Board Members

About Us

Hussain Al-Qahtani

Chairman

Hussain Al-Qahtani serves as Saudi Aramco Downstream’s Senior Vice President of Fuels, a position he has held since January 1, 2024.

Hussain Al-Qahtani has more than 34 years of experience with Saudi Aramco through which he has established a track record of managing complex investment projects, achieving strategic business targets, building strong partnerships with key stakeholders, and delivering growth across the company’s vast refining business.

Prior to his current role, Al-Qahtani was representative director and CEO of S-Oil Corporation in the Republic of Korea after serving as president and CEO of the Saudi Aramco Shell Refinery Corporation (SASREF) from November of 2016 to May of 2019.

As director of Saudi Aramco Domestic Joint Ventures Management from September of 2015 to November of 2016. He successfully managed an extensive portfolio of Saudi Aramco’s domestic refinery and petrochemical joint venture companies after leading Saudi Aramco’s Process Engineering & Control Systems function, where he played a central role in building high quality process engineering solutions for the company’s refineries and petrochemical plants.

As part of his current duties as senior vice president, Al-Qahtani sits on the boards of the Saudi Aramco Total Refining & Petrochemical Company (SATORP) located in Jubail and Motiva Enterprises headquartered in Houston, Texas.

WADHA AL-KHATEEB

Vice Chairperson

Wadha Ahmad Al-Khateeb, with 28 years of experience in the oil sector, currently serves as the CEO of Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC). Throughout her career, she has held diverse technical and management positions in the Technical Services and Health Safety & Environment Departments.

Al-Khateeb has achieved rearkable milestones, such as ranking 8th and 7th in Forbes Middle East's list of the 100 Power Business Women for the years 2020 and 2021, respectively. She made history by becoming the first women and the first Kuwaiti to head the Gas Processors Association, GCC Chapter. Her contributions extend to initiating a successful pilot program for training female process engineers in the Operations Department and leading Cost Optimization and Profit Improvement initiatives at Mina Al-Ahmadi Refinery, resulting in a substantial financial benefit of 23 million dollars. She has been recognized with the "Women of Achievement Runner-up" award from Leadership Excellence for Women Awards and has driven efforts to register the first Kuwaiti project (Flare Gas Recovery unit) with UNFCCC.

Wadha's extensive experience also includes serving as a former Member of the Natural Reserves Committee and the Oil Spill Combating Plan Committee in the State of Kuwait. She established the Odor Management System at KNPC to target zero odor, including one of the largest Leak Detection and Repair programs globally. Furthermore, she served as a Member of the TKSC Board (The Kuwait Styrene Company, K.S.C), and she has held the position of Chairperson for KPPC (Kuwait Paraxylene Production Company, K.S.C) since May 5, 2019. Most recently, Wadha led the commissioning activities of a multibillion-dollar mega project at Mina Abdullah Refinery as part of the Clean Fuel Projects in the State of Kuwait. In addition to her professional achievements, she has been an active member of the Women's Cultural Social Society since the 1990s, collaborating with various nonprofit organizations for charitable work.

Al-Khateeb holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from the College of Engineering and Petroleum, Kuwait University, with an exceptional academic record that earned her a place in the Dean's list of honor during the academic years 1992-1993.

SHAFI AL-AJMI

Board Member

Shafi Taleb Al-Ajmi is a seasoned professional with more than 25 years of experience in Oil and Gas Downstream Petrochemical Industry. Al-Ajmi is currently the President and CEO at Kuwait Petroleum International (KPI) and leads the KPI JV Investments Nghi Son Refinery and Petrochemical LLC and Duqm Refinery Project. Prior to this role, he has led the Finance & Administration directorate of PIC. During his tenure, he has also proven expertise in several acquisition transactions and strategic feasibility studies in the petrochemical industry and headed the development of PIC’s petrochemical strategy 2030 and 2040.

Shafi Taleb Al-Ajmi is a seasoned professional with more than 25 years of experience in Oil and Gas Downstream Petrochemical Industry.

Al-Ajmi is currently the President and CEO at Kuwait Petroleum International (KPI) and leads the KPI JV Investments Nghi Son Refinery and Petrochemical LLC and Duqm Refinery Project. Prior to this role, he has led the Finance & Administration directorate of PIC. During his tenure, he has also proven expertise in several acquisition transactions and strategic feasibility studies in the petrochemical industry and headed the development of PIC’s petrochemical strategy 2030 and 2040.

He is serving as Members Council Chairman of Nghi Son Refinery and Petrochemical LLC, Board of Directors Member of OQ8, Deputy Chairman of the Board for SK PIC Global Co., and his other board memberships include Gulf Petrochemical Industries Company (GPIC); Equate Petrochemical Company and Milazzo Refinery.

Al-Ajmi holds a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Kuwait University

Sultan Al-Bigishi

Board Member

Sultan Albigishi has more than 25 years of extensive downstream experience in refinery operations management, project management, planning and strategy.

Sultan Albigishi has more than 25 years of extensive downstream experience in refinery operations management, project management, planning and strategy. As Acting CEO he provides strategic leadership and effective operational management to achieve ADNOC Refining’s objectives.

Albigishi spent almost his entire career to-date with ADNOC Refining where he joined as a Process Engineer in 1995, before taking on a range of other positions in Process Engineering, Production Planning and Economics, Technical Services, Plant Operations and Strategy & Business Support.

Prior to his current role, Albigishi was Senior Vice President for Projects and Technical, and oversaw OMV’s refining operations in Austria, Germany and Romania as Senior Vice President for Asset Development. He also served as a Board Member at ADNOC’s Technical Academy from 2017 to 2020.

Albigishi holds a Chemical Engineering degree from Tulsa University, US.

KAMIL AL-SHANFRI

Board Member

Kamil Al Shanfri is Managing Director for OQ Refineries and Petrochemical Industries and Plastics, and acting Managing Director for Salalah Cluster. He manages OQ fully owned refineries in Muscat and Sohar, and petrochemicals in Sohar industrial area which consist of Aromatics Plant, Steam Cracker, and Polymer production.

He has more than 24 years of professional experience in Oil and Gas, 20 of them in Refineries and Petrochemicals. He held several leadership positions since 2011 and Board Chairman of Air Liquide Sohar Industrial Gases between 2015 to 2020 and current member of OQ8 board. Prior to this role, he was Chief Operation Officer of Downstream Oman Assets of OQ where his responsibilities covers refineries and Petrochemicals Plants in Muscat, Sohar, and Salalah.

Kamil is leading operation excellence programs in OQ RPI by introducing continues improvement programs, high performance cultures, enhancing operation & energy efficiencies, maintenance excellence, improving personnel productivity, and capability development.

Al Shanfari holds a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from University of Tulsa, USA and he has attended IMD Leadership programs.

Afaf Zainalabedin

GDA Board Member and Financial Secretary

Afaf Zainalabedin has a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Bahrain. In addition, she holds numerous certifications, such as a Chartered Accountant from ACCA, and a certificate in International Auditing. Afaf has also attended management executive courses in Henley College, Oxford.

She has more than 28 years of rich and solid experience across various sectors such as Consultancy, Banking and the Oil and Gas sector. She started her career as a Manager in Ernest and Young undertaking audit assignments of major financial institutions, insurance companies, retail and wholesale organizations, manufacturing companies and Government establishments.

She progressed then to Head of Internal Audit and Chief Financial Officer at Arcapita Bank, responsible for auditing the investment companies, offshore structures, various offshore branches, investment companies, investment vehicles and the Head office.

In addition, Afaf has worked for more than six years as the Chief Financial Officer in Bapco Energies (formerly known as Oil and Gas Holding Company (nogaholding)), overseeing the function at Bapco Energies and overseeing this function at the other subsidiaries. She was involved in the investment projects financial aspects and was the corporate secretary to the audit committee and the Board of Directors. It is also worth noting that she is a board member of the BACJET Fuel Company.

Afaf joined Bapco Refining in January 2021 as the Chief Financial Officer at Bapco Refining where she was responsible for Finance, IT and procurement function.She was also the secretary to the Board Audit and Finance Committee. Afaf has been managing the Finance function, introducing transformative changes to ensure that the results of the operations and financial results are provided to the Executive Committee and Board of Directors.

She was spearheading the various transformation and corporate governance initiatives to ensure robust, more effective to enhance efficiency with the utmost levels of governance across the Company.

She has been working relentlessly to ensure that the Company’s transitions into an agile, modern and profitable Company.

Afaf was appointed as Acting Deputy Chief Executive Corporate Support in April 2022, overseeing the entire corporate spectrum such as Financial Accounting, Information Technology & Digital, Procurement, Human Resources, Training & Development, Corporate Excellence and Corporate Communications.

She is conducting her dual role as ADCE-Human Capital and General Services and Chief Financial Officer in an extremely efficient and professional manner. Mrs. Zainalabedin has also been appointed as the Chairwomen of BLBOC in August 2022 which is a true testament of her capabilities and vast experience.
Effective 1 January 2024, Afaf has been appointed as the Deputy Chief Executive Human Capital and Corporate Services.

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