Dr. Amr Al-Maddah, chief planning and strategy officer at Ministry of Hajj and Umrah

Dr. Amr Al-Maddah

Dr. Amr Al-Maddah has been the chief planning and strategy officer at the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah, and an adviser to its minister, since February 2019.

Up to 25,000 Hajj pilgrims in Mina this year will be issued with wearable high-tech smart cards in a pilot program being launched by the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah. The cards will store the pilgrims’ personal information, health status, residence and Hajj tour details. They will also be fitted with a location tracker to follow individual pilgrims’ movements, managed by a control room in Mina.

Al-Maddah said that it is the experimental stage of a smart Hajj initiative they are working on, and they will study to what extent it might be advantageous to the pilgrims.

Al-Maddah received his bachelor’s degree in electronic engineering from King Abdul Aziz University (KAU) in 2007. 

He obtained his master’s in robotics and intelligent systems from Osaka University in Japan in 2010, and a Ph.D. in 2013 from the same university.

After getting his bachelor’s, he worked for Saudi Hollandi Bank as a premises engineer until 2008. 

When he concluded his education in Japan, he joined the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center (KAPSARC) as a research associate from 2013 to 2014.

Al-Maddah then joined KAU as an assistant professor. He continues to teach in the electrical engineering department, while also acting as a consultant to the university vice president for business and cognitive creativity. In 2015, Al-Maddah became director of KAU’s business incubators until March 2016.