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Disruptive London protests against the global advisory firm APCO have spilled over into the company’s internal conversations, as employees in its booming Gulf offices are pressing managers over the American firm’s dealings with an Israeli defense contractor.
APCO senior executives have pledged to share details with their staff, but a Friday afternoon all-hands call with Middle East offices to discuss the matter was canceled. One employee said APCO’s response has been both not enough and too slow for staff, many of whom work on behalf of Gulf governments, and are worried about the repercussions to their business or have personal qualms about work in support of Israel’s Gaza war.
The internal friction is playing out with particular intensity in the firm’s Gulf offices in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, and Manama and in London, where workers were concerned for their safety after the protest.
“APCO is a global company with a team from more than 50 nationalities who have a diversity of opinions. When complex geopolitical issues emerge, they often provoke intense feelings and robust discussions within the firm,” APCO said in an emailed statement. “This open and respectful internal discussion is how we come together and become a stronger company.”
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Washington, DC-headquartered APCO is perhaps best known as a reputation manager in the broadest terms – helping clients access new markets, weather crises, and remain competitive. Its clients include Fortune 500 companies and governments, and it has 35 offices across major cities around the world.
Its London offices were the target of pro-Palestinian activists last Tuesday, Turkish state news agency Anadolu Agency reported. They protested the firm’s lobbying efforts on behalf of one of Israel’s largest weapons firms, Elbit Systems, which has a $760 million two-year contract to supply ammunition to the Israeli Ministry of Defense.
The activists jammed the entrance with bike locks and unfurled a banner that read: “Stop lobbying for Genocide. APCO Drop Elbit.”
Kelsey’s view
As the Gulf continues its decade-old drive for economic diversification from oil, it’s no secret that consultants’ fingerprints are all over the work. The daily flights from Dubai to Riyadh aren’t nicknamed things like ‘the McKinsey Shuttle’ for nothing.
But the conflict in Gaza is putting growing pressure on a relationship between Israel and the Gulf that had warmed after the 2020 Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between Israel and countries including Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. Both have condemned the war, and Saudi Arabia — which is still in normalization talks — has called for sanctions on Israeli officials for war crimes. Sympathy for Palestinian suffering runs deep in the region and remains a constant presence on Arab satellite news stations, even if it’s not always expressed loudly in public.
APCO’s clients include the UAE Prime Minister’s Office and Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Economy and Planning. The firm also works behind the scenes on some of the region’s highest-profile events: The UN climate conference COP28 and the World Expo in the UAE, as well as annual gabfests like Dubai’s World Government Summit, which last year brought in Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, and the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh, hosted by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
APCO has been in the Arabian Gulf since 2006, when founder Margery Kraus sensed a region on the move and opened an office in Dubai. The team has grown from less than 10 to today making up one-sixth of APCO’s workforce, in offices across the Gulf and with clients in Cairo, Amman, Muscat and Beirut.
APCO isn’t the only American multinational firm working on behalf of foreign governments to navigate treacherous territory and the occasional crisis of conscience. But as the power of the Gulf — and its value to APCO — has grown, the stakes here are high for the company.
Notable
- Anti-Israeli protests have dinged US brands in the Middle East like McDonald’s and KFC, per Bloomberg.
- The war in Gaza has dampened UAE-Israel trade with fewer deals and no public announcements, according to Reuters.
- Separate from the conflict, Saudi Arabia has looked to wean itself from consultants in recent months, the Financial Times reports.