Q&A: A peek inside the Middle East’s biggest sovereign wealth fund.

Until October, when it was usurped by Norway’s government pension fund, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority had long held the position as the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund. With an estimated $627bn in assets, it has been hiring in everything from private equity to hedge funds and infrastructure investment in the last 12 months.

We spoke to the firm’s head of recruitment, Robin Prince, who joined from US-based alternative investments-focused headhunters Robin Prince Partners in January, about what it takes to work in this institution, which employs over 2,000 people.

A number of ADIA’s recent senior hires have come from more established international financial centres. Do you actively target places like London, New York, Singapore and Hong Kong?

ADIA is a very international organisation, with more than 40 nationalities represented, so we don’t start out with the idea of targeting one geographic area more than another. Our goal is simply to attract the best individuals for each business area and specific role, irrespective of where they come from. That said, it’s clear that the pool of talent is deeper in major financial centres, and people from these markets are often more familiar with industry best practice and have had the best training opportunities. So we find ourselves naturally drawn to these markets, whether we start out that way or not.

Has it become easier to attract international talent to Abu Dhabi recently?

It’s never a small thing to ask people to move their lives and families to a different country, wherever it may be. But people are definitely more aware of the career opportunities and high quality of life in Abu Dhabi than they were a few years ago. I think this is partly because of the media and also the fact that more tourists are coming here and sharing their positive experiences with people back home. It is this combination of career and lifestyle that makes Abu Dhabi so special.

The same goes for ADIA. When we speak to potential recruits now, they all know that ADIA is a major player in the financial world, and that we interact and partner with most of the top financial institutions globally, as well as governments and regulators. If you couple all of this with the fact that many global financial firms are still retrenching, the prospect of a move to Abu Dhabi is increasingly attractive, even for professionals at the senior level who may have competing job offers in their home markets.

ADIA has also said that it’s focusing on hiring Emirati talent. What are the main challenges to finding local recruits?

ADIA is very fortunate in that it’s seen as a leading institution and an employer of choice among the Emirati population, and our priority is to keep that reputation. For instance, we have a scholarship program that aims to identify high-potential students in local schools and then develop them through their educational careers; our goal is to prepare them for a long and successful career with ADIA. But even still, the population of UAE Nationals is small and the competition for top talent is growing, so our challenge is to make sure that ADIA is clearly differentiated from other top employers and to create a nurturing work environment that encourages success and a good work/life balance.

How can financial services companies in the UAE encourage more Emiratis into the sector?

Our view is that strong on-the-job training programs are a powerful way to attract and incentivise top Emirati talent. The UAE has a world-class education system and offers strong business curricula; but young UAE Nationals want to know how employers can help them develop the day-to-day skills for a long career in the industry. If all financial services companies in the UAE have this emphasis, we will be well on our way to developing the UAE as one of the world’s leading financial centres.

ADIA puts all its graduate recruits through the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) qualification. Why is this?

The CFA program is a fantastic general finance education system. It builds a strong theoretical foundation which we then couple with on-the-job training to get entry level employees to a high level of competence in the shortest period of time. In our experience, coupling theory with practical knowledge is a powerful way to learn about markets, and with around 120 charter holders at ADIA (the most in the Middle East) and many more at various stages of the curriculum, this has been a very successful strategy for us.

Describe the typical profile of an ADIA recruit.

In many ways, we don’t have a typical recruit. We recruit from all over the world and have employees from 42 countries who speak a total of 112 languages. But there are some areas that we focus on in the recruitment process and that bind us all together.

Firstly, we are looking for people who share our values. Our three cultural values are prudent innovation, effective collaboration and disciplined execution and we look to hire people who embody these values. We believe that if we, as an organisation, live by these values, we will have an environment that is conducive to achieving the goals that we have set for ourselves.

Secondly, we look for people who are either existing leaders in their respective fields or have the potential to grow into such a role. Given that ADIA has been mandated to secure and maintain the future welfare of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, it’s critical that we are able to attract and keep the best people.

Assuming that my initial application has been successful for a role at ADIA, can you describe the recruitment process I’d have to undertake in order to receive an eventual offer?

We have a very rigorous recruitment process, all aimed at making sure that the candidate is right for us and that we are right for the candidate. When an application comes in, our recruitment team reviews the individual’s profile against our available vacancies and requirements for each role. If there is a fit, we usually like to have an initial conversation before asking them to complete a series of psychometric assessments.

If these initial stages are positive, we then invite the person to Abu Dhabi for a series of interviews, as well as to experience first-hand the lifestyle and get a feel for ADIA and our working environment. Usually at this point we give the candidate an indication that we are interested in bringing them on-board and ask them to complete some paperwork for our background screening processes. Once these processes are complete the candidate will receive an offer and we set a start date.

There are over 40 nationalities working at ADIA. Does this create any culture clashes? How do you manage this?

One of the ways we manage this is through the recruitment process, to ensure that potential recruits share our values and general approach. ADIA employees are generally very tolerant people with an international perspective, and they are used to working within a multicultural environment. In fact, the feedback we receive is that people find it intellectually stimulating to work with such a diverse group because everyone has such a unique perspective. So, if anything, people tend to actually seek out others’ points of view more than they might in a less multicultural environment.