Rania Nashar is the chief executive of Samba Financial Group, the first female CEO of a listed Saudi commercial bank. Nashar arrived in the post with 20 years in the banking sector having served as a board member of Samba’s global markets subsidiary and a Pakistani unit. Samba is Saudi Arabia’s third-largest bank by assets with more than $61bn in assets under management.

In her time with Samba, she has worked on its merger with United Saudi Bank, oversaw the development of its digital services and then helped the transition to a fully Saudi institution following Citibank’s decision to withdraw its management agreement.

Rania Nashar graduated from King Saud University with a degree in Computer Science and Technology.