This Day in History (1990): PDP Study Day a two-way communication program that works

From the front page of the Jan. 3, 1990, edition of The Arabian Sun

The scene was unusual. For a change, managers were in the hot seat as their young but fesity subordinates fired away.

The managers, from within Community Services, field questions and even gripes from a roomful of young Professional Development Program employees or PDPs.

The frank and open exchange occurred at the organization's third "PDP Study Day."

Study Day is unique at Saudi Aramco. It is just one part of Community Services' program to encourage maximum communication between budding professionals and management.

Both benefit from the innovative approach. The PDP gets a real chance to be heard, and Saudi Aramco gets a productive professional employee and future company leader.

The goal: to help designated Saudi college graduates, with little or no work experience, to become fully qualified professionals. That goal holds for all organizations at Aramco, which together are host to 790 PDP employees. Since 1976, 1,565 Saudi employees graduated from the program or its forerunner, the Associate Professional Program.

Caption for top photo: Waleed Zabeery, left, a PDP who supervises the computer work in Community Maintenance, confers with Bader al-Zawad, an ex-PDP who is acting administrator. Al-Zaward was the chairman of the Study Day organizing committee.

Also on this date

2019 — Chang'e 4 makes the first soft landing on the far side of the Moon

2018 — For the first time in history, all five major storm surge gates in the Netherlands are closed simultaneously in the wake of a storm

2009 — The first block of the blockchain of the decentralized payment system Bitcoin, called the Genesis block, is established by Satoshi Nakamoto

1999 — Mars Plar Lander is launched by NASA

1993 — George H.W. Bush and Boris Yeltsin sing the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty

1977 — Apple Computer is incorporated

1962 — Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro

1957 — The Hamilton Watch Company‌ introduces the first electric watch

1949 — The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the central bank of the Philippines, is established

1870 — Construction begins on the Brooklyn Bridge in the U.S.

1848 — Joseph Jenkins Roberts is sworn in as the first president of Liberia