47 Vital Thought Leaders in Middle East Tax Strategy

Last updated: June 2026

The Middle East tax landscape has undergone more change in the past five years than in the preceding five decades. As of June 2026, every practitioner, finance executive, and policy professional working across the Gulf Cooperation Council or wider MENA region needs to understand who is shaping this conversation. The UAE introduced corporate tax at nine percent in June 2023, implemented a Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax of 15 percent aligned with the OECD's Pillar Two framework from January 2025, and is rolling out mandatory e-invoicing from July 2026. Saudi Arabia's ZATCA has expanded its enforcement apparatus across VAT, Zakat, transfer pricing, and e-invoicing simultaneously. Bahrain referred a draft ten percent corporate income tax law to its legislative authorities in December 2025. Qatar is implementing Pillar Two. The region's tax story is accelerating, not stabilising.

This directory identifies 47 people doing the most consequential public work on tax strategy, policy, and advisory in the Middle East in 2026. They are practitioners navigating the first full corporate tax compliance cycles in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. They are researchers providing the intellectual architecture for what equitable taxation looks like in oil-dependent economies. They are in-house leaders managing tax transformation at the region's largest corporations. They are academics producing the first rigorous frameworks for GCC tax law. What they share is a commitment to engaging publicly rather than confining their expertise to client-only channels.

If your leadership team needs support navigating the organisational and people challenges that come with major tax transformation, whether building alignment around a new tax operating model, improving how decisions are made under complexity, or facilitating the executive conversation that translates external thinking into internal action, email jonno@consultclarity.org. Jonno White, author of Step Up or Step Out (10,000+ copies sold), works with leadership teams in professional and financial services to build the communication, accountability, and alignment frameworks that allow organisations to act decisively on expert guidance.

According to the 2025 EY Tax Risk and Controversy Survey of nearly 2,000 senior tax executives globally, 92 percent expect more disputes arising from Pillar Two compliance. The UAE's Federal Tax Authority reported 93,000 inspection visits in 2024, a 135 percent increase from the prior year, signalling that the era of limited enforcement in the region is definitively over. The IMF's 2026 volume Taxation in the Middle East and North Africa: Prospects and Possibilities marked the first comprehensive academic survey of tax policy across all 21 MENA countries. As of June 2026, the combination of new tax regimes, expanding enforcement, digital transformation, and Pillar Two alignment is creating one of the most demanding tax environments in the world for multinational groups operating in the region.

Why Middle East Tax Strategy Matters

Middle East tax strategy matters now in a way it did not a decade ago. The GCC region operated for most of its modern commercial history without a broad-based corporate or personal income tax framework, relying on hydrocarbon revenues to fund government expenditure. That model has changed. The UAE's nine percent federal corporate tax, introduced for financial years starting from June 2023, was followed less than two years later by the DMTT of 15 percent, applicable from January 2025 to multinational groups with consolidated revenues exceeding 750 million euros. Saudi Arabia's ZATCA is enforcing transfer pricing obligations with an intensity that has surprised many businesses accustomed to a lighter-touch regime. Bahrain is moving toward a broad-based corporate income tax from 2027. Qatar has formally adopted Pillar Two through Law No. 22 of 2024.

The practical consequence for organisations is a compliance environment requiring institutional-grade tax governance that simply did not exist at scale in the region five years ago. For multinational groups headquartered in the region, the interaction between UAE corporate tax, Pillar Two obligations, free zone qualifying income rules, and transfer pricing requirements demands specialist expertise being built in real time. For leadership teams managing this transformation from within, the human and organisational dimension is often the hardest part. The people on this list are thinking about all of this, in public, in real time.

Jonno White works with professional services and financial services leadership teams to build the communication and decision-making frameworks that allow organisations to translate expert external guidance into internal action. Book Jonno for a keynote, executive offsite, or workshop at jonno@consultclarity.org.

How This List Was Compiled

Candidates were assessed across formal credentials in tax strategy, advisory, policy, or research specifically relevant to the Middle East; active public contribution through LinkedIn posts, published analysis, podcast appearances, academic publications, or conference presentations in 2025 and 2026; geographic and disciplinary diversity across GCC and broader MENA jurisdictions; and independence from single-source discovery. The International Tax Review's inaugural Middle East Tax Awards in October 2025 and ITR's World Tax guide provided one reference point for practitioner standing. LinkedIn activity was assessed across January 2025 to June 2026. The 2026 IMF volume on MENA taxation provided a reference point for academic and policy voices.

For more on the global voices shaping tax strategy beyond the Middle East, see the blog post '50 Essential Global Thought Leaders on Tax Strategy' at https://www.consultclarity.org/post/global-thought-leaders-tax-strategy.

UAE Corporate Tax, VAT, and Indirect Tax Leaders

The introduction of UAE corporate tax in 2023 and the maturing of the UAE VAT regime since 2018 have produced a cohort of practitioners who built their expertise alongside the law itself. These are the people who wrote the public guidance, fielded the edge case questions, and navigated the first compliance cycle. Their public work provides the clearest window into how the UAE tax framework is being interpreted and applied in practice.

1. Thomas Vanhee

The founding partner of Aurifer, a boutique tax law firm operating across Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, and Brussels, Vanhee was directly involved in drafting the Saudi VAT legislation and the UAE VAT law in collaboration with the respective ministries of finance, giving his public commentary a depth of institutional knowledge that most practitioners working in the region cannot claim. He is the most consistently active independent voice on GCC corporate tax, appearing regularly on the Bitesize Business Breakfast podcast and publishing detailed technical analysis covering UAE e-invoicing, Pillar Two compliance, and GCC-wide VAT developments.

He co-chairs the Aurifer GCC Tax Certificate programme in collaboration with Middlesex University Dubai and the University of Amsterdam, a programme that has become one of the most credible academic credentials available for tax professionals working in the Gulf. His April 2026 analysis of e-invoicing acceleration across the GCC was among the clearest available summaries of where each jurisdiction stood in its digital tax transformation.

2. Anbreen Khan

A partner at Deloitte Middle East specialising in indirect tax and dispute resolution, Khan was recognised as a Highly Regarded Practitioner and Women in Tax Leader by International Tax Review in the 2026 World Tax Guide. A qualified lawyer who led the Litigation, Advisory, and Settlement Group at Deloitte in the UK before relocating to the UAE, she brings a litigation-forged precision to VAT advisory that distinguishes her from practitioners whose careers have been primarily advisory rather than contentious.

Her February 2026 LinkedIn post on architecting growth in the nine percent era, examining how UAE corporate tax is reshaping financial governance for business owners, demonstrated the kind of strategic framing that goes beyond compliance into genuine business leadership. Her work on UAE VAT and dispute resolution before the FTA has made her one of the most recognised figures in the UAE indirect tax space.

3. Keith Donegan

A partner at KPMG Lower Gulf leading the UAE VAT practice, Donegan is among the most LinkedIn-active Big Four tax partners in the region. His regular commentary on FTA public clarifications, VAT regulatory updates, and the UAE e-invoicing transition provides the kind of accessible, practitioner-focused analysis that helps finance professionals understand what changing rules mean in operational terms. He is a founding member of the Taxation Society UAE and has appeared on Dubai Eye 103.8 to discuss AI readiness in UAE finance functions.

His chapter in the Spring 2026 edition of Lexis Middle East Gulf Tax, co-authored with Luis Miguel Alonso on UAE tax refunds and audits under the new five-year refund deadline framework introduced by Federal Decree-Law No. 17 of 2025, reflects a sustained commitment to public education alongside client advisory work.

4. Janet Gooi

The tax partner at Clyde and Co Dubai leading the firm's Middle East tax offering, Gooi was named a Women in Tax Leader by World Tax and received the Tax Lawyer of the Year award from LexisNexis Middle East Women in Law for two consecutive years, 2024 and 2025. She previously spent over seven years at one of the largest regional law firms in the Middle East before bringing her practice to Clyde and Co in October 2025. Her expertise covers international tax structuring, M&A tax, tax rulings, and tax disputes, and she has advised on some of the region's most significant transactions, including Microsoft's USD 1.5 billion strategic investment in G42 and FIVE Holdings' debut USD 350 million green bond offering.

Her decade-long presence in the region and her recognised standing across international rankings make her one of the most established independent tax lawyers in the UAE market. She is fluent in English and Malay, giving her a distinctive reach across the Asian investor community that makes up a significant proportion of the UAE's inbound investment flow.

5. Justin Whitehouse

A Managing Director at Alvarez and Marsal Tax in Dubai and the firm's Global Head of Indirect Tax, Whitehouse has over 30 years of indirect tax experience and was directly involved in drafting the indirect tax laws in more than one GCC country ahead of the 2018 VAT introduction. He has appeared on CNBC Arabia to discuss UAE VAT law amendments and published analysis on the FTA's treatment of cryptocurrency transactions, one of the more technically challenging areas of UAE VAT interpretation.

His appointment as Global Head of Indirect Tax at Alvarez and Marsal in July 2025 reflected the firm's recognition that Middle East experience in rapid, comprehensive indirect tax transformation has produced globally relevant expertise. Organisations seeking independent indirect tax counsel on significant Middle East transactions will find his combination of drafting-level knowledge and client advisory experience difficult to replicate elsewhere.

6. Driaan Rupping

A Corporate Tax Partner at KPMG Lower Gulf who joined in mid-2025 from PwC, where he spent over a decade advising multinational clients across Africa and the Middle East, Rupping led UAE Corporate Tax and Pillar Two implementation initiatives before making the move. His background spanning both the African and Gulf markets gives him a comparative perspective on how jurisdictions manage the shift from low-tax to internationally aligned corporate tax regimes.

His LinkedIn activity covers UAE Pillar Two practical implementation, the interaction between corporate tax and economic substance requirements, and the implications of FTA enforcement for multinational groups in the post-first-filing-season environment. His arrival at KPMG reinforced the firm's UAE corporate tax capability at a moment when post-filing disputes and structuring queries are growing in volume.

7. Mark Junkin

A partner at Deloitte Middle East leading both the financial services tax industry practice and the UAE Indirect Tax practice, Junkin has over 20 years of tax experience in the region. He leads Deloitte's relationships with major public and private sector financial services organisations across banking and capital markets, insurance, investment management, and real estate. His expertise in the interaction between VAT, corporate tax, and the specific treatment of financial products is particularly relevant in a market where significant proportions of regional economic activity flow through banking, real estate, and Islamic finance structures.

Transfer Pricing and International Tax Leaders

Transfer pricing has emerged as one of the most contested and technically demanding areas of Middle East tax since the introduction of UAE corporate tax and the intensification of ZATCA enforcement in Saudi Arabia. The following voices lead the most active regional practices and public conversations in this space.

8. Mohamed Serokh

The Middle East Tax and Legal Growth Leader and Transfer Pricing Leader at Deloitte, Serokh has over 25 years of experience in transfer pricing, international tax, economic consulting, and regulatory work. His team won International Tax Review's Middle East Transfer Pricing Firm of the Year award, and he personally received ITR's Editor's Choice Award for progressive work in Transfer Pricing throughout the Middle East. A former transfer pricing regulator before moving into advisory, his perspective combines technical and institutional dimensions in a way that few practitioners can match.

His February 2026 commentary on GCC organisations adopting Generative AI in tax and legal functions provided one of the clearest data-driven assessments available of how the region's organisations are moving from AI experimentation to enterprise deployment. He was recognised as a Highly Regarded Practitioner by International Tax Review for the UAE.

9. Fernand Rutten

The Middle East Tax COO and Customs and Global Trade Advisory Leader at Deloitte, Rutten has over 30 years of indirect tax experience with a deep focus on customs, excise, and global trade. He was Deloitte's Global Leader for Global Trade Advisory from 2010, overseeing a team of over 800 professionals globally before relocating to the UAE. His expertise on the interface between customs valuation, VAT, and the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism gives him a distinctive vantage point on how GCC manufacturers and exporters to the EU are adapting to overlapping trade and tax requirements.

He was recognised as a Highly Regarded Practitioner by International Tax Review for the UAE. His public commentary reflects a practitioner who moves across customs, trade, and tax with equal fluency.

10. Antonio Tapia

A Transfer Pricing Partner at KPMG Lower Gulf with over 15 years of experience across Western Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East, Tapia heads the UAE transfer pricing practice and manages TP audits across Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, and Egypt. He previously spent a decade at PwC across its Dubai and Sydney offices before joining KPMG. His role managing audits across four jurisdictions simultaneously reflects a genuinely regional scope that is unusual among TP practitioners.

His KPMG publications on UAE TP documentation requirements and Pillar Two interactions are among the most technically detailed publicly available. He spoke at Gulf Tax Day at the DIFC Academy on value chain analysis and transfer pricing documentation.

11. Nithya Srinivasan

The founder and CEO of VSTN Consultancy, a global transfer pricing firm with offices in India and Dubai, Srinivasan was named Middle East Transfer Pricing Practice Leader of the Year at the ITR Middle East Tax Awards 2025, and VSTN received the Best Newcomer in the Middle East award from International Tax Review in the same year. Recognised as a Highly Regarded Practitioner by ITR, she has over 20 years of TP experience including senior roles at Big Four firms in the UAE, UK, and US.

Her firm's inverse-pyramid structure, where senior leadership is directly involved in all client matters, has positioned VSTN as a quality-focused alternative to the Big Four for clients seeking partner-level engagement on TP. She publishes regular technical updates on Indian and MENA transfer pricing developments through VSTN's alert series, including detailed analysis of Pillar Two GIR filing requirements.

12. Dr. Jigna Sampath

A partner at KPMG Saudi Arabia leading Transfer Pricing and Financial Services Tax, Sampath holds a PhD and MA in Economics and previously served as Regional Head of Transfer Pricing for Middle East, North Africa, and Turkey at HSBC Bank in Dubai. Her in-house experience at a major global bank, combined with over 15 years at Big Four firms across the UAE, UK, and US, gives her a depth of perspective on how large financial institutions manage TP obligations in practice rather than in theory.

Her appointment at KPMG Saudi Arabia was specifically designed to strengthen the firm's TP capability for the financial services sector in the Kingdom at a time when ZATCA's enforcement of TP obligations for banks and investment firms is intensifying.

13. Alex Law

The M&A Tax Leader for Deloitte Middle East, Law has over 20 years of Deloitte experience across the UK, Central Europe, and the UAE, having relocated to the region in 2008. He leads complex tax advisory engagements for large multinationals, regional sovereign wealth funds, and family-owned businesses on M&A transactions and tax structuring. He was named a Notable Practitioner by International Tax Review for the UAE.

His combination of UK, Central European, and UAE experience makes him one of the more internationally rounded M&A tax advisors in the region, at a time when cross-border deal activity in the GCC is growing rapidly.

14. Hany Elnaggar

The partner and Tax and Compliance Leader at Acquisory in Dubai, Elnaggar has over 25 years of experience across the GCC, MENA, Turkey, and Africa, covering direct and indirect taxation, international tax planning, transfer pricing, CbC reporting, BEPS, and VAT. He previously served at WTS Dhruva Consultants and before that held senior positions at Novartis, ACWA Power, Ericsson, and PwC, as well as an earlier role at the Egyptian Tax Authority. His June 2026 analysis in International Tax Review, examining how the OECD global minimum tax is reshaping the GCC's investment incentive landscape, was one of the clearest assessments available of Pillar Two's structural implications for regional governments and investors.

His combination of tax authority background, in-house corporate experience, and advisory expertise gives him a practical credibility that bridges the gap between how tax rules are designed and how they are actually lived inside large organisations.

Saudi Arabia and Vision 2030 Tax Voices

Saudi Arabia's tax transformation combines a well-established Zakat and income tax framework with an increasingly sophisticated ZATCA enforcement apparatus, ongoing VAT evolution, major transfer pricing reform, and a Vision 2030 incentive structure built around regional headquarters, special economic zones, and sector-specific tax benefits. These voices are closest to the Saudi story.

15. Muhammad Bahemia

The Middle East Tax Leader at Deloitte, Bahemia oversees one of the largest tax practices in the region with over 31 years of experience. He led the KSA Tax Conference across Jeddah, Al Khobar, and Riyadh in October 2025, covering corporate income tax, Zakat, indirect tax, Pillar Two, and the new incentive regimes shaping the Kingdom's post-Vision 2030 business environment. His February 2026 commentary on GCC organisations adopting Generative AI in tax functions noted that many organisations are still navigating how to move from pilots to scalable impact, a challenge requiring governance discipline as much as technical capability.

16. Asim Sheikh

The Saudi Arabia Tax Market Segment Leader at EY, Sheikh is the most consistently visible EY voice on Saudi tax developments, regularly leading the firm's Annual Tax and Zakat Seminar across Riyadh and Jeddah. His discussions of Saudi Arabia's tax framework transformation in the context of Vision 2030 reflect an understanding of how the Kingdom's tax system is being used as an active instrument of economic diversification rather than simply a revenue collection mechanism. His sustained presence across EY's Saudi Arabia tax alerts covers ZATCA developments, Zakat regulation amendments, and transfer pricing enforcement with regularity.

17. Ricardo Cruz

The Saudi Arabia International Tax and Transaction Services and Transfer Pricing Leader at EY, Cruz brings specialist expertise in TP advisory, financial modelling, and cross-border tax planning. His technical commentary on Saudi Arabia's RHQ tax rules, income tax law amendments, and the interaction between Zakat and corporate income tax obligations reflects a depth of engagement with the specific regulatory architecture of the Kingdom. His academic background in economics, combined with his experience across international TP engagements, positions him at the intersection of quantitative rigour and practical client application.

18. Nasser Al Sagga

A Highly Regarded Practitioner for Saudi Arabia at Deloitte recognised by International Tax Review in the 2024 World Tax Guide, Al Sagga leads the firm's KSA tax advisory for some of the most significant Saudi and multinational clients in the Kingdom. His ITR recognition reflects peer and client assessments that place him among the most credible independent evaluations of practitioner quality in the Saudi market.

19. Hadeel Biyari

A Notable Practitioner for Saudi Arabia at Deloitte recognised by International Tax Review, Biyari contributes to the firm's KSA practice with expertise across the increasingly complex intersection of Zakat, income tax, and transfer pricing. Her recognition in the ITR rankings reflects the kind of deep local knowledge and international framework understanding that ZATCA's expanding enforcement is making commercially essential.

20. Joe Pacelli

The Head of Tax at KPMG Middle East, Pacelli leads one of the region's largest Big Four tax practices with over two decades of experience gained at KPMG, EY, and Deloitte across Switzerland, Russia, and the UAE. He spoke at the 2025 KPMG MESAC Tax Summit in Riyadh as part of a panel on the evolving tax policy horizon, discussing how regional tax leaders should think about prioritising attention across divergent viewpoints. His leadership of KPMG's Middle East tax teams through the first UAE corporate tax compliance season reflected a management challenge requiring as much organisational capability as technical expertise.

Broader GCC and MENA Jurisdiction Voices

Qatar is implementing Pillar Two rules from 2025, Oman is rolling out e-invoicing, Bahrain is preparing for a corporate income tax, Egypt is deepening reform, and Kuwait is increasingly engaged with the OECD framework. These voices cover the broader GCC and MENA landscape beyond the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

21. Barbara Henzen

The Partner and Head of Tax at KPMG Qatar, Henzen has over 20 years of international tax experience across Arthur Andersen, EY in Switzerland, and KPMG. Her commentary on Qatar's tax landscape in the Oxford Business Group's Qatar 2025 report, covering DMTT, transfer pricing requirements, and the anticipated VAT introduction in 2026, provided one of the clearest English-language overviews available for international investors. One of the few women at the partnership level leading a national tax practice in the GCC, her perspective on both the technical and institutional dimensions of Qatari tax is informed by a career spanning European and Gulf markets.

22. Aabha Lekhak

The Partner and Head of Tax at KPMG Oman, Lekhak moderated the transfer pricing session at the 2025 KPMG MESAC Tax Summit in Riyadh, discussing the evolving compliance landscape for multinational enterprises. She leads KPMG's tax practice in Oman at a moment when the Sultanate is accelerating its digital tax transformation with a phased e-invoicing programme scheduled to begin in August 2026, and its VAT regime continues to mature. Her combination of corporate and indirect tax expertise across multiple GCC jurisdictions makes her one of the most practically grounded voices on Omani tax.

23. Sajid Khan

The Tax and Legal Services Leader in Qatar at PwC Middle East, Khan has led PwC's tax advisory services for major Qatar-based clients through the country's transition to a more sophisticated tax environment incorporating DMTT, transfer pricing compliance, and the approaching VAT introduction. His November 2024 commentary at PwC's Annual Qatar Tax and Regulatory Seminar emphasised that in an ever-evolving tax landscape, companies must grasp the full implications of developments ahead rather than simply reacting to them.

24. Ali Al-Mahroos

The Partner and Bahrain Tax Market Segment Leader at EY, Al-Mahroos is the primary EY voice on Bahraini tax at a historically significant moment. Bahrain referred a draft ten percent corporate income tax law to its legislative authorities in December 2025, and is implementing a Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax for large multinationals. His February 2025 statement at EY's Bahrain Annual Tax Seminar captured the drivers of this transformation, framing Bahrain's DMTT and expected CIT as reflecting the Kingdom's commitment to economic diversification and alignment with global tax trends. He posts regularly on LinkedIn on Bahrain and GCC developments, providing practitioners with practical orientation on a framework in transition.

25. Maged Elmenyawi

The Tax Partner at KPMG Egypt, Elmenyawi presented on Egyptian corporate tax at the 2025 KPMG MESAC Tax Summit in Riyadh, situating Egypt's tax reform trajectory within the broader GCC context. Egypt occupies a distinct position in the MENA tax landscape as an oil-importing economy with a more mature income tax system that is nonetheless undergoing significant reform aligned with international practices, including a maturing transfer pricing landscape, VAT evolution, and ongoing engagement with the OECD framework. His regional platform at KPMG gives him visibility across both Egyptian domestic and broader MENA advisory markets.

26. Saleh Rewaished

The Head of Tax at KPMG Egypt, Rewaished leads KPMG's Egyptian tax practice across corporate tax, VAT, and advisory services for major domestic and multinational clients. Under his leadership, KPMG Egypt has published regular tax alerts covering Egyptian income tax developments, VAT circular cancellations, and international tax implications for inbound and outbound investment. Egypt's growing importance in the MENA tax conversation reflects its size, its long-standing income tax framework, and the increasing international interest in its market as a base for regional headquarters.

27. Zubair Patel

The Head of Tax at KPMG Kuwait and Head of the KPMG MESAC Tax Steering Group, Patel brings over 20 years of professional experience from the UK and the Middle East to his role coordinating tax strategy and service delivery across the Middle East, South Asia, and Caspian region. He advises major Kuwait-based groups on outbound investment structures, M&A tax due diligence, and tax treaty planning, and is a member of both ICAEW and the Kuwait chapter of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. His appointment as Head of the MESAC Tax Steering Group reflects the breadth of his regional reach.

Tax Technology, Digital Transformation, and Innovation Leaders

The convergence of AI, e-invoicing mandates, digital reporting requirements, and automated compliance platforms is reshaping how tax functions operate across the region. These voices lead the most active public conversations on what the digital transformation of tax means in practice for Middle Eastern businesses.

28. Pierre Arman

A Managing Director at Alvarez and Marsal Tax in Dubai leading the firm's tax technology and e-invoicing practice, Arman is one of the region's foremost experts on the operational and strategic dimensions of e-invoicing implementation. He was involved in rolling out e-invoicing in Saudi Arabia, and previously at EY where he introduced proprietary SaaS for VAT reporting and e-invoicing globally. His February 2026 near-real-time analysis of the UAE Ministry of Finance's new e-invoicing guidelines exemplified the kind of immediate, operationally precise commentary that practitioners need when facing live regulatory change. He holds the CIOT Diploma in Tax Technology.

His posts consistently provide practitioners with the operational clarity that policy documents alone rarely deliver, covering the UAE e-invoicing model, Peppol standards, accredited service provider selection, and the business continuity risks of delayed preparation.

29. Diana Caceres

An e-invoicing advisor at Liwa Analytics who has been at the forefront of tax technology in the GCC since 2015, Caceres played a key role in the Saudi Arabia e-invoicing implementation during her tenure at Thomson Reuters, and also led VAT software development for the GCC's VAT rollout. Her presentation at the Tax Technology Summit 2025, where Phase 1 of GCC e-invoicing going live was a central topic, reflected implementation-level expertise that advisory firms without her background in system architecture find difficult to replicate. Her career combines government-facing and corporate-facing technology implementation in a way that gives her a distinctive dual perspective on what actually works when e-invoicing mandates go live.

30. Nimish Makvana

A Senior Partner at Crowe UAE and Founding President of the Taxation Society UAE, Makvana is one of the most active conveners of the UAE tax community, having built the Taxation Society into an organisation spanning over 200 member nationalities. Its events regularly attract more than 200 professionals including CFOs, tax advisors, and industry leaders, hosting flagship conferences on UAE corporate tax, e-invoicing readiness, Pillar Two compliance, and private wealth strategy. He received the Pride of UAE Icons 2026 Award at the Global Business Symposium in February 2026. His public profile combines senior partner-level technical tax expertise with a sustained commitment to accessible, community-level tax education.

31. Nitin Agarwal

The Director of Indirect Tax Operations at Majid Al Futtaim Holding, Agarwal won the ITR EMEA In-House Indirect Tax Leader of the Year award in 2025 and was named in ITR's Global Tax 50 for 2025. In his November 2025 ITR feature interview, he articulated that the exceptional in-house indirect tax leader acts as a bridge connecting tax with business, policy with practice, and technology with people, and that when the why is clear, the how becomes much easier. His leadership of MAF's group-wide indirect tax function, including the transformation of compliance infrastructure for the UAE e-invoicing mandate, represents some of the most complex in-house indirect tax work in the region.

32. Kalaiarasan Monharan

The Group Tax Director at Noon, one of the region's largest e-commerce platforms, Monharan was featured as a speaker at the Tax Innovation Summit UAE 2025. His in-house role at a major digital commerce platform means he operates at the intersection of UAE corporate tax, VAT, e-invoicing, and the specific challenges of taxing digital transactions at scale, a space being actively shaped by FTA guidance that affects a growing proportion of UAE economic activity. His public engagement reflects the growing sophistication of in-house tax leadership at UAE-headquartered digital economy companies.

33. Seema Sharma

The Group Head of Tax at Network International, one of the region's largest payment technology companies, Sharma was featured as a speaker at the Tax Innovation Summit UAE 2025. Her in-house role at a payments technology company operating across the Middle East and Africa places her at the frontier of the VAT and corporate tax challenges accompanying the rapid growth of digital payments infrastructure. Her public engagement on tax innovation reflects the increasingly senior position that in-house tax leadership occupies at UAE-headquartered technology companies as their obligations have grown toward full corporate tax, transfer pricing, and Pillar Two governance.

Academic, Policy, and Research Voices

The most rigorous intellectual architecture for Middle East tax strategy comes from a small but growing group of academic and policy voices whose work informs regulatory design, investment frameworks, and the analytical tools practitioners use. These are the voices providing the systematic thinking behind what practitioners implement.

34. Mario Mansour

A senior official in the IMF's Fiscal Affairs Department who co-edited the landmark 2026 publication Taxation in the Middle East and North Africa: Prospects and Possibilities, Mansour has provided tax policy advice to governments across the MENA region for decades. His 2023 IMF Working Paper, co-authored with Eric Zolt, on personal income taxes in MENA provided one of the most comprehensive assessments of how PIT systems have evolved and where they might go over the next two decades. The 2026 IMF volume he co-edited with Shafik Hebous represents the most authoritative academic survey of MENA taxation produced to date.

His research shapes the analytical vocabulary within which regional tax reform is understood by policymakers, multilateral institutions, and the practitioners who advise governments on system design.

35. Shafik Hebous

The Deputy Division Chief in the IMF's Fiscal Affairs Department and co-editor of the 2026 IMF MENA taxation book alongside Mario Mansour, Hebous leads capacity development work in tax policy while maintaining an active research agenda covering multinational taxation, VAT efficiency, cryptocurrency taxation, and the global minimum tax. His January 2026 paper on Pillar Two for low-tax jurisdictions, examining implications for countries competing on corporate tax rates, is directly relevant to GCC policymakers navigating how to maintain investment attractiveness while meeting OECD standards. He holds a PhD in Economics from Goethe University Frankfurt, speaks Arabic and German, and maintains an active personal website cataloguing his published research.

36. Dr. Pallavi Kishore

The Head of Accounting and Finance at Middlesex University Dubai and Academic Co-Chair of the Aurifer GCC Tax Certificate programme, Kishore holds a PhD in Economics from Middlesex University London, is a Fellow of ACCA, and holds the UAE Chartered Accountant designation. She co-chairs the programme alongside Thomas Vanhee of Aurifer and Dr. Giorgio Beretta of the University of Amsterdam, bringing leading practitioners and academics together to deliver a systematic foundation in UAE and GCC tax law. Her role at the intersection of tax education, economic research, and practitioner development in the UAE represents one of the few rigorous academic structures for GCC tax education available to practitioners in the region.

37. Dr. Giorgio Beretta

An Assistant Professor at the Amsterdam Law School and member of the Amsterdam Centre for Tax Law, Beretta co-teaches the Aurifer GCC Tax Certificate programme and co-authored published academic work on UAE tax topics with Thomas Vanhee, including analysis of immovable property income taxation in the UAE. His primary research agenda covers VAT, digital taxation, and the conceptual architecture of indirect tax systems. He acts as editor of a monthly selection of articles for Highlights and Insights on European Taxation and serves as a Visiting Professor at NOVA School of Law in Lisbon. His contribution to the GCC programme provides a link between the rigorous European academic tax law tradition and the specific practical application demanded by the Gulf context.

38. Dr. Carole Nakhle

The founder and CEO of Crystol Energy, Secretary General of the Arab Energy Club, and contributor to the 2026 IMF MENA taxation volume, Nakhle co-authored the chapter on taxation of upstream oil and gas and the implications of carbon levies for the MENA region, examining how petroleum fiscal systems need to evolve as carbon pricing and energy transition policies affect hydrocarbon producers' competitiveness and government revenues. Her book Petroleum Taxation: Sharing the Wealth, published by Routledge, remains a standard reference for practitioners and policymakers working on hydrocarbon fiscal regimes.

Born in Lebanon and educated at the University of Surrey, she was honoured at the Arab Women Awards 2025 and received the Energy Institute Fellowship in 2020. Her public commentary on the intersection of energy policy, carbon taxation, and the geopolitics of energy transition makes her the most globally recognised MENA voice on the fiscal dimension of the region's energy sector transformation.

Private Client, In-House, and Financial Services Tax Leaders

The growth of the UAE as a global wealth management hub and the specific tax challenges facing financial services organisations operating across the region have produced a cohort of practitioners whose expertise sits at the intersection of private client advisory, financial institution tax, and in-house corporate governance.

39. Mohamed El-Swefy

A Managing Director at Alvarez and Marsal Tax in Dubai leading the firm's financial services tax practice, El-Swefy has over 26 years of experience spanning 21 years at HSBC as Head of Tax in Egypt and then Regional Head of Tax for MENAT, followed by a partnership at KPMG Saudi Arabia before joining Alvarez and Marsal. His combination of in-house banking experience and Big Four advisory credentials at the senior level makes him one of the most credible voices in the region on the tax challenges specific to banks, insurers, and financial institutions navigating UAE corporate tax, Pillar Two, and the specific challenges of financial services VAT treatment.

His February 2026 appointment to build Alvarez and Marsal's dedicated financial services tax offering in the UAE reflected the firm's recognition that the banking sector's specific tax challenges require a dedicated specialist practice rather than coverage within a general corporate tax team.

40. Vishal Sharma

The Managing Director at Alvarez and Marsal Tax in Dubai who launched the firm's Middle East tax practice in 2023, Sharma spent nine years in Deloitte's Middle East International Tax Services group in Dubai, where he served as an M&A Tax Partner. His founding role at Alvarez and Marsal Tax in the region, which has since expanded to include dedicated practices in financial services, e-invoicing, and KSA, reflects an entrepreneurial orientation that has allowed the firm to position itself as a conflict-free alternative to the Big Four for clients requiring independent tax advice on significant transactions.

His commentary at the time of the Alvarez and Marsal Middle East launch, noting that the region's tax landscape was evolving at unprecedented pace, has proved prescient given the scale of change that has unfolded since 2023.

41. Michael Towler

A Highly Regarded Practitioner for the UAE at Deloitte recognised by International Tax Review in the 2024 World Tax Guide, Towler contributes to Deloitte's UAE tax practice with expertise that placed him among the region's most independently recognised practitioners. His recognition in the ITR rankings, alongside other Deloitte UAE partners, reflects the depth and breadth of the Deloitte Middle East practice across multiple areas of UAE tax advisory. His work spans complex advisory engagements for major UAE-based and multinational clients navigating the post-2023 corporate tax landscape.

42. Samer Hijazi

The Partner and Head of Financial Services at Grant Thornton UAE, Hijazi actively posts on UAE R&D tax credit implementation, stablecoin taxation, and the intersection of digital assets and UAE corporate tax. His March 2026 LinkedIn post on the R&D Tax Credit framework published by the UAE Ministry of Finance, citing the specific ministerial decision and its effective date, was an example of the kind of timely, precise regulatory analysis that practitioners in the financial services and digital assets space rely on. His work building Grant Thornton's financial services practice in the UAE sits at the intersection of tax, digital finance, and regulatory compliance.

Independent and Mid-Tier Voices

Beyond the Big Four and major advisory firms, a cohort of boutique firm founders, independent practitioners, and specialist advisors are building some of the most distinctive and accessible public presences in Middle East tax. These are voices bringing practitioner rigour to the emerging mid-market and beyond.

43. Dr. Abhishek Jajoo

The Founding Partner and CEO of AJMS Group, a boutique consulting firm headquartered in the UAE with a presence across 14 cities in ten countries, Jajoo combines tax advisory with risk management, ESG, FinTech, and digital transformation consulting. His firm is an AML Advisor to Dubai Economy and has been recognised as a Superbrand and World's Greatest Brand across multiple cycles. He was named among the Top Arab FinTech, RegTech, and ESG Leaders by The Arab Leaders for 2025.

His public commentary on UAE corporate tax, e-invoicing, and the intersection of tax with digital innovation positions AJMS as one of the more visible boutique advisors in the UAE market for mid-market and growth-stage businesses. His willingness to engage publicly on topics spanning tax, technology, and regulation gives him a breadth of perspective that few single-discipline practitioners can match.

44. Naveen Sharma

The Co-founder and Chairman of the Taxation Society UAE, Sharma built the organisation alongside Nimish Makvana into one of the UAE's most active professional associations for tax practitioners, hosting flagship conferences on e-invoicing, corporate tax, and private wealth strategy. His commentary at Taxation Society events has addressed the importance of collaborative action across finance, tax, and technology functions in navigating the UAE's digital tax transformation. The Taxation Society's events regularly attract over 200 professionals including CFOs, tax advisors, and industry leaders, making it one of the primary convening platforms for the UAE tax community outside the Big Four.

45. Anan Sijini

A Corporate Tax Partner at KPMG Saudi Arabia, Sijini has been building the firm's advisory capability on UAE corporate tax implications for Saudi-based multinational groups since the 2023 UAE CT introduction. He presented at the 2025 KPMG MESAC Tax Summit in Riyadh, contributing to panel discussions on the evolving KSA corporate tax landscape and Pillar Two readiness. His focus on the interaction between Saudi Zakat, income tax, and the new international tax standards provides a practitioner perspective directly relevant to the large number of Saudi family businesses with UAE holding structures.

His work at KPMG KSA reflects the increasing specialisation required in the Saudi market, where practitioners need to understand both the domestic Zakat and income tax framework and the international overlay being introduced through ZATCA enforcement and Pillar Two adoption.

46. Nauman Ahmed

A former Middle East Tax Leader at Deloitte Saudi Arabia with over 25 years of experience in the region, Ahmed built one of the most active and widely respected tax advisory practices in the Kingdom during his tenure. He led Deloitte's KSA tax business through the early phases of ZATCA's expanded enforcement mandate and the development of the Kingdom's transfer pricing regulatory framework, giving him a foundational understanding of how the current Saudi tax architecture was actually built rather than simply how it operates today.

His deep institutional knowledge of Saudi tax practice and regulatory development continues to inform the advisory community in the Kingdom, and his career arc reflects the senior leadership pipeline that the region's rapidly growing tax function has produced over the past decade.

47. Estella Dzhantukhanova

A Tax Partner at KPMG Lower Gulf who joined the firm from Deloitte in mid-2025, bringing significant M&A tax expertise developed across transactions in the UAE and broader GCC market. Her background at Deloitte, where she built experience across cross-border M&A structuring and due diligence for major regional transactions, combined with her move to KPMG's growing UAE M&A tax team, positions her at the intersection of the two most significant mid-2020s developments in UAE tax: the post-CT transaction structuring environment and the growing demand for independent advice on deal-related tax.

Her public engagement on LinkedIn on M&A tax implications of UAE corporate tax and Pillar Two reflects a practitioner building a public voice in a space where demand for technical clarity is growing rapidly.

Notable Voices We Almost Included

Several practitioners made a compelling case for inclusion and deserve acknowledgement. The GCC tax space includes a substantial pool of capable advisors across Bahrain, Jordan, and Lebanon whose public profile is developing rapidly. Practitioners at PwC Middle East beyond Sajid Khan, particularly within the UAE and KSA practices, regularly produce high-quality technical commentary but fell outside the final selection given concentration rules. The IMF's broader Fiscal Affairs Department team working on MENA issues beyond Mansour and Hebous includes several researchers whose work is worth tracking. E-invoicing specialists at technology vendors serving the GCC market represent an emerging category of practitioner voice. As the region's tax professional community continues to grow and the LinkedIn culture among GCC tax practitioners matures, the pool of publicly active voices will expand significantly over the next two to three years.

Common Mistakes When Navigating Middle East Tax

The single most common mistake organisations make when entering or expanding in the Middle East is treating the region's tax transformation as a compliance project rather than a governance challenge. Installing a compliance calendar and filing on time is necessary but entirely insufficient. The organisations running into difficulty in 2026 are those that adopted the letter of UAE corporate tax obligations without building the internal governance structures, intercompany agreement frameworks, and transfer pricing documentation that the regime expects as a baseline. ZATCA audit activity in Saudi Arabia has repeatedly revealed the same gap: technical compliance coexisting with governance architectures designed for a pre-tax era.

A second common mistake is underestimating the pace of regulatory change. The UAE Ministry of Finance has released significant interpretive guidance, public clarifications, and ministerial decisions at a pace that makes it difficult even for dedicated tax professionals to stay current, let alone CFOs and general counsel with broad responsibilities. Organisations that relied on a one-time implementation project in 2023 and assumed the framework was stable have found themselves blindsided by subsequent developments including the DMTT introduction, the e-invoicing rollout timeline, and evolving FTA audit methodologies.

A third mistake is applying GCC-level generalisations to jurisdiction-specific rules. The GCC countries have chosen meaningfully different approaches to Pillar Two, with the UAE adopting DMTT as its primary mechanism, Qatar enacting domestic law directly, and Bahrain and Kuwait still in legislative process. Free zone treatment varies significantly by jurisdiction, as do the substantive conditions for qualifying income status. Practitioners operating across multiple GCC countries simultaneously need jurisdiction-specific advice, not a single regional framework applied uniformly.

The fourth common mistake is conflating availability of international advisors with availability of the right advisor. The region has a large number of practitioners with UAE VAT experience and a much smaller number with deep UAE corporate tax experience built specifically in the UAE rather than imported from other jurisdictions. Transfer pricing expertise developed in the US, UK, or Australia translates to the GCC context but requires adaptation for the specific ZATCA enforcement approach, the UAE CT free zone rules, and the domestic sourcing rules that differ meaningfully from OECD member country norms.

A fifth mistake is ignoring the intersection of tax and leadership. Major tax transformation requires decisions to be made quickly, clearly, and consistently across finance, operations, legal, and board-level governance. Organisations where the tax function lacks the communication frameworks and decision-making authority to brief the board and align the business on material tax positions are systematically slower to respond to regulatory change and more exposed in audit situations. Book Jonno White to facilitate the executive alignment conversation that allows your leadership team to translate expert tax guidance into decisive organisational action at jonno@consultclarity.org.

Implementation Guide: Acting on Middle East Tax Thought Leadership

The most practical way to use a directory like this one is to begin by mapping the specific jurisdiction and tax type challenges most pressing for your organisation. If the primary exposure is UAE VAT and e-invoicing readiness, the practitioners most immediately relevant are those who have led e-invoicing implementations in real time: Pierre Arman, Diana Caceres, Thomas Vanhee, and Keith Donegan provide the most detailed and up-to-date public commentary. If the challenge is UAE corporate tax structuring for a multinational group, Mohamed Serokh, Janet Gooi, and Justin Whitehouse reflect the most rigorous publicly available thinking on the interaction between corporate tax, free zone qualification, and Pillar Two. If the challenge is ZATCA compliance in Saudi Arabia, Asim Sheikh, Ricardo Cruz, and Muhammad Bahemia are the most visible public voices on the Kingdom's enforcement environment.

For organisations navigating multiple jurisdictions simultaneously, the comparative GCC picture requires practitioners who operate across borders. Zubair Patel at KPMG Kuwait, Antonio Tapia across his four-jurisdiction TP audit portfolio, and Hany Elnaggar at Acquisory with his GCC, MENA, and Africa experience all reflect the kind of regional scope that is difficult to find in practitioners whose experience is concentrated in a single country.

The academic voices on this list, particularly Mario Mansour, Shafik Hebous, and Dr. Carole Nakhle, offer something different from practitioner commentary. Their work provides the policy architecture within which current developments are best understood: why GCC governments are making the specific choices they are making, where international pressure from the OECD and IMF is shaping domestic decisions, and what the long-term trajectory of MENA taxation is likely to look like. Organisations with a medium to long-term strategic interest in the region benefit from reading this work directly.

LinkedIn is the most practical channel for staying current with most practitioners on this list. Setting up a curated feed tracking the most actively posting voices, including Vanhee, Donegan, Serokh, Arman, Al-Mahroos, and Agarwal, provides a low-friction way of staying on top of regulatory developments without relying on advisor newsletters alone. The Taxation Society UAE events calendar is a practical supplement for practitioners based in the UAE who want structured professional development alongside the informal learning that LinkedIn provides.

For leadership teams managing the internal dimension of tax transformation, the challenge is rarely purely technical. The most common failure mode is not a gap in technical understanding but a failure to translate external expertise into internal alignment and action. Jonno White works with executive teams to build the communication, accountability, and alignment frameworks that allow organisations to act on expert guidance rather than simply commission it. Email jonno@consultclarity.org.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who are the most influential tax strategy thought leaders in the Middle East?

The most influential tax strategy voices in the Middle East in 2026 span boutique firm founders, Big Four partners, in-house corporate leaders, IMF researchers, and academics. Thomas Vanhee of Aurifer, Mohamed Serokh of Deloitte, Keith Donegan of KPMG, and Nitin Agarwal of Majid Al Futtaim represent the breadth of the field. The IMF's Mario Mansour and Shafik Hebous provide the most authoritative policy-level analysis. Influence in this space comes from publicly accessible, technically rigorous commentary as much as from formal institutional standing.

What is GCC tax strategy and why does it matter in 2026?

GCC tax strategy in 2026 encompasses corporate income tax compliance in the UAE, Saudi Arabia's ZATCA enforcement regime, transfer pricing obligations across multiple jurisdictions, Pillar Two and DMTT implementation, and the rollout of mandatory e-invoicing. It matters because the GCC has moved from one of the lowest-tax business environments in the world to one requiring institutional-grade tax governance, and organisations that have not built that governance are increasingly exposed to audit risk, transfer pricing challenges, and Pillar Two compliance gaps.

Who are the best tax advisors in Dubai and the UAE?

The most recognised tax advisors in Dubai and the UAE in 2026 include Thomas Vanhee at Aurifer, Janet Gooi at Clyde and Co, Justin Whitehouse at Alvarez and Marsal, Keith Donegan at KPMG, and Anbreen Khan and Mohamed Serokh at Deloitte. For in-house perspectives, Nitin Agarwal at Majid Al Futtaim is the most publicly recognised UAE in-house indirect tax leader. The choice of advisor depends heavily on whether the need is for independent law firm counsel, Big Four compliance advisory, or boutique specialist advice.

What is ZATCA and who are the leading Saudi Arabia tax experts?

ZATCA is the Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority, the Saudi Arabian authority responsible for administering Zakat, income tax, VAT, excise, customs, and transfer pricing. The leading public voices on ZATCA developments in 2026 include Asim Sheikh and Ricardo Cruz at EY, Muhammad Bahemia and Nasser Al Sagga at Deloitte, and Dr. Jigna Sampath at KPMG Saudi Arabia. Thomas Vanhee at Aurifer, who was involved in drafting early Saudi VAT legislation, also provides some of the most technically grounded independent commentary.

How is Pillar Two affecting the GCC?

Pillar Two is affecting the GCC by introducing a 15 percent global minimum tax that applies to multinational groups with consolidated revenues exceeding 750 million euros, disrupting the region's historic use of tax-free or low-tax zones as investment attractors. The UAE implemented its Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax from January 2025, Qatar enacted domestic Pillar Two legislation through Law No. 22 of 2024, and Bahrain and Kuwait are in their own legislative processes. The practical effect for businesses is a shift from rate competition toward substance competition: preferential tax treatment is increasingly conditioned on demonstrable economic substance rather than simply location.

Final Thoughts

The Middle East tax landscape in 2026 is one of the most consequential regional tax stories in the world. A region that operated for decades without a broad-based corporate tax system has built, in the space of five years, a multi-layer compliance architecture encompassing corporate income tax, VAT, transfer pricing, Pillar Two, and mandatory e-invoicing, across GCC jurisdictions with meaningfully different implementation choices. The 47 people on this list are not the only important voices, but they are the ones most actively shaping the public conversation in real time.

What they demonstrate collectively is that genuine expertise on this topic is geographically distributed in ways that a focus on the largest firms alone would miss. The boutique practitioners, the in-house leaders at major regional corporations, the IMF researchers, and the academic voices in the GCC tax community represent distinct and valuable angles on a transformation that no single firm or perspective can fully capture.

For more on the global voices shaping tax strategy across all regions, see the blog post 'tax strategy thought leaders in the UK and Europe' at https://www.consultclarity.org/post/tax-strategy-thought-leaders-uk-europe.

The organisational and leadership dimension of this transformation is often the hardest part to get right. Building a tax governance framework that the board understands, creating communication channels between the tax function and the commercial business, and ensuring that the decisions required by a complex multi-jurisdiction tax position are actually made rather than deferred are leadership challenges as much as tax ones. Jonno White, author of Step Up or Step Out (10,000+ copies sold), works with professional services and financial services leadership teams to build the frameworks that allow organisations to act decisively on expert guidance. Book Jonno for a keynote, executive offsite, or workshop at jonno@consultclarity.org. Many organisations find that bringing Jonno in is far more affordable than expected.

About the Author

Jonno White is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator, author of Step Up or Step Out, and leadership consultant who has worked with schools, corporates, and nonprofits around the world. His book Step Up or Step Out has sold over 10,000 copies globally, and his podcast The Leadership Conversations has featured 230+ episodes reaching listeners in 150+ countries. Jonno founded The 7 Questions Movement with 6,000+ participating leaders and achieved a 93.75% satisfaction rating for his Working Genius masterclass at the ASBA 2025 National Conference. Based in Brisbane, Australia, Jonno works globally and regularly travels for speaking and facilitation engagements. Organisations consistently find that international travel is far more affordable than expected.

To book Jonno for your next keynote, workshop, or facilitation session, email jonno@consultclarity.org.

Sources

EY Tax Risk and Controversy Survey 2025. UAE Federal Tax Authority Annual Report 2024. IMF Fiscal Affairs Department (2026), Taxation in the Middle East and North Africa: Prospects and Possibilities. International Tax Review Middle East Tax Awards 2025. KPMG Bahrain GCC Tax News, January 2026.

Next Read

The Middle East sits within a broader global shift toward greater tax transparency, Pillar Two adoption, and digital enforcement. For the global picture of who is shaping tax strategy conversations beyond the Middle East, the blog post '50 Essential Global Thought Leaders on Tax Strategy' provides a comprehensive directory of the voices leading that conversation internationally. It covers academic, practitioner, policy, and in-house perspectives across multiple regions and disciplines, and sits alongside this Middle East edition as a companion resource.

Keep reading: https://www.consultclarity.org/post/global-thought-leaders-tax-strategy