Saudis Dominate Forbes Middle East’s 2021 List of Top CEOs

Arab News: Full article

DUBAI: Saudi executives dominated Forbes Middle East’s ranking of the best corporate leaders in the region, with Aramco chief Amin Nasser emerging as this year’s number one.

The Middle East counterpart of American business magazine Forbes recognized business icons “making significant contributions to the region’s economies.”

Some 100 CEOs from around the region were featured, and 24 nationalities were represented. Saudi Arabia had the most entries at 18, followed by the UAE and Egypt with 16 entries each.

Four out of the top five chief executives were from the oil and gas industry.

Aramco’s Nasser, who was ranked first, was followed by Sultan Ahmed Al-Jaber of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.

SABIC’s Yousef Abdullah Al-Benyan, Kuwait Petroleum Corporation’s Hashem Hashem and Sonatrach’s Toufik Hakkar were also in the top 10.

Executives from the banking and financial services sector accounted for almost a third of the names, with Abdulla Mubarak Al-Khalifa of Qatar National Bank emerging as the leader in the field.

The magazine used various measures to come up with the list, including company size, individual accomplishments, as well as the executives’ impact on the wider industry.