Arif Hunashi

Arif is highly committed to coaching and mentoring of people at all levels.

Arif has over 20 years experience in executive leadership roles within a diverse range of industries and has been recognized as a high-level performer throughout his career. Developing a strong leadership culture through coaching and mentoring has been key to this success. He has taken his years of coaching practice as a manager to a professional level by becoming an accredited and qualified coach. He is passionate about supporting organizations and individuals to improve both business and leadership performance and to develop talent at all levels.

Arif has delivered significant value in senior executive positions for both leading global multinationals and local family businesses. He has worked in FMCG and Insurance industries and for many years lived and worked throughout the Middle East.

He had an extensive successful career in Unilever, and more recently with Bupa. These roles in a variety of industries, markets and companies have given him a unique understanding of the different managerial and leadership challenges and how to create value in these different environments.

He has a proven track record of delivering results. When with for example while he was the COO, Bupa Arabia reached record high customer satisfaction and medical inflation was half the market medical inflation rate. Over the same period the customer base nearly doubled to 3.5m customers.

Key Positions Held

Chief Operating Officer, Managing Director Distribution, Customer Development Director, Country General Manager.

Core experience 

Orchestrating Multi-functional teams, General Management, Strategy & Strategy into action plans, Cost effectiveness and Efficiency improvement, Team capability building, Change management, Customer service improvement, Health care, Business & Product development, Sales & Marketing, Supply chain, Manufacturing, Engineering.

Executive Coaching Experience

Arif has been an executive coach since 2014. He completed his coaching qualification from CTI (Co-Active Training Institute) which is accredited by the ICF. He started professional coaching part-time while working as COO Bupa, and then full-time when he left to establish his own coaching & consulting business in 2018. He is also a member of the European Mentoring; coaching Council (EMCC).

Examples of his coaching clients include:

  • Chief Sales Officer (FMCG) KSA

  • VP HR (FMCG) KSA

  • VP supply Chain (Medical) KSA

  • General Manager UAE

  • CEO/MD Digital Banking UK Bank

  • CEO Non-for-profit UK

  • Sales Director IT company UK

Education

Arif holds a 1st Class Honours Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering and is a Charted Electrical Engineer. He has an MBA (Distinction) in Marketing, and has attended several professional development programmes, including an Advanced Executive Program at Northwest University Kellogg School of Management.

Continued investment in personal development is important for every coach. Arif is part way through the Advanced Executive Practitioner Diploma offered by the Academy of Executive Coaching institute (AOCE).