Interviews

YOUNG GLOBAL LEADERS

One hundred of the world’s most promising business leaders and social entrepreneurs under the age of forty have been selected to join the World Economic Forum’s community of Young Global Leaders. The 2018 nominations include nine outstanding young leaders from the Middle East and North Africa

The Young Global Leaders class of 2018 were selected because of their creativity and innovation; their ability to build bridges between business, government and civil society and across cultures; and their pioneering work in arts and culture, business, design, energy, health, public policy, sustainability and technology. Over half of them are women, and the majority are from emerging economies. “We’re challenging these 100 women and men to do more and be more” said John Dutton, head of the forum of Young Global Leaders at the World Economic Forum. “They’ll join a community of other enterprising, socially minded leaders working as a force for good, and highlight the potential for innovation to correct the shortcomings in our economies and societies.” The 2018 nominations include nine people from the Middle East and North Africa. Three of them are from Saudi Arabia.
Faisal Abbas is the editor-in-chief of Arab News, the Middle East’s leading English language newspaper published in Saudi Arabia. Prior to joining Arab News, Faisal was editor-in-chief of Al-Arabiya news channel’s digital English service. He has covered the Middle East for fifteen years working for Future Television in Lebanon; Al-Hayat and Asharq Al-Awsat pan-Arab daily newspapers,and as senior Middle East correspondent for the International Resource Journal. He has blogged for The Huffington Post since 2008. He has received many media awards including the Next Century Foundation’s “Cutting Edge Award” for his efforts in bridging the communication gap between the West and the Arab World and the British Council’s “Social Impact” award for UK alumni in Saudi Arabia. He is a member of the British Society of Authors, the National Union of Journalists, the John Adams Society as well as an associate member of the Cambridge Union Society. He majored in business at the Lebanese American University and in 2010 graduated from the Westminster Business School at the University of Westminster with a Masters in Marketing Communications
Sarah AlSuhaimi is the chief executive officer of NCB Capital,the investment arm of Saudi Arabia’s National Commercial Bank. Before joining NCB, she was chief investment officer at Jadwa Investment where she was responsible for managing equity funds, index funds, a global sukuk fund, murabaha funds, three “funds of funds” and discretionary portfolios. Prior to joining Jadwa, she served as a senior portfolio manager at Samba’s asset management division, co-managing in excess of $12 billion in local equity, mutual funds and discretionary portfolios. In February 2017 she became the first and only woman to lead a stock exchange in the Middle East when she was appointed as chairperson of “tadawul”, the $439 billion Saudi stock exchange, the largest in the region and number 21 internationally. She graduated with honors from King Saud University with a BA in accounting.

 


Rayan Fayez is the chief executive officer of Banque Saudi Fransi, one of Saudi Arabia’s largest banks. He began his career working with the offices of Goldman Sachs in Saudi Arabia and London before joining J.P. Morgan’s natural resources investment banking team in New York and London and eventually becoming the bank’s senior country officer advising the Saudi government and many of the kingdom’s leading corporates on various strategic initiatives. Prior to taking up his position with Banque Saudi Fransi, Rayan led Savola, a $6 billion publicly listed investment holding conglomerate focused on the food and retail industries. He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a B.Sc. in mechanical engineering.
The six other nominees from the Middle East and North Africa comprised four women and two men. The four women were Reem Fadda, an internationally recognized art curator based in the Palestinian territories, Reem Khouri,the founder and chief executive officer of Kaamen in Jordan, a social enterprise that supports organizations in designing their economic and social contracts with society; Alisha Moopen, executive director of Aster DM Healthcare in the United Arab Emirate which oversees 85 clinics and focuses on initiatives for village development, ranging from small children to women’s educationand Razan Al Mubarak, the secretary general of Abu Dhabi’s Environment Agency and chairperson of Eye On Earth which builds networks and capacity across diverse knowledge communities to improve decision-making for sustainable development.
The two men were Riad Armanious, chief executive officer of Eva Pharma in Egypt, a philanthropist and entrepreneur who turned his family’s small business into one of the region’s fastest-growing pharmaceutical manufacturers; and Tamer Makary, chief development officer at Magrabi Optical, an eye wear chain based in the United Arab Emirates and vice-president of the Africa Eye Foundation, anon-governmental organization promoting better eyesight.

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