UK recognizes prominent Saudis with alumni awards

The British Council and British Embassy Riyadh recently announced the recipients of the Study UK Alumni Awards 2018-2019 in Saudi Arabia at an awards ceremony, hosted by the British Ambassador in Riyadh.

In total, three UK alumni were recognized for their achievements as business professionals, entrepreneurs and community leaders, and for their contribution in strengthening collaborative ties between the UK and Saudi Arabia.

The Professional Achievement Award, which recognizes alumni who have distinguished themselves through leadership in their professional field, was presented to Dr. Waleed Alsalem, Alumnus of Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.

Dr. Waleed is CEO of the National Health Laboratory (NHL) at the Ministry of Health where he implemented a three-year plan that involved reorganizing its entire structure and enabled the laboratory to process 300,000 newborn tests annually for metabolic disorders.

“The award that I received is encouraging me to work to achieve all goals that could provide better preventive health to Saudi population, as well as achieve all national development goals,” Alsalem said.

“After my achievements at NHL, I will love to have new challenges in the field of emergency response to achieve more goals in near future,” he further added. 

The Social Impact Award, which acknowledges alumni who have made a contribution to creating positive social change, was presented to Dr. Taghreed Alsaraj for her dedication to education and for helping Saudis seek employment.

A graduate of University College of London, Alsaraj is now a consultant and works on new and innovative programs to help tackle Saudi unemployment and support Saudi Vision 2030.

“I am very humbled to receive this recognition and it gives me further motivation to do what I do.  It will give me more motivation to continue giving endlessly, to help and support youth in Saudi Arabia,” Alsaraj said.

She believes that the reduction of unemployment needs more work. “We have a large percentage of youth under 25 and we need to target the sector very carefully and quickly,” Alsaraj said.

“One big thing we need to focus on is entrepreneurship, helping graduates or those with two to three years of work experience and would like to dabble in it. Also, we also need to see how the private sector can help the public sector help decrease the unemployment rate,” she added.

The Entrepreneurial Award, which highlights alumni who have played a leading role in business innovation, was presented to Osamah Alawwam, who received his Bachelor’s degree from London Metropolitan University.

“It’s a genuine recognition for my work and it makes me feel I’m going the right path and should continue to develop, grow and learn more,” Alawwam said.

He has his own company, The Roasting House, which has grown from a small business to become the largest coffee maker distributor in the world. He also distributes the coffee he roasts to international hotels in Saudi and abroad.

“We are opening a new centralized coffee roasting unit, with a capacity about four times larger than our current production. This facility will be built based on total quality management (TQM) standards with best practices that we have developed since our inception,” Alawwam added.

Write to Paromita Dey at paromita.d@argaamplus.com