Rania Nashar resigns as Samba CEO to join Public Investment Fund

The CEO of Saudi Arabia's Samba Financial Group, Rania Mahmoud Nashar, has resigned, the company said in a bourse filing on Tuesday (Dec 22).

On the same day, Nashar was named Senior Advisor to Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the Governor of the Public Investment Fund. The sovereign wealth fund has reshuffled its leadership team.

"Rania Nashar is a prominent name in the banking world, as the first woman to lead a banking Group in Saudi Arabia as CEO of Samba Financial Group. She brings more than 20 years of professional experience in the banking industry and assumed various roles in different divisions within Samba, and is a member of various boards including Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul)," PIF said in a statement.

The Saudi sovereign wealth fund holds assets under management of more than $360 billion. 

Nashar became CEO of Samba in 2017. She has been with the financial institution for 14 years. She will stay on at Samba until January 31, 2021. 

Samba has named Mohammed Abdullah Al Sheikh as Acting Group CEO until the completion of the merger with National Commercial Bank.

NCB in October agreed a merger deal with Samba Financial Group that will create an entity of 837 billion riyals ($223 billion) in assets. 

The two banks said Samba chairperson Ammar Alkhudairy will be chair of the merged entity and Saeed Al Ghamdi, NCB's current chair, will be managing director and CEO. 

The banks expect the merger to complete during the first half of 2021. 

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