From West Baltimore to Riyadh, Khalid Al-Motaery ’23 makes his mark

By Bryan Hay 

Uplifted by his participation in a Lafayette-sponsored economic and cultural revitalization project in West Baltimore, Khalid Al-Motaery ’23 has landed a career in his home country, working with the Public Investment Fund (PIF), Saudi Arabia’s influential sovereign wealth fund.

As a student, Al-Motaery assisted Gladstone “Fluney” Hutchinson, associate professor of economics and policy studies, Whitman Family Director of the Gladstone Whitman ’49 Endowment Funds, and founder of Lafayette’s Economic Empowerment and Global Learning Project (EEGLP), in a multiyear collaborative co-learning effort aimed at bringing social and economic redress to West Baltimore. He served as a prestigious Lafayette College Gladstone Whitman ’49 Fellow and student captain on the multiyear project, and started working in West Baltimore the summer of 2021 alongside Hutchinson and other Whitman fellows.

Khalid Al-Motaery ’23

Now Al-Motaery is tapping into his West Baltimore experience working with PIF in its graduate program, which, among other things, supports Saudi Arabia’s goal of getting 50% of its electricity from renewable energy by 2030.

“I want to thank Prof. Hutchinson and the West Baltimore project. It really helped me to get to this opportunity with PIF’s Graduate Development Project,” he says. “Throughout the interview process, I spoke about my experience at Lafayette. I think they were amazed by the West Baltimore project. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I look forward to using what I learned from Prof. Hutchinson as part of that project.”

With his Lafayette degree in computer science and minor in economics, Al-Motaery says his interdisciplinary background at Lafayette has been a valuable foundation, combining the theoretical and practical sides of learning, as he sets out on his professional life.

“Lafayette taught me how to transfer knowledge,” he says. “There’s theory knowledge derived from books and papers. But Prof. Hutchinson would then take us into the streets of West Baltimore and actually apply what we learned in class. It trained my brain to achieve something practical in the world.

“When I was interviewed by the PIF, they also asked me about which important skill I had. And I said, ‘collaboration,’” Al-Motaery recalls. “I know it may sound like a cliche, but it was something that was really important to the West Baltimore project because we worked with students from all majors at Lafayette—students from computer science, economics, art, you name it. We were able to create synergy and synthesis.”

Al-Motaery, who recently won an investment competition as part of PIF, is applying that collaborative spirit working on the Saudi Arabia Vision 2030 National Development Plan, a directive of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to transform and diversify Saudi Arabia’s oil-based economy.

Khalid Al-Motaery ’23 with his recent investment competition from the Public Investment Fund.

After his 20-month graduate program with PIF, he plans to pursue an MBA and perhaps return to PIF in a permanent role. “That’s my idea for now,” he says, adding that he’s completely invested in the organization’s mission and potential to change the quality of life in his home country.

In one of his letters of recommendation supporting Al-Motaery on the graduate level, Hutchinson describes him as having a “natural ability to exercise empathy for the circumstances of others, and to conceptualize and design platforms that enhance the productivity of collaboration and shared values and interests,” traits that he exhibited in the West Baltimore project.

“What was at play, I hold, was his deep endowment of emotional intelligence, social manners, collaborative skills, respect for others and their culture, and leadership skills,” Hutchinson further observes.

“It’s just so remarkable to me at how my Lafayette experience in West Baltimore helped bring me into one of my country’s most ambitious economic and social programs. I hope I can use that experience to further improve my homeland,” Al-Motaery says. “I’m forever grateful to Prof. Hutchinson for his inspiration and the EEGLP for extending that opportunity to me.”