ABOUT US

Shaikh Mohamed bin Isa Al Khalifa, was appointed Group Chief Executive Officer in October 2011. 

Shaikh Mohamed has had significant telecommunications industry involvement and experience via his appointment as Deputy Chairman of the Batelco Board of Directors since 2004 and has been directly involved in the evolution of Batelco from a public utility to a competitive and innovative market leader in Bahrain and a regional company of reference across the Middle East.

He was appointed as the Chairman of SAMENA Telecommunications Council on 1 November 2011, and continues to occupy this role to date. SAMENA is a multi-continent telecommunication association representing the views on various strategic issues from 38 leading telecommunication operators and over 40 service providers across the South Asia, Middle East, North Africa region.

His prior experience also includes leading financial and investment roles and representation on the boards of public and private companies.

Prior to Batelco, he held the position of CEO, Bahrain Social Insurance Organization (SIO) which was formed by the merger of the General Organization for Social Insurance and the Pension Fund Commission in 2008. 

Between 2005 and 2008, Shaikh Mohamed held the role of Director General of the General Organization for Social Insurance in Bahrain (GOSI).

Throughout his career, Shaikh Mohamed held various senior executive and other roles including Director, Finance and Investment, Manager Foreign Investment Portfolios and Investment Analyst.

In addition, Shaikh Mohamed currently serves as Chairman of Oasis Capital Bank and is a Director of Investcorp Bank. He was also appointed on several company boards in different capacities such as Chairman at the Securities and Investments Company (SICO), Vice Chairman at Batelco, Vice Chairman Bank of Bahrain & Kuwait, Vice Chairman Bahrain International Golf Course Company and Director at Bahrain Commercial Facilities Company.

Peter was appointed as Group CEO, Strategic Assignments in October 2011 with a brief to accelerate the inorganic growth of the business. His previous roles with Batelco included Group CEO and CEO Batelco Bahrain.

Peter joined Batelco in June 2005 and has led its transformation into a regional company now operating in six countries. Peter has over 31 years of experience in the international information and communications technologies sector. Prior to joining Batelco, he held various senior executive roles including Managing Director at SingTel Optus Business (Australia), Chief Operating Officer/Senior Vice President at StarHub (Singapore), Chief Executive Officer at Clear (New Zealand), Director Sales and Service at BT Asia Pacific (Singapore & Australia), Director at BT Syncordia Asia Pacific, Vice President Sales & Marketing at Telstra (USA) and Managing Director Mobile Sales & Distribution at Telstra (Australia). He has played a key role in the transformation and growth of a number of companies operating across many geographic locations. In his varied roles, Peter has been responsible for driving customer-centric operating cultures, development of future leaders, optimising productivity levels, implementing growth strategies and leading merger and acquisition initiatives. Peter has also served as a Board Director on a number of start-up and established telecommunications and ICT companies in the US, Asia Pac and other countries.

Marco joins the Group after 14 years in the Telecoms sector. As an executive, he was part of the Leadership teams of multiple greenfield operators in high growth/emerging markets, also leading business tranformation, financial restructuring, process re-engineering and cost leadership programs in more mature incumbent Telco operators, in Latin America, Europe and the MENA region. Prior to this, he was manager at Ernst & Young and financial analyst at Imperial Oil, a subsidiary of Exxon Mobil in Canada. Marco is a Chartered Accountant, he graduated in accounting sciences and he holds an MBA from ESG Montreal.

Shaikh Ahmed entered the company as Senior Manager Employee Relations in 1997. Coming from an engineering background having been an aircraft engineer, he made the transition from machines to people smoothly. From 1999 he added recruitment to his responsibilities. Being a team member in Project Get Ready in 2002 proved to be an immense learning curve for Shaikh Ahmed as issues not before applicable within the company were addressed. The experience widened his scope in the field of Human Resource Development and led to his appointment as acting GM HR in mid 2003. He became GM HR in mid 2004 and in January 2008 extended his role to include responsibility for the Batelco Group.

Ahmed Al Janahi supports the Board of Directors and Executive Management in shaping the development of the Batelco Group throughout the region. Successful careers in Real Estate, Industry Equipment Sales, the Hotel Industry, Finance and Aviation prepared Ahmed well for the wide ranging responsibilities he undertook upon joining Batelco's Corporate Affairs Department in 2003. His wealth of knowledge and his experience combined with his unmatched enthusiasm serves him well in his multi faceted role as Group Board Secretary and voice of Batelco.

Bernadette Baynie is a senior executive with Batelco Group and has been its chief lawyer since 2008. She has the leading responsibility for all legal and regulatory matters across Batelco's operating companies in the Middle East and India. Her vast experience ranges from roles in leading Australian law firms to senior in-house counsel for companies in the banking and telecommunications industries. Bernadette has a comprehensive in-house corporate counsel expertise, in a wide range of areas of law that impact upon the end-to-end operations of large companies, including cross-border mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance transactions, telecommunications infrastructure arrangements, complex commercial transactions, regulatory compliance, corporate governance, international dispute resolution and risk management. Bernadette has a proven leadership capability and is focused on achieving commercially sound outcomes for Batelco, which are strategically aligned to the company's performance goals and values. She was appointed the Vice Chairman of the Policy Board of SAMENA Telecommunications Counsel in 2012 and has acted in that role for the past twelve months. She graduated with a Bachelor of Laws from Sydney University, Australia.

Ali Sharif reports to the Batelco Group Board Audit Committee and also sits on the Audit committees of Batelco's subsidiaries and affiliate companies. He holds the responsibility to directly lead, manage and supervise all core activities within the Group's companies including carrying out audits and advisories. Ali is also a key member of the team assisting both the Fraud Committee and Information Security Steering Committee. Ali joined Batelco as a graduate trainee in 1990 and has held a number of key positions over his tenure including Internal Audit Manager and Chief Internal Auditor. Among Ali's professional qualifications, he holds CIA (USA) and CISA (USA). He is one of the co-founders of the Bahrain Chapter of Information Systems and Controls Association.

Hamid Husain joined the Batelco Group in February 2011 as their Group CIO. His extensive experience in the telecommunications market includes the role of CIO for the Hutchinson Group, based out of Indonesia, supporting their largest mobile operations. Prior to Hutchinson, Hamid worked for Zain group in Nigeria and for du, Emirates' integrated telecommunications operator, as their CIO & VP of IT. He also spent over 17 years with Airtouch /Vodafone based in the US, Europe and the Middle East with the latter 10 years spent in senior management roles. Hamid successfully managed the launch of new mobile operations in the capacity of CIO / IT Director. He was also instrumental in establishing and running IT departments for these operations in a multi-cultural fast paced environment. A Bachelor of Science degree and MBA with concentration in MIS from University of Houston support Hamid's extensive experience.

Haytham has an extensive wireless telecommunications engineering background from various roles with regional telecom Operators, Equipment Manufacturers and industry contractors. He has experience with start-up mobile operations and, in addition to his technical/engineering responsibilities, has been involved in commercial/financial evaluations, development of business plans and marketing strategies. Haytham joined Umniah as Director of Engineering in its pre-launch phase, Aug 2004 and has led Umniah's network operations and investments in mobile network infrastructure. Other roles included Technical Director, Senior System Engineering Manager with Ciscom, Fastlink (Zain Jordan), Philips TRT (European Telecom Manufacturer). Haytham holds BSc degree in Electronics / Telecom Engineering 1993 from the Maritime Academy/Alexandria Egypt.

Dr. Yousif joined Batelco Group in June 2012 as Group General Manager Business Transformation and is currently seconded to the Bahrain operation to support efforts for continual market leadership in the Kingdom of Bahrain. During the years 2009-2011, Dr. Dashkouni  was theProject Director for the Merger of the Pension Fund Commission & the General Organization for Social Insurance (GOSI) into Social Insurance Organization (SIO). He was also incharge asthe project Director for establishingBahrain SIO  Asset Management company were he developed complete policies and procedures for the identified functions of SIO & the company which included, IT, HR, Investment, Operations, Finance, Risk Management, ALM, Internal Audit and Corporate Governance.

He was the director of Information Technology at the  Social Insurance Organisation (SIO) from 1990 to 2010 during which he held acting director roles for Benefits, Finance & Investement. Prior to that he was a Manager at Riyadh Bank from 1983 to 1990.

Additionally, Dr. Dashkouni served as a non-executive director on Batelco Board from 2008 until joining the Batelco Group. He brings to Batelco a wealth of experience, knowledge and professionalism in the business sector. Dr. Dashkouni is a systems engineer and holds a Doctorate in Business Administration from the University of Hull.