Salah A. H. al-Qahtani is the executive vice president of Al Qahtani Pipe Coating Terminal and the chairman of the Saudi Arabian chapter of Young Arab Leaders (YAL). Executive magazine recently spoke with him about YAL’s critical role.
E There’s been a lot of talk today about finding practical solutions to the problems young Arab students face, particularly with specialized education. Is that something affecting you in Saudi Arabia?
Yes, there is a lack of education, for sure. We understand it, but we have to just fix it, we don’t have to talk about it. What we have to do as business people is we have to train our kids. You have to build a team under your company. You build a team, and you educate them.
E So, in other words, you see filling this gap as a responsibility of the private sector?
No, it’s not the responsibility of the business sector, it’s the responsibility of the government, but the question is, what can we do to boost it? In Saudi Arabia, we are a part of the government and at the same time we are not.
The way I see it, it’s like a wagon and a horse. The government is the wagon, but you need a horse — the business community — to move it.
The wagon, there’s a value in it, but you need the two together. And without the two, the government cannot build infrastructure that the businessman can use.
I’ve worked with a lot of charities, and I like to participate in a lot of government institutions, because the government has helped us to build. Our father and mother taught us to build for tomorrow — to build up young people who can help you in the future.
E And this, I assume, is where Young Arab Leaders (YAL) comes in. How long has YAL been in Saudi Arabia?
YAL in Saudi Arabia started in 2004. I started two years ago, and I took the chairmanship eight months ago.
E What sort of initiatives have you undertaken?
The best that we have done, thanks to God, is we signed a deal with a Saudi economics newspaper. This is a huge deal for us. They can train the students in a number of fields, including even PR work, like how to deal with news. Also every event that they have, anytime they have a speaker, they will bring it to our group, and invite our YAL members. In the last six months, we’ve had an event every six weeks.
Also — this is very good news, everyone is so happy about it — we just did an agreement with Cisco Systems, two weeks ago. The plan is that we get 200 students, all mature boys, class ‘A’, from university, and they get to work with Cisco for between eight and 12 weeks.
E Like an internship program?
Right. We had a party to celebrate the deal, and the chairman of commerce in the kingdom came.
E And young people are signing up for this?
Just last week, the board of YAL Saudi — me and my colleagues — we went to all the universities and explained that we have this system; these are the pros of it, these are the cons, and we need students. I brought in seven, one of my colleagues brought in 10, and now we have already signed up 25 students.
E Sounds like things are taking off in Saudi.
When I started as chairman we had 84 members. Now we have 118.
