Al Banna was in charge of Bahrain' National Employment Project (NEP) - a two year plan to get Bahrainis into work and was widely regarded as having done an excellent job.
Most people that I know can't believe he is going to Gulf Air because they anticipated he would turn up as a senior government minister before too long. I'd imagine thatthe fact they have put him in HR is due to his knowledge of labour issues and that you can take from that there will be a fair bit of traffic in and out the airline during his tenure.
In short - if you ever meet the guy, and I'm neither family, friend or acquaitance having just met him professionally once or twice, you will wonder what the hell he is doing at GA. You're lucky to have him!