Six officials involved in the development of the $20bn Sadara complex at Jubail: Abdullatif al-Othman, Jim McIlvenny, Azzam Shalabi, Andrew Liveris, Colin McKenzie and Arturo Grimaldi
Abdullatif al-Othman
Position: Chairman, Sadara Chemical Company
Biography: Abdullatif al-Othman is chairman of Sadara Chemical Company and senior vice president, engineering and project management at state-owned Saudi Aramco, which has a 50 per cent stake in the Sadara petrochemicals project. Al-Othman started his career as an engineer with Saudi Aramco in 1981, working in the engineering and project management department. He worked on a wide range of projects, including gas gathering, refining and oil terminal schemes. Between 1990 and 2003, Al-Othman worked as a senior project engineer before moving into planning and resource management and then marketing and sales. He became the vice president of Aramco’s finance division in 2003. Al-Othman has a degree in civil engineering from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Dhahran and a master’s degree in business administration from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US.
Contact Tel: (+966) 3 872 0115
Jim McIlvenny
Position: Chairman, Dow Sadara project office
Biography: Jim McIlvenny has been responsible for leading Dow’s megaprojects since 2010 and has been charged with overseeing the Sadara scheme. The $20bn project is one of the largest ever undertaken by the company and is the largest Dow project outside the US. McIlvenny joined Dow’s Australian operations in 1982 and worked in the chemicals and performance products division in various roles including sales, technical services and business leadership. He was appointed chief executive officer of Dow subsidiary Hampshire Chemical Corporation in 1998, before becoming business vice president of speciality polymers. In 2004, McIlvenny was named president of Dow Greater China and went on to become president of Dow Asia-Pacific in 2006. In 2009, he was named senior vice president for performance products. McIlvenny has a degree in chemical engineering from the University of Sydney in Australia.
Contact Tel: (+971) 4 332 8866
Azzam Shalabi
Position: President, National Industrial Cluster Development Programme (NICDP)
Biography: Azzam Shalabi was appointed president of the NICDP when it was set up in 2007. He is responsible for establishing an industrial cluster next to the Sadara complex, where international and domestic firms can develop downstream chemicals manufacturing facilities based on Sadara’s output. Shalabi’s remit is to set up specialised industrial clusters throughout the country. The sectors represented in the clusters include the automotive industry, solar energy, metals processing, packaging and home appliances. Prior to joining NICDP, he spent more than 25 years working with Aramco. Shalabi’s last role at Aramco was director of the new business evaluation department. He has an engineering degree from Oklahoma State University and a master’s degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, both in the US.
Contact Tel: (+966) 50 491 1339
Andrew Liveris
Position: President, chairman and chief executive officer, Dow Chemical Company
Biography: As the CEO of Dow Chemical, Andrew Liveris has been involved in the Sadara project since its inception. Liveris is a chemical industry veteran and has had a 35-year career with Dow in roles including manufacturing, engineering, sales, marketing, business and general management. He started his career with Dow in 1976 in its Australian office and most of his early experience was in Asia, including a 14-year stint in Hong Kong. Liveris was the general manager for Dow’s operations in Thailand before becoming president of the firm’s Asia-Pacific operations. He became chief executive officer in 2004 and was made chairman in 2006. Liveris also serves as president and chairman of the International Council of Chemical Associations. He has a degree in chemical engineering from the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia.
Contact Tel: (+1) 989 636 1000
Colin McKenzie
Position: Vice president and general manager, Fluor Arabia
Biography: As head of the US-based Fluor’s operations in Saudi Arabia, Colin McKenzie is playing a central role in the development of the Sadara complex. Fluor is carrying out the engineering, procurement, construction and management for the utilities and offsites at the complex. The work is worth more than $2bn and involves overseeing the construction of several difficult subcontracted projects, including a 6-kilometre-long interconnecting pipe rack, which links all the major technical areas of the site. The firm will be issuing tenders for several subcontracts throughout 2012. McKenzie has been employed by Fluor for 28 years and has worked for the company in Dubai, the US, the Netherlands, South Africa and India, on projects across the hydrocarbons and industry sectors. He has a degree in mechanical engineering from Strathclyde University in the UK.
Contact Tel: (+966) 3 882 9292
Arturo Grimaldi
Position: Senior vice president, Technip Middle East
Biography: Arturo Grimaldi has worked with France’s Technip since the mid-1980s and has been based in the Middle East since 2009. Technip is providing the technology for the Sadara scheme and will oversee the construction by South Korea’s Daelim Industrial of the project’s mixed-feed cracker, which will produce 1.2 million tonnes a year (t/y) of ethylene and 400,000 t/y of propylene. Grimaldi spent the early part of his career working in Technip’s process department before joining the project execution department as engineering manager and then project manager. He worked on two refinery megaprojects in Iran and Egypt, before taking on the Horizon Oil Sands scheme in Canada. In 2007, Grimaldi was appointed chief operating officer of Technip’s Italian operations, a position he held until assuming his current role. He has a degree in chemical engineering from Rome University.
Contact Tel: (+ 971) 2 611 6000
You might also like...
Ajban financial close expected by third quarter
23 April 2024
TotalEnergies awards Marsa LNG contracts
23 April 2024
Neom tenders Oxagon health centre contract
23 April 2024
Neom hydro project moves to prequalification
23 April 2024
A MEED Subscription...
Subscribe or upgrade your current MEED.com package to support your strategic planning with the MENA region’s best source of business information. Proceed to our online shop below to find out more about the features in each package.
