SAP MENA appoints Ahmed Jaber Al-Faifi as Saudi Arabia Managing Director

Reporting directly to Sam Alkharrat, Managing Director, SAP MENA, Al-Faifi will lead SAP's ambitious growth strategy and field operations in one of the company's most dynamic markets.

An IT and telecommunications veteran with more than a decade's experience across the Middle East, Al-Faifi joins SAP MENA from ZAIN KSA, where he held the position of Chief Operating Officer, supervising networks, IT, sales, marketing, customer care, among other key operational functions.

Under his leadership, Zain KSA achieved tremendous growth in record time and expanded its operations to attain a market leadership position, including becoming the first in the region to introduce mobile 4G LTE.

Al-Faifi's tenure at Zain KSA also entailed working as Chief Technology Officer, where his cost optimization initiatives resulted in savings of more than SR2.3bn over a five year period.

Other career highlights include roles as Chief Strategy, Planning and Business development officer for Zain KSA, Head of New Accounts and Business Development for Ericsson's Saudi Arabia operations, and Mobile Licensing Manager for the Communication and IT Commission.

"I am delighted to welcome Ahmed to our team," said Alkharrat.

"In a market as strategically important as Saudi Arabia, it is critical that we have the right person to lead and grow our business. Ahmed has the background and vision to move us to the next level, and will be instrumental in driving our customer-centric innovation agenda centering on cutting-edge, localized solutions related to mobility, analytics, applications, database and technology and the cloud."

Al-Faifi joins SAP MENA at an auspicious time. A comprehensive study by IDC, the premier global market intelligence and advisory firm for the information technology and telecommunications markets, recently placed SAP as the MENA region's Enterprise Application Software (EAS) vendor front-runner, while Saudi Arabia ranks as the company's largest market, with a strong showing in the manufacturing, utilities and oil and gas sectors contributing to a healthy 43.5% of all EAS business in the kingdom.

SAP MENA is also in the midst of rolling out a four-year additional spend plan to up-skill local talent and drive sustainable innovation and growth across Middle East and North Africa region.

The plan includes recruiting more than 500 additional employees, opening several new offices and expanding the company's partner ecosystem and the SAP University Alliances program. Additionally, significant increases will be made in the availability of comprehensive, innovative and localized service offerings.

SAP MENA will also establish a dedicated "Training and Development Institute" that aims to certify 2,000 new consultants in the market within the next four years. This will triple the company's existing consulting capabilities in the region and further support the localization of SAP solutions to meet fast-growing regional industry needs.

On the global stage, Q2 2012 was SAP's best ever second quarter, exceeding €1bn in software revenue, and beating market expectations to deliver results representative of 26% year-over-year growth.

SAP's long-term global growth strategy includes doubling its addressable market, reaching 1 billion people and achieving global revenues of €20bn by 2015.

"More than ever before, SAP's team across MENA is built to scale, innovate and deliver value-added solutions that can help businesses and organizations run better," said Al-Faifi.

"Saudi Arabia is in the midst of dramatic changes and its progress will need to occur with precision, efficiency and sustainability. I am proud to be a part of a company that is already influencing this exciting new reality, and look forward to supporting our Saudi customers and partners as we aspire to the next wave of growth and innovation."