Hatem K.

Information Systems Manager, 9 years with Bechtel

I work on the New Doha International Airport project in Qatar, where my team is responsible for 425 Bechtel users (plus about 90 consultants and contract administrators), 10 servers, 30 distributed switches, six site offices, and 26 distributed portable buildings across 22 square kilometers. I also supervise a great three-person helpdesk team and its operations.

My biggest challenge so far was when I became the project information management system manager for the Ghazlan II power plant project in Saudi Arabia in 2002. It was a real eye-opener. I was 24 and moving into a managerial role. It was in a complex environment with a three-company consortium and more than 500 users in three buildings at the job site. The network consisted of 20 servers at three locations, in Saudi Arabia, the United States, and Japan.

The best part of my job is starting something from scratch. There are many aspects and components within an IS&T system to create an execution platform for Bechtel’s business lines. Planning, setting up, and connecting these components is very challenging yet rewarding.