Some leaders leave behind a trail of numbers. Others leave behind stories—told over coffee in control rooms, in hushed tones between crews at shift change, recalled in quiet moments long after the lights have gone out. He stood by us through every challenge, whether it was an incident in the field, the onset of the pandemic, or any other emergency. He reached out when no one else did. The greatest teams don’t gather for a plan—they gather for someone they trust. Someone who has walked alongside them.
A million-dollar deal doesn’t sign itself. What carries it through is the bond behind it—the implied faith that the person across from you is serious, and will still be around when things turn bad. Great leaders don’t chase clients. They earn them. And once they earn them, they keep showing up. Even when the ink’s been signed, and the spotlight’s long since moved on.
Ziad Jeha is one of those builders of businesses, of teams, of trust that outlasts market cycles. For over three decades, he’s led in some of the energy sector’s most challenging environments—reviving operations, leading innovations, and guiding future leaders across the Middle East, North Africa, and beyond.
A Story Etched in Resilience and Results
Ziad Jeha claims more than three decades of experience in the service energy industry, with a dynamic career transition from field operations to executive positions. He began 33 years ago as a Field Geophysicist in remote and challenging environments of Yemen, Libya, India, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. From camping in tents during sandstorms to off-road driving for days to reach base camps in remote places like the Empty Quarter in Saudi Arabia, Ubari and Zella in Libya, Maarib and Habarut desert in Yemen, Haliba in the UAE, and the Rajasthan Desert in India, these early days set the stage for his resilience and agility.
In addition to his extensive experience in operations and management, Ziad has played a key role in human resources, focusing on recruitment, training, and the development of thousands of employees throughout his career. He successfully completed an assignment training fresh graduates in Norway and later held an HR role in Dubai.
Ziad credits his time in the trenches with instilling in him a deep respect for front-line employees and a solid technical base. But his leadership transformation taught him what it actually takes to lead organizational change. He learned that technical skill is insufficient, that success hinges on strategic vision, emotional intelligence, and the ability to bring together disparate teams to a shared purpose.
Along the way, he faced many industry challenges—market instability, technological changes, and major crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
With every step of uncertainty, only his conviction in agility, resilience, learning, and the bond of teamwork was strengthened. More than anything, Ziad is motivated by the trust and respect that he was able to build with his teams. He has always made it a point to celebrate success and reward team members for their performance, despite the worst of times.
Ziad has overseen numerous corporate turnarounds and strategic change initiatives in his career, typically triggered by chaotic market conditions and shifting business realities. Perhaps the most challenging assignment was a role in a mature and highly competitive market with declining margins and wavering customer confidence. The business was then weighed down by inefficiencies and low team morale, and it was apparent that a dramatic course correction was needed.
Global Midstream Director – Dubai July 2022- July 2024
As Global Midstream Director at SLB (Schlumberger), Ziad was responsible for four key business lines—process systems (Cameron), production facilities (EPF), production chemistry (MI SWACO), and services (after-sales). He led five global execution centers, two technology centers, and six production facilities in implementing SLB’s strategic growth roadmap.
His leadership was critical in driving the growth of the business and utilizing process systems and services to open up new markets in the MENA and Asia regions.
Key Accomplishments:
- Achieved record-breaking multi-billion-dollar bookings—the highest in SLB’s midstream history.
- Tripled bookings in MENA and won hundreds of millions of new production facility contracts.
- Recovered and renegotiated successfully complex execution contracts worth hundreds of millions in India, Oman, and Turkey.
President & General Manager – Saudi Arabia & Bahrain | SLB | 2017 – 2022
Ziad headed SLB’s Saudi Arabia and Bahrain operations, accountable for workforce management and operations across 20 business units, involving thousands of personnel and contractors. He built solid client relationships, most notably with Saudi Aramco, and established SLB as a high-performing company in the region.
As a member of the board of influential Saudi training institutions (EnergyTech and SADA -Saudi Arabian Drilling Academy), he promoted national talent growth and endeavoured to localize leadership. Ziad grew the SLB business with a steady performance, oversaw business continuity during the COVID-19 pandemic, led strategic investments like the SLB facility in King Salman Energy Park (SPARK), and won major contracts.
Key Achievements:
- Successfully gained market share by improving execution performance and on-time delivery for Saudi Aramco.
- Managed the COVID crisis, maintaining business continuity with minimum impact on the operations, and received multiple commendations from Saudi Aramco executives.
- Multi-billion-dollar contract awards for Saudi Aramco, including LSTK drilling and frac projects and a significant CCS project.
- Delivered notable revenue growth within five years and regularly received the top IKTVA award.
- Improved Saudization and developed Saudi professionals to senior positions.
- Implemented a risk-reward production improvement model in Bahrain, opening up new business models.
Managing Director – Kuwait | SLB | 2014 – 2017
Ziad spearheaded SLB’s Kuwait business transformation, with significant revenue growth within three years and expanding market share via strategic client partnerships and competitive successes. He set the pace for local partnerships and innovation via technology co-development with KOC.
Key Achievements:
- Award of Multi-million dollar production facilities projects
- Awards of drilling LSTK (lumpsum Turnkey) contracts.
- Kuwait’s biggest seismic acquisition and processing award.
- Contributed to the growth of the first digital oilfield (KwDif) in co-development with KOC.
Vice President MENA – Seismic Acquisition & Processing | SLB | 2011 – 2014
Having led SLB’s seismic business in MENA, managing international teams across multiple regions, Ziad implemented paradigm-shifting technology that revolutionized the seismic business. He achieved profitability in previously challenging markets.
Key Achievements:
- Implemented single-sensor seismic
- Transformed the land Seismic business to a profitable business.
- Rolled out new business models in new countries and achieved successful outcomes.
Turning Distress into Discipline and Direction
Ziad recalls numerous scenarios where market volatility and shifting dynamics demanded strategic recalibration to steer the business toward success. One particularly challenging assignment stands out—a mature, highly competitive market grappling with declining margins and eroding customer confidence.
When Ziad took over, the operation was in distress, marked by inefficiencies, operational stagnation, and low team morale. Recognizing that incremental changes wouldn’t suffice, he led a fundamental strategic overhaul. He redefined the value proposition, realigned the organization around customer-centric priorities, and introduced performance-driven initiatives to restore efficiency and accountability.
Through a combination of transparent communication, targeted capability building, and operational discipline, Ziad not only stabilized the business but also reignited client trust and positioned the business for sustainable growth.
Ziad’s first step was to return to basics—he put listening to the “voice of the field” at the top of his agenda. He and his leadership team spent several days on the front lines in the field with engineers, technicians, and customers to experience firsthand the pain points and operational issues. He ensured frontline teams had the proper resources to perform their work well, reinforcing his belief that success starts with empowering those on the ground nearest the action.
Internally, Ziad led a restructuring that dismantled silos and established cross-functional alignment. He reinstated a sharp focus on operational excellence and accountability throughout the organization. Perhaps the most difficult part of the transformation was altering the minds of the people, but through ongoing communication, clearly defining goals, and winning quickly with proof of progress, the momentum began to build.
Within a few months, the turnaround was accomplished. The firm not only returned to profitability but regained its competitive edge and rewon the confidence of its customers. For Ziad, the experience reaffirmed a core conviction: that real strategy has little to do with boardrooms and spreadsheets. It’s teamwork, trust, loyalty, hard work, accountability, and the ability to challenge the status quo when the situation demands it.
A Leader Like No Other
Constructing cross-functional, multinational, heterogeneous teams has been the most rewarding experience of Ziad’s career. Technical skills are not enough, it is trust, collaboration, commitment, and good old-fashioned hard work at all levels that truly pay dividends.
One of the core values Ziad has always relied on is cultural sensitivity and the development of young professionals. He takes pride in seeing many of his former team members advance to top-level leadership roles, both in Schlumberger and other organizations. Ziad takes time to understand what motivates people, how decisions are taken, and how feedback is given.
A fundamental principle for Ziad is alignment through shared goals or KPIs. In heterogeneous function and background teams, having a single goal where everyone can align is a necessity. Ziad believes in articulating goals, roles, and values so that teams can own execution.
One memorable example Ziad recalls is from a Middle Eastern regional project, where the engineering, commercial, and operations teams were initially tugging in opposite directions from competing priorities. He brought the key leadership team together for a strategy sprint and stripped back everything to basic goals. Once a clear plan was established, teamwork improved dramatically, and the project was completed ahead of time, delivering its financial target.
Finally, according to Ziad, effective leadership is just all about deliberate listening, leading with compassion, and being clear. When individuals are seen, heard, and believed, they come up irrespective of where they are positioned geographically. For him, leadership is always a matter of being humble but proud of the success of the team.
Leading for Differentiation
Ziad has an excellent record of developing new business lines and driving new technology collaborations. While in Kuwait, he collaborated with Kuwait Oil Company to jointly develop a new seismic technology that produced high-resolution subsurface images. Several pilots were carried out in various environments, and the success of the pilot tests resulted in a much larger survey employing the new technology.
Ziad highlights the role of digitalization in achieving efficiencies in operations. In Saudi Arabia, one project that combined automation with rig operations and subsurface data online resulted in phenomenal enhancements, enabling the wells to be completed ahead of schedule, saving cost, and therefore reducing carbon emissions.
Navigating Growth in the Region
Ziad is certain the GCC region will give the world the last drop of oil and the last cubic feet of gas. The area’s bountiful resources and rapid technological advancements present challenges and opportunities for which there must be an understanding of local dynamics, culture, and market trends.
One of the challenges Ziad faced in conducting business in the region was the localization requirements and the speed at which some of the milestones had to be met in order to sustain market share. Many countries in the region have effectively promoted local content by mandating company investments in domestic production and the development of local expertise. Ziad was aware that this would be a competitive edge, and so he made a commitment to be the first in the energy service sector to construct a local manufacturing facility in the King Salman Energy Park in Saudi Arabia. Today, this factory provides the Kingdom and exports to other countries with equipment for the energy sector.
In Saudi Arabia, he led a collaborative project with Saudi Aramco and Linde in implementing Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology in a gas plant.
Ziad believes that there are huge opportunities in the Middle East due to the fact that nations like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UAE, and Qatar are heavily in renewable energy, Digitalization, ML, and AI, for improved operational efficiencies, and to reduce carbon footprint. Ziad highlights that trust is most valued in the Middle East. It is all about establishing credibility through face-to-face communication, acquiring cultural corporate norms, as well as continuously keeping open channels of communication among local stakeholders. Ziad believes the Middle East is a great place for companies to do business if they are innovative, adaptable, capable of responding to the evolving energy needs and, most importantly, understanding local dynamics. His advice is to think long term and to leverage local talent and best global practices.
Energy Transition
Ziad thinks the energy transition is far from linear between countries and sectors. Though numerous countries and institutions have committed to net-zero, these commitments are not uniform. The transition is multifaceted, and its speed is dictated by local conditions, policy settings, and technological progress.
Ziad considers a shift to energy as something that no industry can do by itself. It is something that requires collaboration between industries, governments, and society.
Carbon Management
Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is becoming a mass-market solution, no longer the niche option of the past. Ziad speaks about new business models such as carbon-as-a-service, CO₂ hubs, all ramping up at a faster clip. Geothermal energy, albeit already in the market, is now picking up. These technologies will play a very important role in decarbonising hard-to-abate sectors.
Digitalization & AI
The digital energy layer is emerging as a key competitive differentiator. Ziad emphasizes that AI, predictive maintenance, and machine learning are no longer just buzzwords—they are now essential components of modern business operations.
Clarity of Vision
Executives must step back and tie operational details to a long-term vision, keeping eye on the bigger picture.
Decisiveness
Being able to make bold, well-informed decisions—and stand behind them—is essential. Ziad also stresses being able to know when to shift gears, ego-less.
Humility
Where C-level leaders are supposed to have all the answers, the greatest leaders are the ones who acknowledge what they don’t know and surround themselves with others who fill in the blanks.
Empowering Others
Ziad emphasizes that success is less about what leaders do and more about how they build high-performing teams, develop emerging leaders, and cultivate an environment of accountability and growth.
In the end, Ziad feels that executive leadership is about making clarity, unleashing potential, and possessing the courage to make difficult decisions, while remaining rooted in purpose.
Playbook for the Next Generation
Ziad is passionate about mentoring and helping young professionals make an impact in the energy sector. He believes that the energy industry today is about much more than just barrels of oil and cubic feet of gas—it’s about systems change, sustainability, and technological innovations. For those looking to make a mark in the field, Ziad shares the following advice:
- Think Big—But Stay Humble
Ziad encourages young professionals to remain ambitious, but also stresses the importance of learning the fundamentals. Understanding how energy really moves, how decisions are made, and where value is created is crucial for long-term success. - Be Technically Curious
Regardless of whether one is in engineering, finance, policy, or operations, Ziad emphasizes the importance of digging into the technology behind energy solutions. Whether it’s understanding how hydrogen works, how Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is deployed, or grasping what “scope 3” emissions mean, this technical curiosity not only builds credibility but also opens up new opportunities. He reminds young professionals that there are no stupid questions—staying inquisitive and always asking when unsure is vital. - Focus on Networking Early
Ziad advises young professionals to focus on building strong relationships early in their careers. Being reliable, collaborative, and generous with time can make a lasting impact. People remember those who make their jobs easier or bring fresh thinking to the table.
Ziad concludes that young professionals don’t need to have it all figured out on day one. What matters is staying inquisitive, constantly learning, being a team player, working hard, and remaining humble. With these qualities, success in the energy sector will follow.
