Feisal Al-Mazidi (1933-2016)
Feisal Al-Mazidi passed away on February 26, 2016 in Switzerland at the age of 83, following a decades-long battle with repercussions of cancer surgery.
Al-Mazidi’s life was dedicated to public service. During the nationalization of Kuwait’s oil industry, he was the country’s chief representative in negotiations with the major oil companies, and is considered one of the architects of OPEC. He also negotiated Kuwait’s entry into the World Bank and the IMF.
His highly distinguished career includes service in the following capacities:
- Assistant Undersecretary, Ministry of Finance & Oil (1960-1963)
- Director, Kuwait Oil Company (1960-1973)
- Chairman, Government Oil Concession Committee (1963-1971)
- Founding Director, Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic development (1962-1986)
- Founding Member, Higher Council of the University of Kuwait (1962-1964)
- Chairman and Managing Director, Kuwait Chemical Fertilizer Company (1964-1971)
- Director, Petrochemical Industries Company (1963-1971)
- Director, Kuwait Fisheries Company (1971-1974)
- Director, Mediterranean Fertilizer Industries (Turkey) (1967-1971)
- Founder, Kuwait National Petroleum Company
- Member, Advisory Committee on Oil Policy (1986-87)
After retirement from government service, Al-Mazidi acted as advisor to various governments as well as international companies. Among these were the Brazilian government, Petrobras, BP, Gulf Oil, Bechtel, and Peat Marwick & Mitchell (now KPMG).
During the Second Gulf War, together with his son, Wael, Al-Mazidi co-founded the Strategic Investment Forum (SIF) in London to reassert Kuwait’s rights for independence and to promote its image globally. SIF organized and co-sponsored two high-profile international conferences in London and prepared numerous strategic studies and assessments to assist Kuwait with its post-war re-construction efforts.
Following the second Gulf War, and in collaborative effort with his friend and confidant the late Dr. Saeb Al Jaroodi, former Minister of Economy in the Lebanon, he authored a book titled “The Future of the Gulf: The Legacy of the War and the Challenges of the 1990s”.
» Amazon.com – The Future of the Gulf: The Legacy of the War and the Challenges of the 1990s
Throughout Anna Rubino’s biography of Wanda Jablonski, Queen of the Oil Club (featuring a forward by Daniel Yergin), Al-Mazidi is mentioned prominently and is described by Ms. Jablonski as a very close and trusted friend. From the book:
“Kuwait’s first graduate from a British university, [Al-Mazidi] had both benefited and suffered from studying in the West. A slight young man with thick, dark-framed glasses and a cleft chin, Mazidi grew up in a mud hut. Late-night reading by kerosene light ruined his eyes, he said, but he excelled in school, which led to a scholarship in England.”
On his role in the nationalization of his country’s oil industry and his confrontation with the oil majors that held sway over it:
“… a key figure in the controversy and an advisor to Sheikh Jaber Al-Sabah, the new prime minister and future ruler, Mazidi had revealed his strategy to her (Ms. Joblonski) a year earlier, but she had kept it secret until he allowed her to disclose it in June 1965. By March 1966, his plan was coming closer to reality … for “cracking” the major oil companies.”
» Amazon.com – Queen of the Oil Club: The Intrepid Wanda Jablonski and the Power of Information
