Helal Abufarha

Responsible for managing all aspects of ICT infrastructure management strategic technical spectrums and technology initiatives of I&O for a WOQOD Qatar Fueling company leading Oil and Gas downstream distribution company a subsidiary of QatarEnergy in the state of Qatar throughout 150 petrol stations, two redundant Data Centers and 12 industrial operational sites full-bodied with the latest profound infrastructure technologies with an estimated 3000 full time employees and contractors.
Spearhead the management of ICT Infrastructure & Operation managing the design, implementation, operations, monitoring and optimization of architecture components and services. This includes centralized data center, disaster recovery site(s), remote locations and out of country services in fulfillment to organizational business continuity planning requirements include areas of systems, virtualization, storage, backup, restore, databases, cloud services, LAN, WAN, telecommunications devices, circuits, automations, security, operational monitoring and services. Responsible for directly executing and managing annual capital and operating expenditure more than 60-80 M QR related to the identification, tendering, evaluation, installation, commissioning and effectively operating services and operations for respected division/section.

Responsible for managing all aspects of ICT infrastructure management strategic technical
spectrums and technology initiatives of I&O for a WOQOD Qatar Fueling company leading Oil and
Gas downstream distribution company a subsidiary of QatarEnergy in the state of Qatar throughout
150 petrol stations, two redundant Data Centers and 12 industrial operational sites full-bodied with
the latest profound infrastructure technologies with an estimated 3000 full time employees and
contractors.
Spearhead the management of ICT Infrastructure & Operation managing the design, implementation,
operations, monitoring and optimization of architecture components and services. This includes
centralized data center, disaster recovery site(s), remote locations and out of country services in
fulfillment to organizational business continuity planning requirements include areas of systems,
virtualization, AI digital transformation, storage, backup, restore, databases, cloud services, LAN,
WAN, telecommunications devices, circuits, automations, security, operational monitoring and
services. Responsible for directly executing and managing annual capital and operating expenditure
more than 80-100 M QR related to the identification, tendering, evaluation, installation,
commissioning and effectively operating services and operations for respected division/section.
• Implement infrastructure security operation governance recommendations and ensure regular
maintenance and support of all security operations including lifetime cycle maintenance, updates,
patching and addressing alert bulletins.
• Establish 24x7 WOQOD Network Operations Center (NOC) for monitoring all architecture
components and services while ensuring cost effective insourcing/outsourcing operating model,
clearly defined incident response procedures, definition of roles/responsibilities and
communicating plans to ensure optimal mitigations of operational risks.
• Managing the implementation of a complex integrated hybrid model consisting of on premise and
cloud-based data DC/DR technologies and services.
• Ensuring 24/7 operations over central Data Center (DC) and 160+ remote locations across the
State of Qatar.

Key
• Lead the planning, assessment, execution, implantation, and the go-live of building complex
disaster recovery site (Active-Active) with a colocation data center provider to contribute to IT
department high availability services delivery and organization business continuity.
• Manage technical teams to build secondary data to become a resilient data center recovery site in
case of disaster recovery and extend business continuity. Review and recommendations of future
DR Cloud transformation, H/W and S/W cloud migration to ensure services availability and
resiliency.
• Manage, lead, design and maintain advanced data center facilities, infrastructure including DWDM
network connectivity, Telecom service provider cloud MPLSs to ensure maximum reliable and
secure connectivity to access all systems and services throughout data centers and remote
locations.
• Manage network connectivity migration from one telecom ISP to another including developing
operational plans, review proposed designs, contracts, budget, resources, testing,
optimization, and operational functionality.
• Migrate Data Center services from one Data Center MV1 to another MV3 to achieve medical

Reported to Executive Vice President in Charge, orchestrate all facets of IT and data/voice
communications systems across 28 sites & data centers of this 40-year established financial
management leader with 14K employees nationwide.
Manage the thirteen-member team in ensuring compliant and effective management of all IT
infrastructure & operations activities; develop strategic plans, review guidelines, and revise
policies/procedures to align with best practices of infrastructure & operations. Mentor and develop a
high-performance team to ensure seamless support. Leverage diverse measurement tools to assess
IT performance metrics, informing long-range, contract management, and tactical IT decision
making. Partner with internal stakeholders to drive application development and day-to-day internal
data center architecture projects. Devise project budgets, benchmarks, improvements, and
schedules; supervise Project Managers and contractors. Negotiate and administer service/vendor
contracts. Oversee training/support of end-users on Data Center and network operations, servers,
virtualization, software utilization, and telecom systems. Research emerging technologies against
current and anticipated needs.

Key
Achievements:
• Lead planning phases of enormous technical projects solution including infrastructure, storage,
security, and communications to ensure business case, financial and procurement processes
comply with enterprise
requirements and
standards.
• Effectively manage enterprise QA security policies, ensuring seamless compliance with
organizational standards and industry best practices by implementing leading-edge hardware
and software solutions and
instituting robust Data Center disaster recovery/intrusion response policies.
• Enhanced productivity by creating/configuring a dynamic remote access solution that
enabled remote execution of diverse applications and devices by front-end users with minimal
network impact.
• Successfully established standard QA of systems zero downtime on critical projects while
consistently remaining within time / budgetary constraints.
• Unified two established networks into a single high-performance network that enhanced
capacity and streamlined organization change/system upgrades.
• Launched new network backbone, phasing out legacy technologies and deploying leading
edge hardware and software, broadband connectivity, and upgraded front-end clients; built and
deployed new organizational
domains.
• Propelled development of strategic/tactical initiatives for voice/data communications, ensuring
high- availability and stable telephony services and support throughout the organization

Brought on board to plan, supervise, and implement diverse e-business, networking, and application
development engagements for this established IT consulting company with 500+ team members.

Key
Achievements:
• Excelled within this senior management role, answering directly to President / CEO,
simultaneously managing technical operations at multiple client locations, and directing 50+
projects during tenure.
• Enhanced reliability of technical infrastructure powering local / Web-based applications, IP
security camera surveillance, and imaging applications by orchestrating installation of
redundant Internet fiber lines.
• Integrated electronic communications for healthcare providers through a strategic upgrade
and merging of legacy Exchange server to Exchange 2003 with Outlook Web Access,
maintaining regulatory compliance,
and effecting the change for 1500 mailboxes with minimal service disruption.
• Enabled remote access to imaging data (CAT, MRI, sonogram, x-ray) through the launch
of local Web servers.
• Managed upgrade of Windows NT User Manager to Active Directory 2003 for a healthcare
provider, including separation of user management system from 12 other locations;
additionally, constructed Data Center build
out to separate providers WAN\LAN from the central system Data Center with minimal
downtime.

Charged with strategic planning, direction setting, and technology implementation for this
established healthcare organization with 500+ employees.

Spearheaded all efforts to define and implement new IT infrastructure for this community-based social service agency, and provider of specialized medical, nursing, and rehabilitative services.