Kailash Nagdev

Managing Partner

Kailash Nagdev is a World Expo specialist with more than a decade of experience across the full lifecycle of mega-events, from feasibility studies and bid strategy through delivery and on to legacy. He has held senior commercial and strategic positions on two successful World Expo bids and contributed to the delivery of Expo 2020 Dubai, one of the largest global events at a cost of 16 billion US dollars, which attracted some 24 million visits over 182 days. As Managing Partner at Nuwa he leads the firm's work with Saudi family offices, government-backed entities and international suppliers, advising on the commercial, operational and stakeholder challenges linked to Expo 2030 Riyadh. Kailash played a central role in the success of Riyadh's Expo 2030 bid as a strategic adviser to the Royal Commission for Riyadh City, leading programme development and contributing to the key propositions presented to the Bureau International des Expositions. Earlier he was Senior Vice President of Sales and Analytics at Expo 2020 Dubai, where he led visitation strategy and analytics and headed the special projects team, and designed and delivered the Expo 2020 University Programme, which attracted more than 250 thousand students from 26 countries. Before that he was Chief Executive for the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia at YouGov, and Group Strategy and Operations Director at Falcon and Associates, a Dubai government-linked strategic consultancy, while also serving as senior adviser to the executive committee of the UAE's Expo 2020 bid. He began his career in consulting and analytics at MSCI and NHS England. He holds an MBA with distinction from Alliance Manchester Business School specialising in strategy and finance, and a bachelor's degree in computer science engineering from the University of Mumbai, along with executive programmes at NUS Business School in big data analytics and machine learning.