The UAE Playbook for Family Offices: Hiring, Relocating and Raising in the Gulf
Episode 18 of the AYU Family Office Podcast
While headlines fixate on regional instability, the UAE keeps doing something remarkable: growing. In Episode 18 of the AYU Family Office Podcast, Gus Morison sits down with Oscar Orellana-Hyder, Co-Founder of Cordell Partners an executive headhunter who places elite talent inside the Gulf's family offices to understand why capital, people, and ambition keep flowing toward the Emirates even as the map around them shifts.
Who Is Oscar Orellana-Hyder and What Is Cordell Partners?
Oscar qualified as a lawyer before pivoting to executive search, spending years recruiting into FTSE 100 companies and financial services firms in the City of London. A decade ago, he made the move to Dubai and has never looked back. He co-founded Cordell Partners a specialist executive search firm with over 35 years of combined experience in the UAE to serve the financial services community that was rapidly taking shape in the Gulf.
Cordell Partners focuses exclusively on human capital and talent acquisition within investment management, asset management, alternative investment managers, family offices (single and multi), hedge funds, private equity, sovereign wealth funds, venture capital, and fintech — across the GCC region. The firm was selected as the exclusive recruitment talent partner to the Abu Dhabi Family Office Summit, and Oscar serves as Deputy Chair of the Education and Talent Committee at the Association of Shariah Asset Management (ASAM).
Why Capital and Talent Keep Flowing to the UAE
Oscar's answer to the central question, why the UAE? is grounded and specific, not a rehearsed sales pitch. The UAE's growth is underpinned by three durable foundations: policy clarity, operational infrastructure, and quality of life.
Unlike many jurisdictions where wealth management policy shifts with electoral cycles, the UAE's long-term commitment to attracting capital and talent is embedded in how the government operates. DIFC and ADGM provide world-class regulatory environments that give family offices the legal infrastructure they need common law frameworks, English-language contracts, independent courts without the compliance overhead or political uncertainty of other major centres.
Add to this a tax environment that remains genuinely competitive, a time zone that bridges East and West, and a lifestyle that increasingly rivals and in many respects exceeds what London, Singapore, or New York can offer, and the direction of travel becomes clear.
The UAE Family Office Boom: What's Really Driving It
The structural shift in the Gulf's family office landscape goes beyond the headline numbers. Oscar's frontline view from hiring into these organisations gives him a level of granularity that broader market data doesn't capture.
A growing proportion of the inflows are not opportunistic relocation they are permanent, generational moves by families who have made a considered decision that the UAE is where they want to build their long-term wealth infrastructure. The second and third generation of established families are increasingly based there, not just their capital. And new wealth created within the Gulf from technology, private equity, and the ongoing diversification away from hydrocarbons is building an entirely domestic family office ecosystem alongside the international inflows.
How to Hire the Right People for a Family Office in the Gulf
Oscar's recruitment practice gives him an unusually clear view of what separates successful family office hires in the UAE from those that don't work out. The technical credentials matter, but they are rarely the deciding factor.
Cultural fit in the broadest sense is determinative. Family offices in the Gulf operate within relationship frameworks and trust structures that are deeply rooted in regional culture. Candidates who understand this, who have taken the time to build genuine relationships within the community and who demonstrate patience and discretion, consistently outperform those who arrive with impressive CVs but Western assumptions about how deals get done.
The best hires are typically professionals who have been present in the region for a meaningful period before seeking family office roles not fresh arrivals looking to leverage the UAE's growth story into a fast move.
What Relocating to the GCC Actually Involves
Oscar is candid about the realities of relocation, including the aspects that recruiters and promotional literature tend to gloss over. Schooling options, community infrastructure, healthcare, and the social network you're walking into all matter particularly for families making a permanent move rather than a two-year posting.
For professionals considering a move, his practical guidance is consistent: come out first, spend real time in the city, understand the ecosystem before you commit. The UAE rewards those who invest in building genuine presence, not those who treat it as a remote posting with better weather.
Raising Capital from Gulf Family Offices: What Works and What Doesn't
The final strand of the conversation is the one most relevant to fund managers and GPs approaching the Gulf for the first time: how do you actually raise capital from established Gulf family offices?
Oscar's answer is unambiguous. Trust comes first and trust takes time. The families that matter in this market have been approached by hundreds of managers. They have seen every pitch, every deck, every promise of alpha. What cuts through is not a compelling investment thesis (though that matters) but a genuine, sustained relationship with someone the family trusts.
The intermediary infrastructure matters enormously. Relationships with the right advisors, lawyers, and introducers within the DIFC and ADGM communities open doors that cold outreach never will. And like family offices everywhere, Gulf families allocate to people they know — which means the work of building presence starts long before any fundraising conversation.
Listen to the Full Episode
Episode 18 of the AYU Family Office Podcast is available now on Spotify and all major podcast platforms.
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