Abu Dhabi National Energy Company, known as Taqa, has appointed a new head of human resources to its top executive management team, part of a wider reorganisation under way this year under new Taqa leadership.
In his first executive management level appointment since taking the reins in April, Edward LaFehr, Taqa's chief operating officer, named Saeed Hamad Al Dhaheri to the position of executive vice president human resources and general services. Mr Al Dhaheri was previously head of HR at Abu Dhabi Media, parent company of The National.
As part of the “Emiratisation” process, the appointment brings to two the number of Emirati nationals on Taqa’s five-man executive management team, as Mr Al Dhaheri joins Saif Al Sayari, who runs the energy solutions division.
Taqa also plans to reorganise its management structure from the current business line divisions to one that reflects the regions in which it operates in order to better control costs and focus more on core businesses, Mr LaFehr said earlier this year. It has not yet made clear how it will define top management positions under the new structure nor whether it will appoint from within or seek to fill from outside Taqa for those roles.
Last week, Taqa appointed the Australian investment bank Macquarie and the consultancy group McKinsey to help it identify and sell non-core assets, according to an official involved, who did not want to be identified.
Taqa has a diversified energy and utility portfolio, including assets in North America – where it booked a US$686 million loss last year to reflect weak natural gas prices there – a huge gas storage facility in the Netherlands, oil drilling in Iraq, and power businesses in North Africa, India and in the UAE.
amcauley@thenational.ae
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