Althea Consulting

Procurement, cost and operating-model advice for the Gulf's largest programmes.

Althea Consulting is an independent advisory practice based in Abu Dhabi. We help developers, contractors and government entities in Saudi Arabia and the UAE buy better, spend less and run leaner, with a senior advisor doing the work rather than supervising it.

Abu Dhabi and Riyadh. Working across the GCC.

Talk to Marco What we do

What we do

Four things, done end to end. Each one starts with your data and your contracts, and ends with a result on the books rather than a deck on the shelf.

  • Procurement strategy and sourcing

    Category strategies, sourcing plans and supplier strategies for major programmes, including long-lead items, where an early decision saves months later. We define the packages, the approach to market and the governance needed to award on time and on budget.

  • Cost transformation

    Spend baselines, should-cost models and savings programmes that hold. We find where the money goes, agree what it should cost, and build the plan to close the gap, with owners, dates and a number the CFO can sign.

  • Operating-model design

    How the procurement and supply-chain function should be organised: structure, roles, processes, decision rights and the tools that support them. Designed with the people who will run it, so it still works after we leave.

  • Negotiation and major contracts

    Preparation and support for high-value negotiations and contract packages: the fact base, the strategy, the counterpart's likely position, and the room itself. Grounded in giga-project packages and in formal negotiation training.

How an engagement runs

Short, specific and hands-on. We would rather spend six weeks fixing one category than six months describing all of them.

  1. Diagnose

    A short diagnostic on the actual numbers, contracts and people before any recommendation. You get a clear view of where value sits and what is realistic to capture.

  2. Design

    A plan you can run: specific packages, targets, owners and dates. Not a framework, and not a transformation programme you did not ask for.

  3. Deliver

    We stay through implementation, in the room with your team and your suppliers, until the result is on the books and your people can carry it on without us.

Althea is independent. No software to sell, no implementation partners to introduce, and no interest in making the engagement longer than it needs to be.

Who you will work with

Althea is founder-led. The person you meet is the person who does the work.

Marco Aquino

Founder

Marco founded Althea in 2026 after eight years inside Saudi Arabia's largest programmes. At McKinsey & Company in Riyadh he was a Knowledge Specialist in Operations, supporting cost transformation, procurement optimisation and operating-model work for clients across the Middle East.

Before McKinsey he managed procurement programmes for Webuild on the Kingdom's infrastructure giga-projects, where long-lead items, package strategy and supplier negotiations were the daily job rather than the case study.

He is a management engineer by training, Italian by birth, and works in English and Italian between Abu Dhabi and Riyadh.

2022–2026
McKinsey & Company, Riyadh Knowledge Specialist, Operations. Previously Senior Knowledge Analyst.
2018–2022
Webuild, Riyadh Procurement programme management on infrastructure giga-projects in Saudi Arabia.
Education
Politecnico di Milano MSc and BSc in Management Engineering.
Training
Harvard Business School Online Negotiation Mastery certificate.
Languages
English and Italian

Let's talk about your programme

Email is the quickest route. Marco reads and answers every message himself, usually within a working day.