Lubna Olayan

Olayan during the 2013 WEF

Lubna Suliman Olayan (born August 4, 1955 ) is a businesswoman from Saudi Arabia . She was listed as one of the 100 Most Influential Women in the World by Time Magazine in 2005, and she was ranked 97th in the Forbes Top 100 in 2005 and 2006 . In 2004, Olayan became the first woman in Saudi history to be the keynote speaker at a major conference at the Jeddah Economic Forum .

Personal

Lubna Olayan is the daughter of Suliman Olayan and Maryam bint Jassim Al Abdulwahab. She is married to the international lawyer John Xefos, partner at Baker & McKenzie , and lives with him and their three daughters in Riyadh . Speculation suggests that the Olayan family owns more than $ 10 billion in personal wealth.

professional background

Lubna Olayan is CEO of the Olayan Financing Company (OFC), which acts as the holding company for the Olayan Group's activities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Middle East . The group was founded in 1947 by her father Sulaiman S. Olayan and is a family-run, multinational company in the distribution, manufacturing, services and investments industries. OFC has or is actively involved in over 40 subsidiaries, often in partnership with leading multinational corporations. OFC is also one of the largest investors on the Saudi stock exchange. Olayan is a member of the board of directors of the Olayan Group along with her brother Khaled and her sisters Hayat and Hutham. She previously worked as a financial analyst at Morgan Guaranty in New York City from 1979 to 1981 .

In December 2004 she was elected to the board of directors of Saudi Hollandi Bank and in February 2005 appointed non-executive director of WPP. She has been a member of the Supervisory Board of Rolls-Royce since September 2006 and of Citigroup since April 2007 . From 1996 to 2004 she was on the board of directors of Chelsfield plc , a British property developer .

Lubna Olayan has been a member of the International Business Council of the World Economic Forum since November 2005 and has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Council on Foreign Relations since December 2005 . In December 2005 she was appointed to the board of INSEAD, where she had been a member of the international council since March 1997. She served on the advisory board of Effat University , a private, nonprofit girls' school in Jeddah , until 2009 , and was elected to the Cornell University Board of Trustees in April 2007 .

She chairs Alfanar , the first venture philanthropy organization to focus on the Arab region, founded in 2004 by Tarek Ben Halim . In addition, since 2002 she has been a member of the board of trustees of the Arab Thought Foundation , a Beirut- based think tank with a focus on the Arab region. She was elected to the board of the Down Syndrome Charitable Association in Riyadh in 2005 and is a member of the Board of Trustees of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology .

Web links

• Shyamantha Asokan, David Patrikarakos: InfoViewer: Who's Who. extended version of our list of personalities. In: Financial Times. June 23, 2008, accessed June 19, 2011 . 
• Alfanar's website

Individual evidence

1. ^ Lubna Olayan Profile. (No longer available online.) In: FORBES website. Archived from the original on January 18, 2011 ; accessed on June 19, 2011 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ^ Roger Harrison: Women Steal Limelight at JEF. In: arab news. January 18, 2004, accessed June 19, 2011 . 
3. ↑ Baker & McKenzie website. Retrieved June 19, 2011 . 
4. ^ Website of the Saudi Hollandi Bank
5. ^ Our leadership - WPP. In: WPP company website. Retrieved June 19, 2011 . 
6. ^ INSEAD - Board of Directors. (No longer available online.) In: INSEAD website. Archived from the original on September 13, 2011 ; accessed on June 19, 2011 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
7. ^ Effat University - Lubna S. Olayan. (No longer available online.) In: Effat University website. Formerly in the original ; accessed on June 19, 2011 (English).  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.