Matthew Burnard

Director

  • Middle East and North Africa
  • Political and Economic Risk Monitoring
  • ESG and Sustainable Business

Based in Control Risks Dubai office, Matthew supports public and private sector organisations in the United Arab Emirates and wider Gulf region to assess risks and opportunities for their global investments and activities, enter new markets, and navigate political, reputational and regulatory issues. He also helps companies investing or operating in the MENA region to understand the local political and security context, mitigate risks and solve problems. 

Matthew has also led the design and implementation of embedded geopolitical and security risk intelligence solutions for several of Control Risks’ clients globally.

Recent tasks that Matthew has worked on include:

  • Managing advisory retainers for major US, Japanese and Gulf companies, supporting strategic decision-making by providing expert analysis on geopolitical, regulatory and reputational risks to their global investments and operations.
  • Delivering security threat assessments, scenario forecasting, stakeholder mapping and bespoke problem-solving assignments across the MENA region.
  • Managing a human rights risk assessment for a major multinational logistics company, including assessing and mapping human rights issues across more than 50 countries, benchmarking industry best practices and supporting the developing of a comprehensive company-wide human rights programme.
  • Leading the design, set-up and management of a global threat monitoring team providing 24/7/365 tactical security threat monitoring and intelligence for a global technology company.
  • Being seconded as a strategic advisor to the crisis management team of leading global technology company during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Before joining Control Risks, Matthew was a director at Altai Consulting, where he led research-driven consulting, monitoring and evaluation, and technical assistance projects for public and private sector clients across the Middle East and Africa. He previously worked for PwC in the UAE and the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC.

    Matthew speaks Arabic and holds a BA in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies from Cambridge University and an MA in Arabic and Islamic Studies from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a Thouron Scholar.

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