Bader Al Lamki

Abu Dhabi, UAE, 18 April 2019: National Central Cooling Company (Tabreed) announced through a Press communiqué today that the Board of Directors has appointed Bader Saeed Al Lamki as the Company’s new Chief Executive Officer, effective from April 21, 2019.

Khaled Al Qubaisi, Chairman, Tabreed, said: “I am very pleased to welcome Bader Al Lamki to Tabreed. His vast expertise makes him the ideal successor to steer the company during the next stage of its growth strategy and further drive its operating and financial performance. His considerable industry knowledge will be invaluable to us, as we continue our expansion and seek to further efficiency gains and achieve our full growth potential.”

Al Lamki joins from Masdar, where he was the Executive Director of the Clean Energy Directorate. In this role, the communiqué said, Bader played an instrumental role in building the company’s renewable energy portfolio across 25 countries, leading on a number of its most iconic projects. He was responsible for steering the business growth activities, including bidding, acquisition and green field development, the communiqué said. He was also responsible for maximising value from Masdar’s utility-scale renewable energy portfolio globally through effective asset and operation management, the communiqué added.

According to the communiqué, Al Lamki joined Masdar in February 2008 from ADMA-OPCO, after successfully leading a strategic development initiative to support increasing the oil production of the company to nearly one million barrels per day. Earlier in his career, Al Lamki worked with French energy operator, Total, advising on oil and gas project development across the Africa continent, the communiqué said.

Al Lamki succeeds Jasim Husain Thabet, who joined as the first Emirati CEO of Tabreed in August 2012. During Thabet’s time, lasting over six years, the company’s annual net income grew from approximately AED 202.3 million to AED 427.6 million, the communiqué said. Under his leadership, Tabreed successfully pioneered a new model of sustainable growth, delivering approximately 50% growth in consolidated connected capacity and 28% growth in revenues, the communiqué said. This outstanding performance, the communiqué said, facilitated the investment grade credit ratings from Moody’s and Fitch of Baa3 and BBB, respectively and the successful re-entry to the public debt capital markets through the issue of a  USD 500 million (AED 1.8 billion), seven-year unsecured sukuk. Thabet, the communiqué added, played a major role in the strategic acquisition by ENGIE of 40% of Tabreed, and most recently, he led Tabreed’s first foray outside of the GCC region market with the signing of a 30-year concession for a contracted cooling capacity of 20,000 tonnes of refrigeration (TR) in Amaravati, in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.

Al Qubaisi commented: “The Board is grateful to Jasim for his commitment, strong leadership and many years of service to Tabreed. He has been instrumental in effectively positioning Tabreed in the UAE and across the GCC and driving its growth, making it one of the best-performing and most profitable companies in the sector. He leaves a more agile and resilient company, well placed to win in this fast-changing, evolving industry. I’d like to thank him both personally and on behalf of the Board, for his contributions to Tabreed.”