Ahmad A. Ajarimah, EdD
Hall of Fame Class of 2007
Ahmad Ajarimah, EdD, has a long history of involvement in adult and continuing education through employment in significant leadership roles in the Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco), until 1988 known as Arabian American Oil Company (ARAMCO), the largest oil company in the world and the employer of choice for over seventy years in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
In his 35 years of experience in the company, Ajarimah has had a dramatic impact on the education of more than 100,000 adults.
As superintendent of Programs and Technical Services Division of Saudi Aramco, Ajarimah’s responsibilities included working with workforce development and certification and management of instructional design for all major human resource development (HRD) initiatives, including training and development and leadership development for supervisory and middle-management personnel in the company.
He directed standard settings and quality assurance of all academic and technical training programs, as well as the aptitude assessments and psychometric screening tests for all employment candidates for the company. In addition, he planned for all new training facilities and maintenance of the more than 100 existing training centers, procuring all educational materials and equipment.
From 2000-2005, Ajarimah served as coordinator of Saudi Aramco’s Training and Career Development (T&CD) Policy and Planning, where he coordinated the development of short- and long-term strategic planning relating to HRD in corporate training and education programs within the company. He recruited Saudi and expatriate manpower to maintain T&CD’s annual staffing level of 1,500 – 1,900 employees, as well as coordinated university preparation and formal college education programs at the bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral levels, in Saudi Arabia and abroad in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Middle East, China, Korea, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.
Ajarimah has served for more than 10 years as the director of human resource development for the Arabian Society for Human Resource Management (ASHRM), the most influential of all professional societies in the Gulf area. Through his leadership, ASHRM has become more professional, hosting annual conferences with refereed papers and a proceedings publication. Ajarimah coordinated with the University of Minnesota (UM) to offer an HRD certificate and M.Ed. programs for five cohorts of approximately 130 students, with the first cohort starting in October 1999. His involvement went past that of coordination, leading ASHRM’s efforts in seeking and obtaining Saudi Aramco senior management’s approval for this program and interviewing and selecting applicants for admission into the program. Ajarimah reviewed course content and syllabi, provided onsite program supervision and support for UM professors, and arranged for all logistical support and academic counseling for students.
In June 2000, UM presented Ajarimah with a prestigious honor, work in the advancement of HRD. Ajarimah earned his Ed.D. from UM, and in May 2006, the university awarded him a Distinguished Alumni Award, which coincided with the centennial celebrations of the College of Education and Human Development.
Ajarimah’s additional positions with Saudi Aramco include superintendent of Academic and Industrial Training, curriculum and testing supervisor, and ESL instructor and industrial training center principal. His involvement in adult and continuing education has influenced students and faculty from many countries, and he continues to provide training and education opportunities to adults within Saudi Arabia and from around the world.