Alumni You Should Meet – Tariq Alturkestani  (PhD ’20, MS '14) by Melissa Pappas (MS '17)

Tariq Alturkestani started his journey once he graduated from high school in 2008, and took a tour of KAUST as it was being built from the ground up.

As a part of the first cohort of the KAUST Gifted Student Program (KGSP) in 2009, he moved to the US and started his undergraduate degree at Pennsylvania State University, majoring in computer science and minoring in mathematics. With no time to waste, Alturkestani moved back to Saudi Arabia after his graduation in 2013.

“I had less than a week between the day I graduated from Penn State and the day I started at KAUST,” said Alturkestani. “And, at that time, my last memory of KAUST was when it barely existed as a construction site. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I was excited.”

Freedom to explore academic interests

Alturkestani’s supervisor, Professor David Keyes, gave him the freedom to explore the various topics that he was interested in, which also allowed him to test out the waters of the start-up world.

“One of my mentors, who has been a prominent academic for over a decade and is currently a successful business executive, once asked me why I wanted to work in academia,” said Alturkestani. “I said I wanted to do work that benefits humanity and makes an impact. His response was that industry could do that too, perhaps even faster than academia, and potentially financially rewarding. This was when I realized that selfless goals cannot sustain themselves.

Learning to pivot professionally early on

Alturkestani’s path into industry started with a friend who was creating a carpool service startup for women in the Kingdom. However, once women were legally allowed to drive, the company seemed irrelevant and the two friends decided to pivot.

“At this time, I was in the middle of my PhD project and now needed to change paths for my business goal,” said Alturkestani. “We decided to invest in a package delivery startup just in time for the pandemic.”

As Alturkestani moved from transporting people to transporting packages, he stepped into a niche that desperately needed to be filled with the recent boom in online shopping.

“Of course, we still faced many challenges during COVID as new business owners,” said Alturkestani. “Much of our supply was coming from China, which increased the uncertainty of delivery dates, and there were a lot of other people out there trying to start product or shipping businesses, which made the prices of goods constantly fluctuate for a year. But now, our company has delivered millions of shipments and hired over one hundred people in the Kingdom.”

Skills learned in a KAUST PhD

 Alturkestani credits his success in business to skills he gained in the PhD.

“Some of the most important skills I gained in the PhD come from the high level of detail-focused work you need to complete a thesis,” said Alturkestani. “My current work in logistics requires this detail orientation which is well complimented by my business partner’s ability to look at the big picture.”

“Saudi’s position in the global economy can be directly improved by involvement of researchers in industry, and KAUST is very supportive of that,” said Alturkestani. “However, doing this while completing a degree is very hard. You cannot do it alone and you quickly learn the importance of time management and your surrounding ecosystem. I would advise to have a startup co-founder who is not pursuing a PhD at the same time.”

Alturkestani also emphasizes the importance of supporting your colleagues.

“One of the most valuable things I learned as I transitioned from my PhD into business is the importance of treating people with respect,” said Alturkestani. “It is very common to receive harsh criticism in academia, especially when those comments are sent over email, not said face to face. As co-founder of SAEE, my goal is to support my team members and allow for more room to be human as an industry professional.”