GET TO KNOW...
On the lighter side of things, we ask the
industry experts what makes them tick. . . .
Khaled Alsaleh,
Managing Director, SAP Saudi Arabia
What would you describe as your
most memorable achievement?
Joining SAP as Managing Director of Saudi
Arabia has been a major career milestone as
I have been inspired by its vision; to help the
world run better and improve people’s lives.
Since joining SAP in February 2018, I was
pleased to see SAP Saudi Arabia be awarded
the 2018 Top Employer KSA, Top Employer
Middle East and Top Employer Global
certification. Then, I have been involved
with the go-live of the SAP Public Cloud Hub
in the kingdom, in support of Saudi Vision
2030. SAP became the first multi-national
technology company to go live on a public
cloud data centre in Saudi Arabia.
Previously in my career, my most
memorable achievement was having Saudi
Arabia as the top-performing country in
EMEA during my tenure at Hewlett Packard
Enterprise in 2014.
What first made you think of a
career in technology?
I first became interested in technology
during secondary school. Technology has
always been the trend of the future, and
an impactful enabler not only in terms of
transforming economy, society and the
environment but also in presenting career
growth opportunities.
At King Saudi University, I applied to IT
and computer science programmes and
www.intelligentcio.com
pursued a Bachelor’s of Science degree in
Information Systems. From there I worked
with a number of technology companies
in the region, resulting in being Managing
Director of Saudi Arabia for SAP. dynamics; and to develop an effective go-to-
market strategy. Thanks especially to Saudi
Vision 2030, the KSA presents strong growth
opportunities in the Digital Transformation
of the economy and of organisations.
What style of management
philosophy do you employ with
your current position? I also believe that it’s imperative to know
your team members well, and to identify
what motivates each and every one
distinctively as this skill is not one size fits all.
I’m a believer in a sympathetic servant
leadership style and in curiosity as a state of
mind. The ultimate leadership characteristic
in my opinion is the ability to develop talent
and to create a corporate culture that fosters
a common mission for everyone to push in
the same direction. In terms of management
philosophy, it is to map global corporate
strategies on to geography-specific market
“
THE KSA IS AT
THE GLOBAL
FOREFRONT OF
ADOPTING AND
LEVERAGING
BREAKTHROUGH
TECHNOLOGIES.
INTELLIGENTCIO
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