Halim Hamid Redhwi

TBY talks to Halim Hamid Redhwi, Interim CEO of Dhahran Techno Valley Company (DTVC).

How does DTVC embody the spirit of practical application in the economy?

DTVC is owned by King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM), though we have an independent board. Being a commercial arm of the university, we are mandated to support the university, but we have our own complete ecosystem. The crown of the DTV ecosystem is the Science Park, and as part of this ecosystem we also have an Entrepreneurship Institute, 3D printing and rapid prototyping, patenting, and others that operates under KFUPM; however, the most important physical asset is the Science Park. We have upward of 18 technology companies in our ecosystem, and these companies do their research and development work based on business requirements. Their major customers are Saudi Aramco and SABIC. Most of the companies in our ecosystem are in the fields of digitalization, quantum mechanics, quantum computation, and so on. DTV is an ecosystem, while DTVC is a company. In front of us are 18 technology companies doing their R&D for business purposes, and behind us is the university with 1,000 faculty members, researchers, and about 10,000 postdoc, graduate, and undergraduate students. Our strength is there in the university.

How does DTVC act as a bridge between the university and the businesses it is affiliated with?

First, the basic principle of inviting these technology companies was ensuring they are in a business that aligns with the expertise at the university. We divide the companies we have invited into four or five different sectors, and they are in line with university expertise. That means the departments and research centers there are also aligned with the technology companies. This is what we have been building over the past 10 years. We only wish to attract those companies that are aligned with our university’s expertise. We discuss various issues from our side and communicate the new projects to the companies we work with, and the objective is to integrate it. There are excellent success stories, and the interactions are increasing by the day.