Al Ghamdi began his career as a computer engineer in the kingdom’s Ministry of Defence and Aviation and then became the Chief Information Officer at Al Rajhi Bank, the country’s biggest lender by market value, before becoming Chief Operation Officer, then the General Manager of the Retail Banking Group and the Executive Vice President where he managed Retail Banking, Corporate and Treasury, as well as Human Resources and Credit Risk and Operations. Al Ghamdi helped with the establishment of Al Rajhi Bank in Malaysia and the bank’s branches in Kuwait and Jordan.

NCB , also known as Al Ahli Bank , is majority-owned by the Saudi government. Its net profit increased 7.3 percent last year to SAR6.5bn ($1.7 billion) from 2011.