About

Approached to join Saudi Aramco Shell Refinery Company (SASREF) in June 2016, prior to which he was legal advisor to the eGovernment Authority Kingdom of Bahrain and also board legal advisor to SILAH Gulf, Ahmad Zaky Bin Ismail boasts over 27 years of experience having graduated from the International Islamic University in Malaysia and qualified as an advocate and solicitor in Malaysia in 1992. He made an immediate impact upon joining SASREF: ‘The first highlight of my time with the company was setting up the legal compliance department in 2016 and successfully building this to full alignment with Saudi Aramco and Shell shareholders’ expectations’. He was also instrumental in updating and streamlining terms of conditions for contracts, in accordance with industry best practice which ensured the SASREF legal team’s ability to provide the most cast-iron guarantees possible for agreements signed by the company. However, Bin Ismail rates orchestrating the strategic collaboration done between the Company, Saudi Aramco and Saudi Centre for Commercial Arbitration (SCCA) as the most important contribution he has made to the company in recent years. ‘This resulted in an industry led workshop with SCCA to see what is the impact of the recent Government Royal High Order issued which instructed government-owned companies to resolve their contractual disputes following SCCA rules in Saudi Arabia’, he explains. In addition to this, he supported both shareholders in the recent transaction between Saudi Aramco and Shell in relation to the latter’s divestment of their 50% shares to Saudi Aramco in April 2019. Bin Ismail is aware of the responsibilities that come with operating as a general counsel for such an important company: ‘The aforementioned moulded my mind-set to collaborate with others so that the industry will benefit, in line with the government’s Vision 2030 project. As a legal professional, there is a duty and expectation for us to support this historic plan’.