Neither heat nor sandstorms nor a rapidly changing world shall stay this courier from his appointed rounds.

This modified postman’s motto fits both the country and the job Ali M. Al Ali ’83 has taken on as chairman and general manager of Qatar’s General Postal Corporation (GPC). Since the Middle Eastern country’s postal service became an independent corporation in 2001, Al Ali has worked with a government-appointed board and his colleagues to dramatically transform services.

In just one year, Qatar’s postal service shifted from years of revenue loss to an astonishing 49 percent profit.

“Now we have one of the best postal services in the world,” says Al Ali. “This was a very big challenge and turnaround has been very exciting. The government and people of Qatar are extremely pleased with the change.”

Qatar, slightly smaller than Connecticut, is a peninsula bordering the Persian Gulf and Saudi Arabia. Its population of 840,000 people is served by 27 postal branches, 201 street posting boxes, and roughly 37,000 post office boxes.

Al Ali attributes the phenomenal success of the GPC to intensive staff training in state-of-the-art systems and the addition of new services. The GPC has expanded to include services like door-to-door courier delivery, postal money transfer to other countries, and an array of business development activities. By networking with government agencies, the GPC also provides vehicle insurance and delivery of driving licenses, health card renewals, and ability to pay water and electric bills at the main GPC office.

A proud PSU alumnus, Al Ali is assisting Qatar’s minister of justice, H.E. Hassan bin Abdullah al-Ghanim ’79, to organize a PSU reunion on March 10 in Doha, Qatar. He says that in the course of business, he manages to stay in touch with more than 40 PSU alumni in Qatar.

“Because the GPC provides so many services, eventually they all end up contacting me for something,” he laughs. –Kelli Fields