Taller in more ways

Suwaidi conducts several facilities management-related lectures on behalf of the Real Estate Regulatory Authority.

RELATED ARTICLES:  Emaar: Burj 'a benchmark' for sustainability | Profile: Mohammed Alabbar - The Dream Builder | How the Burj was built |  Top 10 Burj Khalifa facts

Being responsible for the day to day management of the tallest building in the world would usually be enough work for one person to handle. But, for Ali Al Suwaidi this is just one task on his long list of priorities.

Not only is he the senior director for operations at the Burj Khalifa, but he has also helped set up the newly launched Middle East Facilities Management Association (MEFMA), and conducts regular FM related lectures on behalf of the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) in the UAE.

“As part of the new [jointly owned property] law that is coming in to place, anybody who wants to get a license has to go to three different lectures. One is about the law itself, one about owners associations and one about facilities management,” he says.

Story continues below

Advertisement

FEATURED COMMENT This gent seems to know what he talks about. His cooperation with RERA should bring some added value. Unfortunately dev   1 Comments Read more comments »

“This is very time consuming - I have to talk for four hours in front of 40 people. But, the attendees are very happy about what we share with them because we provide practical knowledge and, rather than using theories from Europe, we talk about FM in Dubai. We share secrets with them – this how the industry will improve. There shouldn’t be any secrets.”

Early career
Multi-tasking is nothing new to Suwaidi. In fact, he was still studying the FM trade whilst maintaining critical power systems for the UAE telecom operator Etisilat in 1997.

“I decided to improve my communication skills so I completed my MBA at the American University of Sharjah,” he reflects.

During the first six months of his studies, Suwaidi shifted roles in the company to look after the health and safety department.

And, at the same time, he completed his international safety management diploma. It was at this point that he realised that a career in the FM industry was definitely for him.

“I wanted to be one of the pioneers who lead the industry and take it to next level,” he says.

In 2006 Suwaidi moved on to set up a fully outsourced FM model for Etisilat’s rival company Du. He brought in a consultant from South Africa and put out a tender for facilities services.

“I took all my experience in health and safety and added it together with my background in business admin and engineering to set up FM for Du,” he adds.

One year later, Suwaidi joined facilities management company Imdaad. There, it was his responsibility to ensure operational efficiency across all areas of the company, as well as educating existing and potential customers about facilities management and the role of the organisation as a whole.

“Moreover, I believed that transparency and credibility was very important. So I started attending FM events to ensure that we took a practical approach to elevate the sector.”