New executive team and future leadership development

Late in 2005 Batelco announced a number of strategic initiatives to continue the Company's transformation into a better performing, very competitive and customer driven organisation.

"The restructuring of the senior executive team is part of the overall plan and will facilitate the execution of our strategies and the continuing transformation of our business from being technology based to being a customer focused enterprise," said Batelco Chief Executive Peter Kaliaropoulos.

Batelco's CEO has rejuvenated Batelco's leadership team by blending Bahraini and international management talent into key roles.

Heading Batelco's Business Division is Abdulwahid Zainal whose career in the Company spans 34 years. Most recently he led the Customer Services teams, transforming the front office operation into a customer driven service operation.

Nick Di Marzo, joined recently to head up the Consumer Division. He brings to Batelco strong sales, marketing and business development expertise from Asia Pacific and the Middle East. He has held senior executive roles, including Head of Nawras Mobiles, Oman; Director Virgin Mobiles, VP Marketing TIME Telekom, Malaysia; and with other companies including BT and Telstra.

Yaqoob Alawadhi, heads up Anis (Arabian Network Information Services), a fully owned subsidiary of Batelco offering ICT solutions. Yaqoob held senior roles in the past, including CEO of BJL, based in Riyadh and his broad corporate business knowledge spans over 18 years in the fields of telecommunications, networking and systems integration, working for multinational regional companies across the UK and the GCC.

John Ford who heads up Wholesale & Carrier Relations, has been with Batelco for 6 years. John has significant network engineering experience coupled with corporate and regulatory knowledge. He has competitive experience in both start-up operators, incumbents and suppliers. Recently promoted to his new position, John is now dealing with wholesale customers and foreign administrations, a dynamic area of the company which has evolved significantly since the advent of competition.

Chief Financial Officer Chris Gabriel, who joined Batelco in November 2005 leads the Finance and IT team. His professional experience has been in highly competitive telecommunications and computing industries having held senior executive roles as CFO, Financial Controller, Chief Information Officer and Director Commercial Operations with companies such as Burroughs, Ericsson, Ernst & Young and SingTel Optus.

Ebrahim Zainal takes on the role of General Manager Networks & Technology, having served Batelco for 36 years. Starting as a trainee technician in 1970, he held various positions, including Head of Building Services for a number of years, prior to becoming GM of Network Operations in 2000. Since then, his role has expanded to meet with the continual changes within the organisation.

General Manager Human Resources & Services, Sh. Ahmed Khalifa, entered Batelco as Senior Manager Employee Relations in 1997. Coming from an engineering background, having been an aircraft engineer, he made an easy transition from machines to people development.

One of the Batelco's longest serving employees; Saleh Tarradah joined in 1969 and has risen steadily through the ranks to become General Manager Information Systems. Both his degree in electrical & electronic engineering in 1978, plus his master's degree in 1986 were earned while gaining work experience in several different positions including Engineering Manager Projects & Development and GM Residential Customer Unit.

General Manager Corporate Affairs and Board Secretary, Ahmed Al Janahi, brought a wealth of experience with him when he joined the company in 2003, from Gulf Air. Having had successful careers in Real Estate, Industry Equipment Sales, the Hotel Industry, Finance and Aviation prepared him well for the wide ranging responsibilities he undertakes at Batelco.

Batelco's Legal & Regulatory Affairs Department is headed up by Simon Topping. With specialised experience in competition law and regulation in technology sectors from various European markets, Simon brings valuable knowledge, as Batelco deals with regulation in the local telecoms industry.

Besides this, Batelco is pleased to announce a number of new appointments in key management roles. They include Muna Alhashemi as Senior Manager Customer Marketing, Adel Daylami as Senior Manager Business Marketing & Sales Support, Hamza Ali - Senior Manager Mobile Products & Services, Senior Manager NGN & IT Networks - Mohammed Bubshait and Senior Manager Finance Support Services Maha Al Zayani.

Mr. Kaliaropoulos said that companies succeed or fail depending on the quality of their executive leadership teams.

"Batelco has strengthened its leadership team to ensure it remains a market leader in the ever increasing competitive environment in Bahrain and the Middle East."

"We are immensely proud that we have a wealth of Bahraini talent in our company with 94% of our workforce being Bahraini," he added.

Batelco's "Future Leaders" are now being groomed through the Company's recently introduced leadership programme. This programme is used by various companies in the GCC. However, Batelco is the first company in the Arab world to link it with a full leadership development programme using an in-house Leadership Guide which incorporates elements from the Harvard Management programme.