Brad Boyson, GPHR

In 2012 Brad Boyson set up (greenfield) the MENA region office in Dubai UAE for the world’s largest HR association – SHRM. During his leadership, Dubai operations grew exponentially every year: membership tripled, certified professionals increased 10 fold, he launched the first SHRM conference in the Middle East (2019) and he personally delivered some of the most significant human capital and L&D interventions in the region. Mr. Boyson is not your typical HR leader. His business acumen was honed earning business diplomas/degrees in Finance, Industrial Relations and HR respectively as well as completing 60% of a degree in computer science. He has worked as the strategic head of HR in a wide variety of global industries and is a frequent keynote speaker at international HR events. He sits on several government and university advisory boards in the Middle East and was responsible for bringing the first Arabic language HR certificate from SHRM to market. A published author who also co-authored three (3) different Learning Systems (SHRM-SCP, HRBP, HRMP), he has developed competency/capability models for professional practice, a GPHR item writer for 5 years, served on the ISO TC 260 HR Standards Development team since its inception (2012) and is the current ISO convenor for Human Capital Reporting (ISO 30314). During his time at Mitsubishi Corporation, he transitioned a legacy of order-taking sales managers to strategic sales-leaders. While at Thrive Media, he led the blitz-scaling HR pace of a tech startup. While at Royal Caribbean, he led shipboard HR during the company’s expansion into China-South East Asian markets. And while at Emaar/Hamptons, he helped right-size the property giant’s brokerage arm during the boom and bust of the great-recession. In short, he has a proven history of successfully leading strategic change - often in unprecedented business circumstances. An accomplished athlete, Mr. Boyson has completed two Ironman triathlons, including the world championship in Hawaii. He also completed the Sea2Summit adventure race in Whistler British Columbia, the alpine venue of the 2010 Olympic Games and as a teenager he held records in competitive swimming and represented Canada in international ice hockey. Since 2008, he has lived in Dubai with his wonderful wife and two very active sons.