Who’s Who: Fahad A. Alalola, director at Ministry of Transport and Logistics Services in Riyadh

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Updated 01 October 2021
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Who’s Who: Fahad A. Alalola, director at Ministry of Transport and Logistics Services in Riyadh

Fahad A. Alalola is the director of strategic planning at the Ministry of Transport and Logistics Services in Riyadh, a position he has served in since April this year.

Before his latest appointment, Alalola played a key role in different industries in both the public and private sectors, demonstrating astonishing skills in strategy management as well as operational excellence.

Alalola worked at the Diplomatic Quarter General Authority as strategy management office director from 2019 to 2021. He established the strategy management office, led a bottom-up strategy development approach and developed core processes across the authority.

From 2017 to 2019, Alalola first worked as a senior strategy specialist at Thiqah Business Services, where he aided in establishing the strategy management office. He was then promoted to strategy team leader, helping in developing Thiqah’s transformational strategy and implementing it following the balanced scorecard methodology.

Alalola was also part of solutions by stc, first as a corporate performance analyst and later climbing the ladder to become a strategic planning specialist. He participated and led many activities in strategy development and implementation, and organizational health enhancement.

In 2014, he worked as a strategic planning researcher at the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency in Riyadh. He worked in various fields such as data gathering and analyzing, organizational and human capital alignment, and corporate performance management. He worked with the agency until 2016.

In 2013, he received a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Simon Fraser University in Canada, majoring in finance and operations management.

In 2020, he became a certified project management professional at the Project Management Institute in the US. He is also certified as an internal assessor by the European Foundation for Quality Management.

Alalola has also received several certificates in fields of interest, including from LEORON on professional management, Harvard University on negotiation, MIT on driving strategic innovation, Informa on strategic business planning, and the Center for Creative Leadership in Belgium as part of a leadership development program.


Saudi Arabia launches initiative to reroute Gulf cargo to Red Sea ports

Updated 13 March 2026
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Saudi Arabia launches initiative to reroute Gulf cargo to Red Sea ports

  • The initiative comes as shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has been severely disrupted by the widening conflict in the region
  • Since the US and Israel struck Iran last month, Tehran has moved to restrict passage through the waterway

 

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia has launched an initiative to redirect shipping from ports in the Arabian Gulf to its Red Sea ports amid the ongoing US-Israel-Iran war.

Transport Minister Saleh Al-Jasser, who also chairs the Saudi Ports Authority (Mawani), launched the Logistics Corridors Initiative alongside Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority Governor Suhail Abanmi, Mawani President Suliman Al-Mazroua, and other officials, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

The initiative will establish dedicated operational corridors to receive containers and cargo redirected from ports in the Kingdom's Eastern Region and other Gulf Cooperation Council states to Jeddah Islamic Port and other Red Sea coast ports.

Al-Jasser said the Kingdom was committed to ensuring supply-chain stability and the smooth flow of goods through global trade routes. Jeddah Islamic Port and other west coast ports, he added, were already playing a key role in accommodating shipments redirected from the east, while also linking Gulf cargo to regional and international markets.

The initiative comes as shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has been severely disrupted by the widening conflict in the region. Iran has long threatened to close the strait — the world's most critical oil and gas chokepoint, through which roughly a fifth of global oil supplies pass — in the event of a war.

Since the US and Israel struck Iran last month, Tehran has moved to restrict passage through the waterway, sending freight rates soaring and forcing shipping companies to seek alternative routes.

Saudi Arabia's Red Sea ports offer a viable bypass, connecting Gulf cargo to global markets without passing through the strait.