Osborne Clarke has named its successor to Simon Beswick as CEO, with infrastructure finance head and OC veteran Omar Al-Nuaimi (pictured) taking over in July 2021.
The move will see Al-Nuaimi succeed Beswick, OC’s inaugural CEO, at the end of his term after eight years in the role. The appointment was announced to partners on Thursday (8 October) by Núria Martín, chair of the international council and managing partner of Osborne Clarke’s Spanish offices.
Al-Nuaimi has been with Osborne Clarke for 25 years having qualified in 1997 and trained there. He has been active in the UK renewable energy scene since its inception and previously led Osborne Clarke’s UK projects, real estate and finance practice for eight years. He has been a member of the UK executive board and also served on the UK’s Partnership Council and the International Council.
Beswick’s international role at OC started in 2000 when he took over the leadership of the firm’s Silicon Valley office shortly after its creation. He was UK managing partner between 2003 and 2014 and became the firm’s first international CEO in 2012.
The firm then had offices in the UK, Germany, Italy and Spain and, under Beswick’s stewardship, went big on international expansion, opening offices in Belgium, China, France, the Netherlands, Singapore and Sweden. It also opened new US offices in San Francisco and New York and formed a relationship with BTG Legal in India.
Beswick said: ‘I have been fortunate to lead a great business for many years and to help OC establish its modern, future-focused presence in a number of international markets, servicing sector clients across a range of advisory, litigation and transactional matters.
‘Over the next months I will be helping to embed our client strategy around the key transformation themes of decarbonisation, digitalisation and urban dynamics. These are global issues and opportunities which clients are looking for guidance on. Covid-19 has thrown into relief how globally interconnected we all are and how vitally important, for example, digitalisation is if organisations are to maximise efficiency and resilience.’
Al-Nuaimi said: ‘Every market is different and each office is at a different stage of maturity, but we bring a unique and consistent culture to our clients and our people. We have some truly exciting plans for our next phase, focused on universal themes that our clients enjoy discussing with us, and I am determined to build on everything that Simon has achieved for us and our clients.’
Martín concluded: ‘Congratulations to Omar. We believe he is absolutely the right person to build on Simon’s legacy and take our business to even greater heights.’
OC’s financial results came out in August and proved to be a mixed bag as it recorded a 5% uptick in international revenue to €318m as profit fell amid a year of investment. Nevertheless, the revenue uplift from last year’s €304m was a positive showing and stood out as a 63% increase over five years.
