Qatargas Leadership Program

DOHA, QATAR ¬– Fifty top executives from Qatargas have completed the first cycle of an innovative leadership training program. The Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University and Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar created the Qatargas Leadership Program curriculum tailored to the unique needs of Qatargas.

The Qatargas program was specifically designed to support the realization and achievement of leadership excellence for the company. The modules were built around the Qatargas leadership framework and high-growth business context according to the company’s fast-changing business.

“Qatargas has committed to a vision of becoming the world's premier LNG company. We have the resources and the will to make this a reality,” says Faisal Al Suwaidi, Chief Executive Officer of Qatargas. “In the next three to four years we will have four times our current operating capacity exporting gas to three continents. During the same period, it is also becoming clear that the world economy will experience unprecedented stresses and strains.”

The Executive Education program for Qatargas consisted of seven modules that ran during 2008. They included sessions on a variety of topics including global competitiveness, smart value creation, team collaboration, strategic cost management, leadership networks and international business building.

“To negotiate the obstacles and seize the opportunities that exist in such periods of major change, we understand the importance of building leadership capability throughout our organization. Leadership for me is the ability to energize people and build relationships of value both within the company and outside it, with our business partners, our suppliers, our communities and our customers,” says Al Suwaidi.

“To enhance our business position in the current economic situation and deal successfully with the challenges ahead, our company's leaders need to be exposed to cutting-edge thinking and best business practices. We value our relationship with Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business in helping Qatargas achieve that level of readiness.”

Carnegie Mellon University provides Executive Education programs to corporations and organizations all over the world. The mission of Executive Education is to disseminate practical, research-based management knowledge and create a collaborative loop between Carnegie Mellon faculty and business leaders. Executive Education programs also are a vital component in Carnegie Mellon Qatar’s role in shaping Qatar into a knowledge-based society.

“Qatargas is such an important part of what drives the nation of Qatar. That makes it a particular privilege for us to work with them on executive education, tailored to its corporate needs. We hope this is just the beginning of a long partnership between Carnegie Mellon and Qatargas, in research, education and roles for our alumni,” says Charles E. Thorpe, Ph.D., Dean of Carnegie Mellon Qatar.

The second cycle of the Qatargas Leadership Program will commence in January 2009, expanding knowledge to a new class of corporate leaders. For more information on Carnegie Mellon’s Executive Education programs, visit tepper.cmu.edu.

ABOUT CARNEGIE MELLON

With more than a century of academic excellence and innovative research, Carnegie Mellon University is a global leader in education with real-world applications. Consistently top ranked, Carnegie Mellon offers a distinct mix of programs to its 10,000 students at campuses around the globe. Core values of innovation, creativity, problem solving and collaborative teamwork provide the foundation for everything we do.

At the invitation of Qatar Foundation, Carnegie Mellon joined Education City in 2004. Here, Qatar Foundation has created a world-class center for scholarship and research that is the ideal complement to Carnegie Mellon’s tradition of innovation through collaboration. Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar offers its highly regarded undergraduate programs in business administration, computer science and information systems to students in Qatar and the Gulf Region.

ABOUT THE TEPPER SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

Founded in 1949, the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon is a pioneer in the field of management science and analytical decision making. The school’s notable contributions to the intellectual community include six Nobel laureates, a Nobel Prize record that is unsurpassed by any business school worldwide. It is also among the schools with the highest rate of academic citations in the fields of finance, operations research, organizational behavior and production/operations. The academic offerings of the Tepper School include undergraduate studies in business and economics, graduate studies in business administration and financial engineering, and doctoral studies.