Sabic (a subsidiary of Saudi Aramco, one of the largest companies in the world by revenue & market cap) is a publicly listed company and the 3rd largest chemical company in the world with strong focus on Chemicals, Agri-nutrients, and Metals businesses. Bassel is leading a team of senior professionals who are managing and directing all SABIC’s merger, acquisition, divestment, and carve-out transactions across the globe (the size of each transaction across the three different businesses vary between a few tens of millions of dollars to billions of dollars). The team takes the lead on a number of green field opportunities as well. Bassel also continues to advise on joint venture governance best practices.

In this role, Bassel was heavily involved in leading the management and performance of Sabic’s global investments in existing and to-be-established joint ventures (JV’s), other major projects, and wholly owned companies. He was also heavily involved in developing and implementing a fit for purpose governance structure to optimize Sabic’s shareholder value and assurance. With over fifty joint ventures in four continents and more than a hundred wholly owned companies across the globe, Bassel sharpened joint venture governance practices (SABIC was ranked Number One Chemical company in 2020 Joint Venture Portfolio Governance Benchmarking done by a top US Advisory firm).

With around $400 bln in revenue, Shell was ranked 3rd among Fortune 500 companies in 2019, Bassel was leading the Chemical finance function including joint ventures & new business development in the MENA region. This included playing an integral role in developing and negotiating commercial agreements, devising financing strategy, and steering & assuring the economics of multi-billion dollar petrochemicals joint venture projects. He operated closely with joint ventures partners and board members to optimize value drivers and key performance indicators. In this position, he was responsible for directing all governance and risk management & assurance for all Chemicals business in MENA and for delivering effective business controls.

In this role, Bassel had the responsibility of maximizing MENA’s Commercial organization value and directing risk & assurance process. He delivered a fit-for-purpose business control and governance framework for Upstream Commercial throughout the MENA region. He led the setup of company's offices in Tunisia & Algeria and developed the needed governance and financial controls to run these offices. Bassel also ran the finance function of Dubai LNG (liquefied natural gas) operation to minimize receivables and support project financial matters.

Bassel had the opportunity to lead commercial finance and deal structuring negotiations for the setup of a multi-billion dollar gas processing joint venture in the Middle East. He also supported the development of shareholders agreements and cost recovery structure for two oil fields contracts related to the Iraq 4th Oil bidding round.

Bassel was heavily involved in growing the customer base of this start up telecom mobile operator, at the time, from zero to over 200,000 customers and led company’s capital increase from $250mln to $500mln. He was acclaimed for his strong mediating & influencing skills to align the shareholders/board members and management on a single vision. In addition to advising the CEO and the Board of Directors on key financial and operational strategies to enhance company’s bottom line, he secured external funding, negotiated large contracts with suppliers; and developed the Finance & Procurement division including setting up policies & procedures, financial reporting & appraisal systems and controls.

Syriatel, at the time, achieved ~$1bln in annual revenue and Bassel was heading the financial/operational internal & external reporting along with the planning & appraisals function for the company. He managed and coordinated the financial and public relation aspects of the company’s IPO when Syriatel went public, guided the development & implementation of Quality Management Standards to obtain ISO 9001 certification, and led the development of an electronic budget management system that resulted in an 80% increase in financial reporting efficiency. Bassel also worked for the group as the Commercial and Finance lead to acquire telecom mobile licenses and operators in Africa, Asia and Europe.

The company, at the time, was the largest telecom operator in the U.S. and Bassel was in charge of preparing executive level analyses and recommendations for customers acquisition and retention cost by market segment, channel, product, and price. He was also responsible for analyzing direct and indirect sales distribution channels’ commissions and performing monthly and quarterly analysis of the P&L and sales on national, regional, and market levels.

Vanderbilt Medical Center is one of the largest medical centers in the U.S. with about 20,000 staff and two millions patients annually. Bassel supported senior executives in projects valuation and managed the budgeting, planning, appraisals, and reporting. He was recognized for leading financial reporting automation and co-developed a knowledge management system. Bassel was also a key member of a small team that worked on the Medical Center complete automation where they assessed & re-designed the center’s operational processes and managed change management to drive successful implementation.