Saudi Arabia Report
Marcopolis presents the Saudi Arabia Report focused on the investments, doing business, economy and other topics featuring interviews with key executives. The sectors under review in this issue are industry, real-estate, ICT, investments, banking sector, telecom sector and many more.
Khalid Al Falih
Khalid Al Falih was ranked as Marcopolis' #14 most powerful business person in Saudi Arabia.
Khalid Al Falih is Marcopolis’ 14th most powerful businessman in Saudi Arabia. He served as the CEO of the world’s biggest unlisted company, Saudi Aramco. Saudi Aramco is also the world’s largest oil company, and is said to be the most profitable company on a global scale. He is currently chairman of Aramco and health minister.
According to Wall Street Journal, "One of Aramco’s ambitious plans is to become the world’s second largest exporter of refined oil products by 2017. Aramco and its subsidiaries own or have equity interest in domestic and international refineries with a total worldwide refining capacity of 4.9 million barrels per day, of which its equity share is 2.6 million barrels a day. The company says it is the world’s sixth largest refiner. Its two new refineries—which will add 800,000 barrels a day in refining capacity this year—and the planned 400,000-barrel-per-day oil refinery in Jazan, will bring Aramco’s refining capacity within Saudi Arabia to more than 3 million barrels a day."
CEO isn’t Khalid’s first job at Aramco. He started his career there in the 70’s. He spent the next several years climbing the corporate ladder. In 1999, Khalid became President of Petron Corporation, which was a joint venture between Saudi Aramco and the Philippine National Oil Company.
Khalid returned to Saudi Arabia in 2000, and became Saudi Aramco’s Study Team chairman for Upstream Gas Ventures. He has played a major role in the success of the company. He had a significant involvement in negotiations with international oil companies (IOCs), as well as other important national oil companies (NOCs), in connection with the Kingdom’s Natural Gas Initiative. The outcome of the negotiations resulted in four joint ventures, including South Rub’ al-Khali Company, Luksar Energy, Sino Saudi Gas, and EniRepSa Gas.
In 2004, Khalid was elected to the Board of Directors. He has also served as the Chairman of the board of South Rub’ al-Khali, which is a joint venture between Shell, Total, and Saudi Aramco. He proudly holds memberships of several social programs, including Technical and Vocational Training Corporation, the Prince Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz Find for Supporting Small Business Projects for Women, among many others. Furthermore, he is also a founding member of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology.
Khalid was born in the Riyadh in 1960. He earned a Bachelors Degree in mechanical engineering from Texas A&M University. The continued his education to receive a Masters of Business Administration from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals.
Being the boss of the planet’s biggest oil company, Khalid can claim his title as being the most influential energy executive in the world. According to Forbes, Khalid has been dubbed as the “Oil King.”
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