Born in 1949, Khalid Bin Mahfouz is the second son of Salem Bin Mahfouz, the founder of the National Commercial Bank of Saudi Arabia (NCB), the largest bank in Saudi Arabia. Khalid is best known for inheriting his fathers huge holding in NCB twenty years ago.

The stake was sold for some US$1.8bn four years ago, and Khalid now runs a Jeddah-based global investment group with his sons and retains significant holdings in various real estate development and other companies inside and outside Saudi Arabia, including Capital Investment Holdings of Bahrain. He is also an investor in the Nasdaq-listed US-based satellite radio pioneer Worldspace. Mr. Bin Mahfouz is a philanthropist.

Last year he won a libel suit filed in a London court after an October 2002 article in a newspaper made a number of unfounded allegations against him.

He continues to enjoy a reputation as one of the world's most successful bankers.