Gulf Air elevates Bahraini IT expert to senior position

Until recently Head of IT Infrastructure, Mr. Al Qassab is no new comer to the position as he has served earlier as Acting Vice President IT for nearly one and a half years during 2005-2006.

"I am pleased to see Jalal being elevated to lead IT at Gulf Air, which is one of the critical functions," says Gulf Air Acting President and Chief Executive Björn Näf.

"As a national carrier of the Kingdom we would like to identify and encourage local talents. Jalal is well-suited for the position as he has the right qualifications, experience, skills and the passion to achieve."

"He has a strong working knowledge of important IT challenges in Gulf Air since he was fully involved in contract negotiation and service deployment besides putting in place a solid IT infrastructure."

I am very confident Jalal can take forward our ambitious IT plans as he has very high understanding of the technologies, infrastructure and business systems, which support the company today," says Mr. Näf

Mr. Al Qassab came to Gulf Air in 1999 as an IT consultant after a 10 year stint with Aluminum Bahrain (ALBA), where he held several positions in IT networking and solutions deployment. He became Gulf Air Head of IT infrastructure in 2002 and was Acting Vice President IT for nearly one and a half years during 2005-2006.

A BSc (Honors) graduate in Computing Science from the University of Portsmouth, U.K., Mr. Al Qassab also earned his MSc in Internet Systems Development from the same university. He is well trained in several areas of IT, and management having taken part in many international training programmes, workshops and conferences.

Mr. Al Qassab also won the CIO (Chief Information Officer) and IT Manager of the year award in 2005 - 2006 by ACN and ITP Consulting Group - the largest magazine publisher in the Middle East specializing in IT.

"I am very happy to have been appointed to this position, which is quite challenging and rewarding," says Mr. Al Qassab.

"Gulf Air is well on its way to success with its ambitious restructuring plan across its entire business spectrum and, without any doubt, IT plays an important role in enabling Gulf Air conduct business more efficiently by deploying technology more effectively."

"As we have decided to take IT services back in-house on expiry of the current outsourcing contract, I am fully geared to consolidate and enhance our IT infrastructure and services. One of my goals is to maximise our profitability by providing a solid, cost-efficient and state-of-the-art IT support to our operational and commercial functions as well as providing a user-friendly IT experience to our customers," concludes Mr. Al Qassab.

Mr. Al Qassab loves jogging and bowling and is a voracious reader of books on management, psychology, artificial intelligence, neural networks and of course, airplanes.