Sarah Al-Suhaimi

Sarah Al-Suhaimi serves as Chair of Lazard's Financial Advisory business in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), a role she assumed in September 2022. She is the first woman chair of the Saudi Arabian stock exchange (Tadawul), the largest stock market in the Middle East. With over 20 years in senior leadership positions across the financial services industry in Saudi Arabia, Al-Suhaimi brings extensive expertise in investment banking and capital markets.

Al-Suhaimi graduated with highest honors from the accounting program at King Saud University, and completed the General Management Program at Harvard Business School in 2015. She began her investing career in the asset management division of Samba, where she advanced to become a Senior Portfolio Manager, co-managing US$12 billion in local equities. She previously served as Chief Executive Officer at SNB Capital and earlier in her career held roles at Jadwa Investment and Samba Capital. During her years leading NCB Capital, assets under management more than quadrupled, and market share grew in brokerage and corporate finance.

Since 2021, she serves on several boards including those of Saudi Airlines and Saudi Telecom Company, and has been a trustee of the IFRS Foundation since 2019. In 2017, she was named one of "50 people to watch" by Bloomberg Businessweek.

Career history

• Chair of Lazard Financial Advisory MENA (2022–present)
• Chair of Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) (2017–2021)
• Chief Executive Officer, SNB Capital
• Chief Investment Officer, Jadwa Investment (2007–2014)
• Senior Portfolio Manager, Samba Financial Group

What Al-Suhaimi could bring to Lazard: Her appointment as Chair of Lazard's MENA Financial Advisory business leverages her two decades of experience leading Saudi Arabia's largest financial institutions, her track record of dramatically scaling assets under management, and her credibility as the Middle East's first female stock exchange chair. Her existing relationships across regional governments, corporations, and financial regulators position her to accelerate Lazard's growth in the kingdom and MENA region, particularly as Riyadh expands its role as a global financial hub.