Emiratis dominated this year’s list of the top 100 CEOs in the region, with Dr. Sultan bin Ahmed Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and Managing Director and Group CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), and Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman of Dubai Civil Aviation Authority, Chairman of Dubai Airports and Chairman and CEO of Emirates Airline and Group, coming second and third respectively. The Forbes ‘Top 100 CEOs in the Middle East 2022’ list consists of leaders from 26 nationalities. Banking and financial services is the most represented sector on the list with 27 CEOs, followed by eight telecom CEOs, and seven that each head energy and logistics companies. Combined, they managed revenues of over $1 trillion last year. Their companies are collectively worth more than $5 trillion. Here are the top CEOs in the region:
Image Credit: Gulf News
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Amin H. Nasser, President and CEO, Saudi Aramco | Nasser has been leading one of the world’s largest providers of crude oil to the global market since 2015. Saudi Aramco had a market cap of $2.3 trillion as of June 13, 2022.
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Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, Group CEO and Managing Director, ADNOC Group | Al Jaber has been Group CEO and Managing Director of ADNOC since 2016. Founded in 1971, it is one of the world’s largest energy producers, with a current production capacity of four million barrels of oil and 11 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day.
Image Credit: Adnoc
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Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman and CEO, Emirates Group | Sheikh Ahmed became the chairman of Emirates airline in 1985. Today, he oversees more than 85,219 people. The group recorded revenues of $18.1 billion and assets worth $44.7 billion for the financial year 2021-22.
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Toufik Hakkar, Chairman and CEO, SONATRACH | Hakkar has been working with SONATRACH for 27 years. The Algerian state-owned oil company produced 185.2 million tonnes of oil equivalent in 2021, up from 175.9 million tonnes in 2020, an increase of 5 per cent.
Image Credit: Algérie Presse Service
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Saad Sherida Al Kaabi, Deputy Chairman, President and CEO, QatarEnergy | Al Kaabi joined QatarEnergy in 1986 as a student and was appointed President and CEO in September 2014. Formerly known as Qatar Petroleum, QatarEnergy explores, develops, refines, produces, and utilises the state’s natural resources, producing natural gas, petrochemicals, fertilizers, steel, and aluminum.
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Akbar Al Baker, Group CEO, Qatar Airways Group | Al Baker has been at the helm of Qatar Airways since 1997. Today, he oversees a team of more than 41,026 people. In the 2022 fiscal year which ended March 2022, Qatar Airways carried more than 18.5 million passengers, compared to 5.8 million passengers in the previous year. The group reported 78 per cent increase in revenues of $14.4 billion and assets of $41.4 billion.
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Yousef Abdullah Al Benyan, Vice Chairman and CEO, SABIC | Al Benyan has been in his role since 2015, before which he was the CFO of the company. SABIC is one of the world’s largest petrochemical manufacturers, with operations in over 50 countries and a global workforce of over 31,000 people. SABIC reported $46.6 billion in revenues and assets worth $84.9 billion in 2021. Saudi Aramco owns 70 per cent of the company’s shares.
Image Credit: Sabic
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Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Group Chairman and CEO, DP World | Sultan Ahmed joined DP World in 1982, and he has since transformed it from a port operator to an end-to-end logistics company. The company’s revenues increased by 26.3 per cent in 2021 to hit $10.8 billion, compared to $8.5 billion in 2020.
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Syed Basar Shueb, CEO and Managing Director, International Holding Company (IHC) | IHC had a market cap of $140 billion as of May 2022, making it the second most valuable company in the Arab world. In 2021, the group reported revenues of $7.8 billion, an increase of 305 per cent compared to 2020, of which $3.2 billion came from the healthcare sector. In the same year, it recorded $3.2 billion in profits, up 284 per cent from 2020.
Image Credit: IHC
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Osama Rabie, Chairman and Managing Director, Suez Canal Authority | The SCA was established in 1956 to manage, maintain, and improve the Suez Canal’s operations, reporting directly to Egypt’s Prime Minister. The company employs 14,000 people. It reported revenues of $6.3 billion in 2021, an increase of 12.8 per cent compared to 2020 and the highest in its history.
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Abdulla Mubarak Al Khalifa, Group CEO, QNB Group | QNB Group is the largest financial institution in the Middle East and Africa in terms of assets. The group recorded assets worth $300.3 billion and an operating income of $7.8 billion in 2021. Qatar Investment Authority owns about 51.9 per cent of QNB’s shares, with the rest publicly traded.
Image Credit: QNB
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Waleed Abdullah Al Mogbel, CEO, Al Rajhi Bank | Al Mogbel was appointed to his current role in early 2020, before which he served as Al Rajhi Bank’s COO and CFO. The bank employs more than 9,360 people and has 521 branches across Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan, and Malaysia. The company recorded revenues of $7.1 billion, profits of $3.9 billion, and assets worth $166.3 billion in 2021.
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Musabbeh Al Kaabi, CEO of UAE Investments platform, Mubadala Investment Company | Al Kaabi leads Mubadala’s investment arm, which manages a portfolio of nearly $60 billion. In July 2021, Al Yah Satellite Communications Company (Yahsat) became the first Mubadala subsidiary to list through an IPO, debuting on ADX in July 2021 and raising $730 million.
Image Credit: Yahsat
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Hana Al Rostamani, Group CEO, First Abu Dhabi Bank | Al Rostamani is the first woman to head FAB, the UAE’s largest bank in terms of its assets, which were worth $272.4 billion in 2021. The bank employs 6,600 people, operating from 19 different markets across five continents, serving three million customers.
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Saeed Al Ghamdi, Managing Director and Group CEO, Saudi National Bank | Al Ghamdi has been leading SNB, Saudi’s largest bank, since April 2021, when it was formed by the merging of the National Commercial Bank and Samba Financial Group. By the end of 2021, the bank recorded profits of $3.4 billion and assets worth $243.8 billion.
Image Credit: SNB
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Other UAE-based CEOs who found their place in the Forbes list are Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, Managing Director and CEO, Dubai Electricity and Water Authority; Jasim Husain Thabet, Group CEO and Managing Director, TAQA Group; Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, CEO, Emirates Global Aluminium; Mansour Mohamed AlMulla, Managing Director & CEO, EDGE Group; Adnan Chilwan, Group CEO, Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB); Saif Humaid Al Falasi, Group CEO, ENOC Group; Mohamed Juma Al Shamisi, Managing Director and Group CEO, AD Ports Group; Tony Douglas, Group CEO, Etihad Aviation Group; Ala'a Eraiqat, Group CEO, ADCB Group; Fahad Al Hassawi, CEO, Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (du); Talal Al Dhiyebi, Group CEO, Aldar Properties; Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi, CEO, Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar); Shadi Malak; CEO, Etihad Rail; Arif Amiri, CEO, Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC); and Saeed Ghumran Al Remeithi, Group CEO, Emirates Steel Arkan Group.
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