Faisal J. Abbas is the Editor-in-Chief of the leading Middle East English language daily, Arab News. He was elected as the deputy chairman of the Saudi Journalists Association on January 28, 2024 as part of the landslide win of the “Future” coalition.
Since he took over the helm at Arab News in 2016, he oversaw the restructuring and digital transformation of the newspaper into an international news brand operating in several languages.
Born in 1982, Abbas was raised in Jeddah. He obtained a bachelors degree in marketing from the Lebanese American University (LAU) in 2003, and a masters in marketing communications from the University of Westminster in London in 2009. He was also awarded the Public Leadership Credential, 2019, from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
He is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders (YGL) community and the British Society of Authors (SoA). He has also served on the advisory board on the editorial board of the Dubai-based Al Arabiya News Channel.
He has appeared regularly as a political commentator on prominent news channels such as CNN, BBC and Sky News. He has also given several talks at top ranking universities such as Harvard, London School of Economics and has debated at the Cambridge Union Society, where he was given an associate membership in 2012.
Throughout his career in journalism, he worked with a number of leading media outlets such as Future Television, Al Hayat and Asharq Al Awsat pan-Arab dailies. Prior to joining Arab News, he served as the Editor in Chief of the English language service of Al Arabiya News Channel in Dubai.
Abbas is a regular speaker at Saudi, regional and global events such as Misk Global Forum, Arab Media Forum, Japan’s G1 annual conference, Aspen Institute Italia And Chatham House.
