Senior Executives

Paddy Padmanathan is the President & Chief Executive officer, and a member of the Board of ACWA Power. He is a key member of ACWA Power’s executive leadership team, having spearheaded its expansion since 2005 when he joined the company as a Business Development Director.

A seasoned engineering and energy expert with over 40 years of experience, Mr Padmanathan helped ACWA Power go from strength to strength to become a company that today has a vast portfolio in various high-growth markets across three continents. At ACWA Power, he has guided the business strategy to deliver power and desalinated water reliably and responsibly at competitive rates. He is also steering ACWA Power’s leadership in energy transition, underpinned by a strong ESG framework, enabling it to be part of one of the largest renewable energy projects in the world.

Prior to joining ACWA Power, Mr Padmanathan served as the Vice-President and Corporate Officer at Black and Veatch, a major global engineering and construction company, where he was responsible for developing privately financed power, water, and wastewater projects in over a dozen countries.

Mr Padmanathan holds a degree in engineering from the University of Manchester, a postgraduate qualification in Civil Engineering production from University of Lancaster and serves on the boards of several water and power companies.

Abdulhameed Al Muhaidib serves as the Chief Financial Officer at ACWA Power from Aug 2022.

With more than 13 years’ experience, Mr Al Muhaidib is a skilled leader having held several positions in both Business & Finance at ACWA Power.

During the initial years of his career within the Group, Abdulhameed worked in Corporate Finance and served several roles in Project boards and committees, including NOMAC. Abdulhameed was then primarily involved in managing projects under execution in the UAE, including Noor Energy 1, which is the world largest CSP project.

Before joining the company, he worked at HSBC Middle East / Saudi Arabia in Global Investment Banking and Advisory.

Abdulhameed served/serves as board member, audit committee member and risk committee member in many organisations including HSBC Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabian British Bank (SABB), Savola Group and several ACWA Power subsidiaries.

Abdulhameed holds a BBA Finance Major from the University of Miami as well as an MBA from the Pepperdine University Graziadio School of Business and Management. He was also selected and completed KSA Leadership 2030 Programme sponsored by HRH Mohammed bin Salman Foundation (MISK).

Kashif Rana serves as the Chief Portfolio Management Officer (CPMO) of ACWA Power and was also the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of ACWA Power till August 2022.

Having joined the Group as Director of Accounting, Controls and Taxation back in 2009, Kashif has successfully led finance activities for the Group and its investments in developing and implementing best practices around long-term planning, corporate finance, audits, accounting, reporting, insurance, corporate legal, treasury, and tax structuring, in addition to leading private security offerings with sovereign institutes of Saudi Arabia.

Prior to his appointment as CPMO, Mr Rana held the position of Chief Financial Officer at ACWA Power.

With 20 years’ experience in the power and water sector, high on his list of significant achievements, is leading the extremely successful IPO and public listing of ACWA Power on the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) as well as managing the equity investors and transition to operating as a listed company.

Before joining ACWA Power, Mr Rana served as the CFO of AES Middle East.

Mr Rana sits on the board of several companies owned and operated by ACWA Power. He is a certified Chartered Accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan.

Faisal Jadu serves as the Chief People, Culture, and Communications Officer at ACWA Power.

A seasoned professional with over 18 years of experience in the human resources field, Mr Jadu was responsible for driving and formulating the HR function of several prominent organisations in Saudi Arabia. His areas of expertise entail strategic planning, change management, leadership development, governance and policies, and organisational effectiveness.

Mr Jadu started his professional career by joining Alawwal Bank’s Future Managers Programme and then joined the Human Resources function where he held several executive roles. In 2011, Mr Jadu moved to Saudi British Bank (SABB) where he held several leadership positions before assuming the role of Chief Human Resources Officer.

Prior to joining ACWA Power, Mr Jadu served as the Chief Executive Officer of the Financial Skills Centre within the Ministry of Finance (MOF) in Saudi Arabia. He was responsible for establishing the Financial Skills Centre – a national initiative to develop the financial skills of government employees, which included over 500 government entities and up to 18,000 employees across the Kingdom.

Mr Jadu holds a bachelor’s degree in Management Information Systems (MIS) from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM), Saudi Arabia. He is also an independent member of the Board of Directors’ Nomination and Remuneration Committee (NRC) of several Saudi entities.

Bart Boesmans is the Chief Technology Officer at ACWA Power and is leading technology development at ACWA Power. He is also serving in a capacity of an interim Chief Investment Officer.

He brings over 25 years of international experience in the electrical power industry having held operational and executive leadership roles in a range of areas including engineering, business development, project execution and asset management.

Prior to joining ACWA Power, Bart’s experience was primarily with Engie where he led several C-Suite roles for over 10 years across multiple geographies, the most recent one being Deputy Managing Director of Engie’s Global Business Line Renewables. Before joining Engie, Bart was CEO of Laborelec, an internationally operating electricity research and O&M services center.

Since his early engagement in wind energy over two decades ago, Bart has been actively involved in a wide range of technologies including conventional power generation, natural gas, LNG transport and storage, green gases, solar PV and CSP, hydropower, battery storage, demand side management and microgrids.

Bart holds a master’s degree and a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of KU Leuven. He is also a visiting professor at the University where he teaches power generation engineering.

Alvaro Perez joined ACWA Power as the Chief Digital Officer and is leading ACWA Power’s digital transformation, as well as managing the Information & Communications Technology (ICT) functions.

He has over 20 years of experience within technology integration and has been responsible for leading large international IT projects where technology and digitisation were key for business transformation. Mr Perez had been a member of numerous boards including International Oracle Utilities Product Development Advisory Board and several American power generation associations, and participated as an entrepreneur in different ICO, blockchain and IoT initiatives.

Prior to joining ACWA Power, Mr Perez held different posts during the last 20 years at the largest top five utilities in America and Europe most prominent being CEO of their services companies, CIO and Head of their Digital Hubs where he mainly specialised in distributed generation, demand response and aggregation, energy efficiency and smart cities development.

Mr Perez is an Economic Science graduate from Complutense University, Spain. He also holds a degree in Executive Strategies from Harvard Business School.

Ghassan H. Shawli, ACWA Power’s Chief Legal Officer, is a legal veteran with 19 years of experience in senior leadership roles with reputable companies.

Prior to joining ACWA Power, Mr Shawli was the Chief Legal Officer for the Diriyah Gate Development Authority, advising on legal affairs and overseeing the build-up and performance of the department. He has also held the role of Vice-President of Legal Affairs for three years at The Saudi Arabian Airlines Cooperation as well as other senior positions at Saudi Aramco, cultivating deep sector expertise in the Kingdom.

Mr Shawli brings a wealth of experience as lead counsel on mega projects; mergers & acquisitions; corporate governance; and restructuring within various industries, with market cap sizes exceeding USD 20  billion dollars.

Mr Shawli is a certified New York State Bar attorney and holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of Alabama and a Jurisprudence Doctorate degree from the Northwestern School of Law at Lewis & Clark College and is an admitted attorney by the New York State Bar.

Philip Decnudde is our Chief Risk, Strategy and Sustainability Officer at ACWA Power, and joined us in June 2021. In addition to taking undivided responsibility for this integrated function at ACWA Power, as a member of the Management Committee, Philip will join the other members of this committee to guide and support our ongoing efforts to achieve excellence in all spheres of our business and operations.

A seasoned practitioner in the industry, Mr Decnudde has over 35 years of experience, much of which has been achieved in senior leadership roles with some of the most well-known energy companies across the world. He brings with him a wealth of experience in Executive Leadership and Risk Management and is someone who has consistently championed the sustainability agenda wherever he has worked and has influenced their energy transition and renewable energy development strategies, with an emphasis on growth and enhancement of efficiency.

Prior to joining ACWA Power, Mr Decnudde held the position of Managing Director, Global Industrial Hub at Engie in Paris, where he oversaw the functions of 3 departments advising on business development and operational performance. Prior to this role, he served for a period as the CEO of Engie Latam in Chile, where he was responsible for the overall business activities across Latin America and driving the energy transition strategy in the region for the company he was serving.

Mr Decnudde will oversee the Risk, Strategy and Sustainability function and will also take responsibility for the CSR function at ACWA Power. Within the domain of championing risk management and overseeing the development of our activities within the agreed risk appetite of the Company, he will also be coordinating the Management Investment Committee and ensuring the effectiveness and integrity of the risk oversight and management process.

In the area of sustainability, in addition to championing environmental stewardship, social responsibility and good governance; and guiding and overseeing corporate social responsibility activities, he will also bring together ESG considerations into risk management and strategy at ACWA Power.

From July 2022, Stefan Verlee serves as the Chief Operations and Maintenance Officer for ACWA Power and as the President and Chief Executive Officer of First National Operations and Maintenance Company (NOMAC), a leading O&M provider that is 100 percent owned by ACWA Power. Mr Verlee was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer of NOMAC in July 2022.

A professional engineer with over 25 years’ experience in operation and maintenance, Stefan previously served as Executive Vice President of NOMAC, leading the expansion of the international business since 2017 in providing safe, reliable, and cost-effective power and water to the communities we operate in and fully engaged in the energy transition.

Prior to joining NOMAC, Stefan was working with Engie, a leading energy company focused on energy transition, electricity and water generation, distribution, and services. He oversaw operation and maintenance of large-scale power and water projects in various continents, most recently as Chief Operating Officer of ENGIE Power and Water Middle East.

Stefan holds a master’s degree in electro-mechanical engineering from the University of Leuven (Belgium) and an MBA in European Utility Management from the Jacobs University of Bremen (Germany).”