In 2017, Rania Nashar raised the bar for women across Saudi Arabia by becoming the Kingdom’s first female CEO of Samba Financial Group, one of the largest banks in the country. This month, Nashar has achieved another milestone in her career, chosen as one of the globe’s top female leaders to make it onto the Forbes 100 Most Powerful Women list.
Coming in at number 97, Nashar joins the ranks of inspiring female figures such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel, 16-year-old climate change activist Greta Thunberg, president of the European Central Bank Christine Lagarde, and the United Arab Emirates’ Raja Easa Al-Gurg, who is Board Member of the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
According to CEO Magazine, Nashar’s career trajectory at Samba Financial Group has been marked by many firsts: she was the Group’s first female Chief Audit Executive, the first female Compliance Head of a bank in the Gulf Cooperation Council, and the first Saudi Arabian woman certified as an Anti-Money Laundering Officer. The magazine also reported that the ambitious leader quickly proved her capabilities within the first year of her appointment, achieving “record profits of US$1.47 billion – a 10 per cent increase from the previous year.”
Nashar’s appointment as CEO of Samba Financial Group was made in the same year that Saudi Arabia witnessed a wave of reforms designed to provide women in the country with more opportunities and rights. Indeed, in 2017, the country saw the lifting of a decades-old ban of female motorists, there was a significant crackdown on corruption, municipal positions were open to female candidates, and changes to the guardianship system were kickstarted.
