Nicholas Williams

Nicholas Williams is a Partner at Stanton Chase Dubai, leading the Energy, Resources, and Mining practice for the office across the Middle East and North Africa.

Nicholas has worked with and advised international oil companies and mining companies in the United Arab Emirates, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the US, alongside the sovereign investment offices and private equity investors active in the sector, on HR strategy, M&A transactions, and the associated senior executive and board-level leadership. His work spans upstream exploration and production, midstream and infrastructure, downstream refining and petrochemicals, and the gas, chemicals, and low-carbon platforms increasingly central to the region’s energy transition.

He previously built and led a Big Four consulting firm’s HR Strategy and Transactions practice across MENA, advising boards and C-suite executives on leadership assessment, organizational design, and HR due diligence and integration through complex regional and cross-border transactions. That experience placed him close to the senior leadership decisions now being made at the region’s largest energy groups.

Nicholas brings seventeen years of professional experience, including senior advisory roles in government and industry prior to his move into HR and people consulting. He served as a Non-Executive Director on the board of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development from 2020 to 2026. He holds a Postgraduate Diploma in International Human Resource Management and has completed Executive Education in Mergers and Acquisitions at Imperial College London. He also holds APMG Change Management Practitioner and MSP Programme Manager qualifications, and he is a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD. He served on the advisory board of Brighton College Dubai.

British by nationality and based in Dubai, Nicholas is currently learning Arabic and in his spare time enjoys spinning and keeping active.