Six key individuals behind the development of the $10.8bn aluminium complex at Ras al-Zour: Khalid Saleh al-Mudaifer, Abdullah Dabbagh, Klaus Kleinfeld, Edward Smith, Colin McKenzie and Rumaih al-Rumaih
Khalid Saleh al-Mudaifer
Position President and chief executive officer (CEO), Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Maaden)
Biography Khalid Saleh al-Mudaifer took over as the president and CEO of Maaden after Abdullah Dabbagh retired in December 2010. Al-Mudaifer graduated in 1984 from King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals with an engineering degree. In 1987, Al-Mudaifer obtained a master’s degree in business administration. That same year, he joined the Eastern Petrochemical Company, a subsidiary of the Saudi Basic Industries Corporation. At the time of his departure from the company in 1993, Al-Mudaifer was vice-president for finance. Between 1993 and 2006, he worked at local Qassim Cement Company as director-general and secretary of the board of directors. Since joining Maaden in 2006, Al-Mudaifer has held posts as vice-president for industrial affairs and vice-president for phosphate and new business development.
Contact Tel: (+966) 1 874 8000
Abdullah Dabbagh
Position Board director, Maaden
Biography Abdullah Dabbagh joined Maaden as its CEO and president when the company was formed in 1997 and remained in this role until he stood down at the end of 2010. Despite no longer being involved in the day-to-day running of the company, Dabbagh has played a vital role in the development of the Ras al-Zour project, including successfully bringing Alcoa into the scheme as a minority equity partner. Dabbagh graduated from the US’ University of North Carolina in 1975, with a doctorate in geology. He has served as a member of the board of directors for a number of firms. He was a director of the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry (2004-09), a member of the executive committee of the Arab Business Council (2004-09) and served as a member of the board for Saudi Aramco (1989-96). Dabbagh was also a key figure in establishing the Research Institute at the King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals.
Contact Tel: (+966) 1 472 1222
Klaus Kleinfeld
Position President and CEO, Alcoa
Biography Klaus Kleinfeld has been on the board of directors at US’ Alcoa since 2003, but only became president and CEO in 2008 after around 12 months in the role of chief operating officer. Prior to joining Alcoa, Kleinfeld spent 20 years at Germany’s Siemens, where he started off as a junior executive in the corporate sales and marketing department and ended up as CEO, a role he held from 2005-07. Before that, he worked for Switzerland’s Ciba-Geigy in Basel, where he was a product manager in the pharmaceutical division. Kleinfeld has a business administration degree from Georg-August University in Gottingen, Germany and a doctorate in strategic management from the University of Wurzburg. Kleinfeld is also chairman of the US-Russia Business Council and a director of German petrochemicals giant Bayer. Alcoa is the minority shareholder in Maaden’s Ras al-Zour aluminium project.
Contact Tel: (+1) 412 553 4545
Edward Smith
Position Country director, WorleyParsons
Biography Edward Smith has been country director for Australia’s WorleyParsons in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain since 2010 and has more than 40 years’ experience in the energy sector. Previously, he was CEO of Intecsea, the global subsea unit of WorleyParsons in Houston, in the US. In 2005-07, Smith took a sabbatical from the private sector to lead a nation-building advisory team as a foreign service officer in Kabul, Afghanistan for the US State Department. As part of that assignment, he dealt with the development of Afghanistan’s mineral and gemstone sector. This experience has helped him oversee WorleyParsons’ project management role in Maaden’s aluminium project. Smith graduated from the Illinois Institute of Technology with a degree in chemical engineering in 1967 and holds an master’s in business administration from the Kellogg School of Management Northwestern University, both of which are in the US.
Contact Tel: (+966) 3 881 3775
Colin McKenzie
Position Vice-president & general manager, Fluor Arabia
Biography As the head of Fluor’s operations in Saudi Arabia, Colin McKenzie is playing a central role in the construction of the Maaden/Alcoa joint venture. Fluor is carrying out project management consultancy (PMC) services for the construction of the aluminium complex at Ras al-Zour. The company is undertaking the PMC and engineering, procurement and construction of the alumina refinery and bauxite mine in a joint venture with WorleyParsons. Fluor is also carrying out the engineering, procurement and management for the rolling mill and awarded the construction contract to South Korea’s Samsung Engineering in February. McKenzie has been employed by Fluor for 28 years. Previously, he worked for the company in Dubai, the US, the Netherlands, South Africa and India. He has a degree in mechanical engineering from Strathclyde University in the UK.
Contact Tel: (+966) 3 882 9292
Rumaih al-Rumaih
Position CEO, Saudi Railways Company
Biography Rumaih al-Rumaih has a doctorate in electrical engineering from University of Colorado in the US and a master’s of business administration in finance from the UK’s University of Leicester. After graduating, he worked in teaching and research for several years. Al-Rumaih joined Saudi Railways Company in July 2008 as a deputy chief executive officer for operations. He was promoted to CEO in June 2010. Saudi Railways Company is developing the North-South minerals railway. The first phase of the scheme is on track to start operations by the end of the first quarter of 2011. It will transport 4 million tonnes a year of bauxite from Al-Zabirah to the Maaden alumina refinery in Ras al-Zour, where it will be processed. The railway has been identified as a vital link in the supply chain for the aluminium project and will ensure the whole process from minerals to finished canned products can be achieved in the kingdom.
Contact Tel: (+966) 1 250 1111
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