Secretary General
Saudi Export Development Authority
Ahmed bin Abdulaziz Alhakbani is in charge of Saudi Arabia’s foreign trade policy, FTA negotiations, trade remedies, joint commissions and the international commercial attaché offices worldwide. He is also the Secretary General and board member of the Saudi Export Development Authority (Saudi Exports).
Experience
Prior to joining Saudi Exports, Mr Alhakbani was leading the overall organizational transformation project as well as being the Director General of Information and Technology and at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Saudi Arabia.
Mr Alhakbani had previously worked in both the public and private sectors of Saudi Arabia. His career started off at Microsoft where he managed the technical relationships between Microsoft and large publicly traded Saudi companies, then moved on to become a resident technology consultant for Microsoft at a large government agency. After that, he moved to join the first national e-government task force as a project manager for strategic and key operational projects.
Subsequently, Mr Alhakbani moved on to join Cisco systems as a business development manager for mega projects in Saudi Arabia. In mid-2008, he left Cisco to become a technology and strategy advisor for the deputy minister of higher education primarily focusing on developing the ministry’s e-government strategy and launching the online portal.
Mr Alhakbani is a member of multiple cross-governmental committees and a board member of the National Center of Palms and Dates (NCPD).
During his career, Mr Alhakbani has been involved in technology start-ups in different capacities from investor to co-founder and being involved in delivery.
Education
2000 – Bachelor’s degree in Computer Information Systems at King Saud University in Riyadh, KSA.
2009 – MBA from INSEAD.
Mr Alhakbani was also awarded the chairman’s worldwide extraordinary achievements award in 2008.
Social Media
Twitter: @Ahmedhakbani
