BEN HIGGINS

Partner

DUBAI

SPECIALISES IN:

Integrity Due Diligence
Market Entry & Political Risk
Asset Tracing
Investigations

REGIONAL EXPERTISE:

Middle East
Africa
South Asia

PRIOR EXPERIENCE:

Aon, 2016-2018
Stroz Friedberg, 2012-2018
Risk Advisory Group,
2010- 2012
Emirates Foundation (UAE), 2009
Anglo-Arab Organisation, 2007-2009
United Nations (Syria), 2006-2007

EDUCATION:

University of Edinburgh
University of Damascus

LANGUAGES:

French
Arabic

Ben is the Partner in charge of Wallbrook’s Dubai office, from where he oversees integrity due diligence and strategic intelligence assignments across the Middle East, Africa and South Asia. He has particular experience supporting clients in the Gulf states, especially Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Oman (where his father was attached to British Special Forces during the Dhofar War of the 1970s).

Ben’s clients include regional Sovereign Wealth Funds and National Oil Companies, PE firms and private banks, and multinationals spanning healthcare, technology, hospitality, energy, engineering and construction. He also supports the disputes practices of international law firms, advising on global asset tracing as part of debt recovery strategy.

Ben previously managed the Dubai office of US investigations firm Stroz Friedberg, having been part of the Billiter team that sold the company to Stroz Friedberg in 2013 and subsequently grew the department to over 80 professionals globally.

Earlier in his career, Ben worked on the UAE’s Emiratisation initiative in Abu Dhabi, as a graduate trainee with the Anglo-Arab Organisation in London, as an intern for the United Nations in Syria, and as a volunteer English teacher in Ecuador.

Ben holds a master’s degree in History from the University of Edinburgh, where he focused on the Middle East and South Asia, and an Arabic language certificate from the University of Damascus in Syria.