SL attends public diplomacy forum on international business

• Event on successful managers & CEOs of global corporates hosted by Royal University for Women of Bahrain 

 Sri Lanka participated in a high-profile forum focused on Public Diplomacy hosted by the prestigious Royal University for Women in Bahrain under the title ‘International Business: Successful Managers and CEOs of Global Corporates’ this week. 

The forum on Public Diplomacy on International Business conducted by the Royal University for Women invited the Ambassador of Sri Lanka to Bahrain, Dr. A. Saj U. Mendis, as the lead speaker, Dr. Joseph Kirikian - Vice President of Muntalakat Holdings Company and Ms. Lama Moosa - Principal/Specialist of Schlumberger Ltd. 

The forum was moderated by Dr. Vivien Exartier and Dean Prof. Hala Elias of the College of Business of the Royal University for Women (RUW). The forum was attended by a larger number of graduates and MBA students, faculty members, corporate executives and invitees, among others. 

The RUW conducts the forum on an annual basis and selects personalities with extensive experience and exposure in the realm of international business and global dynamics and developments. 

Mumtalakat Holdings Company is the Sovereign Wealth Fund of the Federal Government of the Kingdom of Bahrain and is one of the largest Sovereign Wealth Funds and Money Managers in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Schlumberger Ltd. is the world’s largest oilfield services company employing over 100,000 people in 85 countries and is a Fortune Global 500 Company with revenue in excess of $ 30 billion.  

The moderator and the speakers enunciated the criticality for corporates and companies to go global in order to expand and advance their corporates, thus mutually benefitting the respective economies of the countries. 

Ambassador Dr. Mendis in his address stated that the Sri Lankan Government was extending an extensive degree of importance to the SME sector since SMEs could evolve into mid-size companies, large corporates, national players or regional players. In this context, Dr. Mendis stated that the country needed to nurture and foster highly competent and internationally exposed corporate executives, managers and CEOs who would be able to help the respective companies ascend to a regional and global environment. 

He further added that in the highly competitive global environment, the development of soft skills was vital as well as to have a global perspective for corporate executives and senior managers. 

Dr. Mendis did highlight a number of examples from the global landscape of how smaller SMEs such as Micro-SMEs (MSMEs) have evolved as global corporates in developing countries as well as in developed countries within the space of a few years. He added that most of the founders of these corporates were successful and tenacious in transforming their visions into reality.  

Dr. Kirikian of Mumtalakat, who has earlier worked as a Senior Vice President of a major Wall Street Investment Bank, stated that top executives and CEOs would analyse and dissect even the minutest details of a company or a country before committing investments. In this context, he stated that political stability was of the utmost importance for his company to consider committing investments. He went on to add that economic stability and prosperity could not be achieved in a political vacuum and vice-a-versa. 

Moosa of Schlumberger stated that as an international corporate executive, she was compelled to be very well conversant with geopolitical, geo-economic and geostrategic developments and dynamics in the world. 

She added that the top management at Schlumberger constantly forecasts and speculates, particularly over the future prices of oil and gas premised on national, regional and global developments. This would enable the top management, including Moosa, to calibrate corporate strategy as well as the master plan of the company.  

Dr. Kirikian reports to the Chairman of the Board and CEO of Mumtalakat Holdings Company and has over two decades of international experience in the management of sovereign funds, hedge funds and investment banking in the US, Europe and Bahrain and has graduated from the Wharton Business School in the US. 

Moosa has graduated from the Royal University for Women and has been with Schlumberger Ltd. as a Specialist in Procurement in Saudi Arabia for a number of years. 

Ambassador Dr. Mendis obtained his PhD in International Economic Policy from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi and is a visiting faculty and guest speaker at a number of universities and academic institutions including NTU of Singapore, Boston University, the Graduate Institute of Policy Studies of Tokyo, Indian Institute of Finance of Delhi and Harvard, among others.