Acwa Names New Chief Executive Officer
The board of directors at Acwa has named Dr. Samir J. Serhan as its new Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately. Dr. Serhan previously served as President of Saudi Arabia and the Middle East for the company and was formerly the COO of US-based Air Products. The outgoing CEO, Marco Arcelli, will remain as an advisor.
Dr. Serhan is an internal promotion, previously leading ACWA Power's business in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East. Before joining ACWA, he spent a significant portion of his career at Air Products, where he was appointed Chief Operating Officer in 2020. His leadership at Air Products was credited with securing and executing the company's largest and most complex projects in its history. His expertise lies in engineering and large project execution, having also held leadership roles at Praxair and The Linde Group. At Air Products, his responsibilities expanded to include full profit and loss for the Americas, the company's largest operating region, and overseeing business in the Middle East. The leadership change follows a period of significant growth for ACWA Power. The outgoing CEO, Marco Arcelli, who took the helm in March 2023, oversaw a record-breaking year for the company. In 2023 alone, ACWA Power added 10.7 GW of power and achieved 12 financial closes with a total investment cost of $15.7 billion. Under Arcelli's roughly two-year tenure, the company's portfolio of projects under construction reached a value of $30 billion. He drove the company's strategy to triple its asset base to $250 billion by 2030, with a strong focus on decarbonization and expanding its green hydrogen and renewable energy portfolio. ACWA Power is a key player in Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030, mandated to lead 70% of the national renewable energy program. The company is developing the massive NEOM Green Hydrogen Project, a joint venture with Air Products and NEOM, which is expected to begin production by late 2026. The company's project pipeline is substantial, with a recent agreement to develop 5 GW of renewable capacity in Türkiye and a SR31 billion ($8.3 billion) deal for seven new solar and wind projects in Saudi Arabia. These initiatives are part of the Kingdom's goal to generate 50% of its electricity from renewables by 2030.
