Right then, I'm off!

This may well be news to many of you, but I’m taking off for a year to live and work in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.I’ve been looking for a new challenge for a little while now and in this job I think I’ve found just what I’m looking for.

I’ll be working at Ma’aden, the wholly Saudi government owned mining company. I’ll actually be employed by Hill & Knowlton, one of the world’s largest public relations firms, but seconded into their client (Ma’aden). Ma’aden mine precious and base metals, phosphates, bauxite and magnesite. Later this year they’re planning an IPO of 50 percent of the company, which equates to about USD 4 billion. No small potatoes!

The company was only set up in 1997 and to date has only a basic comms infrastructure in place. I’ll be there on the ground building that team, developing policies and procedures and generally ensuring that the company is ready to face the challenges of being a significant global player in a very short period of time. There aren’t many (if any) opportunities in the world today to work with such a blank canvas that involves an $8 billion company. To say I’m excited is a bit of an understatement. I’ll be working alongside their newly appointed Corporate Communications Manager (a British expat with years of experience in the Gulf) the team at Gulf Hill & Knowlton and Ma’aden’s senior management.

I’m also really looking forward to immersing myself in the people and culture of the country and indeed the whole region. Those I’ve met in the last 24 hours have been truly welcoming and have ranged from exiled Yemeni princes, to Oxbridge scholars, to young Saudis full of ambition and hope for the future. In such a short time I’ve come to realise that this is a country more misunderstood in the western hemisphere than I could have possibly imagined. I’m also hoping to learn the basics of Arabic whilst I’m there.

On the home front, I’ll be living in a residential compound. Not sure which one yet, but Arabian Homes is looking the likely candidate. Bit like a holiday resort really. A dozen swimming pools, gardens, restaurants, shops etc and very secure (10’ high concrete fence, razor wire and an armoured vehicle out front with a bloody great armour piercing cannon thing on top!). But I can assure you, it’s a very safe city. Well, probably safer than London anyway.

Kay won’t be coming to live with me … at least not at the start. British Airways doesn’t currently fly to Riyadh (not since the last bombings in 2003) but there’s talk the flights may be reinstated soon. We’re going to rent out the house in Winchester and she’s going to avail herself of the facilities at her parents’ house. Should BA start flying out of Riyadh again, she’ll be able to base herself there. If not, well, it IS only 12 months. We’ll see each other at various times throughout the year, whether it be my trips to the , her flights to , Doha and Dubai, or our holidays together elsewhere in the world.

In terms of Hallmark PR, we’re treating it like a sabbatical. I’ll run silent for a year (although I’ll always be on the end of the phone/internet) and return at the end of the contract. During that time the plan is to use my salary to undertake some new business development, something we’ve been dragging our feet on for too long.

So, when is this all going to happen? Pretty damn quickly. I’m typing this in the departure lounge of King Khaled International Airport in Riyadh having just signed my contract and just about to board a flight home, via Zurich. When I get in, I’ll have a few hours nap before heading off to the hospital to have my collar bone smashed up, grafted and bolted back together again. Basically, as soon as the stitches are out 2 weeks later, I’m off.

Assuming all goes well, I’ll be moving to the desert on or about 12 March. It has all fallen into place incredibly swiftly and at short notice.