San Francisco Chronicle
Bechtel's Roots In Mideast Lucrative Projects Date Back To WWII

By David R. Baker

Almost 60 years ago, Stephen Bechtel Sr. walked the docks of his Sausalito shipyard with a young Saudi prince.

Faisal bin Abdul Aziz wanted a look at Bechtel's Marinship, where workers cranked out Liberty Ships and tankers for the war. His family, just starting to tap the oil beneath Saudi Arabia, was determined to modernize its desert kingdom. There would be much to build.

Bechtel Corp. has amassed a history of lucrative work in the Arab world that other American companies can only envy. Now the privately held San Francisco company has landed its latest Middle Eastern contract - a $680 million effort to rebuild Iraq.

Bechtel has succeeded in the region, analysts say, by forming long-running, personal bonds with Arab political leaders, including the Saudi royal family.

"Family and friends are very important there," said Fariborz Ghadar, director of Pennsylvania State University's Center for Global Business Studies.

"They've spent the time to get to know these people."

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REPORTERS & EDITORS: For more information, please contact Wyatt DuBois in the Smeal College of Business Media Relations Office at 814-863-3798 or wed112@psu.edu .

Penn State's Smeal College of Business offers highly ranked undergraduate, MBA, executive MBA, Ph.D., and executive education opportunities to more than 5,500 students at all levels. Featuring academic departments of accounting, finance, marketing, insurance and real estate, management, and supply chain and information systems, the college is also home to major research centers such as the Center for Supply Chain Research, the Institute for the Study of Business Markets, the eBusiness Research Center, the Farrell Center for Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the Center for Global Business Studies, and the Center for the Management of Technological and Organizational Change.

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