Building and Running International Schools Across the Gulf
The opportunity, and the gap
The Gulf is building schools faster than almost anywhere on earth. Sovereign funds, government bodies, and private investors are putting serious capital into education infrastructure. The capital is rarely the constraint. The constraint is operational: who can navigate licensing, appoint and hold leadership, fill the seats, and run the school to the standard the market and the regulator expect. That gap, between a funded project and a school that performs, is where GSE works.
Our regional vehicle
Every GSE mandate in the Gulf is delivered through GSE MENA, the joint venture between GSE and Ouqool, part of Ammar Integrated, and our base in the region. It gives investors and governments a single accountable partner that carries both the international delivery record of GSE and the regional relationships, regulatory fluency, and on-the-ground presence the Gulf requires. GSE MENA is a partnership of three principals.
Ammar Al Tuwaijri
Co-Founder and Chairman
A well-known Saudi businessman with more than twenty-five years in the market, Ammar has helped establish, develop, and manage some of the Kingdom’s largest private universities and institutions. He chaired the Riyadh Chamber’s Private Education Committee and founded Ammar Integrated.
Greg Parry
Co-Founder and CEO
Greg has led international schools across Dubai, India, and China, and worked within the Queensland state system, before founding GSE in 2011. He holds the Queensland Minister’s Award for Excellence in School Leadership, is a TEDx speaker, and has authored two books.
Shanna Parry
Co-Founder and Senior Managing Partner
Shanna’s career spans US school leadership, including the turnaround of a federally flagged school, district-level leadership development, and academic leadership in higher education. She co-founded GSE in 2011 and holds a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction.
Education and built environment, in one partnership
Most education projects stitch together separate parties: a developer to build, a contractor for the infrastructure, and an operator to run the school. Each carries its own incentives, and the gaps show up at the handovers. The GSE MENA joint venture closes that circle.
GSE brings
Education strategy and feasibility, curriculum and academic leadership, staffing and operating systems, and long-term school management.
Ammar Integrated brings
Construction, infrastructure, and facilities, delivered through specialist in-house teams and subsidiaries that span the full building lifecycle, from design and construction to the operation of the built asset.
The full path, not one slice of it
Feasibility and investment cases
Demand analysis, financial modelling, and regulatory review built for the specific Gulf market, so the investment decision rests on real numbers rather than optimism.
School development
Site brief, curriculum selection, licensing, and staffing systems: the full route from concept to opening day, managed against the timeline and the budget.
Long-term management
GSE operates schools under management agreements of ten years or more, accountable for academic results and commercial performance, not just advice at the outset.
39 school projects delivered across 16 countries
A significant share of that delivery is in the Gulf, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain. We work with sovereign wealth funds, government entities, private equity, family offices, and established school groups.
Why a regional operator matters in the Gulf
Licensing in the Gulf is substantive and relationship-driven, and regulators expect a credible operator on the file. Enrolment depends on reading an expatriate and national market that shifts from city to city. A generalist adviser cannot carry this. GSE MENA can, because the region is where we are based, not where we visit.