Manama: The Gulf Downstream Association (GDA) appointed Khalid Hadi as Acting Secretary General.
Hadi is a seasoned industry veteran who will lead the Association’s continued efforts to foster collaboration and learning across the region’s Oil & Gas sector with the aim of accelerating development and supporting sustainable industry growth.
Hadi brings to the Association deep knowledge and relationships across the regional and international Oil and Gas sector.
He is currently Deputy General Manager of the Engineering Division at Bahrain Petroleum Company (Bapco), one of GDA’s founding members, where he has spent 40 years in a variety of roles.
This includes senior positions in Engineering and the oversight of divisions engaged in Plant Engineering, Reliability Engineering and Process Control Engineering. Furthermore, he has experience in Project Management of Capital, EPC projects in Refinery and Petrochemical Plants, design and detail engineering of static, rotating equipment and skid mounted package systems.
Hadi holds a BSc. in Mechanical Engineering from Coventry Lanchester Polytechnic, UK with First Class Honors and a Diploma ILM Level 3 Certificate in Management.
“I have worked closely with GDA as Bapco’s Single Point of Contact (SPOC) but did not realize the huge amount of work being done behind the scenes until I joined GDA as Acting Secretary General early in January 2021. We are currently working on helping our members overcome the effects of COVID-19, expanding our membership base and forging strategic partnerships. In the long run, we believe GDA will become the incubator for the introduction of new technologies in the downstream sector and bring in more regional refineries as members. Additionally, we look forward to releasing our new mobile app and other new services and member benefits we are working on soon,” Hadi said.
“On behalf of the Board and members of the Association, we are delighted to welcome Khalid Hadi as Acting Secretary General. We are confident that his vast industry experience will enable a seamless transition and add further strength to our efforts to support industry leaders in meeting the challenges and opportunities before us today,” Suleman A. Al-Bargan, Chairman of GDA, said.
