The Experience I acquired at Omantel, helped me grow Be’ah to what it has become today

Tuesday, 12th September 2017, Muscat, Oman.

These were the words that the group of General Managers from Omantel received, interviewing in their very first session of the Culture Transformers Program, their former colleague at Omantel Engineer Tareq Al Amri, holding today the role of CEO at Be’ah in Oman.

Be’ah hosted the first session of the program at its penthouse floor, in its headquarters in Muscat Oman, where participants started in the morning their learning session, and concluded that with an hour interviewing the CEO.

Eng. Al Amri, shared with his colleagues his story from the time he studied electrical engineering in the United States and held a part time job of Pizza delivery and how that experience and exposure shaped his personality and life. That was followed by a career journey which commenced at PDO for the first three years, after which he moved on to work at his Majesty the Sultan’s office for a period of 10 years, which played a key role in reinforcing his loyalty to the Country. His career took a break when he decided to take an MBA in Finance, which he emphasized as having come of utmost importance to his role that followed. In that stressing to participants, the importance of being good in numbers and finance, as this will support them when making important decisions. He mentioned that their key responsibility, no matter what role they hold, is to create shareholder value, and for that, it’s important to consider the needs and expectations of all stakeholders.

With an MBA in hand, Tarek moved on to join the retirement fund, where he played a key role in setting up various successful companies for the fund amongst which was ‘A’Saffa Foods. After a decade of serving the fund, he felt that his skills and knowledge started outperforming the organizations ability to effectively employ these, the point at which he decided to move on, and join Oman LNG as their Chief Strategy Officer. Looking back, he remembers his first assignment at LNG was to develop a financial model that would be reviewed by the Board for Shell and Oman to make an important decision based on it. He felt overwhelmed by the responsibility accompanying such task, where his previous experience might not live up to that level of financial modelling for such an important decision. However, with the right support he received, he was able to formulate the model, and a decision to move on with the project, based on that model was made and has proven to have been a positive one. That experience he went through, grew his confidence and skills which proved valuable for the various strategic assignments that had followed.

After a few years serving LNG, the opportunity to join Omantel presented itself. And although, it came during a difficult time that Omantel was going through – the transitioning period from being a government entity to becoming a commercial entity – he admits, that it was these very challenges and difficulties that they were confronted with and the accompanying learning and experience, which more than any other, helped him grow and shape Be’ah to what it has become today.

Following his time at Omantel, he went out to set up his own Consulting Company supporting entities during their transformations, which he was running for a few years, until he was approached by the Chairman of Omantel, for a CEO role at Be’ah. The appointment came at a time where the Company was going through some serious struggles and difficulties, to a point where no one was prepared to further fund it. Despite the challenges, Tarek was happy to take the lead and turn it around, and has indeed grown the Company to what it has become today.

To learn more about Oman Environmental Services Holding Co. (Be’ah) visit www.beah.om

About the Culture Transformers Program:

Recognized as the ‘Storybased Leadership Program’, the program takes participants over a ten-week journey, where each week’s learning session is hosted by a different organization. Impactful leadership lessons are taught in the morning of that session, followed by a one hour interview with the CEO of the hosting entity. The program provides an opportunity for candidates to be exposed to different work environment and learn from and be inspired by the leadership at those entities. The program is currently being rolled out in the UAE and Oman. For more information email us at info@altaaat.com