Top Business Leaders in Saudi Arabia

Marcopolis ranked the top business leaders in Saudi Arabia, as part of the business report on the country. Businessmen Amin H. Nasser of Saudi Aramco, Yousef Abdullah Al-Benyan of SABIC and Waleed Al-Mogbel of Al-Rajhi Bank, rank at the top the list of the most powerful business leaders in Saudi.

The List

#1 – Amin H. Nasser is the President and CEO of Saudi Aramco, the world’s leading integrated energy and chemicals enterprise, and the largest provider of crude oil to global markets. He is also a member of the company’s Board of Directors. During a company career spanning four decades, Nasser has served in a number of leadership positions, including as Senior Vice President of Upstream. In that role, he led Saudi Aramco’s largest capital investment program in its integrated oil and gas portfolio. Under Nasser’s leadership, the company is now building on its upstream leadership position by expanding its presence in the downstream and chemicals segments of the petroleum value chain, with significant investments and joint-venture partnerships in the Kingdom as well as a number of overseas markets.

#2 – Yousef Abdullah Al-Benyan is the Vice Chairman and CEO of SABIC and a member of the Investment Committee. He is also the Chairman of the Boards of Yanbu National Petrochemical Company (Yansab), SABIC Agri-Nutrients Company, and “Nusaned Investment”. In addition, he assumes leading positions at some national and regional associations and committees, including Chairman of the Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association (GPCA), and Chairman of the Petrochemical Manufacturers Committee.

#3 – Waleed Al-Mogbel is the CEO of Al-Rajhi Bank. He joined the bank in 2007 and was appointed CEO in January 2020, overseeing its network of over 9,600 employees. He has been working in the banking industry for more than 20 years. Prior to his appointment as CEO, Al-Mogbel held several positions in the company, including Executive Vice President, Head of Budget and Management Reports, Head of Operations Group, and Chief Financial Officer.

#4 – Ibrahim Almojel is the CEO of the Saudi Industrial Development Fund. SDIF’s main objective is to finance the industrial, mining, energy, and logistics sectors in Saudi Arabia. Ibrahim also sits on multiple boards including Samba Financial Group, Raidah Investment Company, Awqaf Investment Company, and the Arab Mining Company. Previously, he worked at Saudi Aramco in multiple functions including corporate strategy and Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures. Most recently he was the CEO of Wisayah, the investment management arm of Saudi Aramco.

#5 – Ibrahim AlKoshy is the CEO and previous COO of Saudia and has been a licensed commercial aviation pilot for over 25 years. Prior to his assignment as COO at Saudi Arabian Airlines, Captain Ibrahim AlKoshy was the Vice President of Safety, AVSEC and Quality at Saudi Arabian Airlines. He was also the Director General of the Aviation Investigation Bureau of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from 2012 to 2016. Captain AlKoshy has experience as an IATA Lead Auditor, auditing airlines under the IATA/IOSA program since 2011, and has held various mid-level management posts in the Flight Operations Division of Saudi Arabian Airlines.

#6 – John Pagano is the CEO of The Red Sea Development Company (TRSDC) and AMAALA, sister projects set along the north western coast of Saudi Arabia that will play key roles in the realisation of the Vision 2030 – KSA’s economic roadmap for the future. At TRSDC and AMAALA, John is leveraging his 38 years of international experience in delivering large scale multi-billion-dollar developments. Since 2018, he has led The Red Sea Development Company’s growth from the ground up and is creating a unique eco-luxury, sustainable, regenerative tourist destination that will contribute to transforming the global tourism industry and to the diversification of the Saudi Arabian economy.

#7 – Camile Saba was amongst the founding members of the Olayan Group’s global management team and has been working with the company for over 35 years, assuming the position of Group CEO in 2019. He joined the Olayan’s New York office in 1986 to initiate the Group’s focus on private equity. In 2008, he rose to Head alternative assets at Olayan America and in 2014 became Managing Director overseeing all investments for the Americas. In 2019, Mr. Saba was named Global Head of listed equities and Global Co-Head of private equity. He is a founding member of the Group’s Global Management Team and succeeds Mr. Leary as leader of that group.

#8 – Tareq Al-Sadhan is the President and CEO of Riyad Bank. Prior to his appointment in 2019, he served as the bank’s Senior Executive Vice President. Al-Sadhan began his career with KPMG Saudi Arabia, where he spent 18 years rising through the ranks to become one of the youngest partners in the firm’s history. He was CEO, Managing Partner and Chairman of the advisory committee during his last five years at the company.

#9 – Olayan AlWetaid is the Group CEO of Saudi Telecom Company. AlWetaid has more than 20 years’ experience in the industry and worked at Saudi Aramco before joining STC. Prior to his current role, Olayan assumed the role of STC SVP for Consumer Business Unit, where he has been leading a commercial turnaround program with focus on preserving mobile leadership, repowering the residential and fiber business, doubling down on digital and non-core services, and leading in customer experience. Mr.Olayan pioneered the B2C concept, bringing consumers an end-to-end value proposition revolving around mobile and fixed connectivity, smartphones and devices, digital media, financial services and direct carrier billing for many leading services.

#10 – Rayan Mohammad Fayez is the Managing Director and CEO of Banque Saudi Fransi (BSF) since 2018. Prior to assuming the leadership of BSF, Mr. Fayez held the role of CEO of Savola Group from 2016 to 2018. Mr. Fayez was previously the Managing Director and Saudi Arabia Senior Country Officer at J.P. Morgan. Prior to that, he held senior positions at Goldman Sachs’ Saudi and London offices. Mr. Fayez started his career at J.P. Morgan’s Natural Resources Investment Banking team in New York.