Dr. Sara Macedo is Managing Principal of Emissary Partners, based in London, where she shapes the firm’s global strategy and organisation, and leads its growth in the Middle East and Europe. She brings a wealth of experience in building and leading family offices, and in realising founders’ visions, to advise Emissary’s family office and sovereign clients. In her work for family office and sovereign principals on complex matters, Sara values clarity, discretion and depth.
Prior to joining Emissary, Sara designed, restructured and/ or led four different single family offices in London, most recently as Chief Executive Officer of Coller Holdings. In her family office leadership experiences, she worked with principals who were first and second generation wealth creators – from North America, Europe, South Africa and the Middle East – helping to realise their visions for building long-term investment platforms and aligning wealth with their respective families’ long-term impact goals. In addition to helping to develop balanced, long-term asset allocation strategies, Sara has led specialised investment strategies in hedge fund seeding, private equity, real estate and hospitality, deep tech and robotics, and media.
From 1998, Sara worked for the government of Abu Dhabi in the Offsets Group (the predecessor entity to Mubadala) on strategic industry development and seeding, helping to lay the industrial foundations for the long-term economic and social vision of the Abu Dhabi government’s leadership. In the early 2000s, she partnered with the then-UAE Minister for Higher Education on the country’s Emiratisation initiative, developing novel management frameworks through her doctoral research to merge Islamic-rooted communal values with the professional expectations of Western organisational structures.
In the world of commercial diplomacy, Sara has advised clients in defence, financial services, real estate and other sectors on their market entry, growth and partnerships in the Gulf Cooperation Council, UK, Switzerland and the European Union.
Sara holds a Doctorate and Masters in Business Administration from Durham University and an LLB from UCL.