MENA CONNECT MAY 2015

Volume 3, Issue 5, May 2015
O
MESSAGE FROM PETER
Colleagues, as FY15* draws to a close, we can be extremely proud of our achievements within the
MENA geography. Our business has flourished in terms of our project delivery capability, in terms of
our level of client satisfaction, our robust top line growth, and indeed our growth of total
headcount. We’d like to sincerely thank each and every one of you for your continued
professionalism and commitment.
As you can imagine, in a growing business, a robust positive cash flow is a key to our success. In
MENA, we have made significant strides related to the time it takes us to submit client invoices, the
time it takes to gain client approval of those invoices and finally, the time it takes to collect these
payments. We need to continue the laser like focus on our cash management in order to control our
DSO** statistics.
In terms of profitability – FY15 has been a challenging year for MENA. Notwithstanding this, the
future is extremely bright. FY16* promises to be the best year yet. Exciting levels of growth are
forecasted to continue for the medium to long term.
In order to maximize our potential for growth, we will continue to be competitive in the market place
by:
 Controlling our overhead expenditure,
 Ensuring we achieve the best possible utilization percentages on all of our projects,
 Ensuring our client invoices are paid in a timely manner and our variations are approved
quickly.
All of these factors will naturally have a direct correlation on how competitive we are, since
overheads, utilization rates and financing costs are all built into the pricing estimates we submit to
win new work, with new and existing clients.
The more competitive we can be, the more projects we will win and concomitantly, the greater the
potential for personal career growth within the Berger family.
Notes:
*FY15 runs from Jul-14 to Jun-15.
*FY16 runs from Jul-15 to Jun-16.
** DSO means Day Sales Outstanding and is a measure of the average number of days that it takes us to collect
revenue after a service has been provided.

SAFETY MOMENT
GREG BOLTON
SAFETY CULTURE (part 1 of 2)
What is meant by ‘Culture’?
Organizational cultures refer to various aspects of an organization’s functioning such as risk, safety,
quality, customer focus, production, etc., whereby the over-riding concern is ensuring that all the
members of an organization, give priority to that particular ‘cultural’ topic. However, culture is a term
that has different meanings to different people. Although, many propose that culture is the product
of individual and group values, attitudes, competencies, and patterns of behavior, the most succinct
way of defining organizational culture is ‘the way we do things around here’. In other words,
developing a particular type of culture means concentrating on what people in an organization
actually do, on a daily basis, to bring about, support and maintain the desired result. The more that
people repeatedly behave in ways that appear to them to be natural, obvious and unquestionable,
the stronger that a culture becomes. A strong culture is one where nothing is too trivial or too much
trouble as people try to ensure that all activities get done the ‘right’ way. As such, the prevailing
‘culture’ provides a context for action that binds together the disparate components of an
organization in pursuit of a common goal, which serves as a powerful lever to guide the behavior of
people in their everyday work. Although, a particular type of culture (e.g. quality) may be dominant, it
is made of many separate sub-cultures that interact with each other to the extent that ‘the whole is
greater than the sum of the parts’.
What is a risk based safety culture?
Safety culture refers to all those individual, job and organizational features affecting and influencing
health and safety (Cooper, 1998). A risk based safety culture is where the two separate components
of risk assessments and risk management form the basis for developing an organization’s safety
culture. In essence, this means the hazards associated with each and every process and their
associated tasks on site have been identified, the likelihood of the hazard being realized has been
assessed, and the potential harm the hazard could cause either to people, property or the wider
environment has been evaluated. The required risk control measures have been put in place, and
the whole process for each individual risk assessment has been documented. Each risk assessment
is made freely available to anyone who wishes to see it, and is reviewed on a regular basis (i.e.
every 12 – 24 months) or changed in the light of prevailing circumstances (e.g. new equipment
installed, reductions in manning levels, etc.). Importantly, each member of an organization will also
routinely conduct an ’on-the spot’ risk assessment before beginning any task to identify any potential
risks to their wellbeing and implement the appropriate control measures. This is done with the full
knowledge, encouragement and support of every other organizational member regardless of the
consequences in terms of less production, the job not being completed within a certain time scale,
etc. Although this may sound like idealism, it merely reflects the overall employee’s commitment to
safety and an understanding of the company’s commitment to the employee’s wellbeing.
APRIL SPOTLIGHT
MOHAMMED SARHAN
Government Relations Officers’ (GRO) services are a critical element of our business insofar as the
managing of company licenses, employee mobilisation and dealing with local Government
authorities.
Mohammed Sarhan joined Louis Berger in February 2015 as the Manager of Government Relations
in KSA. Mohammed is managing all visas for Louis Berger employees and their families,
registrations and Iqamas for the company.
Mohammed is also involved in day to day running of the company with respect to the Government
Relations support. Mohammed has expertise in dealing with various ministries, governmental
authorities and other entities. He is very committed on becoming an active member of the growing
team in KSA.
Mohammed holds a diploma in business and is currently busy studying a Degree of Administration
Management.

PROJECT SHOWCASE
SHOOTING RANGE COMPLEX
This month we feature the Shooting Range Complex in Doha, Qatar, it consists of two projects and
is a very successful program that is due to be completed by the end of May 2015.
Package-1, the first project started in October 2013, and consisted of the construction of the main
gate building, a 25 metre shooting range building, a 50 metre shooting range building, a 300 metre
shooting range building, nine watch towers, secondary gates, boundary wall and external walls.
Package-1 was successfully completed by the end of December 2014.
Due to delivering high level delivery standards on Package-1, on the 31 Dec 2014, Louis Berger was
awarded Package-2, due to be completed by 31 May 2015. This package consists of infrastructure
works, including main roads and paving, storm water, sanitary drainage networks, and potable water
supply system and fire protection network. Telecommunication networks, external lighting system,
HV and MV electrical networks, guard house and BMS building, substations, chiller plant rooms.
The training complex was an existing military outdoor training field that the Private Engineering
Office needed to develop to a new state of the art weapons training and shooting ranges to
international standards for the end use of the Qatar Amiri Guard.
This project represents a very good model for how Louis Berger is building strategic client
relationships such as the “Private Engineering Office. Starting with one project and delivering world
class solutions for the project stakeholders, it paved the way with the “PEO” to consider Louis
Berger for future projects.
The two packages have been successfully delivered by a group of highly experienced and
passionate project members. Starting with the leader of the team, Essam El-Maslout, the Project
Manager who showed excellent capabilities of managing the program’s stakeholders such as the
end user, the client, the contractor and the project team.
Exceeding 17 years’ in infrastructure, Ahmad Soltan | Infrastructure Manager, utilized his vast
experience, in the management of all technical challenges that the project faced. This resulted in
delivering the project outputs appropriately.
Below is a picture of the team in one of the shooting range buildings
Photo caption – Shooting Project Team Members (left to right): Mohamed Helmy |Planning Engineer: Lalendra
Kumar |Mechanical Engineer: Francisco Andrade |Senior Architect: Salih Bautil |Structural Inspector: Essam El
Maslout | Project Manager: Amal Mahmoud |Secretary: Adel Maamech |Document Controller: Ambalam
Malaichamy |QAQC Engineer: Manoj Ramani Electrical Engineer: Shammi Edirisinghe |Quantity Surveyor and
Ahmed Soltan |Infrastructure Manager

Kudos to all the project team members, who all contributed to the project successes with their
experience, hard work, dedication, their urge to learn, and their focus on achieving and meeting
client goals and objectives. The team members are: Mohamed Helmy as the project Planner,
Malaichamy Ambalam as the QAQC Engineer, Shammi Edirisinghe as the Project Quantity
Surveyor, Francisco Andrade as the Senior Architect, Joseph Sabuco as the Senior Electrical
Engineer, Zaid Al Saffar as the Senior Mechanical Engineer, Lalendra Mahato as the Mechanical
Engineer, Manoj Ramani as the Electrical Engineer, Reinfredo Quijano as the Structural Engineer,
Salih Bautil as the Civil Inspector, Adel Maamech as the Document Controller and Amal Mahmoud
as the Project Secretary.
Throughout the project, the team displayed a high team spirit, strong unity, positive reinforcement, a
great sense of focus and urgency in obtaining their goal. The extraordinary team work between
project members was a major reason behind this success, which has played a very important role in
delivering these projects to the client.
Photo caption: The indoor shooting range, an element of the Shooting Range Project
We feature three of the project team members.
MALAICHAMY AMBALAM
Malaichamy is currently the QA/QC Engineer for the development of the Shooting Ranges Project at
Lehsaynia for Amiri Guard in Qatar.
Malaichamy joined Louis Berger in January 2012 as a QA/QC Manager to work for the ABM Military
College project, Pack # 4 which included construction, completion and maintenance of barracks,
kitchen, mess, stores and external works.
On the completion of ABM Military College, he was assigned to QFIS (Qatar Faculty of Islamic
Studies) for Qatar Foundation Education City. “It is one of the prestigious projects for Qatar
Foundation at Education City and an international center for Islamic thinking and dialogue,
committed to enhancing research into Islamic Culture.” said Malaichamy
Malaichamy has stellar expertise in construction/project management, quality management, risk
management, and communication management and prior to joining Louis Berger, Malaichamy roles
have ranged from Site Engineer to Project Manager for a variety of projects in Dubai, U.A.E.
Malaichamy has a Bachelor of Engineering in Civil Engineering, India. He is currently doing a Master
Degree (M.Sc.) in Construction Project Management with Wolver Hampton University, U.K, a Project
Management Professional (PMP), and various Project Management certifications as well as a Risk
Management, & Contract Management (FIDIC Construction Contracts and Claims) certification.

In his free time, Malaichamy likes to spend his time with his family and reading books. Looking
towards the future, Malaichamy would like to be more involved in construction project management,
contract management and risk management activities.
FRANCISCO PEREZ ANDRADE
Francisco is currently the Senior Architect on the Development of the Shooting Ranges Project. He
explains that his strategy is friendliness, punctuality, ethics, determination and perseverance, whilst
overseeing every detail as a senior architect, which represents his success.
Francisco has worked on interesting projects for Louis Berger around the world since he joined mid-
2003. His first assignment was on the Afghanistan Rehabilitation Projects. In 2009-2010 as a Team
Leader–Architect in Cambodia for Hospital Projects in cooperation with World Bank Fund and
Ministry of Health. In 2010-2011, he supported Hyderabad Metro Rail Project in India.
From 2011, he has been in the MENA Geography working on Qatar Foundation and Strategic
Studies Centre buildings, as well as MV2 Data Centre Project at the Education City and the
Development of the Shooting Ranges Training Complex Project Package 1 & 2 in Lehsaniya, Qatar.
He took a break with the company in 2005-2009, participating in United Nations assignments and
before joining Louis Berger in 2000-2003 for the Construction & Building Structure Program for
Hospitals in Mexico.
In his free time, Francisco practices his running, football and tennis. He is fascinated with the Soccer
Mexican League, loves watching movies and studying international news for debates. Looking
towards the future … “Initial Studies to elaborate in laboratories waste-garbage-debris material to
use in construction to exchange concrete material, providing an elastomeric as mock-up to introduce
test results…… one of these days, who knows?” said Francisco. For further information visit his
webpage: www.consultancyarchitect.com
ESSAM EL-MASLOUT
Essam is currently the managing the development of the Shooting Ranges Project, Lehsaynia for
the Amiri Guard in Qatar. As a project manager he has many responsibilities, which include
managing the team and all the stakeholders such as the end-user, the client and the contract.
Essam joined Louis Berger in 2012, starting on the (ABM) Ahmed Bin Mohamed Military College
project before moving on to project manage the Shooting Range Project in 2013.
Essam has over 30 years construction years’ experience gained in many different countries and
different companies. His project experience includes the development of the Al Sahaba
Construction Company in Doha, Biopharm, and a pharmaceutical company in Egypt and the Al
Masarah Company, in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Essam holds a Bachelor of Civil Engineering from Cairo University, a professional certificate in
project management from American University in Cairo (PRMG), and a PMP certificate. He is a
certified Grade-A engineer from MMUP, Qatar.
Essam is an avid table tennis player and recently won with his team a table tennis tournament
championship at Qatar Bowling Centre. He loves to travel with his wife and family to discover
different parts of the world and meet new people.
WELCOME TO LOUIS BERGER
WELCOME TO THE FOLLOWING NEW JOINERS AT LOUIS BERGER FOR THE MONTH OF
APRIL
NAME POSITION LOCATION
Anne Dionisio TA Administrator MENA UAE
Amjad Abdelfattah Procurement Manager UAE
Muhammad Shah Structural Inspector UAE
Jyothi Mohanan Junior Controls Engineer UAE

NAME POSITION LOCATION
Sukumara Kurup HSE Manager UAE
Robel Manlapaz Graphic Designer UAE
Essa Alhassan Talent Acquisition Specialist KSA
Rahul Gautam Civil Inspector KSA
Jong Park Resident Engineer KSA
Tariq Batal Finance Manager KSA
Saravanan Namachivayam Civil Inspector KSA
Saleh Al Ghamdi Engineer KSA
Chris Woodmass Contracts/Admin Manager KSA
Pierre Preumont Project Director KSA
Gholamali Boloorchi Sr. Structural Engineer KSA
Ibrahim Alburaidi Electrical Engineer KSA
Srinivasa Kuppolu Structural Engineer KSA
Armando Mila Land Surveyor-Geodetic KSA
Mohammad Hijazi Utility Manager KSA
Saud Siddiqui Electrical Inspector KSA
Raja Samejo Sr. Quality Inspector KSA
Praveen Halember Civil Inspector KSA
Tamer Hanafy Utilities Engineer KSA
Abhijit Roy Resident Engineer Qatar
Hayat Sheikh Health and Safety Engineer Qatar
Romil Dinglasan HSE Engineer Qatar
Jacob Rinard Contracts Manager Qatar
Allan Walker Commercial Manager Qatar
Arshad Muhammad Change Manager Qatar
Jesusito Flores Inspector Qatar
Nigel Archer Contracts Manager Qatar
Sumaira Amanat Environmental Assistant-GSAS Qatar
Ferdinand Germedia Safety Officer Qatar
Jay Sanaknaki Vice President | Managing Director Qatar
EVENTS IN THE MENA REGION
WORLD SAFETY AND HEALTH DAY FOR WORKERS
The 28 April, is the World Safety and Health Day at Work, it is an international campaign to promote
safe, health and decent work and has been observed by the International Labour Organisation (ILO)
since 2003.
Every year some two million men and women lose their lives through accidents and diseases linked
to their work. In addition, there are 270 million occupational accidents and 160 million occupational
diseases each year, incurring US$ 2.8 trillion in costs for lost working time and expenses for
treatment, compensation and rehabilitation. Fatalities, accidents and illness at work are highly
preventable and we have an obligation to act. (Source: United Nations).
A notable event in the MENA Geography was the Safety Awards event held at the Education City
project on the 28th
April to celebrate 20 million man-hours without a LTI.

Photo caption: Education City project team members celebrate20 million man-hours without an LTI/or injury on
World Safety and Health Day on the 28 April 2015
l
Photo caption: Education City construction workers celebrate 20 million man-hours without an LTI/or injury on
World Safety and Health Day on the 28 April 2015
Toby Hayward, Chief Safety Officer | Louis Berger International, received an invitation from John
Ewing, Advisor of OSHAD (Abu Dhabi Occupational Safety and Health Centre) to attend the 28 April
OSH Day, a celebration of the ‘World Day for Safety and Health at Work’. The event advocated the
culture of safety to all organizations and to all C-levels. The 2015 theme was ‘join in building a
culture of prevention on OSH’. The event program included assessing your organizational safety
culture, benefits of occupational health, behavioral aspects of the safety culture, embedding a safety
culture through effective communications and other.

FAREWELL SUZANNE
Farewell to Suzanne Daniels, Abu Dhabi’s Office Manager and Executive Assistant. Suzanne’s
sunny disposition and outlook will be greatly missed in the Abu Dhabi office and the rest of the
region.
Photo caption (left to right): Suzanne Daniels, Peter Skinner, COO and Finance Director | MENA, and Bell John
Ladesma, Proposal Specialist (the Cake Boss)
NAMING OF THE BOARDROOMS IN KUWAIT AND DUBAI COMPETITION
Louis Berger in Kuwait City, Kuwait, recently renovated its offices and launched a competition to
Kuwait staff members, to name the new boardrooms.
We received many ingenious names for the boardrooms from civilization and islands in Kuwait, to
indigenous Kuwati flowers, to our projects on the ground in Kuwait.
The winner is Mohammad Khan, IT Manager | Kuwait. Mohammed submitted indigenous Kuwait
flowers for the names of the boardrooms. Congratulations Mohammad for your boardroom ideas
being selected, indigenous flowers of Kuwait, Hanwa, Hurum and Arfai.
In December, Louis Berger, opened its Dubai office and launched a competition to its UAE staff
members to name its new boardrooms.
We received many original names for the boardrooms from elements of engineering consulting in
Arabic to the names of road, bridges, tunnels, railway in Arabic, Dubai’s bridges, and oases of the
Middle East, falcons species and mountain ranges of the region.
The winner was Jacqueline Hulme, Marketing Manager | MENA. The oases of the Middle East were
selected, names being Azra, Al-Qatif, Al Hasa and Liwa.
BIRTHDAYS AND CONGRATULATIONS
BEST BIRTHDAY WISHES TO THE FOLLOWING STAFF MEMBERS
STAFF MEMBER LOCATION DATE STAFF MEMBER LOCATION DATE
Gregory Bolton UAE 2 May Ioanna Karageorgi Qatar 6 May
John Leibrick UAE 4 May Ferdinand Germedia Qatar 7 May
Ciara Silvestre UAE 6 May Remy Necesario Qatar 7 May
Muhammed
Kuttuparambil
UAE 6 May Gwenaliza Ayunan Qatar 8 May
Elra Gerritsen UAE 8 May Paul Gathercole Qatar 9 May
Meghana Padigala UAE 13 May Samik Choudhury Qatar 9 May
Joanna Icuspit UAE 14 May
Malaichamy
Ambalam
Qatar 10 May
Rashid Mohammad UAE 15 May
Mohammad
Mahmoud
Qatar 10 May
Rafeeq Vahid UAE 16 May Yasin Meeran Qatar 13 May
Mark Hamilton UAE 17 May Stephen Lidgett Qatar 13 May

STAFF MEMBER LOCATION DATE STAFF MEMBER LOCATION DATE
Musthafa Puthiyottil UAE 22 May Jitendra Nayak Qatar 14 May
Saiju Sathi UAE 24 May Munther Qazeiha Qatar 15 May
John Price UAE 24 May Alberto Kahanap Jr. Qatar 15 May
Kamar Mideenkutty UAE 24 May Amro Mohamed Qatar 15 May
Binu Veetil UAE 25 May Janice Alejaga Qatar 16 May
Retheesh
Balakrishnan
UAE 25 May Rasheed Adediran Qatar 17 May
Angelica Wilson UAE 29 May
Sreekumar
Madathingal
Qatar 18 May
Muhamed
Viruthulliyil
UAE 30 May Amer Alnabelseya Qatar 19 May
Ayyappan
Koottaplavil
UAE 30 May Michael Hale Qatar 19 May
Jose Suazo UAE 31 May Teofilo Parlan Qatar 20 May
Minu Mohanan UAE 31 May Haris Palakkal Qatar 20 May
Wareez Shaik Kuwait 13 May Caven Tootell Qatar 21 May
Francis Rajakumar KSA 5 May Thaha Muhamed Qatar 21 May
Juanito Manreal KSA 6 May Shameer Veetil Qatar 21 May
Arthur Truman KSA 6 May Essam El Maslout Qatar 22 May
Srinivasa Kuppolu KSA 10 May Tracey Burtwell Qatar 22 May
Baghazal Adnan
Husain
KSA 10 May Aboutaleb Hashemi Qatar 22 May
Abdulqader
Alsobaihi
KSA 10 May Judith Linatoc Qatar 23 May
N. Munuswamy KSA 10 May Thomas Ridgeway Qatar 25 May
Vinod Kumar
Panicker
KSA 12 May Abby Methrail Qatar 25 May
Donald Hadley Qatar 13 May Malik Asgar Qatar 25 May
Syed Ahmed KSA 14 May Carmina Samonte Qatar 25 May
Sridhar
Venkasubramanian
KSA 15 May Jonathan Ponteres Qatar 25 May
Hamad Al Ageel KSA 15 May Yonas Maru Qatar 25 May
Sultan AL Furaih KSA 19 May Jeena Prakash Qatar 25 May
Adam Faulkner KSA 19 May Catherine Babon Qatar 26 May
Ibrahim Alburaidi KSA 25 May Suhail Shafi Qatar 27 May
Yusuf
Appavuravther
KSA 29 May Caroline Oosterwijk Qatar 27 May
Sivadasan
Pariyarat
KSA 30 May Adib Kadri Qatar 28 May
Mohammed
Sarhan
KSA 31 May Ruel Dimapilis Qatar 29 May
Mohamad Dalidig Qatar 2 May Nestor Agudon Qatar 29 May
Raj Vanambathina Qatar 2 May Umar Vatakkayil Qatar 30 May
Sikkander
Kalathodi
Qatar 3 May Hakeem Kallingal Qatar 30 May
Dennis Alipio Qatar 5 May Faizal Kunnath Qatar 31 May
Maysoon Tawfik Qatar 6 May

FAMILY ADDITIONS AND WEDDING BELLS
Congratulations to Ahmad Matar and his wife Eman on their little baby boy Asser, who was born on
the 5th
April.
Congratulations to Jeena Prakash, Site Supervisor, Gold Line in Qatar, on her wedding to Robin
Raj.
Congratulations to Mohsin Amin, Lead Planner, Doha Metro, Red Line South, in Qatar on the birth of
their daughter, Abheeha, on the 13 April.
MAY’S COFFEE BREAK CROSSWORD
May’s coffee break crossword’s theme is Louis Berger’s rail projects and thrown in is a few rail
terminologies, here and there.

If you have a suggestion or an idea that you think would benefit the business please email your
suggestions and comments to suggestionsMENA@louisberger.com
If you ever have a question or concern about potential unethical, illegal or irresponsible activities,
don’t keep it to yourself. Reports can be made anonymously:
On-line: www.tnwgrc.com/louisberger or ethics@louisberger.com
All emails will be alt with confidentially and sensitively.

MENA CONNECT MAY 2015

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