UAE National business leader Amer Al Ahbabi, Chairman of Vertix Holdings, has been appointed to the Business Influencer Council of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business AACSB for the 2026–2027 term. His name appears on the Council roster published by AACSB, alongside members representing Deloitte, PwC, KPMG, SHRM, Harvard Business Publishing, Kyndryl, and The Bank of East Asia.

Founded in 1916, AACSB is the accrediting body whose standards are used to assess business schools worldwide. Less than five percent of business programmes globally are accredited by AACSB. It has more than 2,000 member organisations and more than 1,000 accredited business schools spread across 100+ countries and territories where more than five million students have enrolled. AACSB-accredited schools have addressed significant societal challenges, reporting over 700 initiatives between July 1, 2023 and June 30, 2024 aimed at positively impacting the economy, biosphere, society, and more.

According to its published materials, the Business Influencer Council (BIC) brings the business community into that system, contributing industry perspective on emerging skills and competency gaps, on experiential learning and internships, and on partnerships between employers and business schools.

The purpose of the BIC is to serve as a collaborative partnership for an ongoing and sustainable relationship between the business community and business schools at the business education industry level AACSB.

 Professor Mohammed Madi, Dean, College of Business and Economics, UAE University, says,

—This distinguished appointment places Amer Al Ahbabi among business and thought leaders contributing to global conversations on talent, leadership, innovation, and the skills needed for the future workspace.

—Of particular significance, Amer is the only council member representing this organization from the Arab World, bringing a valuable regional perspective to an international forum that helps shape the future of business education.‖

Al Ahbabi joins the Council as Chairman of Vertix Holdings, a diversified investment group with interests across auditing and financial advisory, real estate, education, technology, hospitality, and asset management. He is the first Emirati to serve on the Global Board of Directors of the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA), an Ambassador of the UAE Internal Auditors Association, a Fellow Member of the UAE Accountants and Auditors Association, and a board member of the GCC Board

Directors Institute, UAE Chapter. He serves as an Advisory Board Member of the College of Business at Abu Dhabi University and at Amity University.

Amer Al Ahbabi says, —Governance and judgment are treated as specialist subjects when they should be part of every business degree. Good judgment is a skill, and skills can be taught. As technology absorbs more of the routine work, judgment is what a graduate carries that lasts — and that is what business education should be building.‖

The Council’s membership is drawn largely from North America, Europe, and Asia. The questions it addresses — which skills matter, how internships should work, how employers and schools should collaborate — are therefore answered against the labour-market conditions of mature economies. Those conditions do not transfer cleanly. Gulf markets have younger workforces, national employment priorities that shape private-sector hiring directly, and regulatory frameworks being built at speed rather than inherited.

Al Ahbabi said his contribution to the Council would focus on three areas: bringing employer-side evidence on where graduates arrive under-prepared, particularly in governance, risk, and the fast-expanding compliance requirements of the UAE market; expanding structured internships and live client projects through Vertix Auditing and the group’s operating businesses; and strengthening the link between what regional firms need and what business schools research.

He noted that business schools across the Gulf have held international accreditation for twenty-five years, since United Arab Emirates University became the first in the region to achieve it in 2000.

—Our region has spent twenty-five years meeting a global standard in business education. We are ready now to help shape it, and to bring the ambition of a young workforce into that conversation,‖ Al Ahbabi adds.

 Amer Al Ahbabi now holds seats in two bodies that shape how business and finance professionals are formed: IMA, which sets standards for the profession, and AACSB, which accredits the schools feeding it. These are opposite ends of the same pipeline.

 The GCC and UAE would benefit from Ahbabi’s appointment in a number of ways. One of them is competency gaps. The most useful contribution is evidence on where graduates arrive in the job market under-prepared. In the UAE that gap is dateable: corporate tax, transfer pricing, e-invoicing, family business legislation, and expanded compliance obligations have all landed within a few years. Curricula lag regulatory reality while graduates join firms that need those capabilities immediately.

Experiential learning is another gap that could be addressed. Vertix Auditing is an operating audit and advisory firm, and a natural host for structured internships, live client projects, and placements with regional business schools. The Memorandum of Understanding signed with the European Emirati Business Council in February 2026 already covers joint training in accounting, forensic audit, taxation, compliance, and risk. A pilot with a single college would convert the appointment into an outcome.

 Research partnership is another area of possible improvement. Gulf business schools often calibrate research toward international journals rather than regional practice. Someone running operating businesses can state plainly what regional firms would fund and use.