STC Academy: Preparing the next generation of digital leaders in Saudi Arabia

Illustration by Luis Grañena Lopez
Updated 14 March 2019
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STC Academy: Preparing the next generation of digital leaders in Saudi Arabia

  • STC Academy dean, Dr. Rafat Malik, discussed the work of the new school in an interview with Arab News
  • More than 1,000 students graduated from the academy in 2018

JEDDAH: STC Academy, the Saudi Telecom Company’s technology and leadership academy, opened in February 2018 with the aim of developing the next generation of digital leaders in the Kingdom. 

In an exclusive interview with Arab News, Dr. Rafat Malik, dean of STC Academy and vice president of STC, discussed the progress that the academy has made in fostering individuals able to identify, manage and develop the innovative technology of tomorrow.

“Within the Kingdom and the region, STC is at the forefront of the fourth industrial revolution,” said Malik. “We’re right at the cutting edge of innovation, and our purpose is to prepare the next generation for a completely different technological reality for the Kingdom. 

We wanted to create a new and sustainable way of learning in this new era, to redefine what an academy looks and feels like, to create a culture that could be reflective of the new way of working within STC, and have the ability to meet the demands of the national 2030 Vision.

“The strategy of STC is ‘DARE’ — Digitize, Accelerate growth, Reinvent customer experience, and Expand,” Malik continued. “However, if you take away those letters and just look at the word, we are daring to digitally transform the whole Kingdom. The colleagues I work with are all driven to make this transformation happen. It goes beyond just being a job for me, it’s a purpose and a calling. That’s how I treat it, and that’s how many of us at STC view what we’re doing for the Kingdom.”

Malik began his career as a military aviator, then worked as an aeronautical engineer for the UK Ministry of Defense. 

After setting up several digital startups, he went on become one of the most senior leaders within the Faculty of Natural Sciences at Imperial College London, before becoming VP of the Financial Times Corporate Learning Alliance. 

In 2016, Malik was invited to visit STC headquarters in Riyadh to brainstorm ideas for how to contribute to building a thriving digital future for Saudi Arabia. “In that drive from the airport to the STC headquarters before my first meeting with the CEO at the time, observing and reflecting on the environment around me, it was apparent that this was a country on the cusp of taking quite a few (leaps) in innovation, technology, and how the whole society was positioning itself to be technology contributors on the international stage. 

“There were very few countries in the world that were going through this phase. Those thoughts remained on my mind (even until) today.”

At STC, Malik met the current CEO, Nasser Al Nasser, the VP of HR Ahmad Al Ghamdi, and other senior VP’s. 

“They left a lasting impression on me, and the impression was very simple: They were a group of people that were all passionate about transforming the Kingdom,” he said. “It was in their DNA. It just so happened they worked in the Kingdom’s largest telecoms company. That passion was infectious for me. I thought about it, discussed it with my family and surmised that the country is going through enormous change and it would be a privilege and honor for me to contribute and to be part of that story. More importantly, I dearly wanted to work with these individuals.”

With the help of STC Academy, STC is making positive strides toward providing world-class development in markets including data analytics, AI, cybersecurity, IoT (Internet of Things) and more. 

Malik pointed out that the company is launching a national 5G rollout. “When 5G comes along, it will help improve the lives not just of individuals, but of communities,” he said. “It will be a game changer for the Kingdom.”

STC is, he added, also playing a key role in ensuring gender diversity — a crucial part of Saudi Vision 2030. In fact, one of the members of Malik’s leadership team at STC Academy is also STC’s first female executive — Dr. Moudhi Al Jamea.

“Last year we worked with over 3,000 young individuals,” Malik said. “The gender split was 60/40, and, in some programs, 50/50. Creating diversity is critical. It’s a reflection of how we operate here. We have a 50% gender-split policy within the organization. 

“We’re opening ourselves up to diversity and creating an inclusive culture in an unprecedented way, while also ensuring that — regardless of gender — the skills we’re developing for these young candidates will be sustainable for the future.” 

In 2018, more than 1,000 students graduated from the academy. This year, it will be focusing on STC’s internal leadership teams, with most of its programs dedicated to sharpening the digital skills of another 1,000 digital leaders. 

This year, apart from increasing the number of courses it offers internally, STC Academy will also be focusing on external programs for the general public. 

“We’re not just an elite digital academy for experienced leaders, we also have a responsibility to lead and help the youth of the country as well,” Malik explained. “The way we design the learning process is that it intellectually stretches people, tests their agility, and challenges them by blending together digital simulations with key digital leadership themes.”

“We have a partnership with the Misk Foundation. On weekends, we open up the facility to Misk and an organization called Udacity, to develop skills around programming, Python computing, and data analytics. They are all unique to the Kingdom and a first for the region as well,” he continued. 

“The role STC and STC Academy is playing in Vision 2030 is palpable,” he continued. “(Our) aim is to create sustainable development journeys for new digital leaders. One of the principles on which we’ve developed the academy is to always keep in mind that (out there), is a young girl or boy just waiting to be discovered and given the opportunity to contribute their intellect, passion and ability to the Kingdom. Our job is to enable that young person’s dream to happen and to give them the tools to lead the next generation.

“Within a few years, I think people will view STC in a completely different way,” he concluded. “We’ll be a digital and technology company that just happened to start out as a telecoms company.”


Saudi interior minister inspects Hajj preparedness at holy sites

Updated 8 sec ago
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Saudi interior minister inspects Hajj preparedness at holy sites

RIYADH: Saudi interior minister conducted a field tour on Wednesday to inspect the readiness of the Al-Mashaaer Al-Mugaddassah (Holy Sites) Metro Line as pilgrims move to the holy site of Arafat.

Prince Abdulaziz bin Saud, who also heads the Supreme Hajj Committee, was briefed on the mechanisms of dispatching and scheduling train trips, in full integration with the relevant security and regulatory authorities, ensuring smooth operations and the safety of pilgrims the Saudi Press Agency said.

The minister boarded a train ride to the Mina 3 (Jamarat) Station, where he inspected the station’s readiness and facilities to receive pilgrims. 

The metro line is a high-capacity rail system in Makkah that operates for only seven days a year, during Hajj, as a shuttle service to take pilgrims to and from holy sites. It has a capacity of up to 72,000 passengers per hour. 

Prince Abdulaziz also visited the Facilities Security Forces, who regulate pedestrian movement and crowd management in the areas surrounding the metro stations, and was briefed on the forces’ plans and role in supporting and assisting the Hajj Security Forces.


Saudi Press Agency launches Saudi Photo Platform to expand global access to visual archive

Updated 04 June 2025
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Saudi Press Agency launches Saudi Photo Platform to expand global access to visual archive

  • Was unveiled during second edition of the Hajj Media Forum

MAKKAH: Saudi Arabia’s minister of media and chairman of the Saudi Press Agency, Salman bin Yousef Al-Dosari, on Wednesday launched the Saudi Photo Platform, a new digital initiative designed to offer free access to SPA’s vast archive of authenticated images.

Unveiled during the second edition of the Hajj Media Forum at the Makkah Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Exhibition and Events Center, the platform will allow users worldwide to browse, use, and share images under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License.

The forum was attended by local and international media representatives.

Acting SPA President Ali bin Abdullah Al-Zaid said the platform reflected its strategy to make its visual archive more widely available to content creators around the globe, while preserving intellectual property rights and promoting creativity in a regulated digital environment.

He added that launching the platform from Makkah held symbolic significance, reinforcing the city’s historic role in conveying Saudi Arabia’s message to the world, and said it marked an important step toward enhancing the Kingdom’s visual presence in the digital space.

The Saudi Photo Platform, which can be reached on cc.spa.gov.sa, features high-resolution images, sorted by category and accompanied by detailed metadata, including event descriptions and publication dates.

The archive is continuously updated to document key national and international events, and the site is fully supported in both Arabic and English.

The initiative is part of SPA’s broader digital transformation agenda, aimed at modernizing publishing tools and fostering new partnerships with media outlets and online users worldwide, it said.


How NEOM is rewilding Saudi Arabia and reviving ancient falconry traditions

Updated 05 June 2025
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How NEOM is rewilding Saudi Arabia and reviving ancient falconry traditions

  • NEOM is combining heritage and science to protect biodiversity in one of Saudi Arabia’s most diverse landscapes
  • Falcons are returning to the wild thanks to efforts to revive their natural habitat and bolster their numbers

RIYADH: As the world marks World Environment Day, a global celebration of nature and a call to protect our planet, attention turns to an ecological transformation taking place in northwestern Saudi Arabia.

NEOM, the Kingdom’s futuristic megacity project, is rapidly becoming a haven for biodiversity — and at the heart of this effort is a renewed commitment to falcon conservation.

Under the banner of the Hadad Program, NEOM is working in partnership with the Saudi Falcons Club and other national entities to reintroduce native falcon species to the Arabian Peninsula, rebuild local ecosystems, and revive an ancient cultural tradition.

Under the Hadad program, NEOM, the Saudi Falcons Club have successfully released eight pairs of the very rare barbary falcon in NEOM's Nature Reserce.  (Supplied)

The work being done in NEOM is about more than saving birds; it is about restoring balance to a landscape often misunderstood as barren and bringing nature back to the center of modern development.

Since 1973, June 5 has been observed as World Environment Day. Led by the UN Environment Programme, it serves as a platform to raise awareness and prompt action on pressing environmental issues from climate change and pollution to biodiversity loss.

Announced in 2017 as part of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 reform agenda, NEOM is a $500 billion mega-project designed to reshape the future of urban living, sustainability and technology.

FASTFACT

• World Environment Day, held on June 5 since 1973, raises awareness on global issues like climate change and biodiversity loss.

Encompassing 26,500 square kilometers of mountains, desert, and coastline along the Red Sea, NEOM’s planners aim to build a zero-emission, high-tech region powered entirely by renewable energy.

Yet beyond the cities of the future lies a growing commitment to the past — particularly in preserving and restoring the Kingdom’s natural heritage.

This photo taken on April 19, 2024 shows Tarek Qaddumi (R), executive director of the Saudi Arabia mega-project NEOM, giving a briefing on NEOM sites at a visual culture exhibition in Hong Kong. (AFP/File)

“People tend to assume that this part of the world is an empty desert, but NEOM is stunning for its habitat diversity,” Paul Marshall, head of nature conservation at NEOM, told Arab News.

Indeed, NEOM’s terrain is anything but barren, from mountain peaks reaching 2,600 meters above sea level to oceanic depths plummeting 1.5 kilometers. In between are red sand deserts, canyons and caves, and spectacular shores with crystal-clear waters and coral reefs.

This biologically rich region is home to creatures great and small: from hyrax, ibex and oryx to hedgehogs, gazelles and a wide variety of birds and insects.

“From those plants we have insects and mammals. Then, we have the large mammals, of course,” Marshall said.

Paul Marshall, head of nature conservation at NEOM. (Supplied)

Before human encroachment, the region was even home to apex predators such as cheetahs, lynx and leopards. Now, through conservation, NEOM is seeking to recreate conditions that allow such species to return.

“For all of our biodiversity, it is still a fundamentally arid ecosystem,” he said. “The species here have adapted to survive with very low rainfall and because of that, they are able to thrive despite the conditions.”

The Hadad Program supports NEOM’s rewilding strategy by reintroducing native falcon species, most notably the lanner and barbary falcons. “This is a really exciting program,” Marshall said. “It is one of many programs we are doing to restore the full ecosystem in the NEOM area.”

NEOM and the Saudi Falcons Club signed a strategic partnership to enhance falcon habitats within NEOM's Nature Reserve during the Hadad Annual Meeting in November 2024. (SPA/File)

Despite the climatic conditions, several types of plants were able to grow and uniquely adapt to different parts of NEOM’s ecosystem.

“From those plants we have insects and mammals. Then, we have the large mammals, of course,” he said.

He added: “This is a really exciting program. It is one of many programs we are doing to restore the full ecosystem in the NEOM area.”

Falcons used to be widespread throughout the whole of the Arabian Peninsula. But, through a combination of hunting and capturing for sports, in many places, Marshall said, that these animals are hard to find. Today, efforts are underway to bring them back.

Under a partnership between NEOM and the Saudi Falcons, authorities hope to see native falcon species throughout the whole of the Arabian Peninsula. (NEOM photo)

With the rich habitat and the efforts to safeguard the falcons, they are creating an environment where the species can be released with the best chances of survival.

They successfully released eight pairs of barbary falcons, which are a very rare type; very few of them are left in the wild.

“We are committed to caring for falcons as a cultural and historical heritage and supporting all related activities through a set of regulations and organizational frameworks adopted by the club,” Talal Abdulaziz AlShammisi, CEO of the Saudi Falcons Club, told Arab News.

“This includes promoting and preserving falconry heritage, organizing falcon auctions, collaborating with universities, colleges, research centers and health institutions to conduct falcon-related studies and scientific research.”

Talal Abdulaziz AlShammisi, CEO of the Saudi Falcons Club 

Falconry is not just a pastime in Saudi Arabia; it is a centuries-old tradition deeply woven into the fabric of national identity.

“Falconry has been practiced by our ancestors across the deserts of the Kingdom for centuries and today the country is home to thousands of falcons and passionate falconers,” said AlShammisi.

“Local species such as the lanner falcon and the barbary falcon are native to the Saudi environment and hold significant ecological value as essential components of environmental balance.”

The barbary falcon, once on the brink of extinction in parts of the Arabian Peninsula, is now making a comeback. Thanks to the Hadad Program’s careful release, rehabilitation and monitoring strategies, the birds are beginning to reclaim their place in Saudi skies.

The initiative’s success is underpinned by a network of partnerships.

FASTFACT

26,500

Area (square kilometers) of NEOM spanning mountains, desert and Red Sea coastline.

NEOM is working with the Saudi National Center for Wildlife, the Saudi Falcon Club and the Special Forces for Environmental Security to monitor these falcons, to protect them and give them not only the best chances of survival but appearing and breeding.

Soon, the first new generation of barbary falcons is expected to hatch in NEOM.

While falcons are among the stars of NEOM’s rewilding efforts, the program goes much further. More than 1,100 animals once absent from the region — including oryx, ibex, mountain gazelles and sand gazelles — have been reintroduced to help restore a natural ecological balance.

More than 1,100 animals once absent from the region — including oryx, ibex, mountain gazelles and sand gazelles — have been reintroduced by Saudi Arabia's National Center for Wildlife to help restore a natural ecological balance. (SPA photos)

The reintroduction of different species of animals is not only a victory for biodiversity but also a chance to restore natural food chains and ecological interactions that sustained this environment for millennia.

With plans to extend across 95 percent of megacity project’s total land area, the NEOM Nature Reserve represents one of the most ambitious conservation zones in the world.

Through projects such as the Saudi Green Initiative and the Middle East Green Initiative, the Kingdom aims to plant billions of trees, reduce emissions, and protect vast swaths of land and sea.

As World Environment Day shines a spotlight on the urgent need to protect and restore our natural world, NEOM stands as a compelling example of how large-scale development and ecological stewardship can go hand in hand.
 

 


Saudi minister conducts field tour of Makkah’s holy sites

Updated 04 June 2025
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Saudi minister conducts field tour of Makkah’s holy sites

Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Hajj and Umrah Tawfiq Al-Rabiah conducted a field tour of the holy sites to inspect camp readiness and facilities ahead of pilgrims’ move to Arafat on Thursday, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

He emphasized the need for coordination across entities and adherence to high operational standards.

Al-Rabiah also reviewed accommodation, logistics and the integration of health, technical and support services to ensure a smooth and safe pilgrimage.


Saudi authorities launch self-help e-book to guide Hajj pilgrims to perform rituals correctly

Updated 04 June 2025
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Saudi authorities launch self-help e-book to guide Hajj pilgrims to perform rituals correctly

  • Pilgrims can use their smartphones to tap on a download point, select their preferred language, and upload the guide to their devices

MAKKAH: Saudi authorities have launched a self-help e-book in various languages to guide and teach pilgrims about Hajj and Umrah rituals in order to perform them in accordance with Islamic rules.

The Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Dawah, and Guidance said the smart rituals guide is available in various locations in Makkah and Madinah, and other holy sites.

Pilgrims can use their smartphones to tap on a download point, select their preferred language, and upload the guide to their devices, the ministry added.

The initiative is part of several educational programs launched in the past weeks by the ministry to help over 1.25 million pilgrims currently undertaking Hajj perform their once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage correctly.

Saudi authorities, including health, logistical, and security sectors, have deployed cutting-edge technologies for this Hajj season, including drones to deliver medicines and artificial intelligence to safeguard and serve Muslim pilgrims.