The 100 billion dollar man

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It is the world's biggest chemical maker and the largest publicly traded company in the Middle East. But little has been written about the man who has led it for a decade. In a rare interview, Sean Cronin meets Mohamed Al-Mady, the figure behind the corporate phenomenon that is Sabic.

Mohamed Al-mady's time is more valuable than most. He runs a corporation that makes more than $20m in profits every single day - more than any other public company in the Middle East.

But the CEO of the Saudi Basic Industries Corp talks in the slow and measured way of a man who has all the time in the world. It is a skill that has helped him rise to the top of Saudi Arabia's biggest publicly traded company.

Al-Mady was sent to study chemical engineering in Colorado University back in 1970, leaving the hot and dusty streets of Riyadh for the snow-driven campus of Boulder.

His name appears on the class of 1973 graduation records along with fellow young Saudis, Nasser Al-Sayyari and Abdulla Nojaidi - both of whom would also go on to work for the same company, now known throughout the world simply as Sabic.

More than three decades later, Al-Mady is sitting in his expansive office on the top floor of the Arc de Triomphe-shaped building that is the Sabic headquarters. His company is worth more than $106bn and it has just posted its best ever quarterly results, with net income of more than $2.01bn.

Did Al-Mady ever think the company he joined in 1977 with only five other people working for it, would become the world's biggest chemical maker?

"Not really, I don't think at that time I knew that Sabic would reach this level," he says. "I didn't see this company transcend to become a global operation. I would be misleading you if I said I did," he adds, with characteristic frankness.

Elsewhere in the industry, the picture is not so rosy. The global chemical business is suffering amid rising costs and the threat of an oversupply of basic chemicals.

In fact, chemicals lag behind all other cyclical industries in almost every measure, according to research published last week from HSBC. But that has not deterred Al-Mady from a relentless investment programme which will see annual production rise to 73 million tonnes next year.

Al-Mady and his two Saudi classmates were sent by the Saudi Ministry of Education to learn chemical engineering at a time when Saudi Arabia didn't have a single major chemical plant.

Their course choice wasn't as crazy as it sounds. Saudi Arabia realised it needed these skills to industrialise and Al-Mady was one of the chosen few that were hand-picked to bring those skills back to the oil-rich kingdom.

They were to learn how to turn the vast oil reserves lying deep below the deserts of Saudi Arabia into valuable chemicals using the waste gases at that time burned off at the wellhead during the oil drilling process, known in the industry as ‘flaring'.

The young Saudis stuck together in Colorado and Al-Mady remembers that much of his time was spent in the library. Unlike many of his fellow students, Al-Mady had been sent to study to gain the important industrial skills his country needed.

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Interview - Almady
Posted by Rukmini K, Bangalore, India on Monday 8 September 2008 at 10:43 UAE time


Its an excellent journey filled with lot of difficulties, sweat and tears to become a No. 1 Petrochemicals sector in the hot streets of Riyadh, which did not had even a single Chemical plant.

Really inspiring & motivating......

Great Interview
Posted by Mohamed Awwad, Cairo, Egypt on Monday 1 September 2008 at 19:57 UAE time


Great Insight into a man who is undoubtedly dedicated and hard working.
The financial results of Sabic, however, are significantly skewed by the fact that they receive the raw material from ARAMCO for less than a tenth of the global market price.

Success
Posted by Gloryb, Sharjah, UAE on Sunday 31 August 2008 at 18:26 UAE time

A frank interview - well done. This quote summed it up: "Yes, there is the fun of achievement but it is mixed with sweat and tears. It has come at the expense of something else, of your time, of your health, of your family."
I hope that he will regain some of the things he sacrificed in order to succeed

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