Stephan Schönwälder

Stephan Schönwälder works with financial services companies in the Middle East and Germany. Stephan lead and helped establish the Dubai office for Russell Reynolds Associates in 2015. Since then, the Dubai location has served as a strategic presence as the Gulf States move from oil and gas into a financial services-based economy. In his client work, Stephan specializes in senior executive and non-executive appointments, as well as leadership mandates across sectors, including financial services, aviation and private equity-company.

Stephan joined RRA from another leading executive search firm where he also focused on businesses in the Middle East. Before that, he was a partner with McKinsey & Co., spending more than 13 years at the firm advising European and Middle Eastern banking and insurance clients. He moved in 2006 from Munich to Dubai to lead a team of more than 20 consultants as head of the company’s Middle East business technology office. Earlier, Stephan spent time in the United States and Germany with Microsoft, where he held product development and marketing roles.