Only 30% of the people working at the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority are UAE nationals
The normally secretive Abu Dhabi Investment Authority has shed some light on its recruitment practices and hiring needs through the publication of its first ever annual review.
The ADIA Review 2009 does not reveal any vast surprises but it does provide a glimpse into one of the world's largest sovereign wealth funds.
The fund, the report showed, employs 1,200 people, with UAE nationals making up 30% of the total and workers from 40 other countries the rest.
Intriguingly, workers from Asia (36%) outnumber home-grown talent, with 12% coming from Europe, 11% from elsewhere in the Middle East and Africa, 8% from the Americas and 2% from Australia and New Zealand. The staff turnover rate is a low 6%, it added.
And for those keen to join, particularly graduates, the report is upbeat.
"We believe in having a balanced mix of senior managers who have been with ADIA over many years, top international talent from some of the world's most respected financial institutions, and a steady influx of bright new recruits sourced from local and international universities," it says.
On compensation and reward, while shy on specifics, the report stresses, "our compensation philosophy focuses on rewarding people based on various factors that may include beating return targets but also their broader contribution to the organisation as a whole".
As to future hiring needs, while the report does not make exact predictions, managing director Ahmed bin Zayed Al Nehayan drops some broad hints on the sort of talent the fund is likely to be interested in.
Risk professionals, asset specialists with wide or diversified product knowledge, market strategists and quantitative analysts are all at the heart of the fund's investment strategy, he points out.
Moreover, as the monetary and fiscal stimulus fades away, the timing and nature of exit strategies will begin to dominate the economic debate, with ongoing debates around inflation and the need for excess capacity versus monetary expansion.
"Trying to safeguard against the risks of near-term deflation, whilst preparing for higher inflation longer term, will continue to be a key area of focus for all investors in the year ahead," Al Nehayan cautions.
He adds that the strategy going forward will be very much to "diversify our exposure to known market risks while capturing long-term trends, rather than trying to predict the twists and turns of individual cycles."
