As the CEO of Arabian Drilling, Ghassan Mirdad oversees the company’s strategic direction and growth to ensure value-driven operations for its stakeholders and investors.
His career is rooted in the upstream oilfield services sector, spanning 26 years. For 24 of those years, he held pivotal leadership roles at Schlumberger in key countries, from Malaysia in the East to Bolivia and Brazil in the West.
He has global expertise in the oil and gas oilfield services industry, partnerships and investments, mergers and acquisitions as well as business operations and human resources. Concluding his tenure at Schlumberger, Mirdad served as the president of the eastern Middle East region, where he led operations covering the UAE, Oman, Pakistan, Iraq and Yemen. Mirdad’s passion for training and development steered him to leading Schlumberger’s global training and development function, where he was responsible for upskilling over 100,000 employees worldwide.
Outside of the upstream oilfield service sector, Mirdad is the founder and non-executive director at AFKAR Ventures, an energy tech firm focused on leveraging technology for the Middle East and North Africa region’s energy sector. Prior to joining Arabian Drilling, he was the CEO of Katerra, Saudi Arabia, a Silicon Valley high-tech construction company.
As an advocate for talent development, his involvement extends to esteemed educational advisory boards. He served on the boards of the Abu Dhabi University’s College of Business, Saudi Petroleum Services Polytechnic and the Society of Petroleum Engineers, Saudi chapter. Currently, he sits on the board of trustees at the Saudi Arabian Drilling Academy.
A Sloan Fellow, Mirdad holds a master’s degree in leadership and strategy from London Business School. He also has a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals.
