City of Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa
Global Strategist| B School Faculty| Author| Board Advisor Dr Abdullah Verachia is an internationally recognised strategist, entrepreneur, bestselling author, and advisor who works with boards, CEOs, and governments to navigate disruption, technological change, and geopolitical uncertainty. His work focuses on helping organisations anticipate shifts early, make bold strategic choices, and position themselves ahead of market disruption. He is the Founder and CEO of The Strategists, a strategy advisory firm that partners with senior leadership teams to clarify ambition, confront strategic trade-offs, and build future-ready organisations. The firm works across sectors including financial services, telecommunications, mining, technology, healthcare, consumer industries, and infrastructure — helping leadership teams translate uncertainty into strategic advantage and sustained execution. Abdullah is also an entrepreneur who has co-founded and led several disruptive businesses over the past two decades. Having built and scaled ventures himself, he brings a practitioner’s understanding of growth, execution pressure, organisational complexity, and strategic risk. This combination of advisory, academic, and entrepreneurial experience gives him a distinctive perspective that bridges high-level strategic thinking with the realities of execution and transformation. He serves as Head of Faculty for Strategy, Sustainability and Digital at GIBS and leads the Harvard Business School Senior Executive Programme for Africa. A Harvard Business School alumnus with a PhD focused on strategy, foresight, and dynamic capabilities, Abdullah also serves on numerous boards and advisory bodies. Companies have sought his contribution at board level because of the unique perspective he brings across strategy, disruption, governance, innovation, and long-term growth in turbulent environments. He is frequently invited to advise and facilitate high-stakes strategy conversations with boards, EXCOs, and leadership teams navigating the implications of disruption, AI, geopolitical shifts, competitive transformation, and future growth. He has engaged leadership teams across Africa, the Middle East, Europe, Asia, and North America, working with multinational corporations, investors, policymakers, regulators, and public sector leaders on the future of industries, institutions, and markets. Abdullah’s work helps organisations build the foresight and strategic courage required to shape markets, rather than merely react to them. www.averachia.com | www.thestrategists.co.za
The Harvard Senior Executive Program equips participants with advanced leadership skills and a comprehensive understanding of local, regional, and global markets. As their Program Director for Africa, I oversee an intensive executive development program annually, engaging 45-60 senior leaders across Africa. This program exposes delegates to leading faculty and thought leaders in political economy, leadership, ethics, strategy, innovation, design thinking, and digital. I co-manage all aspects of the program, collaborating closely with renowned global faculty members, including Professor Srikant Datar (current Dean at HBS), Professor Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Professor Sunil Gupta, and Professor Lynn Paine.
“We have moved into a discontinuous, disruptive, digital world, underpinned by rapid disintermediation and sector shifts. This compels us to explore new ways to drive growth n competitiveness of firms and organisations.” (Abdullah Verachia, Founder and Chief Executive of The Strategists). It also requires a different lens in which we build competitive strategy and innovate around our clients. The Strategists is a niche strategy consulting firm, with deep expertise in the areas of strategy and innovation. In a complex and ambiguous world, we help organisations build adaptive and competitive strategies to navigate this complexity. We have helped organisations in a wide variety of sectors and countries around the world Our Service Offering 1. Strategy design and facilitation: The Strategists has designed and facilitated numerous strategy engagements for boards and leadership teams. Our experience in designing numerous strategy interventions in various sectors has given us the roputation for co-crafting world class strategy design, facilitatiin and outputs 2. Amplifying innovation: We have built significant expertise in the interplay between strategy and innovation. If strategy is the map, innovation is the fuel. Using global and local best practice, we help companies design and implement end to end innovation function 3. Advisory: Our team plays an active role in advising organisations in the areas of strategy, public policy, stakeholder engagement, economic and political insights and market positioning 4. Research: Our team plays an active role in conducting timely and relevant research 5. Keynote presentations: Our leaders are widely soght for their cutting edge, relevant and fresh perspectives. We speak globally at conferences, events, business schools and companies. Please visit www.thestrategists.co.za or email [email protected] for more information
Faculty Member specialising in Strategy, global and company trends and innovation Competitiveness and competitive strategy Leads numerous international delegations on global executive programmes to numerous destinations in various countries including China, India, Dubai, Kenya, Germany, Denmark, London, Malaysia, Singapore and the US amongst others. He has led senior executives to these countries and has been hailed for his incredible knowledge and understanding of these markets. The University of Pretoria's Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) is an internationally accredited business school, based in Johannesburg, South Africa's economic hub. For the eighth consecutive year, GIBS has been ranked as one of the top 50 business schools worldwide by the Financial Times’ open executive education survey, the only African business school to make it into this year's top 50.
As the Co-Founder and CEO of The Collective Genius, I have designed and launched several flagship CSI education projects, including: - The Anglo-American/Sowetan Young Communicators Awards - MTN Khuluma National Debate Program - Department of Science and Technology Advancement Debate Program - FirstRand India KhulaSangam Skills Transfer Program - The South African Model United Nations Program. These initiatives collectively reach thousands of learners and teachers annually. I manage and lead teams across South Africa and internationally, overseeing over 250 workshops nationwide. My responsibilities include: → Managing project budgets. → Defining deliverables. → Monitoring task progress. → Collaborating with cross-functional teams to draft project schedules and plans.