In this Spotlight series, we interview CEDR-Accredited Mediators from around the world and from different professional backgrounds and industries. The aim is to understand what motivated them to train as a mediator, what skills and capabilities they developed, how they are using these in their professional and personal life and wider reflections and opportunities for their field.
This Spotlight is with Moshin Siddiqui, Managing Director at Fikrah Advisory. With expertise in connecting business strategy, talent assessment and organisational development to drive commercial success, Moshin has two decades of cross-industry, country, regional and global leadership experience in generalist and specialist roles.
Moshin achieved his CEDR Accreditation in 2026.
In recent years I have been deliberately shifting from full‑time, Board‑level corporate HR leadership into an independent advisory and coaching practice, working with CEOs, Boards and senior teams on complex organisational change, succession and performance. In that context I was already acting as an informal “go‑between” in high‑stakes situations, M&A integrations, restructuring, nationalisation, senior appointments, and it became clear that I needed more than experience and coaching tools to be effective.
As I set up a professional freelance consulting practice based in Dubai, but serving organisations across the GCC, Europe and emerging markets, mediation emerged as a natural extension of my background in law, organisational psychology and HR. Given the frequency and complexity of disputes around talent, structure and governance at the levels I operate, the timing was right to invest in rigorous accreditation that would both deepen my skill set and signal to clients that dispute resolution is a core professional discipline in my practice, not an informal add‑on.
CEDR stood out because it is widely regarded as a gold standard in commercial mediation; I also wanted the CEDR‑Accredited status, since it is a qualification recognised internationally and approved by bodies such as the Civil Mediation Council in the UK and the International Mediation Institute (IMI).
Truthfully, mediation is still very nascent in the UAE, and much of my work comes from outside the GCC region, so as someone working across jurisdictions, I wanted a credential with international standing.
Practically, the availability of programmes in multiple locations, along with online and blended formats for continuing development, aligned with my own schedule and allowed me to integrate advanced training into my ‘day-to-day’.
The most stretching moment was during the practical assessments on days four and five, when I was asked to role-play mediate a complex, multi‑party commercial dispute under observation and formal assessment against CEDR’s competency framework.
Being assessed on relationship, process and content skills while managing strong personalities, shifting dynamics and power imbalances within a tightly timed session, forced me to confront and recalibrate some of my ingrained habits as an HR executive and coach.
I had to stay disciplined within the mediation process: build rapport, manage joint sessions and caucuses, work with offers and deadlock, and keep parties engaged without taking sides. It really showed me that effective mediation is less about demonstrating expertise and more about holding a structured, neutral process under pressure, which is a useful corrective for senior professionals accustomed to being the “expert in the room.”
The most enduring shift has been in how I listen and frame issues. I am far more focused on interests rather than positions and far less inclined towards pushing towards a predefined solution.
This has changed the texture of my executive coaching conversations and senior leadership interventions: they are less about advice and more about enabling better quality dialogue and decision‑making.
In my current work I already apply mediation skills in an ‘embedded’ way. e.g., when facilitating succession planning for N‑1 and N‑2 roles, supporting ExCos through restructurings, or helping Boards and RemCos navigate competing views on appointments, performance or structure. I design these engagements more consciously as mediated processes, using structured preparation, joint sessions and private meetings, rather than treating them purely as HR, governance or coaching conversations.
As I build out my freelance consulting practice, I intend to offer mediation as a distinct service line alongside organisational psychology, HR strategy and executive coaching, particularly in GCC and MENAP markets where cross‑cultural teams, nationalisation agendas and regulatory change generate frequent, sensitive disputes.
Over time, my aim is to combine CEDR‑style commercial mediation with my legal training, labour law and assessment experience to help clients resolve disputes in ways that are commercially sound, psychologically informed and aligned with long‑term culture and talent objectives.
In my field HR, organisational effectiveness and leadership in large, often regulated organisations, the greatest need for mediation is around inflection points: M&A integrations, large‑scale restructurings, nationalisation strategies and succession for critical roles. These situations routinely generate conflict, even if it’s not necessarily acknowledged as such and legal or formal processes alone are often too slow, adversarial or reputationally costly to be the only response.
In the GCC and other emerging markets where I work, rapid growth, shifting regulation and strong cultural norms around hierarchy and face‑saving make confidential, well‑structured mediation an attractive and under‑used tool for preserving relationships while still addressing substantive issues.
For someone already established in senior HR, law, consulting or organisational leadership, I would say that CEDR’s Mediator Skills Training is demanding but proportionate to the level at which you are likely to operate. It requires real commitment, pre‑reading, long days, intensive role‑plays, formal assessments and post‑course assignments, but that intensity is precisely what makes it credible and useful.
More than ‘career stage’, I’d encourage you to think about the maturity of your operating environment; e.g., from my experience, local entities in the GCC are largely non-responsive to queries about pro bono work or registration, so you have to work much harder than you’d expect to try and get a foot in the door.
The training is incredibly valuable, but in parallel you have to be quite pro-active about using your network (and your time!) to take advantage of everything you learn.
The CEDR programme confirmed for me that mediation is an incredible catalyst for anyone working at the intersection of people, performance and governance.
In my case at least, it sits naturally alongside my legal training, my MSc in organisational psychology and my experience as a Chief People/Talent Officer, and it strengthens the coherence of my profile as I build an independent advisory and coaching practice.
I also value that CEDR treats mediation as a profession rather than a one‑off training event. I would say that it’s a bit complicated to navigate the ongoing Mediator Professional Development sessions, but the effort is worth the pay-off.