Who’s Who: Meshaal bin Omairah, CEO of Abdullah Al-Othaim Investment Co.

Meshaal bin Omairah
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Updated 16 June 2021
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Who’s Who: Meshaal bin Omairah, CEO of Abdullah Al-Othaim Investment Co.

Meshaal bin Omairah was recently appointed as chief executive officer of Abdullah Al-Othaim Investment Co.

A financial expert with more than 25 years of experience in multinational and multidivisional companies, he also has specialist business skills in motivational etiquette, organization, analytics, and time management.

In addition, as a management professional his areas of knowledge include organizational development, corporate governance (strategic and financial), capital and funding optimization, financial engineering and restructuring, corporate risk assessment, and consultancy.

Bin Omairah has been a member of the Saudi Fisheries Co.’s audit committee since December 2017, and chairman of the audit and risk committee at Aljazierah Home Appliances since November 2018.

He previously served as chairman of the audit and risk committee and a member of the board of directors at both Rajhi Steel and the Global Beverage Co.

He has sat on the board of Manafea Holding since 2018 and is chairman of the company’s audit committee, and was CEO and a board member of Mohammed Abdul Aziz Al-Rajhi and Sons Investment Co.

Since January 2018, he has been an advisory board member at Bank Muscat and has been vice chairman and a member of the board of directors at Falcon Plastic Products Co. since September 2016.

Other board memberships and audit and executive committee roles held by Bin Omairah have been at the Benaa company for building materials, Jesco, Ardiseis, Sanjel International Saudi Arabia, the Arabian Geophysical and Surveying Co., and Air Liquide Arabia LLC.

He gained a bachelor’s degree in accounting from King Saud University and certificates in corporate governance and global management via INSEAD.


Saudi Arabia’s KAUST named FIFA’s first research institute in MENA

The canal in the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology campus. (Shutterstock)
Updated 10 February 2026
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Saudi Arabia’s KAUST named FIFA’s first research institute in MENA

  • KAUST President Prof. Sir Edward Byrne said that the university’s selection as the fifth FIFA Research Institute in the world — and the first in the region — marks a significant achievement, reflecting Kingdom’s growing presence in international football

RIYADH: FIFA has designated the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology as its first research institute in the Middle East and Asia to support the development of innovative football research, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Tuesday.

The recognition highlights KAUST’s commitment to integrating sports, academic research and industry through advanced, high-level initiatives grounded in rigorous scientific methodologies, contributing to the advancement of football studies.

KAUST President Prof. Sir Edward Byrne said that the university’s selection as the fifth FIFA Research Institute in the world — and the first in the region — marks a significant achievement, reflecting Saudi Arabia’s growing presence in international football.

The accreditation aligns with national efforts to invest in research and development and promote the knowledge economy, supporting Saudi Vision 2030’s goals of building an advanced sports system based on innovation and sustainability.

The collaboration’s first project focuses on developing advanced AI algorithms to analyze historical FIFA World Cup broadcast footage, transforming decades of match videos into structured, searchable data, according to the KAUST website.

This work opens new opportunities to apply state-of-the-art computer vision techniques and deepen understanding of how football has evolved over time.

The second project uses player and ball tracking data from the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar and the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 in Australia and New Zealand to compile comprehensive datasets capturing in-game dynamics.

These datasets provide deeper insights into human movement, playing techniques and performance dynamics through AI-driven analysis.