Sarah Al-Suhaimi has been the chairwoman of the Saudi Arabian stock exchange (Tadawul) since February 2017, the largest stock market in the Middle East, and she is the first Saudi woman to hold the position.
Al-Suhaimi has also been the chief executive officer and a board director of the National Commercial Bank (NCB Capital) also known as Al-Ahli Bank, since March 2014.
Al-Suhaimi attained her bachelor’s degree in accounting from King Saud University in Riyadh with highest honors, and has completed the general management program at Harvard Business School in Boston, Massachusetts, US in 2015.
Prior to her current position, Al-Suhaimi served as the vice chairperson of the advisory committee to the board of the Capital Market Authority between 2013 and 2015.
Al-Suhaimi worked as the chief investment officer at Jadwa Investment, where she led the asset management and wealth management business lines and was also a member of its management committee between 2007 and 2011.
Al-Suhaimi was named one of “50 people to watch” by Bloomberg Businessweek in 2017. It wrote: “The first woman to chair Saudi Arabia’s stock market, she will preside over the exchange with what’s likely to be the world’s most valuable business once Saudi Arabian Oil Co., the state-run oil company, completes its initial public offering (slated for 2018).”
Speaking at the Future Investment Initiative (FII) in Riyadh, she said: “We want to be closer to the world. We want to keep increasing standards of corporate governance in our companies, and we welcome all investors to come and talk to us, and talk to the regulators.”
