ALBA has named Ali Al Baqali as the new chief financial officer (CFO) following board approval of his appointment.

Al Baqali, a Bahraini national, joined Alba in 1998 as a purchasing Officer and was promoted in 2010 as manager of procurement and warehousing. Since October 2012, he had been acting chief finance and supply officer where he was responsible for all finance, supply chain and IT functions.

Sultan: new power station director

Commenting on the appointment, Alba’s chief executive officer, Tim Murray, said: “At Alba, we believe that development of our people is the key to future success. Ali’s promotion to CFO is a great example of our commitment to develop the right people within the company. We feel this strategy is the best way to harness the true potential of an individual and promoting from within also creates opportunities for others in the company. Ali’s promotion to the executive team is the result of his hard work and dedication and we are confident his leadership will play a crucial role in Alba’s continued success.”

Al Baqali holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Bahrain and is a professional member of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply (CIPS), UK. He is also currently pursuing his MBA in Finance from Ecole Supérieure des Sciences Economiques et Commerciales (ESSEC) through the French Arabian Business School, Bahrain.

In other senior appointments, Alba named Bahrainis Amin Sultan as the power station director and Khalid A Latif as the new engineering manager.

Latif: new engineering manager

Sultan’s responsibilities will include overseeing power maintenance and projects along with power operations and utilities at Alba’s dedicated power plant that boasts a total power generating capacity of 2,265 MW. He will be reporting directly to the chief executive officer.

Prior to joining Alba, Sultan worked with the Japanese control company Yokogawa and in 1997 joined Alba as an engineer in the power station.  He was promoted to superintendent in 2004, and from 2008 served initially as manager and later as senior manager in power maintenance and projects. 

One of the units at the Alba plant

Sultan has received a master’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Bahrain, and is currently pursuing the Executive MBA qualification from Ecole Supérieure des Sciences Economiques et Commerciales (ESSEC) through the French Arabian Business School, Bahrain. 

New engineering manager Latif has been with Alba since 1989 when he joined as trainee technician in power maintenance. He was promoted to the supervisory level in the same department, and then transferred as superintendent in carbon maintenance and later to the reduction maintenance department. He was subsequently moved to the engineering department as acting manager.

Latif received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the Gulf University, Bahrain. He is currently pursuing his MBA from Ecole supérieure des sciences économiques et commerciales (ESSEC) through the French Arabian Business School, Bahrain.