Mahdi Fida Aladel is the CEO of Aramco Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of Aramco, spearheading investment activities across five funds with total Assets Under Management of $7 billion. 

Before his current role, Mahdi served as the Director of Base Oils & Finished Lubricants where he established and directed Aramco’s Global Base Oils Alliance as well as pioneering the Aramco Lubricants business and brand.

Mahdi has accumulated more than 26 years of experience in Downstream, Upstream and the Corporate Center both in Saudi Arabia and globally. 

Between 2013 and 2017, Mahdi worked in Motiva LLC in Texas where he led Strategy & Business Development. Between 2011 and 2013, he led numerous business strategies and corporate initiatives under the Strategic Transformation Office of Aramco. Prior to which, Mahdi was responsible for Downstream strategies under the Long Range Planning Department of Corporate Planning of Aramco. Mahdi has also spent time as a Production Engineer overseeing oil field operations with a production capacity of 500,000 barrels per day in the Kingdom.

Mahdi began his employment with Aramco in 1998 as a Process Engineer in Ras Tanura Refinery up to 2009, where he was responsible for overseeing various engineering operations and planning roles.

Between July 2005 and December 2006 Mahdi worked as a process engineer in Chevron’s Richmond Refinery, California.

Mahdi has a BS in Chemical Engineering and MBA from King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals and also a MSc in Chemical Engineering from Princeton University. Mahdi is an alumnus of the Advance Management Program for Executives from INSEAD University. Mahdi is a board member in; Aramco Ventures’ many subsidiaries, ALuRe (Aramco Lubricants & Retail Company), The Climate Initiative (CI) Investment fund. Mahdi is member of Wa’ed Ventures' Investment Committee and a former board member of LUBEREF.