Dr. Abdullah Hafiz has been the CEO of the Academy for Developing Administrative Leaders at the Institute of Public Administration (IPA) since 2020.
Hafiz joined the Tourism Development Fund (TDF) in 2020 to manage its strategic growth and alignment with the national tourism vision. Prior to TDF, he served as head of change management at the Ministry of Health.
As an adviser to the minister of economy and planning, Hafiz developed the education sector privatization initiatives that aimed to optimize the budget of the Ministry of Education through building partnerships with the private sector.
As a director general for privatization, public-private partnership and special government projects at the Economics Cities Authority, he implemented a reversed PPP model to help serve all privatization initiatives at the economic cities attracting government projects (such as Aramco Gas Pipeline, Haramain Railway, MBSC).
From 2009 to 2011, Hafiz served as a COO at one of the Al-Zahid Group subsidiaries, where he succeeded in increasing sales and reducing the company’s annual operational cost.
He also worked as a senior manager at the Al-Khabeer Merchant Finance Corp. from 2008 to 2009. In 2004, he was a financial management consultant at the World Bank in Washington, DC. For about two years beginning in 2013, he was an associate professor at the Jeddah-based University of Business and Technology.
In 2001, Hafiz received a bachelor’s degree in systems engineering from George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia. Two years later, he received a master’s degree in engineering management from George Washington University. In 2008, he obtained a Ph.D. degree in the same field of study from George Washington University.
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