In an unprecedented precedent in Saudi Arabia, Saudi businesswoman Lubna Sulaiman Al-Olayan, 66, has been appointed head of SABB I, the bank resulting from the merger of First Bank (formerly Saudi Hollandi Bank) with Saudi British Bank SABB "He said.
Olayan is the Chief Executive Officer and Vice Chairman of Olayan Finance Company, which includes more than 40 companies under its umbrella, founded by her father Sheikh Sulaiman Al Olayan in 1947.Earlier, Al-Olayan told Alabama Radio that she was the first woman to work for 18 years at Olayan Finance. Lubna Al-Olayan has a special place among banking experts, who led the Saudi Hollandi Bank's CEO, Bernd van Linder, to say that she has a passionate management style.
Bernd van Linder said she was "highly respected, not because she is a Saudi woman who tops the field of businesswomen, but her own," according to local reports.Who is Lubna Olayan?
She was born in the governorate of Onaiza in Qassim in 1952, the youngest son of Sheikh Suleiman Al-Olayan.She earned a bachelor's degree in agriculture from Cornell University, an MBA from Indiana University in the United States, and a doctorate in law from Trinity College, Republic of Ireland, according to her autobiography published in the Saudi newspaper Al-Iktissi.
She worked at Morgan Garden in New York City between 1979 and 1981 and then returned to Saudi Arabia to work with Olayan again.The management and spent years with her father in the management of the company "Olayan Finance" and took advantage of the hierarchy in positions to encourage her father to recruit more women to work with.In 2001, she succeeded in hiring 40 women to work in one of the company's factories, reaching 500 employees.
Lubna Olayan is a member of the Board of Directors of a number of leading industrial and investment companies including Saudi Hollandi Bank, Rolls Royce Group, Dubbo BP Media Group, Turkey's Akbank Bank and Schlumberger Petroleum Company.
She is a member of the Board of Directors of "Saudi Arabian Mining - Ma'aden" since 2016. A member of the Board of Trustees of KAUST, the Executive Committee of the Arab Business Council and the Board of Trustees of the Arab Thought Foundation.
Olayan has broken stereotypes of Saudi women and is a permanent speaker at the World Economic Forum Davos, which is held annually in Switzerland.
She is one of the most influential people in the field of business, ranking first in the list of the most powerful Arab women in the magazine "Forbes Middle East" 2017.
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