DOHA: Twenty-one Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of companies in Qatar have featured in the Top 100 CEOs ranked by Trends and Insead Business School while four CEOs from Qatar are among Top 25. The awards, a celebration of the very best in GCC business leadership, recognised the region’s 100 best CEOs in a ceremony in Dubai on Monday.
Top five CEOs among the Qatari companies were from Gulf International Services, Gulf Warehousing Company, Qatar National Bank, Masraf Al Rayan and Qatar Electricity and Water Company.
The event saw CEOs from Saudi Arabia walk away with the most number of trophies at 36, followed by 24 from the UAE, eight from Kuwait, six from Oman and five from Bahrain.
These awards have set a new benchmark for business awards programmes in the region by honouring only leaders from publicly listed companies. The companies were evaluated on the basis of their performance in 2014, when the combined market capitalisation for stock exchanges in the GCC grew to $1.029 trillion.
Along with Deloitte as auditors, Trends and Insead ensured the accuracy of the process, data and formula, while Hawkamah — the corporate governance institute — ensured corporate governance and disclosure criteria. The Peninsula
DOHA: Kyle Whitehill, Chief Executive Officer of Vodafone Qatar, has recently been named in the TOP CEO Awards and the leading CEO of the Telecom industry across the region. Organised by business publication Trends magazine in conjunction with INSEAD business school, the top CEO Awards 2015 ceremony paid tribute to business leaders whose success for their organisations is an instrumental factor in the continued growth of the region.
The fifth instalment of the annual programme honoured business heads judged to have excelled in the field of leadership. Mediaquest, the media company behind the initiative, says that the scheme is the most credible of its kind in the region, as only leaders of the firms listed on the stock exchanges of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman are eligible for ranking.
Kyle Whitehill said: “I accept the honour of being in the Top CEO Awards on behalf of Vodafone Qatar’s talented and tireless team, without whom we would have never reached this stage. From telecommunications to banking and air travel, I am additionally proud to stand among a group of such distinguished global business leaders who are indeed shaking up their industries and shifting the centre of gravity toward this region as partners — not passengers — on its remarkable economic journey.”
“With Vodafone Qatar sitting at the heart of the largest mobile networks in the world, we were confident that our presence in the local market will help to change the competitive landscape, introduce world-class innovations and raise the bar of the industry; and that’s exactly what we did and we keep on doing as we aim to empower every single one of our customers to be confidently connected by providing unique, worry-free experiences,” continued Whitehill.
Before joining Vodafone Qatar, Kyle Whitehill was the CEO for Vodafone Ghana from June 2010 to June 2013. Under his leadership, Vodafone Ghana became the second largest telecom operator in Ghana and grew the subscriber base from 2 million to over 5 million.
Prior to that, Kyle joined Vodafone UK in 2001 as head of the Enterprise business. In February 2008 he moved to Vodafone India as Chief Operating Officer. During his tenure as Chief Operating Officer, the subscriber base of Vodafone India’s business grew from 47 million to over 100 million. His early career was spent in fast moving consumer goods with L’Oreal and Jeyes before he entered general management with the Soft Drinks division of PepsiCo.
The Peninsula
