“It doesn’t matter how industrialized your country is: when it comes to Mother Nature, the impact is holistic.“
Badr Al Olama is the Executive Director of Aerospace for Mubadala Investment Company, a global investment company with a mandate to create sustainable financial returns for Abu Dhabi. He oversees key portfolio assets including Strata Manufacturing, where he served as Chief Executive Officer at the age of 32, and Nibras Al Ain Aerospace Park, a development supporting the establishment of a sustainable aerospace industry in the Emirate.
“It took an act of God, a real force majeure event, to make us all want to stay at home.” Prior to COVID-19, scientists warned that the world was past the point of no return with climate change. The pandemic showed us what was possible through a coordinated, concentrated effort to change the way we live our lives. GMIS, the Global Manufacturing and Industrialization Summit established in 2015, is now relevant as ever in its pursuit to harness the Fourth Industrial Revolution’s transformation of manufacturing to the regeneration of the global economy.
The Mohammed Bin Rashid Initiative for Global Prosperity, a GMIS initiative, is pushing its parent organization’s goals even further. TruTrade, a winner of the Global Prosperity’s Cohort I, sources markets, sets prices and pays rural small-scale farmers in Africa using mobile money. Runners up included StixFresh, a company developing technology to reduce food waste via all-natural and safe methods.
LISTEN AND SUBSCRIBE
SPEAKER
Badr Al Olama
Executive Director of Aerospace
Mubadala Investment Company
MODERATOR
Anthony Scaramucci
Founder & Managing Partner
SkyBridge
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Rachel Pether: (00:08)
Hi, everyone. Welcome back to SALT Talks. My name is Rachel Pether. I'm a senior advisor to SkyBridge, a global alternative investment firm, as well as the MC for SALT, a global thought leadership forum and networking platform encompaning finance, technology and politics. SALT Talks is a series of digital interviews with the world's foremost thinkers, creators and investors. Just as we do at our global SALT events, we aim to empower big, important ideas and provide our audience a window into the minds of subject matter experts. We are very excited today to welcome Badr Al-Olama to SALT Talks. Badr is the head of Mubadala Aerospace, where he oversees key portfolio assets including Strata Manufacturing and Nibras Al Ain Aerospace Park. Nominated as a young global leader for the Middle East and North Africa by the World Economic Forum, Badr heads the organizing committee for the world's first Global Manufacturing and Industrialization Summit, GMIS, a joint initiative between the UAE government and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization. Badr is the chairman of Sanad Group, Sanad Aerotech, Sanad Capital, Sanad Powertech and Strata, and is a board member of the UAE Space Agency as well as a member of the UAE Ministerial Council, focused on the Fourth Industrial Revolution. If you have any questions for Badr during today's talk, please just enter them in the Q&A box at the bottom of your video screen. And with that, Badr, welcome to SALT Talks.
Badr Al Olama: (01:43)
Thank you for having me, Rachel.
Rachel Pether: (01:46)
We have a lot to discuss today. But before we get to that, I'd like you to tell me a bit more about your personal journey. I know that you started your career as a lawyer, but have you always been interested in aerospace and technology?
Badr Al Olama: (02:00)
No. I mean, I started off as a lawyer and I practiced for two years before I went to Harvard Law School. By the time, Harvard was an incredible experience. I met incredible people, listened to great professors that were sort of subject matter experts in everything that I did. Just before I graduated, I got an opportunity to actually join Mubadala in Abu Dhabi. By the time I joined, this was sort of a career shift, right? I met, at the time, with one of our senior leadership members who told me very simply, he said, "Look Badr, you're going to come here. We don't want you as a lawyer. We want you to start thinking about project development and business development and finance." So I just started from scratch, right?
Badr Al Olama: (02:42)
I did my CFA Level One. They mapped up my career pretty sort of profile, that I would start working on a project, I would run the project, and then eventually I would come back and work on another project. And if you look at sort of my career trajectory, that's exactly what happened. I worked on Strata, which is an aircraft parts component manufacturer in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. I became the CEO at age 32. I run that business for about six years before coming back and managing the portfolio for aerospace. So I didn't really pick that I wanted to do aerospace, but one thing was for sure that I would enjoy innovation, I enjoyed manufacturing, I enjoyed new things. The experience that I had between being a lawyer and joining Mubadala, actually gave me that opportunity.
Rachel Pether: (03:30)
I mean, you don't look a day over 35, so that's also impressive. I do want to speak a little bit more about Mubadala, but also focus on innovation in the aerospace and manufacturing sectors. I know that you hosted GMIS earlier this month, and you launched something called the Green Chain Initiative, which I thought was really interesting crowdsourcing platform using blockchain technologies. Can you tell me a bit more about that and maybe about the rationale behind it?
Badr Al Olama: (03:58)
Sure. Let me start off by just giving a background about what GMIS is. I mean, GMIS was established in 2015. It was established really to be a platform that can actually bridge between governments, private sector, civil society, to shape the future of manufacturing. And this is during the time that we all hear a lot about the fourth industrial revolution. Our first summit happened in Abu Dhabi in 2017. The next one happened in Russia in 2019 and the third one, which was supposed to happen in Hanover, Germany, because of COVID, we had the choice to make. Either we postpone, or we decide to go virtual, right? You can't really be preaching the power of 4IR, and not go virtual. So we decided to go virtual on this one. What I wanted to say about sort of GMIS as a platform, we didn't want to make it a sort of a talking shop. It was great that people were coming together, talking about the future of manufacturing. You listen to heads of state, you listen to CEOs. We wanted to make sure that we could leave a legacy.
Badr Al Olama: (05:00)
So in 2017, we launched the Making Prosperity Initiative, which was named after the UAE vice-president, prime minister and ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. In 2019, obviously listening to President Putin speak about nature inspired technologies that will be less resource intensive and more eco-friendly, we launched the President's Challenge, which was about crowdsourcing research papers on nature's biotechnology. And taking things on the same sort of track, that's where we came up with the Green Chain Initiative. The Green Chain Initiative is about developing green supply chains that would basically crowdsource renewable energy projects, that would power manufacturing facilities and potentially mine cryptocurrencies. So it's very inclusive, it's very sustainable. And I say inclusive because it doesn't matter if you are from a fossil rich country or a renewable energy rich country, it's about the entire world. It's about decarbonizing industry. It's about using 4IR for global good. It's about clean energy, something that's super important to our world today. And it's about social responsibility, something that both Germany and the UAE have demonstrated in action, not just by words.
Rachel Pether: (06:14)
So tell me more about the mining for cryptocurrencies. That's part of the initiative as well.
Badr Al Olama: (06:22)
I got a lot of questions about that, and a lot of people got excited about that. But think about it in simple format, right? Companies that are going to be investing in either greening their facilities or greening their products, need to be rewarded somehow. So our thought process behind it was, when we develop or crowdsource these renewable energy projects in different parts of the world, any excess energy, potentially can be used to mine cryptos. Those cryptos can eventually either upgrade infrastructure for stuff like hydrogen. They could convert fossil-based facilities to actually adopt more environmentally friendly technologies, and they could actually be used to purchase products. But in essence, I'm very optimistic about it because I really think that the Green Chain Initiative has a genuine opportunity to tackle climate change. It's disruptive, and it's transformative. It's exactly what you need in terms of actually tackling climate change, something disruptive and something transformative.
Rachel Pether: (07:20)
And I love the way it was launched. Manufacturing some of this, as you say, a sustainability summit or something like that, it just shows that the integration between the two. You actually briefly touched on the Prosperity Initiative or the Prosperity Challenge. Can you tell me a bit more about that initiative? Because I think you've announced some of the winners for that recently as well.
Badr Al Olama: (07:45)
Well, let me tell you a story. I mean, back in 2018 when we first launched our first cohort on it, one of the four challenges that we launched and basically... Let me start off. The Making Prosperity Initiative is about developing an open innovation platform, where we're trying to create a maker community that will solve problems that are related to the sustainable development goals of the United Nations. So back in 2018, two years ago, we launched our first cohort. And one of the challenges of the first cohort, was to do with sustainable cities. The challenge was specifically finding solutions that can stop or prevent the spread of an infectious disease or a pandemic. Talk about foresight, right? Fast forward to 2020 today, some of the solutions that actually came out of the submission of the 2018 challenges, are actually on the ground today. They're trying to figure out ways to map out where the spread of the disease is happening, in which community. They've come up with rapid tests. So that was all on our first cohort.
Badr Al Olama: (08:47)
The second cohort, we said, "We need to take it a step further." What we did is we launched four different challenges. One had to do with healthy and sustainable food, peace and justice, inclusive trade, and of course, climate change. So what ended up happening when we posted those four challenges based on the track record that we got on the first cohort, we got over 3,400 solutions, from almost 150 different countries. And the interesting part was, that one out of five solutions, came from the developing world. In the developing world, where you see a lot of these problems, actually a lot of the solutions exist, but you don't have the communication going on between them. What was exciting was that we worked with MIT Solve and we worked with 47 different subject matter expert judges to not just identify the four winners, and the winners were based on scalability, on impact, on feasibility, but this time, we wanted to take four disruptive runner-ups and link them up with global organizations for mentorship and guidance. And we're developing another program with the University of Cambridge. So you see that not only as, let's say, GMIS is bringing the world together and acting as a bridge and trying to communicate about the future of manufacturing, we want to leave an impact that's on the ground, that's real and that makes a considerable difference to people's lives.
Rachel Pether: (10:11)
And can you talk me through some of the examples from that? So one of the solutions that you're planning to take further through this network and the mentorship program.
Badr Al Olama: (10:22)
I mean, let me give you one of that. One of the winners was a startup called ColdHubs in Nigeria. And what ColdHubs does, it's a solar-powered cold storage solution, which stores the produce that is obviously created by the farmers in the rural world, so in pretty much in Nigeria. The concept behind it which was so interesting is that one fridge can support an entire neighborhood, without the use of electricity, just by using solar power. But the disruptive one that I'd like to talk about, is a company called Stixfresh. And this is basically a sticker that is put around produce, maybe an apple, whatever kind of fruit, and it slows down the spoilage process. So it keeps fruit fresh longer. I mean, these are kind of the disruptive things that we're... It's not something that we created, it exists. We're putting the spotlight on it so that the world knows that there are innovative ideas that can actually provide solutions to some of our biggest problems.
Rachel Pether: (11:24)
And I also want to talk a bit more about how the pandemic has impacted your role in Mubadala Aerospace too. How have you seen the activities over the past few months, sort of highlight the need for such an agenda or such an urgency?
Badr Al Olama: (11:41)
That's a very good question. Look, just before the pandemic sort of disrupted everybody's lives, we were causing so much damage to the environment that we were even being told that this damage is irreversible. We are on a crash course towards destroying the entire world. Even if the entire forces of our world came together, let's talk about all the governments agreeing and saying, "We need to put people at home to make them stop traveling by cars or by planes," it's not going to be possible, right? I said this before and I keep repeating it, it took an act of God, a real force measure type of event, to make us all want to stay at home. And what did you see out of that? Clear skies, cleaner air, even wildlife coming back.
Badr Al Olama: (12:28)
And you start thinking about the sync. At one point in time, eventually, this pandemic is going to end. And we're going to ask ourselves, what did we learn about this? And I want to say that, one thing we learned for sure, it doesn't matter how rich or poor your country is. It doesn't matter how industrialized or underdeveloped your country is. When it comes to mother nature, the impact is holistic, right, and it's very forceful and it's pretty much unpredictable. So again, I go back to the sort of my upbeat and my optimism about the Green Chain Initiative. I'm so optimistic about it because I really feel that this could be that one step forward where the youth of this generation can actually start working on the Green Chain Initiative, because they are the ones that are going to remember always that this pandemic almost stole away their future. We cannot put ourselves in the situation ever again.
Rachel Pether: (13:26)
I guess now the honours is on us to make sure we maintain the, I guess, environmental advancements that have happened over this short pandemic period, and not revert so quickly to, I guess, the old life that we used to live in terms of-
Badr Al Olama: (13:42)
100% technology, Rachel. We should be embracing technology as a means to saying, if technology can do so many great things for us, why can't we use technology in our sort of, let's say, our mission to tackle climate change?
Rachel Pether: (13:57)
Absolutely. Another area that was obviously quite impacted through the pandemic was aerospace, where you're the head for Mubadala. How have your portfolio companies responded to COVID-19? Have you been able to adapt your business models accordingly?
Badr Al Olama: (14:15)
Well, mixed feelings there. I'm heartbroken for what's going on with aerospace at the moment. It's a very sort of sad story, but one thing we should never forget is that unless our world finds a better way for me to travel, let's say, to where you are at the moment in Switzerland, or to New York, there is no other way except by going through air or by through going through an airplane, right? You're not going to go by boat, you're not going to go by road. You're going to go by airplane. The fact is, airplanes are here to stay. Now, what I did when this whole thing started unfolding, and I was reading in the newspapers, it was going from bad to worse, I got sort of the three CEOs, the three main CEOs that I have. The CEO of Strata, which makes aircraft parts, the CEO of Sanad Aerotech, which actually maintains engines for the airlines, and the CEO of Sanad Capital, which actually leases spare engines and spare components to the airlines.
Badr Al Olama: (15:10)
And I told them upfront, "Guys, we need to hope for the best, but we need to plan for the worst. And I do see the worst coming." This is probably in around the February-March timeline. One thing that I'm very proud of, is that all three CEOs have managed their businesses through this crisis in a super professional way. They've managed to sort of rework their business model. They've managed to stay close to their customers and their suppliers. And more importantly, they've managed their liquidity in a way that sustains this business over the longterm. One of our businesses, Strata Manufacturing that makes aircraft parts, actually repurposed the workforce to start producing essential N95 masks. Now, think about this. Countries were banning the export of N95 masks. Countries were banning the export of the equipment that could make N95 masks. Even the material that was going in that N95 mask, countries were saying, "No, sorry. We're going to keep everything in-house. You go figure yourself out, right?"
Badr Al Olama: (16:11)
And as sad as the situation that the world couldn't work together to help each other, because... The UAE is not that far off, but think about cases like Africa that were probably suffering as a result of this pandemic spread. True partnership always prevails. What happened here is we stepped in with Honeywell, with the Chinese government who also supported us in getting the equipment, in getting the material, in getting the capabilities, so that we could produce the N95 masks in the UAE. And guess what? The UAE started exporting these N95 masks to other countries as well, because we're not going to ban it on other countries. And we exported to Japan and the United Kingdom. Think about that, right? The UAE is now a net exporter, as opposed to just consuming those N95 masks, off something that was so critical and so essential during the pandemic
Rachel Pether: (17:00)
And in such a short turnaround time too. I mean, I imagine it was quite difficult to change the whole manufacturing and production line.
Badr Al Olama: (17:09)
We actually added the production line and it was in 30 days. It took 30 days of, I'll tell you, sleepless nights, a lot of pressure from the leadership. But like I said, Honeywell, and the support of the Chinese government, truly prevailed in a situation where we were vulnerable and they stepped in and they supported us in actually making this happen for our economy and for our people, to make them feel safe.
Rachel Pether: (17:33)
That's fabulous. I really liked that story. And just sticking with aerospace as well, you could argue that the holy grail for aerospace, well, at this point in time, anyway I know it's ever evolving, is the race for Mars. The UAE had its historic first mission to Mars, a successful liftoff in Japan a couple of months ago. Why is it so important for the UAE?
Badr Al Olama: (18:00)
Let me start off by saying, maybe the holy grail for space is the Mars Mission. The holy grail for aerospace is probably flying green and cutting those CO2 emissions and hopefully one day, all of us can fly in an airplane that is either fueled by batteries or by fuel cells. I mean, that's pretty much the future. But going back to the Mars Mission, I mean, think about it, the UAE is a very young country, very large ambitions, one of three countries that launched the Mars Mission, the US and China being the other two, during the worst year ever that is plagued with just a disruption that's going on with the pandemic. And to be able to actually get that Mars Mission successfully launched, was a feat in itself, right? And that just proves the point. Where there is a will, there is a way. I think that was the first learning that we got out of it. The second learning that came out of it was, when we started letting the whole aspect of what this Mars Mission was about, settling, going and trying to understand the environment around Mars, trying to understand the weather patterns, trying to figure out why is it losing hydrogen or oxygen, and then sharing all those findings with the space community, that is truly a reflection of the UAE DNA. We are willing and ready to work with anyone for the greater good of humanity.
Rachel Pether: (19:20)
And as a UAE citizen, how did you feel when the Hope Probe was launched?
Badr Al Olama: (19:26)
Personally, I mean, I felt very proud. I felt very proud. I felt more determined to do hopefully better things for my own country. But it also kind of reminded me about some of the big milestones that the company I work for, Mubadala, established for both Abu Dhabi and the UAE. It reminded me about when we first established the aircraft parts component manufacturer. The first in the region, in Abu Dhabi. It reminded me about the three satellites that we launched through YahSat. It reminded me about the world class hospital that we established in Abu Dhabi with Cleveland clinic. I mean, these game changing initiatives that Mubadala established for Abu Dhabi, are just examples of how impactful we have been over the past at least 15 years since I've been with the company. And you know what's interesting, Rachel? In my personal belief, this is just the beginning. Why do I say this is just the beginning? Because we are planning today for the next 50 years of achievements.
Rachel Pether: (20:24)
Yeah, certainly one thing that's always impressed me about Mubadala has been, they've always managed to maintain this entrepreneurial spirit regardless of the actual size of the company. And as you mentioned, you've had so many milestones in your 15 career already. And actually I'd like to tie that back into something you mentioned that the holy grail for the aerospace would actually be to fly green. Is that something that you're working on? I guess, does that kind of form part of the Green Chain Initiative as well?
Badr Al Olama: (20:54)
I mean, from an investment perspective, we're always looking at new opportunities. And I do think that the new opportunity in aerospace is going to be the disruption that could be caused as a result of actually going green on inches. Now, do I really think that we're going to find a solution on flying electric very soon on commercial platforms? Maybe not, but there is a middle step here. Biofuels, and you see what Etihad is doing with Boeing and what else have been developed through biofuels and it's flying at least cleaner fuels in its planes. And I think that is sort of a stepping stone towards going electric. Electric will come. I do believe it will come in the form of fuel cells through potentially harnessing the power of hydrogen, but it's a few years away. We need to make it again, commercially viable before we start rolling it out in a big way. But it may find its way on smaller aircrafts.
Rachel Pether: (21:42)
So do you think that something with regards to the manufacturing of aircraft parts, do you think one day there might be an area that you're looking to invest in or develop would be the battery storage and the battery capabilities?
Badr Al Olama: (21:58)
I mean, the whole concept of battery manufacturing and assembling the pack, is going to become a regionalized business. You cannot depend on one country to provide a solution for the rest of the world. And at this moment in time, China is the biggest supplier in the entire world for batteries. So I do think it will be regionalized and I do sincerely hope that Abu Dhabi and the UAE will take a first mover advantage in terms of batteries. It is the future. It's a given fact. It's going on cars, it will eventually go on trains, it will eventually go on planes, and it's a fact that we all have to accept and it's better for the world, right? Like I said, clean energy, a green world, is good for all of us and makes sure that whatever great life that we all had in this age, is going to continue for the future generations. And that's what we need as a responsibility to sustain for our children and their children.
Rachel Pether: (22:56)
We've just had a question coming from the audience that relates to that, so I do want to pick that up. With regards to the changes that you've had with Strata and converting or adding the manufacturing of the N95 masks, do you think this is something that's here to stay or is this just a temporary kind of fix throughout this pandemic period?
Badr Al Olama: (23:21)
No, absolutely not. I mean, one thing that I do think that the UAE did very well and especially Mubadala, when we started incubating these projects in country, the first thing we focused on was investing in people. Today, Strata has the capability to manufacture very complex, very strategically important components on aircrafts, being parts on the wing and parts on the tail, so where the flag is, right? That same capability can be repurposed 10 times round to do other things. Things that are important to our economy, things that are important to society, things that are important to the world. And I think that more and more, we are going to go towards the Fourth Industrial Revolution where 3D printing is going to start playing a bigger role in aircraft component manufacturing. We did 3D printed component that went on Etihad, on one of the Boeing 777s. We did this in partnership with Siemens. And I do think that capability will be further developed over time because you just can't continue manufacturing things the same way going forward. It has to be smarter, and it has to be quicker, and it has to be cheaper.
Rachel Pether: (24:29)
And is 3D printing something that you've seen an uptick in use of within aerospace industry?
Badr Al Olama: (24:39)
Actually, the aerospace industry as we were saying before, is one of the most conservative industries that you'll ever deal with unfortunately. It's as sophisticated as those planes look like. The people that work on those planes, and this is something that's very good because you can ensure safety on those aircrafts, they tend to be very conservative. But from that perspective, 3D printing is a force that you cannot prevent or you cannot stop. The question is, how fast can you integrate it into your supply chain? I think the UAE has a fair chance to make that move. I think the UAE is better positioned than a lot of other countries to be a key player in 3D printing components than a lot of other countries around the world. So I'm hoping that we will be working closer with Boeing and Airbus, to actually start evolving our capabilities into 3D printing.
Rachel Pether: (25:27)
Yeah, there's definitely some advantages that come with being a younger country or a younger company, and maybe not having so many legacy issues to deal with in that regard. I know that as part of Mubadala's mandate and ethos, that knowledge transfer is really important to you. On the sort of gender balance or gender diversity side, how have you seen sort of the rise or the incorporation of female engineers and technicians within aerospace, given that it's a really highly technical area?
Badr Al Olama: (26:05)
Going back to about 2008-2009 when we first started on Strata, and we said that we're going to be establishing the first and the only, let's say, manufacturer of aircraft components in the region, I was skeptical to think, first of all, that we would be lucky enough to get a large population of UAE nationals to join. And then obviously my skepticism would have said, maybe not so many women, but probably quite a few men. When I look at Strata today, we have more than half of the workforce are UAE nationals. So they're UAE citizens. Out of those UAE citizens, nine out of 10 are women. Actually, the workforce in Strata is led, driven, delivered, challenged by women. And I can bet with anyone in the industry that there is no other manufacturer of aircraft components that has such a high concentration of women that are driving the manufacturing facility.
Badr Al Olama: (27:05)
And you know what, Rachel? I used to joke around about this. Every time the senior leadership of men that were out of the factory, may be in an air show or traveling around the world on business trips, there were no problems in that workforce. There was no problems in the facility. It was running smooth seamlessly. Every time we came back, we created the issues. "No, this is not right, or that's not working perfectly well." But whenever we were not there, it was working perfectly well. And to give you a testimony that we are doing something right, that is being appreciated globally, Airbus and Boeing have given us more work to do since we established that facility in 2008-2009. We've actually grown in terms of commitment from both Airbus and Boeing, as a result to show that we're delivering high quality components, on time, no issues and we do it without headache, without creating problems or issues to the supply chain.
Rachel Pether: (28:03)
You know better, that's because women are excellent multitaskers. So you're very lucky that most of the people on your team are female. We're now getting quite a lot of questions coming in from the audience. So I do just want to ask one of them now, because it relates to some of the new sectors or new areas that you're looking in. We've got one air firefighting is now critical in the world and the old CL-415 is really outdated. Is this another sector that Mubadala is looking into?
Badr Al Olama: (28:33)
From our perspective, again, we look at things from an investment perspective. So as long as there is, number one, let's say a decent and acceptable rate of return that's coming from an opportunity, that's our first sort of criteria. Then we will start looking into it seriously to actually consider whether or not we should invest abroad or invest in the UAE. Investing in the UAE, as important as it is to us, as important as it is to our Abu Dhabi Economic Vision 2030, might not necessarily be conducive for investment opportunity. Now, going to the point about that specific platform, I do think that the future of aircraft, or let's say aircraft manufacturing, probably is going to go down the UAV side. By finding cargo drone solutions, by finding these sort of merging innovation or technology with traditional forms of what the aircraft was supposed to do in terms of cargo or in terms of passenger transportation.
Badr Al Olama: (29:32)
I struggle to see sort of a business plan or a business case that could actually work in the lines of actually firefighting. In reality, we should actually try to solve what we say is, solve the cause of the problem, as opposed to trying to solve it after the problem happens. The issues that you have on forests and different parts of the world, there is another problem that's happening and that's global warming. So if we were to put our time and effort into doing something, not that I'm saying that we shouldn't do firefighting platforms or aircrafts, we should really try to tackle the issue of climate change. That's the root cause of the problem that we're facing with respect to forest fires in the Amazon, or let's say, in the West Coast in the US or even Australia.
Rachel Pether: (30:16)
Well, I guess that's one thing that you're looking to tackle with the Green Chain Initiative, isn't it?
Badr Al Olama: (30:21)
Absolutely.
Rachel Pether: (30:21)
How we can sort of counteract some of these issues around global warming.
Badr Al Olama: (30:25)
And that's not the only mirror, Rachel, to be fair. The UAE took the steps in terms of sustainability and the degree in economy, way back when Masdar was created, right? I even remember when people were saying, "Why is a country that produces fossil fuel, petroleum or oil, going into an area that is actually promoting, let's say, something that would cannibalize your own business, into renewables and solar power?" I mean, why not, right? It's the same question that came up when they were asking, "Why is the UAE doing a global initiative on manufacturing when you're such a young country?" Why not? "Why is the UAE making aircraft component parts when you don't even manufacture aircraft?" Why not? I think taking that aspect of why not, is really what has shown the world that we have been successful every and each single time that we've made those investment decisions.
Rachel Pether: (31:18)
It's funny that you bring up Masdar. I actually went there for the first time in about five years, just a couple of months ago and I was really impressed at how far that's grown. As you say, 10, 15 years ago, everyone was asking, "Well, why would the UAE be looking into this?" So, yeah, it's a great achievement for the UAE and for Mubadala. Another question which also relates to potential future capabilities or capacities in Mubadala, as lightweight parts are in demand and many other transport areas, do you think you can expand and use your capacities and capabilities in those areas, well, for the global market?
Badr Al Olama: (32:00)
Absolutely. I mean, the capabilities is not just on the aspect of manufacturing that we've invested in. Mubadala, across the entire portfolio, like I said, the number one thing that they did was invest in people. They've invested in me, right? I would have never been able to imagine at 32, that I'll be running an aircraft component factory that would be competing against the rest of the world. And the fact is, there are many other people within our organization that Mubadala has taken active steps and investing in building up their capability. Because each one you invest in, can create 10 other people like themselves. And I do think that there is no restriction whatsoever. If the UAE is heart-set, as we have seen on the Mars Mission, if we have a clear vision, we put up a clear mission, and we are very determined as a country to achieve on all our ambitions, we go all the way. And time and again, whether it was Mubadala, whether it was the Mars Hope Probe Mission, whether it was anything else, we have seen this happen time and again.
Rachel Pether: (33:01)
Now, you have answered a lot of sort of difficult and technical questions, Olama. We have 10 minutes left. So I'd actually like to ask you two softer questions that have come in from the audience. One is, you have achieved so much in your life already. What are the skills that you advise people in their 20s to be equipped with going forward?
Badr Al Olama: (33:23)
Honestly, it's having empathy. Having an emotional appreciation for people that you will be working with, that eventually one day you will be leading. It's not individuals like myself that actually create the successful results. It's the team around me. And I always tell people this, when they tell me that, "Wow, GMIS has achieved so much," or "Strata has achieved so much." I just say that I've been very fortunate in my life. That I've had a good group of people around me, that are really delivering some great results and it's reflecting on me. But the reality, it's not me. It's this group of people around me. So having this empathy and having an understanding of how to get the best out of your relationships with people and how to manage a group of people towards achieving a certain vision, that sort of understanding and empathy and emotional intelligence, is really the determining factor between being a manager and being a leader, if you know what I mean. We all want to become leaders, but not everyone is going to be successful if they don't have the emotional intelligence of actually knowing how to lead a group of people.
Rachel Pether: (34:31)
And I guess further to that point, who or what inspires you in terms of leadership?
Badr Al Olama: (34:39)
That's a difficult question to ask, but I'll share a story. And it's a very interesting story because it doesn't point the finger at one individual, but to a system. In 2015, as I said, when we started GMIS, and this was something that came up from our Global Agenda Council on the Future of Manufacturing, which was being organized by the World Economic Forum. Sort of the idea was coming together and it was talking about, we need to create a platform, bring the world together, talk about the future of manufacturing. And I really saw an opportunity here for the UAE. So I took this to my direct manager who was heading aerospace at the time, Homaid Al Shimmari. And I told him, "Boss, this is something that could change the world. And I do think that the UAE has a fair chance in making this move." He took me to our group CEO, Khaldoon Al Mubarak. He put me in front of Khaldoon. I took Khaldoon through the story saying, "This is what it is. It's about the Fourth Industrial Revolution." Back in 2015, before people started talking about the Fourth Industrial Revolution in a big way.
Badr Al Olama: (35:46)
And you know what? Khaldoon said after I finished the pitch, he said, "Badr, what can I do more to make you successful in driving this forward?" Look, anyone else, both bosses, right? My direct manager and the group CEO, could have said, "You're getting distracted. You're doing something different from aerospace. You're going on a completely different area. Focus on your business. Focus on what we're paying you to do." And both of them actually gave me the opportunity. And not only the opportunity, but offered their support in giving me the chance to actually make something successful. So whatever GMIS is, besides the fact that I give credit to my team, it's the fact that I had very good leadership from the very beginning that made GMIS a success today.
Rachel Pether: (36:34)
That's an excellent story and I can definitely resonate with that. And I know it wasn't just a political answer. I know it really did come from the heart. Just closing question then, can you tell me, within the ministry that you work for or on the Fourth Industrial Revolution, what most excites you in that space at the moment? And also a very broad topic, but maybe pick sort of one or two key things.
Badr Al Olama: (37:01)
Honestly, I'm really, super excited with the whole concept of co-creation using open innovation as a platform. I'm very excited about 3D printing and I'm just as excited about when it comes to artificial intelligence. Using artificial intelligence for predictive maintenance, for different applications. I mean, that ministerial council, which was... I'm no longer a member. I was a member when it was first created in 2017. The whole intention was to be able to, let me say, stimulate the knowledge about all these different technologies within our economy, within our businesses, within our government framework. And I can say from 2017 until today, look around you, we have a minister for artificial intelligence. The same minister is actually looking into the digital economy. We have a minister just appointed to look into sciences and advanced technology. We have a university, the Mohammed bin Zayed University for Artificial Intelligence. I mean, things have just progressed as a result of creating that ministerial committee. And honestly, like I said, the next 50 years are going to be much more exciting than the previous 50 years, that I at least spent 40 of them working on.
Rachel Pether: (38:17)
Badr, thank you so much. We have a couple of minutes left and I think it's great to end on such a positive note. So thank you so much for your time and your empathy and your humility and sharing your time with us today. It's been a pleasure talking to you as in our old day.
Badr Al Olama: (38:33)
Thank you for having me, Rachel. I appreciate it.