MEET THE PROFESSIONAL
January 2020
Aref Boualwan
Is a Senior Manager, Digital Transformation & Strategy at Consolidated Contractors Company, a leading global construction company and the largest contractors in the Middle East.
He is also a Strategy Officer at the World Economic Forum, involved in decision-making by shaping Forum initiatives, workshops, research, and projects as well as implementing innovative solutions to support the industry’s transformation.
Aref is also a Member of the Board of Directors at Technology Startups, where he develops strategic partnerships between large firms & Startups that build disruptive technologies. Leverages alliances to source Innovation, add competitive advantage to the business & create new business lines \ opportunities.
We are very excited to feature him as our professional in this month’s “Meet the Professional” series.
Below are a few questions to help facilitate this interactive connection. At the end of the page you will have an opportunity to post your own questions for Aref.
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Degree/s and Universities.
- Executive Development Program, INSEAD
- B.S. in Computer Science, Lebanese American University
Please list any awards/recognitions/honors:
I have participated as a commentator and speaker at events organized by the United Nations, EU Arab Summit, BuiltWorlds Summit, The Big 5, The Solar Show, ArabNet Digital Summit, and Construction Tech. Forum.
I have also been cited in numerous publications, including Reuters, Business Green, Yahoo Finance, Forbes Middle East, MEED, MTV, Euro2Day, BusinessNews, Business Insider, Markets Insider, and Middle East Construction.
- The world’s first livable 3D Printed house, click here: Link1 or Link 2
- Identifying Digital Tech Megatrends to Construct a Future Virtual World, World Economic Forum, click here: Link
- World-first 100% 24-hour solar portable cabin with battery storage, click here: Link
- Partnering with Immensa Startup to Digitize Inventory, click here: Link
- Partnering with WakeCap Startup to Empower Construction Workers with Innovative IoT Technology, click here: Link
- Interview by MTV: Link & Intro of Interview by MEED: Link
Discuss a moment or turning point in your life that led you to your career path:
The construction industry is one of the least automated industries, one that continuously relies on manual intensive labor as the primary source of productivity. Additionally, there are many good ideas out there being developed by passionate entrepreneurs, but because they lack domain-specific knowledge, these ideas tend to fail. The bottleneck nowadays isn’t the ability to build a minimal viable product, it is having the business intelligence and know-how to develop a disruptive product and make use of this product to take on projects.
Knowing this, my company and team recently created a research and development task force to source internal process improvement, as well as new business opportunities that arose from these technologies. This was inspired by the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) vision for the future of construction and was guided by the emerging technologies highlighted in the WEF latest reports, which I also personal contributed to.
In order to achieve this, cross-disciplined subject matter experts were grouped in committees to address the sourced ideas. The initiatives later on grew to cover startup strategic partnerships to drive the transformation imperatives and develop pilot projects.
Discuss a role model or mentor who influenced your career choice:
My parents, for sure. I was raised in Lebanon during the Civil War. My parents were determined to provide the best possible quality of life under the circumstances for their kids and this including making sure their kids received an education. My parent’s persistence helped them succeed against all odds. From that experience, I learned that nothing is impossible and that “where there’s a will there’s a way.”
Do you recall any specific challenges you encountered and overcame?
Given that the work force is now filled with younger individuals from the public sectors, as well as older more seasoned individuals in the private/corporate sector, I have found it challenging to manage these two drastically different groups. It has been all about finding a balance between youthful enthusiasm and ambition, fostering a collaborative spirit, and incorporating the realities of the business world.
One good example was a situation I encountered on a project I lead in the Gulf region that involved public sector senior employees, private start-up Western-raised younger employees, and my own team. Aside from the technical challenges I faced with this project, the biggest challenge was figuring out a way to bring together multi-cultural cross-continent teams together, especially considering the huge age gap between the employees where some employees were working with individuals who were older than their parents.
My goal was to show the value each member brought to the team and how essential everyone was to the success of the project. Despite my efforts, this was not enough for some senior members to understand the behavior and personalities of the younger individuals on the team. To help them understand, I related the issues we were facing on this team and project to issues that the senior members may have faced at home with their similarly-aged children. For the younger members, I advised them to watch the movie Lawrence of Arabia, just so they could understand the era the senior members came from. In the end, this allowed me to foster a collaborative and pleasant work environment for everyone on the team!
Where do you see yourself in the next 10 years?
In 10 years I would like to establish a technology startup with my son. He is currently 12 years-old, so I hope that with my mentoring, we will be on track to achieving this.
What advice would you give to someone starting out in your field?
Before you can really start in technology, you have to have the mindset that disrupting the industry is your goal. Technology is not about conforming, it is about innovation, so anyone who wants to be in this field has to want to change the industry forever.
Tell us a little bit about your hobbies outside of your field:
- volunteer work
- traveling
- sports (walking, gym exercise, biking, etc.)
- reading
- art, music (watching & listening)
- job-related activities
A Q&A form will be uploaded shortly. In the meantime feel free to send any questions you would like to ask Aref to admin@network1017.com
Click here if you would like to connect with Aref