Ababtain will be leading SOFON Holding, an admin area in Strategy and Corporate Development.
Sulaiman M. Ababtain has been appointed as a senior vice president, effective Jan. 1, 2023, leading SOFON Holding, an admin area in Strategy and Corporate Development. Before assuming this position, he was the president and CEO of the Saudi Aramco TOTAL Refining & Petrochemical Co. (SATORP), since 2018, where the company had achieved highest levels ever in both net income as well as safety performance.
Ababtain successfully achieved a number of records throughout his career of more than 30 years with Aramco. His journey in the company has taken him through a broad range of responsibilities in several leadership roles in Downstream, including Supply Planning, Refining, Terminal, Pipelines, Joint Venture, and Marketing. This has also included out-of-Kingdom work experience, where Ababtain was seconded as vice president of Corporate Planning for the Petron Corporation in the Philippines (2005-2008) and as president of Aramco Asia Company in Beijing (2012-2014).
In between these two international posts (2009-2011), he was the manager of the Products Sales and Marketing Department, which had evolved to the current Aramco Trading Company. Before assuming his position in SATORP, Ababtain was the manager of the Aramco Crude Oil Sales and Marketing Department. During that time (2015-2018), he managed all of Aramco’s global exports of crude oil and LPG.
As a Board member, Ababtain represented Aramco on the Arab Pipelines Petroleum Company (SUMED), Egypt, and the Aramco shareholder representative of the Bolanter Corporation. In supporting the community, he had served as the chairman of the SATORP Social Responsibility Company (Torathuna). This nonprofit organization focuses on developing Saudi handicrafts, traditional arts, and heritage, sponsoring over 90 Kingdomwide entrepreneur projects.
Ababtain attended several domestic and international series of leadership and advanced management programs by various prestigious schools in international business, joint ventures management, entrepreneurship, and strategy. He received his B.S. degree in systems engineering from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, and his M.S. degree in industrial engineering and operations rResearch from Purdue University in the U.S.
— The Arabian Sun: January 25, 2023