DFI Middle East Announces New Officers

Deep Foundations Institute (DFI) announces that new officers have been elected for the DFI Middle East Regional Chapter.

Chair Emad Sharif is the Dubai and Muscat manager for ACES – Arab Center for Engineering Studies in Dubai, UAE. He joined ACES in 1994 as general manager of the ACES Palestine Branch and transferred to Dubai in 2004 as manager of ACES Dubai and Oman Branches. Before joining ACES, he was a lecturer in the Civil Engineering Department at Birzeit University in Ramallah, West Bank.

His experience in geotechnical investigation includes planning of site investigation studies, geotechnical investigation and interpretation, design and testing of piles, liquefaction studies, soil and rock slope stability studies, design of dewatering and shoring systems, geotechnical instrumentation and monitoring, control of ground improvement works.

He obtained B.Sc. degree in civil engineering from Alexandria University in Egypt and a Master’s degree in geotechnical engineering from Stanford University in the U.S. In addition to being a member of DFI Middle East, he is a member of the Society of Engineers in the UAE, the American Society of Testing Materials (ASTM), and Emirates Ground Engineering Forum (EGEF). He is also one of the two representatives of the accredited laboratories in Dubai for the DAC (Dubai Municipality Accreditation Centre) Advisory and Technical Committee.

Vice Chair Salah Al Dilimi is currently the Rail Infrastructure Maintenance manager in the Rail Agency within the Roads and Transport Authority, Dubai, UAE. Previously, he was on the design team at Atkins for the Dubai Metro Project. He has over 27 years of international work experience in design, construction and management of geotechnical and civil projects including diaphragm walls, concrete piles, driven piles, micropiles and screw piles. He has worked in the U.K., Australia, New Zealand and the Middle East. Salah has contributed in publishing a book titled Geology of Dubai.

He is a Professional Geotechnical Engineer with a M.Sc. degree and Higher Diploma from Auckland University, New Zealand. He is a member of the technical advisory committee at the American University in Dubai and Sharjah, and is a member of the BIM committee to establish BIM strategy and framework within RTA.

Secretary Treasurer Nick Chittenden is the regional manager for underground construction in the Middle East at BASF in Dubai, UAE. He is a tunneling engineer with over 20 years of international experience in Taiwan, Canada, Egypt, China, South Africa and Iceland.

He qualified as a mining engineer from Cardiff University before taking an MBA and more recently a M.Sc. in tunneling and TBMs at the Polytechnico Torino. He is a specialist in the key rock support technologies of sprayed concrete and injection and is also an EFNARC Nozzleman Assessor.