Two people who left good jobs to build better rooms.

The Elevate Collective was founded in Dubai by Malak Alsaffar and Wesley Depass. Both had successful corporate careers. Both reached the point where success stopped being enough on its own.

Why TEC exists

Ambitious people in the Gulf spend a lot of time in rooms: offices, meeting rooms, hotel ballrooms, gyms. Very few of those rooms are designed for people to actually meet each other.

We started TEC to make the other kind. Small groups, good venues, and more than one thing going on at once: people moving, eating, talking and thinking in the same morning. Sometimes that happens across the city, for anyone who wants to come. Sometimes it happens inside a company, for a team that needs a pause.

We began with wellbeing, and movement and reflection are still in almost everything we do. But what people tell us they value most is simpler: the company. So that is what we build around.

The TEC community after a Nia Morning in Dubai

The founders

Malak Alsaffar

Co-founder. Leads work with organisations.

Malak spent her career in payments, fintech, technology and partnerships, including senior leadership at Visa and work on government strategy. She left the traditional corporate path and now speaks about what happens when professional achievement stops being enough.

At TEC she leads the work with organisations and the conversations on leadership, women's leadership, purpose and intentional living. She knows the rooms our corporate clients work in because she worked in them.

Wesley Depass

Co-founder. Leads movement and experiences.

Wesley spent around ten years in the corporate world before becoming a full-time coach in 2015. Since then he has coached professionals on strength, conditioning, nutrition and behaviour change, with an approach that is evidence-based, practical and direct.

At TEC he leads movement across every format and produces our public experiences, making sure each room has people on their feet, not just in their seats.