Navigating complexity from the street to the boardroom.
True diversity of perspective, on-the-ground presence, privileged conversations and structured analysis are the critical ingredients that give decision-makers the picture that no dataset contains. That is what Azal Advisors is built around. Not analysis alone, but the human insight and structure that makes independent analysis worth acting on. With honesty and full transparency for our clients.
OUR PHILOSOPHY
CLIENT FIRST PRINCIPLES
Azal Advisors is a one stop shop for multi-domain expertise, diversity of perspective, intellectual rigour and structured strategic insight. We deliver efficiently, focusing on what truly matters, with full cost transparency.
Independent
We are not affiliated with any political principal or institution, or aligned with a preferred world view. On every mandate, Azal incorporates multiple independent expert perspectives and lets the evidence speak — convergences and divergences alike. Clients receive the full picture, not a view filtered through institutional or political orthodoxy.
Accountable
Large organisations dilute accountability and distance senior expertise from client work. At Azal, a principal is accountable, and selected subject matter experts are the team. We don’t engage in work we can’t confidently deliver.
Discreet
We give the utmost importance to our clients’ confidentiality requirements, operating with strict rules, procedures, and platforms.
Lean by design
Every engagement deploys only the effort that is actually required, privileging expertise. No padding. No expensive offices or additional overhead that require cost recovery. No unnecessary deliverables.
WHO WE ARE
DELIVERY TEAM
Our delivery model has three layers: (1) A consulting lead, by Azal Advisors’ principal; (2) Senior Advisors, a subset of which called upon to work on assignments relevants to their expertise; (3) A network of experts and on the ground relationships.
CONSULTING LEAD
Nicolas Dunais
Founder & Principal
Nicolas has two decades’ experience living and working across the Middle East, South Asia, and Eastern Europe, studying Arabic in Sana’a and Persian in Tehran, consulting for state-owned and private enterprises in Afghanistan and Sudan, and advising governments across the Arabian Peninsula. Nicolas founded Azal Advisors on a conviction that the most valuable insight comes from the combination of true subject matter expertise, trusted relationships, and the discipline to structure if for decision-makers. Before Azal Advisors, Nicolas was Regional Director at the Tony Blair Institute, building government advisory programmes across the Balkans and Eastern Europe. Prior to that, he was a Principal at Oliver Wyman, leading public sector projects for senior government clients across the Gulf.
SENIOR ADVISORS
Azal Advisors works with a close group of trusted senior advisors who have a proven track record in providing diverse and unique perspectives on critical policy topics and are recognized for their expertise. Collectively, they are the heart of Azal Advisors’ proposition, and bound by strict confidentiality clauses. Their expertise spans geopolitics, energy, economics and security, and include faculty from leading international universities and think tanks, former government officials, and regional practitioners with decades of direct engagement in the countries we cover. Senior Advisors have been deliberately selected to include perspectives that mainstream advisory tends to overlook, so as to articulate how a policy decision looks from the perspective of Beijing, Brussels, New Delhi, Paris, Riyadh, Tehran, or Washington. A subset of our senior advisors include:
Dr Steffen Hertog
London School of Economics
Steffen Hertog is Professor in Comparative Politics and an expert in GCC public sector reform. Steffen’s main interest lies in Gulf and Middle East political economy, with a specific focus on the political economy of public sectors, state-business relations and labour markets.
Dr Bernard Haykel
Princeton University
Bernard Haykel is a professor of Near-Eastern Studies at Princeton University. He specializes in the socio-political dynamics, history and identity – including the role of religion – of GCC countries and in particular Saudi Arabia.
Dr Giacomo Luciani
Graduate Institute
Professor Luciani is an expert in the geopolitics of energy and commodities with in-depth experience of the GCC. His work has focused primarily on the economic and political dynamics of rentier states and issues of development in the GCC countries.
Dr Adel Bakawan
French Institute of Int’l Relations
Adel Bakawan is an Associate Research Fellow at the French Institute of International Relations’ Turkey/Middle East Program and the Director of the French research on Irak. He has an extensive knowledge of the social, economic and political dynamics of Iraq and Kurdistan.
Dr Naseef Naeem
Candid Foundation
Dr. Naseef Naeem is an expert on Syria, and a lawyer and expert on state, constitution, administration, political mediation, judicial reform, and conflict resolution in the Arab world. In 2025 he was the Head of a Syria needs assessment task force.
Catherine Dourian
Energy Institute
Kate has more than 30 years of experience in MENA energy markets, having held multiple roles with Platts and the International Energy Agency. She is currently a board member at the Energy Institute Middle East Branch.
David Rundell
Former US State Dept
David Rundell is one of America’s foremost experts on Saudi Arabia. He served as an American diplomat at the Embassy in Riyadh and the Consulates in Jeddah and Dhahran. He is the author of “Vision or Mirage, Saudi Arabia at the Crossroads”.
Dr Jean Francois Seznec
Johns Hopkins University
Jean Francois Seznec is an expert on chemical and energy-based industries in the Gulf, and their importance in world trade. He is an adjunct professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
Dr Mohammed AlSudairi
KFCRIS
Dr. Mohammed Al-Sudairi’s research focuses on the historical and contemporary connections between the Middle East and East Asia. He is the Head of the Asian Studies Unit at the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies (KFCRIS), and a Humboldt Fellow.
Dr Sanam Vakil
Chatham House
Sanam Vakil is an expert on Iran, the Gulf and Middle East security issues. She teaches at SAIS Europe and leads the Iran Forum project at Chatham House, focusing on future trends in Iran’s domestic and foreign policy.
Dr Ding Long
Shanghai University
Professor Long is is the Vice Director and a Professor at the Middle East Studies Institute, at the Shanghai International Studies University. Ding
Long’s research deals with Middle Eastern Politics and China’s perspective.
Gautam Chikermane
Observer Research Foundation
Gautam Chikermane is the Vice President at Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi. His primary area of research is the economy and politics of India. He also tracks the international economic affairs, particularly the G20 nations.
SUBJECT MATTER EXPERTS & ON-THE-GROUND NETWORK
Azal Advisors draws on a network of several dozen subject matter experts, analysts and relationships across its geographic footprint. Complementing our senior advisor and consulting layers, this network is activated on a needs basis, and provides critical perspective on political dynamics and socioeconomic affairs that published sources cannot capture, either directly, or through its access to senior government and private sector officials. Additional expertise can be brought in on a case by case basis.
CONFIDENTIALITY
SECURE PROTOCOLS AND PLATFORMS
Azal Advisors does not discuss, reference, or disclose client relationships. Every expert engaged on a mandate operates under a framework agreement that includes strict confidentiality obligations. Information is shared on a need-to-know basis only. No individual involved in a mandate handles information beyond what their specific role requires. We take information security seriously as a matter of firm architecture, not as an afterthought. The following measures are standard across all engagements:
Encrypted communications
Information compartmentalisation
Swiss-hosted infrastructure
Azal Advisor’s web and data infrastructure is hosted in Switzerland, under Swiss privacy law, one of the most protective frameworks for data confidentiality in the world.
Project-specific email addresses
Experts engaged on a mandate are provided with a dedicated Azal email address for the duration of the engagement. No external personal or institutional email addresses are used for client work.