About Us
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Phoenix Strategy Consulting
International Development, Financial Risk and Strategy Experts in London, with offices in Nairobi and Mogadishu.
Phoenix Strategy Consulting specialises in international development, banking, risk management and finance, focusing on the development and transformation of capabilities to both deliver and sustain positive long-term change. Our dedication to ensuring the overall prosperity of each of our clients guarantees that we will provide you with an exceptional service across all our areas of specialisation. We have the expertise to deliver complex reform projects on time and budget – across emerging markets, conflict environments and developed economies.
We are a professional financial and development consulting company, and our consulting team harnesses decades of industry experience to help clients of all sizes stay competitive and respond to industry changes by offering expertise in the fields of international development, financial management and control, risk management and conduct, as well as prudential regulatory compliance. We are based in London and have offices in Mogadishu, Somalia, and Nairobi, Kenya.
Rebuilding Somalia
The Founders
Zuleikha Salim Said Managing Director
Zuleikha is a founding partner at Phoenix. She specialises in economic and financial governance, as well as rule of law, institution-building, and the delivery of complex projects in donor and recipient countries. Her expertise draws on nearly two decades of working with poor countries and fragile, post-conflict economies to improve stability in these areas. She has worked with policy makers on major debt and aid reform initiatives in more than 20 countries, including Mexico, India, PDR Lao, UK, France, US, Mozambique, Mali, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, South Africa, Ethiopia, and Somalia.She has worked with bilateral and multilateral bodies in the Global North, such as the UK Parliament and the World Bank. She has also worked in Addis Ababa, Africa’s administrative capital, where she helped to coordinate the work of Africa’s 3 largest multilaterals – African Development Bank, African Union and the UN Economic Commission for Africa. She went on to work with the UN High-Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows in Africa.
Zuleikha returned to her native Somalia in 2014 to lend her efforts to the peace and state-building efforts taking place there. She led the re-establishment of the Ministry of Justice, as well as the establishment of the Joint Implementation Support Unit of the Ministry of Justice and Judiciary, which was responsible for the successful delivery of the first ever Somali-led implementation plan designed to reform the rule of law sector.
In 2015, she worked as a Senior Advisor in a management consulting firm, supporting the Ministry of Finance, the Central Bank, and the Office of the President in Somalia. She was appointed Country Director and Chief of Party in 2016, for a US State Department project aimed at improving supervision and regulatory oversight of the financial sector in Somalia. The programme was based at the Central Bank of Somalia Licensing and Supervision department. Zuleikha also championed the establishment of two new institutions in Somalia: the Financial Reporting Centre, the country’s financial intelligence unit, as well as the Somalia National Anti-Money Laundering Committee.
Zuleikha’s extensive experience has helped her to build a strong network of academics, development practitioners, policymakers, private financial institutions and civil society organisations throughout the globe. She is fluent in six languages, including Somali, English, French and Spanish.
Zuleikha holds an M.Phil. in Development Studies from Keble College, the University of Oxford and an MA and BA (Honors) in Modern and Medieval Languages (French and Spanish), from New Hall College, University of Cambridge.
Our Experts
Typically, our development and financial lead experts have worked on international, large-scale projects, on financial governance, legal and regulatory reform, de-risking AML/CFT material risk entities, including banks, money service business, professional firms and individuals. Our banking experts, for example, have experience in Conduct Risk (Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Assessment and Mitigation Planning), and Prudential Risk (Liquidity, Capital and Systemic Risk, Basel III Reforms). Their expertise also includes Financial Reporting (International Financial Reporting Standards – IFRS); Strategy and Change; Payment and Central Bank Clearing Systems Infrastructure; De-risking programmes, Risk Modelling; Recovery and Resolution Planning; Anti-Financial Crime Strategies; and providing Global Audit Assurance Oversight over risks and controls.
Phoenix experts have also worked closely with a number if global regulators on international Banking Reforms, Risk Mitigation and Regulatory Reporting. Recent engagements included working with national (UK, US, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda), and international/multilateral financial regulators and AML/CFT bodies ( the Financial Action Task Force (global FATF), Middle East and North Africa FATF, the Egmont Group, UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the Egmont Group, as well as international financial institutions like the World Bank and IMF.
In our work in Somalia, we have worked with authorities and businesses in Europe, America, Africa and the Middle East to provide technical expertise to Somalia’s first-ever Financial Intelligence Unit, including putting together the Centre’s strategic Plan on a number of core regulatory areas. Our experts also worked on supporting the Central Bank of Somalia programs on the Three Lines of Defence Risk Modelling, Audit, and Assurance, as well as Payment Systems Infrastructure.
Based in London and Mogadishu, working in the most developed and most fragile economies, we have comprehensive experience in providing our clients with exceptional services, each of which is tailored to meet the specific needs of your private or public industry.
Our carefully chosen network of senior experts have worked in many global financial centres, accumulating decades of experience in delivering and overseeing high-profile, complex projects in all parts of the world. As experts we are comfortable in all operating environments, including conflict areas, as we have built extensive knowledge on how to ensure that we deliver any project according to a pre-determined time and budget.
Led by Zuleikha, our team of highly qualified professionals are able to work with you in any part of the world, offering their expertise across a range of disciplines, including international development, risk management, financial management, project management, compliance, which includes prudential regulatory appliance. We have extensive experience in the industry and are able to cater our services to any client, regardless of their scale or specific needs.
Our most recent work in the financial services sector has allowed us to work with the industry and governments, spanning the global North and South, to ensure that each of our clients has the necessary strategy and ability to respond appropriately to a wide range of industry changes.
In our few months of operation, we have quickly built a global reputation for excellence, and our expertise as a key consulting partner guarantees effective and results across a range of disciplines that will help you adapt to a constantly evolving landscape, and ensure effective long-term growth and sustainability. To find out how Phoenix Strategy Consulting can help you, get in touch with us today.