Selected engagements.

Following the merger of three separate entities, Acenda faced immediate leadership alignment and evaluation hurdles:

• Fragmented Data Sources: Leadership assessments relied on disparate psychometric frameworks (KF 4D, Hogan, Myers-Briggs) sourced from external providers, alongside unstructured 360-degree feedback and annual reviews.
• High-Stakes Integration: The board and incoming CEO required an objective, unified view of 28 executive employees to determine optimal placement and identify capability gaps of the newly formed leadership team of 9 within Acenda.
• Future Looking: The business required substantial transformation to reform an insurance segment that was post growth. For this, the CEO wanted to assess capabilities for the future needs of the business rather than against a pool of historically tested executives.
• Long-Term Succession Needs: Beyond the initial merger, the organisation needed a scalable infrastructure to evaluate the “next 50” leaders and guide ongoing talent development and hiring strategies.

Saigan was deployed as a centralised intelligence layer, acting as a single data lake for all leadership and assessment metrics:

• Multi-Source Ingestion: Seamlessly ingested disparate reporting outputs (Hogan, KF 4D, Myers-Briggs) alongside performance reviews, and turned them into customisable data.
• Strategic Alignment: Mapped individual profiles and team capabilities directly against organisational strategy and specific role requirements.
• Comprehensive Digital Twins: Generated deep behavioural, functional and capability insights at both the individual and enterprise-wide level, highlighting hidden experience gaps and development needs.

• Seamless Post-Merger Assessment: Delivered an objective, data-backed evaluation of the initial 28 leaders across the pre-merged businesses. Carefully down-selected to the resulting Acenda leadership team of ten executives reporting.
• Targeted Executive Search: Leveraged platform intelligence and market mapping insights to successfully drive high-stakes searches for the Deputy CEO, Chief Revenue Officer and Chief People Officer.
• Enterprise Scaling: Expanded successfully from project-based engagement to an annual subscription model, with Saigan now permanently embedded across Acenda’s people team and ongoing talent management systems for its top 50 employees.

As Egypt’s digital banking landscape is nascent following the issuance of digital licences in 2026, the country presents a dynamic environment with a population of 120 million people — over twenty percent of whom are unbanked and sixty percent under the age of thirty. YOMO set out to transform national economic prosperity through financial education and inclusion. The project presented distinct operational demands:

• Greenfield Scale and Ambition: The bank targeted 10 million customers over four years with a self-serve digital proposition, alongside a long-term vision to expand the YOMO brand across North Africa.
• Complete C-Suite Build: YOMO mandated 1805 to build the entire executive leadership team from scratch, covering seven critical functions: CFO, CHRO, CISO, CRO, CTO, Chief Compliance Officer, and Chief Product and Digital Officer.
• Complex Sourcing Parameters: The brief required identifying Egyptian diaspora leaders with appropriate digital banking experience who were culturally aligned with the mission, alongside seasoned international fintech executives capable of operating in an untapped market.

1805 deployed its intelligence platform, Saigan, to execute comprehensive global research:

• Diaspora and Global Intelligence: Saigan mapped and engaged the global Egyptian international banking diaspora, while simultaneously sourcing fintech leadership from international hubs including Kenya, Manila and Europe.
• Multi-Market Curation: 1805 set out to build a diverse, multinational executive team with seasoned fintech experience, and to secure top-tier international Egyptian talent to return to the country.
• Permanent Knowledge Transfer: Saigan deposited comprehensive market intelligence directly into the client’s hands during the search process, providing an immediate strategic asset.

• End-to-End Delivery: 1805 successfully appointed the entire executive leadership team within a rapid timeline, running from mandate commencement in November 2025 to full appointment completion by August 2026.
• Multinational Team Construction: The process formed a high-performing executive team comprising British, Swiss, Kenyan, Irish and Egyptian nationals — each bringing proven international scale experience coupled with deep local context and financial inclusion expertise.
• Ongoing Platform Integration: The engagement established an evergreen intelligence asset, with active discussions to embed Saigan directly into YOMO’s internal talent acquisition infrastructure.

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