The University welcomes Alba CEO for first visit to the campus
Pictured above: Standing alongside the University's Pro-Vice Chancellor, International, Professor David Taylor (second left) and Alba's Chief Executive Officer Tim Murray (second right) are Alba colleagues (l-r) Mahmood A. Aziz Abbas and Khalid A. Latif.
Tue, 11 Nov 2014 14:22:00 GMT
Alba CEO Tim Murray meets Bahraini students on fact-finding visit
ONE of the world’s leading producers of aluminium has sent a steady stream of its most promising employees to the University of Huddersfield, in order to boost their skills and qualifications. Now the CEO of Bahrain-based Alba has paid a fact-finding visit himself.
The firm, founded as Aluminium Bahrain in the 1960s, is now one of the largest in the field of aluminium smelting, but it has links with just three universities around the world. Huddersfield is the sole institution in Europe that provides staff development to Alba employees and so it was selected as a destination for Alba Chief Executive Tim Murray (pictured right) plus two of his colleagues.
He met current Alba employees who are studying at Huddersfield and inspected facilities such as the University’s Centre for Precision Technologies and its International Institute for Accelerator Applications. He also held talks with Professor David Taylor, who is the University’s Pro-Vice Chancellor, International.
Mr Murray met the Bahraini students who are currently taking business and engineering courses at Huddersfield. As experienced Alba employees earmarked for promotion within the company they often achieve excellent results and now a fresh cohort from the company will soon come to the university, studying a wide variety of subject areas.
New Gulf office
The visit by Mr Murray and his colleagues came just as the University of Huddersfield is poised to develop stronger ties with Bahrain and other countries in the Gulf with the opening a new office in Abu Dhabi, UAE.
Shortly after the visit from Alba executives, a party from the University of Huddersfield – Elena Nikoulina and Matt Christie of the International Office plus John Baron of the School of Computing and Engineering – set out for the Middle East on a tour that would include presentations to Alba staff and briefing meetings with those who are scheduled to begin their Huddersfield courses in the next academic year.
After his visit to the University of Huddersfield, Mr Murray said: “Alba recognises that the education of its workforce is the key to the continued success of the company. As part of its programme of developing its workforce, Alba has embarked on a continuous journey to empower its employees and prepare them for the global marketplace in which we compete. The visit to the University of Huddersfield allowed us to see and feel the transformation which they are undergoing. We encourage them to keep up their commitment towards learning and assure them of Alba’s support at all times.”
Joining Mr Murray on his visit to Huddersfield were Khalid A. Latif, who is Manager for Customer Services and Marketing Operations, and Mahmood A. Aziz Abbas, who is Superintendent for Culture and Organisational Behaviour.
