Sarah Al-Suhaimi has been appointed to the board of directors at Saudia airline as a representative of the private sector, following approval from the Kingdom’s Council of Ministers.
Saleh bin Nasser Al-Jasser, the Saudi minister of transport, congratulated Al-Suhaimi as she became the first woman to hold such a position since the company’s inception 75 years ago.
“I wish her success and for our company continued progress and prosperity,” Al-Jasser wrote on Twitter.
Al-Suhaimi is also the chairwoman for the board of directors at the Ƶn Stock Exchange (Tadawul), the largest stock market in the Middle East. In 2017, she became the first Saudi woman to hold that position.
Three years before Tadawul, Al-Suhaimi was the CEO and a board director at the National Commercial Bank, also known as Al-Ahli Bank.
She earned her bachelor’s degree in accounting from King Saud University in Riyadh with the highest honors and completed the general management program at Harvard Business School in 2015.
Al-Suhaimi served as the vice chairperson of the advisory committee to the board of the Capital Market Authority between 2013 and 2015.
She 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 2014.
Al-Suhaimi started her career within asset management at Samba Capital. She is a trustee of the International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation and a We-Fi Leadership Champion.
