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About THE WHY

The Why is a purpose-driven challenger consultancy, focused on inspiring, defining, and bringing to life a more impactful future.

Principles of our approach

Start With Why

From the get go, we focus on understanding the fundamental reasons behind your ambitions. By collaborating with you and your stakeholders, we ensure that every step is rooted in a clear and compelling 'why'. This shared purpose guides our process, allowing us to define success and track progress effectively. Our tailored research set measurable success indicators to ensure that keep your 'why' at the core of our strategy.

Let’s face it, when you bring together a broad range of stakeholders, there are bound to be some fireworks. Our team jumps into the mess with enthusiasm and embraces the creative chaos without losing sight of ‘the why’. By encouraging bold ideas and different viewpoints, we turn complexity to innovation, chaos into progress, and confusion into solutions.

We believe in delivering results, not just ideas. Our team excels at turning visionary approaches into concrete solutions, fast. By collaborating closely with stakeholders, we ensure every prototype isn't just a concept—it's a game-changer. These prototypes are meticulously tested and iterated upon to arrive at tangible, workable outcomes. This is how we help you go from innovation to impact, guaranteed.

We never hand you something overly visionary, overly dry, or wholly unimplementable. We take stock and realign around the ‘why’ to create the ‘what’, ’who’ and ‘what’s next’. We continuously adjust our approach based on validated insights, crafting outputs that blend bold vision with practical recommendations to leverage findings and advance creative solutions.

A Bit of Backstory

In 2022, after a decade of consulting experience, we set out to create a new breed of consulting that puts our clients and their mission at the heart of everything we do. We work with you, collaborating all the way to create tangible outcomes. We are selective about who we work with, and we work from the heart. Our vision is to be a pioneer of impact consulting, partnering with our clients to innovate for change.

The faces behind The Why...

We built The Why to be LEAN, embracing the multidimensionality of humans and the expertise of our team. We prioritize projects over jobs, collaborating with a core network of talent aligning their passions to make change happen

Melissa Saoudy

I am a sociologist by background and a consultant by trade, working across the GCC for over a decade. I have spent the better part of the last 15 years as an impact advisor, thinker and doer at the nexus of purpose, strategy, and innovation.

As a purpose-driven strategist, I believe in balancing audacity with a healthy dose of pragmatism. In 2022, I founded The Why to not just design programs and strategies, but to deliver with heart to create outcomes that matter.

Alexandra Draycott

I am a foresight and innovation expert with over 20 years experience delivering future focussed change initiatives for governments, corporates and volunteers across the world.

My mission is to help organisations anticipate change and use foresight to take advantage of future challenges and opportunities. Training and upskilling organisations on foresight tools allows organisations to incorporate futures thinking as a daily practice, not just a one-off project.

Nagwa Elkarawy

I am a leading regional resource management advisor, specialist, and consultant with over thirty years of experience in environmental sustainability and circularity.

My mission lies in passing down the torch to younger generations of environmental activists, sharing my knowledge and expertise, and engaging in capability building for them to lead the way to sustainability.

Nathalie Salas

I am a service designer and strategist, enjoying revealing clarity to complex challenges and transforming them into innovative and people-centered solutions.

My passion lies in crafting experiences that simplify and enhance daily interactions with services, but my ambition extends beyond that. I aim to go beyond just services and improve people’s experiences on a systemic level.

Lameen Abdulmalik

I am a a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, with over 20 years of experience in international management working in the UK Government, United Nations and an impactpreneur. I have deep experience in Africa, some in the GCC and the UK.

My mission is to impact one billion people lives positively by helping people and countries to realize their unique potential. I believe that everyone is a leader and should embrace their uniqueness to create positive change.

Ngibuini Mwaura

I am a program strategy leader with over a decade’s experience in education, entrepreneurship and livelihoods NGOs and startups across multiple markets in sub-Saharan Africa. I have more recently begun to build academic and practitioner expertise in viable and equitable grassroots climate initiatives.

I am motivated to help organizations with a mission to improve livelihoods for grassroots communities and mitigate climate change equitably. I facilitate collaborative trainings, workshops and retreats to co-create localized strategies for the African market and the Global South.

Doruk Sardag

I am an experienced executive in management consulting, specializing in strategy and digital transformation. I use deep industry insights and strategic thinking to drive sustainable value for clients, blending analytics with innovation.

I am passionate about empowering others, sparking innovation, and driving meaningful changeMy ultimate goal is to contribute to a future where technology and strategic insights improve community well-being and sustainability worldwide.

Paul Dumble

I am a climate, resource and waste specialist in land-use and supply chain with a lifetime of experience influencing strategically focused change for governments, corporates, institutes and International Organizations across the world.

My mission is to help organisations to anticipate change, use foresight and take advantage of challenges and opportunities. Influencing, developing and implementing organisational base on wide ranging knowledge and experience allows them to incorporate futures thinking as a daily practice, not just a one off project.

Ghenwa Nammour

I am an environmental consultant with a passion for purpose and expertise in research, analysis, coordination and project management. My sweet spot lies at the intersection of climate activism, environmental justice, food sustainability, and animal welfare.

Solving issues of social and environmental equity is an endeavor I always strive to achieve: it is the center point of my interests and my main ambition in all missions I undertake.