Guest Articles

I have sat with boards navigating regulatory change. I have worked alongside leadership teams rebuilding frameworks after difficult moments. And I have had the privilege of working with organisations that chose to invest in governance early before anything forced the issue and emerge from periods of uncertainty significantly stronger than their peers.

Early in my career I was told there is more than one way to skin a cat. It is a phrase that has stayed with me. Governance challenges rarely have a single correct solution and the organisations that navigate them best are not always the ones applying the most rigid framework.

Two years ago, I made the decision to bring that experience to Dubai.

Like most journeys that matter, it has not been a straight line. Setting up, settling in, navigating the personal alongside the professional, the first two years have been about building a foundation rather than building a business. That is not a complaint. It is simply the honest shape of how things go when you commit to a new market properly rather than just planting a flag.

But I am here now. And I am ready to have the conversations I came for.

I want to be honest about what I expected and what I actually found.

The awareness is genuinely there. Business leaders, finance and risk professionals, board members across the UAE and wider GCC, they understand that governance maturity matters. The 2025 Commercial Companies Law amendments, rising ESG expectations, DIFC and ADGM raising their bars, these are on people’s radars.

What has struck me is the gap between awareness and action. I say this with genuine respect for a market I am still learning, not as a criticism.

In the UK, that same gap existed a decade ago. Organisations knew governance needed attention but could not quite find the right moment. Some found it themselves. Others had it found for them by a regulator, an audit, a transaction that surfaced gaps nobody had documented. The investment that followed was significant and the reflection, almost universally was the same, we wish we had moved earlier, when we still had the space to do it properly.

I am not suggesting the UAE is heading for the same experience. This market has shown a remarkable ability to adapt and lead. But the window to build governance capability ahead of pressure rather than in response to it is one worth taking seriously now.

That is the conversation I came here to be part of.

I joined the British Chamber of Commerce Dubai because I believe in what this community represents, British expertise and values, applied thoughtfully in a market built on relationships and long-term trust. I am here to learn as much as I am here to contribute.

If governance, risk or compliance is on your agenda whether urgently or simply as a future consideration, I would welcome the conversation.

Author: 

Zeshan Raja

Founder, ZRC International

Twenty-five years of GRC delivery across UK financial services, retail, banking and technology. Now building in Dubai.