Zaid Rab

About

I spent a ton of time learning a bit about everything.

I started as an engineer, then spent time in supply chain at Loblaw, banking at RBC, and tech consulting at EY. From there I joined McKinsey, where I worked across private equity, education, government, life sciences, mining, banking, digital/technology, transformation, and more, covering almost every sector across North America.

During COVID, I moved to Cleveland Clinic Canada to help some of the country's largest employers navigate health policy and build workplace wellbeing programs. I then did my MBA at INSEAD for the global exposure, relocated to the UAE, and continued consulting in healthcare and other sectors across the Middle East.

Eventually I left consulting to join the Department of Health Abu Dhabi because I wanted to stop advising and start building. The mission was simple: get people eating better and moving more. After years across industries and countries, I've learned how to connect the dots and turn problems that feel overwhelming into solutions that are actually implementable.

"I wanted to stop advising and launching stuff myself."

Career background

Work

Selected work

Program

Abu Dhabi Healthy Living Program

When the team joined in March 2025, the Healthy Living Unit had a mandate, a high-level list of initiatives, and three people. There was no strategy, no budget breakdown, no milestones, and no timelines. Everything had to be built from scratch. Within months, the team developed the program strategy that was approved by the Executive Council, scaled to 20 people, and stood up the governance and reporting structures needed to coordinate across Abu Dhabi's government entities. Today the unit is actively delivering 20+ initiatives spanning infrastructure, regulation, programming, medical care, and public awareness.

Ads Ban

Unhealthy Food & Beverage Advertising Policy

When the team started working on this, there was no existing policy to reference, no defined scope, and a real tension to work through given that advertising generates government revenue. The starting point was building the evidence base — an analysis of how many unhealthy food and beverage ads were running across Abu Dhabi and what impact that was having on public health and the economy. Once approved, the team designed a compliance mechanism coordinating three government entities: DoH as the policy owner, QCC to assess whether ads meet the healthy or unhealthy threshold, and DMT to monitor and inspect media assets on the ground.

Healthy Meals in Schools

Abu Dhabi School Meal Guidelines

An existing school food policy was already in place under ADEK, but the mandate was to make it significantly more strict and to expand the scope beyond just what's served in the cafeteria. The team developed a whole school approach, meaning the guidelines cover not only school meals but also healthy lunchboxes, vending machines, tuck shops, staff and teacher role modelling, classroom food policies, and nutrition education. The guidelines were developed in collaboration with ADEK and aligned with updated WHO standards. On the compliance side, the team worked with ADAFSA and ADPHC to build the enforcement mechanism.

Healthy Retail

Healthy Grocery Layout Policy

The team looked at what the UK had already implemented on grocery layouts and adapted it for the UAE context. Before defining the scope, the team ran an analysis on the health and economic impact of current grocery layouts in Abu Dhabi, which formed the evidence base for the policy. The policy prohibits unhealthy food and beverage products from being sold or marketed in high-traffic zones across grocery stores in Abu Dhabi — specifically entrances, end of aisle displays, and checkouts. ADAFSA and DED are responsible for monitoring and inspecting stores across the emirate.

McKinsey & Company

Non-Profit University Turnaround

The university was losing $25M a year and had roughly four years before its endowment ran out. What made this engagement unusual was that McKinsey stayed through the full journey — from strategy all the way through implementation. The work covered both sides of the equation: building new revenue streams including online degree offerings, and sustainably cutting costs. The team worked directly with the President, Provost, and CFO on strategic and financial decisions, and engaged students directly. The result was a $30M improvement in annual cash flow.

McKinsey & Company

Private Equity Due Diligence

Across 5+ engagements spanning virtually every sector, the team conducted due diligences for private equity firms on both the buy-side and sell-side of potential acquisitions, with targets cumulatively valued at over $3B. The work involved a deep analysis of each business to give investors a clear picture of what they were acquiring and whether it met their investment criteria. The findings directly informed the buy or no-buy decisions of the firms involved.

McKinsey & Company

$80B PharmaCo Merger Integration

When two pharmaceutical companies merge at a combined value of over $80B, the hardest part isn't the deal — it's making the two organizations actually function as one. The team was brought in to redesign the organizational structure for the operations departments, covering around 2,000 employees. The mandate wasn't to cut costs but to figure out how to combine two different ways of working into something better than either was on its own. The output was a new organizational design that minimized disruption while setting the merged entity up to operate effectively.

McKinsey & Company

$8B Software Company Growth Strategy

The company had been growing at double digit CAGR for several years, specializing in chemicals and technology. The team developed a 3-year growth strategy covering both organic and inorganic paths, with a specific focus on expansion into pharma. A key part of the work was identifying which companies to acquire — not just based on financials and growth potential, but on cultural and strategic fit. The output gave the CEO a clear roadmap for where to take the business next.

McKinsey & Company

COVID-19 Displaced Workers Program

With 60,000 workers displaced across the state as a result of COVID-19, the team was brought in to design a program to get people back into employment. The solution was an ecosystem that connected displaced workers with upskilling opportunities and matched them directly with major companies operating in the state.

McKinsey & Company

COVID-19 School Reopening

Schools had been closed for weeks and there was significant pressure from the Governor and Senator to get them back open. The challenge was that reopening 280,000 students safely involved navigating safety protocols, logistics, and resistance from both teachers and parents all at the same time. The team worked through each of these simultaneously, testing different operational scenarios, enhancing the eLearning curriculum, and building a comprehensive phased reopening plan that addressed the concerns of every stakeholder involved.

Turning strategy into execution.

I spent a ton of time learning a bit about everything.

Selected work

Policies published

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