How Can Someone Evaluate Saudi Aramco New Chairman?

Summary

• Saudi Aramco chairman was replaced in a push to get IPO moving.
• The chairman position is meant to oversee the strategies and investment of the company, not the day to day activities that is the responsibility of the CEO.
• Saudi Aramco enters the stage of launching part of it in the Saudi and international market. Naturally, a very credible figure in the world of finance and investment is needed.
• Exchanging or changing roles for statesmen - as Saudi Arabia leadershipsees it -  in order to serve the goals of the vision stages.

Saudi Arabia vision 2030 is progressing well and part of this progress is to prepare Saudi Aramco to get the IPO moving as planned. In order to change Saudi Aramco from a state oil company to go public. Thus the appointment of H. E. Yasser Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the Public Investment Fund, which is a huge sovereign wealth fund one of the largest investment funds in the world, that is the central Saudi vision 2030 strategies to diversify Saudi Arabia's economy. Mr. Yasser Al-Rumayyanis also an advisor to the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers at the rank of Minister.

Some international media has irrationally doubted Mr. Yasser Al-Rumayyan ability to preside over Aramco's board of directors on the grounds that his professional background is financial, not oil. They conclude that his Excellency is not the right man as if it’s an executive rather than a chairman.

Such media who suggested that of Mr. Al-Rumayyanis is not the right man as the new chairman of Saudi Aramco board of directors, forgot that two of the major oil companies chairmen came from telecommunications industry without any knowledge in oil industry and energy. The chairman position is meant to oversee the strategies and investment of the company, not the day to day activities that is the responsibility of the CEO.

At the same time, they are forgetting that major international oil companies, two of whose board chairmen have come from the world, have no knowledge of oil and energy.

They must understand what to discuss that require certain appropriate leadership needed by large corporations - such as Saudi Aramco - in the pre-market phase?

Unfortunately, some oil media provides critical information, useful analysis, and other could look for readership through provocative news that is not based on any scientific or even professional grounds. But it is unacceptable from any oil news to suggest any model to us, more we don’t accept theoretical judgment that is provided from false analyzes and content.

On the other hand, Saudi Arabia’s large corporations, such as Saudi Aramco and others, which have credibility and reliability in the stability of the global economy are not dependent on people but on the policies of the supreme state and its internal operating system, which many international oil companies are trying to emulate and learn from.

In Saudi Arabia, recruitment of competencies is based on scientific and professional backgrounds of statesmen. And also for the technicalities and requirements of the stage. Saudi Aramco enters the stage of launching part of it in the Saudi and international market. Naturally, a very credible figure in the world of finance and investment - such as that of Mr. Al-Rumayyan - is the dominant position at this moment of Saudi Aramco. It can be replaced - later - as needed elsewhere or the next stage needs another character depending on the situation as this is moving in the right path with the Saudi vision 2030 phases.

The international media have been preoccupied with introducing Saudi Aramco, and many engaged in debate and debate the IPO. We forgot in the midst of this controversial storm that one of the objectives of the proposal - as mentioned by the godfather of the Saudi vision, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman - is transparency and governance. This will have a pivotal role in the governance and efficiency of the company. Which will improve and maximize the profitability of the company. Here, for example, exchanging or changing roles for statesmen - as our senior leadership sees it - serves the goals of the vision stages.

What many people in the international press are unaware of, or perhaps deliberately ignore, is that the Saudi Arabia as a kingdom and its men act as a beehive, seeing stages, requirements and naturally changing roles as needed.

We in Saudi Arabia must invest in such impropriety from international oil media to establish a national oil media with Saudi professionals able to work flexibly and proactively, and with powerful media tools that enable us to keep pace with the qualitative leaps of our ambitious Saudi vision 2030.