Meet the Project Manager: Mohammed Salameh from Compass

What is it like to be a Project Manager in Saudi Arabia? Mohammed Salameh and his firm Compass Project Consulting were the first customers of Mastt in the Middle East region. In this article, let's get to know more about his job and his thoughts on the industry where he is.

1. Tell me a bit about your background. Starting out as an architect, what made you want to become a Project Manager?

Having a design/ architecture background (details oriented) I would always love to see the projects being executed in respect to the correct design. Same applies to the quality and time of projects, which need to be controlled correctly from day one.

My career path also led me to being involved in site work at an early stage and having great opportunities working with contractor to developer in the best project management consultancy in the region, where I had a chance to develop myself and my career further.

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2. One thing you love about the construction industry in the Middle East region.

Significant projects plan which creates positive challenges environment and place for career growth by working with the best in the industry from all over the globe. The market demanding for professionals and it’s an opportunity for all industry champs.

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3. At what stage of the company did you join Compass? Tell me about one thing that has changed the most since you started.

I was lucky to be the first team member of Compass KSA. This gave me the opportunity to go through all development stages, witnessed significant growth and learn a lot by working closely with the directors and under their mentoring. The most would be the partnership between Compass and Dar Al Arkan. This partnership increased the scale of the business structure and led to more opportunities.

4. One thing people misunderstand about your occupation.

Maybe the fact that some people still mix between the project manager and contractor/designer roles, and this would cause confusion to both parties.    

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5. Describe the industry’s attitude towards adopting technology when you first started. Has it changed since?

Significant changes, this can be in the new technologies of construction like the 3D printing, artificial intelligence or with the e-meetings over site meetings due to technology, drones, videos, etc.. and of course the reporting systems being used. The best example of this is Mastt with its amazing reporting and project control tools. In fact Compass recently announced our partnership with Mastt, and have started using it in all its projects.

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6. What does ‘happiness’ mean to you?

Being with the people I love (my family and friends), helping others, and working in a job I’m passionate about in an inspiring environment.

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7. Name a place you want to be at right now and why.

Rio de Janeiro, it was always on my list to visit, it would be great to be there right now for a break, discovering the place and enjoying the famous Copacabana beach.

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8. It must feel awesome to receive the Project Manager of the Year Award. What does the award mean to you?

It was a great moment to win the award, I'm humbly proud of it. It means that I have a responsibility to represent myself and my company in best manner, act and work as per the industry best practice, lead by example, and it gives me more push forward.

9. A movie or series you watched recently. Do you think it was a good one?

The Grey Man. I think it was good entertainment.

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10. Tell me about an interesting client you worked for.

Muvi Cinemas – we have worked with the Muvi team from the beginning of their journey, being their project & cost management partner and witnessed the huge expansion they had to be number 1 in KSA market. It's been a very interesting journey in the past 3 years and ongoing, full of challenges, learning and success.

You will hear about this project a lot more in details in our upcoming webinar with Compass. To deliver 20+ cinemas across Saudi as quickly as possible, Muvi’s team needed to focus on risk management and be across key milestones of individual projects and overall delivery of the program. In the webinar, Mohammed will speak about how Compass introduced innovative, real-time reporting technology to enable rapid Saudi cinema program roll-out.

Register for the webinar: https://www.mastt.com/webinars/use-real-time-reporting-to-conquer-program-milestones-featuring-compass

Read the Muvi Cinemas case study: https://www.mastt.com/customer-story/compass-project-consulting-delivers-200mil-muvi-cinemas-program