Evgeny Boldyrev is the Chief Executive Officer and Board Member at RAFA Contracting, a dynamic construction company based in Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia. With over 20 years of leadership experience across the energy and industrial sectors, he now spearheads the strategic transformation and operational excellence of RAFA Contracting as it positions itself as a key contributor to Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030.
In his current role, he is responsible for setting and executing the company’s long-term strategy, overseeing all operational and business processes, and building a high-performing leadership team capable of delivering complex infrastructure and construction projects. His work focuses on driving innovation, efficiency, and sustainable growth, aligning the company’s goals with national priorities in urban development, housing, logistics, and industrial diversification.
Under his leadership, Rafa Contracting is expanding its footprint in the Kingdom’s rapidly evolving construction sector — participating in projects that support Vision 2030’s core pillars: economic diversification, private sector empowerment, and sustainable infrastructure development.
Before transitioning into construction, Evgeny Boldyrev held senior executive roles in the oil and gas industry, including Deputy CEO for Strategic Development at Gazprom Shelfproject and Executive Vice President at NewTech Services, where he led global sales, manufacturing operations, and strategic planning. He began his career at Schlumberger, progressing through engineering, operations, and business development roles across Russia, the UAE, and other global locations.
He holds a Master’s degree in Petrophysics from Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas.
Professional Experience
Dr Mark Smith has provided construction and programme advisory services for over thirty years, serving in key management consulting positions around the globe Mark has led capital project consulting practices across the Americas, Asia Pacific and Africa He currently leads Deloitte Middle East’s Infrastructure Capital Projects team and is based in Dubai, UAE.
Mark is recognised as one of the leading experts in building capabilities and designing organisations to deliver mega projects and large scale programmes Mark has served clients across the entire project ecosystem, including global engineering construction companies, emerging market governments, infrastructure fund investors and large multinational conglomerates H e brings his pioneering vision and approach to the delivery of some of the largest infrastructure projects in the world.
World Class Examples
With his strong foundation in Civil Engineering, Construction and Project Management, Mark has applied his distinguished leadership to large scale projects with a combined value of over one hundred billion dollars Some of his notable career highlights include the development of innovative construction management approaches on one of the first giga projects ever, a twenty year dam and power station construction programme for the China Ministry of Water Resources, which included the Three Gorges Dam The novel approaches he developed were applied to successfully deliver control and management of the many projects Mark also led the initial rollout of the World Bank’s City Resilience Programme Using digital design technology to map financial decision making, over ninety emerging market cities were empowered to design and build infrastructure for greater resilience to climate change Currently, Mark is leading Deloitte’s efforts at NEOM in Saudi Arabia, arguably the largest infrastructure program in the world, for several proponents including The LINE’s governance and PMO setup and as the senior lead executive on the Gulf of Aqaba proponent EPMO.
Education Qualifications
- Doctor of Philosophy in Construction Engineering and Project Management – The University of Texas at Austin
- Master of Science in Civil Engineering – Oklahoma State University
- Licensed Professional Engineer(PE) – State of Texas, USA
- Certified Public Accountant(CPA) – State of California, USA
- Certified Project Management Professional(PMP)
Nasser is Construction Director at the Ministry of Investment He provides the support to in the fields of construction, Building material, ICO Contracting services that enables global contractors to enter the Saudi market seamlessly, building
strategic partnerships that drive growth and contribute to a more advanced and sustainable future He
holds two m aster’s degrees in Engineering from University of Technology Sydney
Hazem Ayoub is a seasoned wealth management and investment professional with over 25 years of global experience. He currently leads the Investment Business for Private Banking at Mashreq, where he has held senior roles since joining the bank in 2013. Prior to Mashreq, Mr. Hazem Ayoub was part of Emirates NBD’s Wealth Management division. He began his career in the United States, where he spent over a decade in roles focused on portfolio management and investment Advisory.
Mr. Hazem Ayoub holds both Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of California. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and a Financial Risk Manager (FRM).
Somu is Managing Director, UAE – Processing Middle East, focused on strengthening Network’s position as the payment partner of choice for FIs, Fintechs, Telcos and Corporates in the UAE.
He is a management professional with 20+ years of experience in the US, APAC and Middle East spanning P&L management, development and implementation of new strategies, execution of turn-around assignments, and introduction of new products and superior analytics. He has a proven track record of driving consistent growth across the Middle East & North Africa region.
Somu was previously the Chief Business Officer at Paymentology, a Dubai-based global payment processing company with clients across 35 markets. He was responsible for the company’s global expansion, executing emerging payment technologies and deepening business alliances with global partners and stakeholders.
Prior to that, Somu spent 10 years with Mastercard, most recently as General Manager of Qatar, Kuwait and Levant, and took on various senior leadership roles in GE Capital
Somu holds an honors degree and a master’s in economics and is an alumnus of Delhi School of Economics. He is also a certified Six Sigma professional.
Filippo Fioravanti is a core member of Boston Consulting Group’s Financial Institutions practice. Since joining BCG in 2018, Filippo has worked with clients on SME lending, fintech, credit risk advanced analytics and credit processes, regulatory stress testing, risk appetite, capital management, and financial modeling\forecasting. His recent work has focused on credit processes, climate risk, risk-weighted asset optimization, and enterprise risk management.
Filippo has led several credit process redesigns and advanced analytics projects for European banks, as well as digitizing the credit processes for a leading Spanish bank, and leading the risk-weighted asset optimization for several leading European banks. Other engagements have covered climate risk framework reviews, development of advanced early warning models, and end-to-end risk modeling processes.
Before joining the firm, Filippo worked for eight years at Oliver Wyman.
