Bob Kohli

bob kohli

Founding Director at SOUL FAMILY BUSINESS ADVISORS

United Arab Emirates

Bio Summary

Bob Kohli is a Director at Soul Family Business Advisors. He has 18+ years of experience in global advisory & consulting, including 4 years at a leading strategy consulting firm Bain & Co, and 8 years as a family business advisor. He also serves as an Independent Board Director for a Saudi-based family conglomerate.

Bob’s specializations include family enterprise governance and change management. He supports families to work through their differences and achieve intergenerational alignment on their future legacy. This includes supporting the development of family constitutions & councils, conflict resolution, next generation coaching & development, and succession planning.

Bob also specializes in business turnarounds and transformations centered around robust governance and change management systems, developed in close collaboration with family owners, board directors and business executives. These include an aligned vision & strategy, strategic management, and performance management. He has worked closely with family business leaders, C-suite executives, and senior management at Fortune 100 companies, through tough periods of change including the 2009 global crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bob has developed a reputation among family boards & business leadership for driving an analytical, performance-based culture in the family and business across areas of strategy, operations, human capital, and finance. His articles have featured in prominent regional papers, magazines and family business platforms and he actively speaks at conferences and on the radio on a variety of family business issues.

Bob holds an MBA from Columbia Business School in New York and a B.S./M.S. in Computer Science. He has obtained Advanced Certificates in Family Business Advisory and Family Wealth Advisory from the renowned Family Firm Institute in Boston. Bob is also an Associate Certified Coach with 250+ coaching hours. He actively mentors next-generation leaders and entrepreneurs.

Employment History

SOUL FAMILY BUSINESS ADVISORS

Founding Director

SOUL FAMILY BUSINESS ADVISORS

2021 - present

Dubai - United Arab Emirates

• Founding Director of Soul FBA, focused on working with family enterprises to install governance structures in areas of family, business, and ownership; also currently serving as Independent Board Director for a regional f ...see more

RTS Global Partners

Managing Partner

RTS Global Partners

2015 - 2020

Dubai - United Arab Emirates

• Key member of advisory leadership team, which drove development of annual business strategy • Supported family clients with family and business governance (see Soul experience above) • Supported RTS owners on inter ...see more

Soul Communications

CEO

Soul Communications

2012 - 2015

Dubai - United Arab Emirates

CEO & Founder / VP, Business Development • Key member of leadership of 30-year family business, with activities ranging from after-market automobile parts trading (Gurdev), an urgent care clinic in USA, mobile products com ...see more

Bain & Company

Case Team Leader

Bain & Company

2008 - present

Dubai - United Arab Emirates

Strategy and Change Management • Lead member of cross Bain-Client team tasked to implement an extensive global re-organization program for the Middle East division of a global Oil & Gas company • Developed turnaround st ...see more

ZS Associates

General Consultant

ZS Associates

2003 - 2006

Chicago, IL, USA

• Led multiple sales force strategy and operations engagements for pharma clients. Areas of expertise include sales force design, alignment, targeting, and business intelligence systems • Selected for leadership team to ...see more

Motorola

Senior Software Engineer

Motorola

1998 - 2002

Schaumburg, IL, USA

• Earned accelerated promotion and awarded two Bravo Awards and a Worldwide Employee Recognition Award for outstanding performance while meeting product/customer deadlines • Senior member of Vx500/VoiceXML development te ...see more

Language Skills

Country Experience

Canada Ghana India Mauritius Netherlands Pakistan Saudi Arabia United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States

Skills

Business

Corporate Strategy,

Growth Strategy,

Innovation Strategy,

New Business Build,

Portfolio Strategy,

Purpose,

Strategic Management,

Strategic Planning,

Business Unit Strategy,

Business Planning,

Corporate Development,

Operating Model,

Scenario Planning,

Change & Implementation,

Transformation Management Office,

Conflict Management,

Balance Scorecard,

KPIs,

Monitoring & Evaluation,

Organizational Excellence,

Performance Management System,

Strategy Execution

Human Resources

Capability Development,

Leadership Development,

Succession Planning

Analysis

Business Intelligence

Finance

Portfolio Management

Industry Experience

Principal Investors

Venture Capital,

Private Equity