The board of directors of ACWA Power, the Saudi-listed developer, investor and operator of power generation, renewable energy and desalinated water plants, has named Dr. Samir J. Serhan as Chief Executive Officer, effective 1 March 2026. The appointment was made as part of a planned and structured succession overseen by the board's Nomination and Remuneration Committee.
Serhan brings more than three decades of global leadership experience across large-scale industrial and infrastructure organizations, including senior operating leadership at Air Products, the American industrial gases group. His record spans operational transformation, institutional capability building and disciplined growth in complex, capital-intensive environments.
Under the transition plan, outgoing chief executive Marco Arcelli remains advisor to the chairman, with his contract running until April 2027, to support a smooth and orderly handover.
The appointment lands at a consequential moment for the company. ACWA Power sits at the center of Saudi Arabia's energy transition build-out and has committed to an ambitious multi-market expansion across the Middle East, Central Asia, Africa and China. The board's choice of an operator with an industrial gases and engineering pedigree, rather than a dealmaker, suggests the next phase is about execution: delivering the gigawatt-scale pipeline already contracted, on time and on budget, and strengthening returns discipline as the asset base scales.
For leaders in the region's energy and infrastructure sectors, two signals stand out. Boards of the Kingdom's champions are institutionalizing succession, running committee-led processes with long advisory tails for outgoing chiefs rather than abrupt handovers. And the premium in the market is shifting from origination to delivery, which favors executives with deep operating credentials in capital-intensive systems. Counterparties should expect strategic continuity at ACWA Power, with a sharper operational edge.
