Dr. Ali Yahya Faqihi is a Saudi academic, researcher, and management consultant specializing in Organizational Behavior, International Human Resource Management, strategic management, and talent development. He earned his PhD in Management from The University of Newcastle, Australia, in 2026. His academic background also includes an MBA in Management from Sacred Heart University, USA, and a Bachelor of Business Administration from Jazan University, Saudi Arabia.

Dr. Faqihi has extensive academic and professional experience in Saudi Arabia through his work at Jazan University, where he served as Lecturer in the College of Business Administration and held several administrative and developmental positions focused on workforce development, student engagement, and institutional collaboration. His teaching and research interests center on Organizational Behavior, International Human Resource Management, strategic management, employee development, and workplace dynamics within multicultural environments. He has taught undergraduate and postgraduate courses including Human Resource Management, Organizational Behavior, Strategic Management, International Business, and Business Communication, emphasizing practical learning and global management perspectives.

At Jazan University, Dr. Faqihi supervised the Career and Alumni Recruitment Center, where he developed recruitment initiatives and established partnerships with local and multinational organizations to improve graduate employability and workforce readiness. He also supervised the university’s Vision 2030 Club, organizing workshops and seminars focused on entrepreneurship, sustainability, and the future of human capital development in Saudi Arabia. His contributions supported broader national initiatives aligned with Saudi Vision 2030 and the Kingdom’s transition toward a knowledge-based economy.

Dr. Faqihi’s doctoral studies in Australia were financially supported by the Saudi Arabian government through the Saudi Arabian Cultural Mission (SACM) scholarship program, reflecting Saudi Arabia’s commitment to investing in global academic excellence and developing future scholars and professionals under Vision 2030. His research focuses on organizational performance, employee behavior, workplace development, and international human resource strategies in rapidly evolving business environments. He has published scholarly work in internationally recognized journals and conferences addressing organizational effectiveness, talent management, and strategic workforce development.

 

Dr Heidi Wechtler is a Senior Lecturer in Management, Newcastle Business School, University of Newcastle, Australia

 

Heidi Wechtler is an internationally recognised researcher in international human resource management, with a particular focus on the experiences of expatriates, skilled migrants, and globally mobile workers. Her PhD examined expatriation, and she has spent the past decade building one of the most sustained and coherent research programs in the field, spanning cross-cultural adjustment, self-initiated expatriation, migrant health and vulnerability, resilience in the face of disruption, and most recently workforce localization.

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Her work has appeared in leading international journals including the Journal of World Business, International Business Review, Management International Review, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, and Management and Organization Review, among others. She has published more than 40 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. She ranks in the top 3% of management researchers globally (ScholarGPS).

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Her research takes seriously both the structural conditions that shape how global workers adapt and contribute, and the human costs when those conditions generate vulnerability, exclusion, and withdrawal. That dual commitment, to rigorous evidence and to the people behind the data, is what connects her earlier work on expatriate adjustment and resilience to her current program on workforce localization in the Middle East.