (http://www.pkf.com/).I established The Consulting House FZ-LLC in Dubai Media City, with financial backing from two equal investment partners, in the autumn of 2003. As the General Manager, I was responsible for starting up and managing the company single-handed, reporting to the Board of Directors.Thanks to my reputation for high quality hospitality consulting, the company immediately won work and grew consistently. Our work primarily comprised market and financial feasibility studies, operator selection work and strategic studies for developers of hotels and commercial real estate.In April 2005, the company became the official Middle East hospitality consulting office of PKF International, one of the world’s largest firms of accountants and business advisers with more than 400 offices around the globe and a long history of hospitality consulting. The license agreement with PKF was one that I had sought since I started the company and being the first ever awarded to a firm with no previous association with PKF, was a resounding endorsement that the work I had been producing was of consistent international standards.In just two years under my management, the company developed a portfolio of high-profile clients, including:• Hotel chains such as Millennium, Rezidor, and Southern Sun• Property developers such as Aldar, Al Futtaim Investments, Emaar and Nakheel• Hotel owners such as Bahrain Hotels Company and Dubai World Trade Centre• Government bodies like the Oman Ministry of Tourism or the Sharjah Economic DepartmentWhen I left the company I had founded, it had eight staff and had just completed its second full year with a 35 percent operating profit.

TRI Hospitality Consulting is a leading international hospitality consulting firm, created following a management buyout, which occurred during my tenure with the firm and saw the staff of the hospitality consulting division of BDO International (still further back, once part of Haworth & Haworth), cut loose and become owners of their own destiny.I joined TRI after my research and report writing skills had already been called upon when I was freelancing as a journalist in 1995/6. When I joined, I was the only employee, working directly with the GM. I stayed with him for almost eight years, during all of which I was his ‘Number 2’. I helped him choose the office where they still work, recruit and train staff, establish marketing programmes and bring in new business. I also deputized in his absence.At TRI, I developed my financial analysis skills for hotel and commercial property feasibility studies and carried out more than 150 assignments throughout the Middle East, as well as in a number of African countries.