Personal data
Place of residence: Dubai
Marital status: Married
Scientific certificates:
Bachelor in Chemical and Petroleum Engineering - United Arab Emirates University (1986).
Professional Background
Operations Engineer, Umm Al Nar Refinery, ADNOC Company - Abu Dhabi (1987-1990)
Architect of the storage complex for EPPCO - Dubai (1990 - 1993
Head and director of the Department of Environment, Health, Safety and Security for the Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation Group - Dubai (1993-2005).
Chief Operating Officer - Dubai Industrial City - Dubai Holding (2005 - 2008)
Vice President - Auditing, Contracts and Governmental Affairs - Tatweer Company - Dubai Holding (2008-2015).
CEO of Projects - Mohammed Bin Rashid Academic Medical Center - Dubai Holding (2011-2015).
Previous memberships and committees
Member of the local environment strategy committee and environmental action plan in the Emirates.
Member of the Committee for the Evaluation of State Environmental Development Laws.
Member of the International Administrative Committee for the list of administrative applications of hazardous goods in the Emirate of Dubai.
Member of the Air and Waste Management Association.
Member of the Committee for the Development and Preparation of the State Environmental Effects Assessment.
Arbitrator in Dubai Award for Quality, Quality and Appreciation Programs in Arabic and English.
Member in the Board of Directors - Dubai Security Services (Dss).
Awards
Certificate of Outstanding Employee of Jebel Ali Free Zone (Presented by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum (2003).
Certificate of Appreciation from His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum for my work in Dubai Industrial City (2007)
Internal Auditor Certificate (ISO 9002-QMS).
Certificate of Merit as an arbitrator in the Dubai Quality Award.
Excellence Award for Best Governmental Administration for the year (2003) - Department of Environment, Health and Safety - Dubai.
Certificate of Appreciation - The Supreme Committee for the UAE Local Environment Strategy and Environmental Action Plans.
You have held many positions and achieved many accomplishments during this period .. What is the biggest achievement of which you are proud throughout your career progress?
Building of Dubai Industrial City is the most important and greatest achievement which I am poud of in my career progress .. The memories of building this city are still stuck in my mind since the first day we went to the place where it will be constructed. The place was a desert where we did not know its borders. During three years of work, this desert turned into an integrated city with facilities and services that can accommodate about 90,000 workers. Its warehouses extended nearly 6 million feet and its construction budget reached 7 billion dirhams.
Your speech reveals your passion of challenge!
Dubai is the land of challenges, and the dream of establishing this city is still roaming my mind until now .. How did we go there 4 people and within 3 years thanks to 100 employees we were able to establish this great edifice, and how we were facing challenges then with a sophisticated and constructive thought .. I remember that when we finish the building of Labor City, we have faced a challenge in how to manage 90 thousand workers in this city. We have overcome this challenge by establishing a company from within the parent company to manage this city. This was a new success that adds to the completion of building the city in this record period, with high level of efficiency and quality.
How were the ideas that you were facing with such challenges produced?
We used to divide ourselves into teams, so each team presents a set of ideas, and then we agree on the 5 best ideas and discussed the method of their implementation and the requirements for implementation. During the construction of the city, we have started building the offices first as we believed that establishing the offices would make it easier for the team to work and follow up on the rest of the subsequent operations better.
What are the most important pillars you have worked on to get this project to the best?
In such projects, it is important to focus on getting the work done in a short time, at a lower cost and with a high level of quality. Here I want to point out that the goal should always be based on what you want to achieve, and not what will be provided to you by the service provider; in the sense that the high cost may sometimes not meet your requirements. So you should know exactly what you want and who has a better vision to implement these requirements at a lower cost. Secondly, it is very important to pay attention to time or what we might call quick decision making. The idea you think about today will never be correct to wait a year to start implementing it, because the new conditions will then impose a reality you did not expect. For example, if you set aside a budget for a project today and after a year you start implementing it, you may find that the prices of materials have changed; which will make you have to increase the budget again. So I say time is expensive if you do not make use of it. The third issue is the concern for quality, because quality in work is a source of pride and confidence for any organization. It is not acceptable in a country like the Emirates and an emirate like the Emirate of Dubai to consider quality as a secondary issue. It is a top priority in all works, and is always re-focused because it distinguishes the performance of our companies and our governmental and private institutions regionally and globally.
Describe your career in terms of the places and positions you occupied?
Initially, I worked as an Operations Engineer at Umm Al Nar Refinery in Abu Dhabi, then an Engineer at the Warehouse Complex in EPPCO. Then I moved from petroleum to the environment field, where I have started working as an environmental engineer until I reached the Head of Environmental, Health and Safety Department of the Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation Group and Nakheel Company for 12 years. I was then responsible for managing 600 employees. Then I went to Dubai Tatweer Company. During this period, Dubai Holding has been established, and Dubai Tatweer has been transformed into a semi-government company. Tatweer has become under Dubai Holding Company, in addition to 6 other companies, including Dubai Real Estate, TECOM, Sama Dubai and others. There I have worked as Chief Operating Officer in Dubai Industrial City. After establishing the Labor City, I have moved to Dubai Healthcare City until I retire after three years of work at the University Hospital.
From petroleum to the environment, how would you rate this career which involves rich experiences?
Every stage of the work I went through was a challenge in itself. Every experience opened horizons of work and experiences in front of me, and I have benefited many life lessons as I learned not to stop self-development or fear of going into any new field of work. The work in more than one field has given me self-confidence. I also learned that nothing should restrain the person`s great ambitions. I believe that every person has potential energy, and these energies only appear through their employment and the opening of fields for testing and developing them. For myself, I have lived through these experiences, and I now offer this experience with complete certainty that everyone strives will find all doors opening to him through which he can achieve his aspirations.
What is the best thing you believed in during your work and found its impact in the success of the projects you worked on?
Working as a team .. Nothing is more successful in work than working as a team .. Simply working as a team embodies the value of cooperation without which no success can be achieved. Without this value, the work will miss other important criteria such as quality, transparency, control, accountability and other values that ensure that the work nature is consistent with the plans for which it has been developed. In addition, the strength of any institution comes from the strength of the relationship between its members, because no one can do all the work alone, especially in today's world in which specialization has become the most important of its manifestations and features. Consequently, teamwork involving the team spirit remains influential in the success of any project.
You manage a large group of individuals .. What is your philosophy in management?
Management by wisdom .. In short, we are dealing with people with different backgrounds, nature, ideas and environments, in addition to the daily changing reality of life for people in general. Hence, you must have an understanding of the persons you are dealing with. You must choose the appropriate time, saying and behavior in every situation, because there is no consistent behavior that can be generalized in all situations. This takes us to the importance of flexibility, adaptation, toleration, patience and other synonyms that ultimately reflect the concept of wisdom.
How can staff capabilities be employed and utilized?
There are experiences related to the issue of staff turnover. I am one of the supporters of these experiences which bring about the flow of new blood in the institutions and overcome the bureaucratic slack that sometimes happens to their systems, since turnover helps to retain employees and at the same time exploit their capabilities. I believe that the employee's feeling of safety and the creation of a space for developing his experiences and exploiting them for the benefit of the work will make him provide his effort twice, especially when he feels that he has been revived and given an opportunity again.
What decision did you take and did not regret it?
The decision to work right after the study was one of the best decisions I made. On two levels, this decision was successful by any measure. On the one hand, I was grateful to this country that supported our scientific career since our childhood. The work, immediately after the end of the study, was an opportunity to offer simple something to return the favor of homeland for us. During my work progress from its inception, I did not hesitate or fail to serve my country with all responsibility and conscience in everything I did during this period. I had put my national interest above all else. Thankfully, I managed to save billions of dirhams through the projects I was working on. I consider this matter to be one of the achievements that I am proud of. On the other hand, the early work period has given me the necessary experience which formed my future career later. Working early helped me make big breakthroughs in a short period.
What does the family represent to you .. Do you feel that work has affected your family life?
Family is like water for life .. Life without water is like life without a family. In the Emirates, the family gets full care and attention. In my view, woman represents the foundation and pillars of the family. If someone believes that women are half of society, I say that women represent all society. Therefore, I owe my thanks for everything I have reached to my big family, my father, mother, wife and children. They gave me all the support to complete this progress to the fullest, and they endured many difficulties with me. I remember that on many days I was back from work after one in the morning, as we had meetings late at night with some partners in the United States of America. Due to the difference in timing, we had to hold these meetings on such dates. Therefore, I believe that the role of the family is very important, especially for women. I seize this opportunity to salute the efforts of the Emirati woman who stands by her male partners` side to promote the development process in the UAE.
What are the strengths and weaknesses of your personality?
My weaknesses are that I interact with work with all my being. I am deeply concerned with the accuracy in completing the work, and in any way I do not accept the work to be deficient or lacking the required spirit and quality. This may make me quite nervous if I work concerns with these standards. As for the strengths, I am able to make the right decision at the right time.
What are the most important lessons you learned during your career?
One of the most important lessons is to work as a team. I was also interested in creating cadres and leaders who are able to take control when changes happen to work. I believe that chairs do not last, and therefore it is necessary for the leader to share his thoughts and experiences with all employees without giving consideration to remain in office. I have also learned that hard work and diligence are the only way for self-realization. Therefore, I have always been honest with myself and others, and I deal with the utmost accuracy and seriousness. Furthermore, I have learned to take responsibility for any decisions I make in my work and that adventure is required when it is studied. In addition, I have believed that one should not postpone the work of his day until tomorrow, because today's time is in your hands and tomorrow you may not have it. I have also learned to adhere to time and appointments, since it is the right way to do things.
What is your perspective on retirement and how did you plan for this stage?
I believe that age is never an impediment to thought. A person consists of a soul and a heart, and this spirit has no horizons that can limit it if a person wants to fly away. Allah has given us reason and this mind is a fertile oasis of imagination and creativity. It is through reason we can prove to ourselves and to others that we are able to achieve the impossible. For myself, I have created during my work progress a private project thanks to an experiment in which I designed my own house through the experience I gained from my field of work. Then I have realized that I could employ these skills to make a private business after retirement.
Advice for young people
First, I thank the wise leadership in the UAE for issuing the national service decision, which is the right decision, as it gave the youth strength, support and immunity to face the challenges of the future with wisdom and determination. I advise them not to make national service an excuse for not completing their education.. I consider that science is the mainstay of the societies` advancement and progress. The strength and durability of character generated from this service as well as enhancing this service with the elements that is beneficial to individual and his society must be an incentive and a motivation for them to continue to serve their country from other locations.
Is there a final word to conclude our career?
Yes.. I would like to extend my sincere thanks and appreciation to the Pensions Authority for this generous gesture by hosting retirees to talk about their careers. Through my interactions with the Authority on a number of occasions, I see it as a role model in the professional work that reflects the aspects distinguishing our governmental institutions.. I offer them all thanks and appreciation from the heart.
