New appointment: Wail A. Al Jaafari, executive vice president, Technical Services

Wail A. Al Jaafari has been appointed executive vice president of Technical Services, effective Oct. 1, 2023, after serving as senior vice president of Southern Area Gas Operations (SAGO) since Sept. 1, 2021. 

Previously, Al Jaafari served as general manager with SAGO and as the director of IPO Structuring from May 2017 to December 2018. Prior to that, he was director of the Global Economic and Energy Analysis Department from September 2014 to May 2017, and director of the Portfolio Analysis and Decision Support Department from August 2013 to August 2014. Al Jaafari joined the company in October 1993, after earning a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals the same year.

Al Jaafari began his career as an engineer, serving in the Specialty Engineering Unit of the ‘Uthmaniyah Gas Plant (UGP). In UGP until May 2005, he handled several functions, including maintenance engineer, supervisor for Area Maintenance, senior supervisor for Planning and Scheduling, senior supervisor of Area Maintenance, and superintendent of the Engineering Division. In May 2005, Al Jaafari was assigned as an engineering specialist in the New Business Evaluation Department, during which he led the Industrial Ventures Group. In January 2006, Al Jaafari moved to the Hawiyah NGL Recovery Plant as senior operations engineer responsible for commissioning, after which he was named superintendent for Hawiyah NGL Maintenance in July 2008. In December 2008, Al Jaafari was assigned as head of Commissioning for the academic and research facilities in King Abdullah University of Science and Technology.

In October 2010, Al Jaafari was named senior planning/analysis consultant in Corporate Planning and acted as the department manager of the Long-Range Planning Department leading Aramco’s Business Plan, until May 2012, when he departed to the U.S. to undertake the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Sloan Fellows Program.

Following Al Jaafari’s return in 2013, he was assigned permanently as the manager for the Portfolio Analysis and Decision Support Department, and also completed acting assignments as director for the Strategic Planning Department, director for the Kingdom Economic and Energy Analysis Department, manager for the Khursaniyah Gas Plant Department, general manager of Planning, Budgeting and Business Performance, and general manager of Procurement, before being named general manager for SAGO.

Al Jaafari has completed a number of leadership courses since joining the company, including the President’s Leadership Challenge, the Saudi Aramco Management Development Seminar, the Advanced Management Program, and an executive MBA via the MIT Sloan Fellows Program. He sits on the board of the Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare Company and serves as the chairman of the Power Cogeneration Plant Company, the National Industrial Training Institute, and the National Power Academy.