Minister of Energy and Water, Lebanon
Dr. Walid Fayad joined Partners in Performance, a global boutique consultancy focused on delivery of results in 2019 as Director assuming the role of Managing Director for the Middle East & North Africa. Prior to joining PIP, Walid served as Executive Vice President at Booz Allen Hamilton, where he co-founded the firm’s MENA business following its separation from Booz & Company, and led the firm’s MENA Energy, Environment, Infrastructure, and Operations practices, while also leading its People agenda in the MENA region. Dr. Fayad also worked at McKinsey & Company in Europe and the USA following his graduation with a Ph. D. from MIT and the French engineering schools Ecole Polytechnique and Ecole Centrale Paris. He brings 20 years of experience in management advisory, having led an abundant number of strategy, policy, and transformation projects across diverse sectors, including energy and environment, public sector, and family owned conglomerates. He serves as Vice Chairman of the Board of the MIT Enterprise Forum Pan Arab and on other boards.
Overview of Institutional and Business Contributions
● Co-designed and stood up a thriving MENA business. Set up the operating model for business building and the institutional support model covering People, Marketing and Communications, Infrastructure & Technology, Operations, Planning & Finance Pillars
● Assumed leadership of the People Agenda/Pillar, including: designing and rolling out: recruitment policies, plans, programs, and tracking dashboards, resulting in the recruitment of 250+ staff into the business over the span of 3 years; compensation and benefits frameworks for client and support staff; summer internship program; staff end-to-end performance review framework, including designing performance expectation competencies, setting up and chairing governance committees; training plans; staffing & career management policies and monitoring dashboards
● Developed strategic partnership between Booz Allen and MIT’s recently established Institute for Data, Systems, and Society
● Built a sustainable, diversified, high-profit / commercial Energy, Environment & Infrastructure business anchored in strong client relations with the key regional players in Energy & Utilities, Environment, Agriculture, Infrastructure and the Public Sector and differentiated service offerings (Digital Energy, Sector Reform, Sector Security, Infrastructure Program Management)
● Business portfolio personal direct contribution in excess of $30 Million in revenues yearly, in new business to the firm, well diversified across 4 strategic countries and 4 strategic platforms / service offerings with a number of flywheels clients
● Built and leveraged extended second team of ~60 staff to drive business capture and delivery
Career Snapshot – Select Project Experience
● National strategy and transformation program for environment sector and ministry in Saudi Arabia
● National strategy and transformation rollout for water sector and ministry in Saudi Arabia
● National strategy and transformation rollout for agriculture sector and ministry in Saudi Arabia
● Business plan and blue-print design for largest entertainment city / destination in the GCC, working with the highest authorities in Saudi Arabia
● Designed and initiated rollout of major bureaucracy and efficiency improvement program for the largest oil and gas player globally, leveraging technology as well as operating model transformation
● New operating model for the supply chain of a largest oil and gas company in the Middle East. Engagement included the integration of services and materials and the development of a comprehensive common policies and procedures manual for contracting and purchasing, taking into account industry best practices to streamline procurement processes
● Performance improvement program for the repair shops of a major oil and gas company in the GCC. Work included a performance evaluation for in-house services and contracted services, root cause analysis for performance challenges, assessment of the contractor landscape in the region, the development of an outsourcing strategy in-line with the contractor landscape and the design of an improvement program and a new operating model
● Led the development of a GHG emissions management program for a major regional oil and gas company
● Portfolio evaluation and turnaround program for downstream business of a global leader in the oil and gas industry
● Integrated supply chain performance improvement program for an electric distribution utility. The project included a full diagnostic and the development of a comprehensive materials and services availability improvement program covering operational, organizational as well as IT improvement initiatives, customized to over 100 different service/material categories, resulting among other in a USD 400 Million reduction (20%) in inventory ● Strategy, design, procurement and rollout initiation for USD multi-billion smart meter and distribution automation infrastructure for the largest national power utility in Saudi Arabia
● Privatization strategy and restructuring program for world largest desalination and cogeneration corporation
● Strategic transformation for regional leader in renewable energy industry
● Multi-sector (Utilities, Real Estate, Transport, ICT) partnership strategy for world first carbonneutral city
● Implementation of a quality & integration assurance and efficiency improvement program for world leading sustainable real estate development
● Performance improvement program for non-technical functions of integrated water & electricity utility in UAE
● Manpower efficiency program for major national utility in Arab world, including design and execution of manpower redeployment and severance packages, allowing to downsize the organization by around 2,000 employees (10% labor cost reduction)
● Implementation of a major restructuring and operational improvement program for a 10,000employee energy company to prepare it for privatization. The program included leading an array of advisors (investment banking, legal, technical, accounting, HR) and 70-people client team in structuring the first privatization transaction (total project cost of USD 4 Billion), identifying financing requirements, developing the bylaws and financial requirements for the holding company, negotiating with external stakeholders and regulatory entities, re-designing processes and organization to the lowest level, staffing requirements, compensation, redeployment
● Corporatization program for EDL the Lebanese national electric utility, a project financed by the World Bank
● Business and operational plan for an energy-intensive economic city in the GCC
● Market entry strategy in specialty chemicals for a large player in commodity chemicals
● Competitive and regulatory readiness, Business & Consumer customer growth strategies for leading GCC telco
● Business plan for GCC Healthcare City considering JV with best-in-class international healthcare institutions
● Due diligence for acquisition of a regional satellite operator including assessment of revenue and cost synergies
● Feasibility studies for multiple projects in oil and gas, real estate, retail and other industries
● Investment strategy and shareholder value creation programs for many large GCC investment holding companies, covering petrochemicals, energy, utilities, financial services, real estate, consumer goods, retail
Education and Awards
● Earned Ph.D. in Electronic Materials (Thesis in microchip reliability) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA, USA, in year 2000
● Earned Master of Science in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA, USA, in year 1997
● Earned the Diplome d’Ingenieur de l’Ecole Polytechnique from Ecole Polytechnique, Paris, France, in year 1995
● Earned the Diplome d’Ingenieur des Arts et Manufactures from Ecole Centrale Paris, Paris, France, in year 1995 (earned simultaneously with Ecole Polytechnique’s degree)
● Earned Bourse d’Entreprise de l’Ecole Polytechnique from French enterprise Spie Batignolles to partially fund education at MIT
● Earned Robert Guenassia Achievement Award during period of study at MIT