Emaar The Economic City has announced that its chief executive, Abdulaziz Ibrahim Alnowaiser, will step down on October 31 for professional reasons. The Saudi developer has named its vice chairman, Naif Saleh AlHamdan, as managing director from November 1. AlHamdan’s new title is managing director rather than chief executive.
The company disclosed the changes in a filing to Tadawul, the Saudi stock exchange. The board approved both moves after a recommendation from its nomination and remuneration committee. The filing did not give further detail on the reasons behind Alnowaiser’s departure beyond describing them as professional.
AlHamdan brings more than 20 years of experience across investment, investment banking and real estate development. Besides serving as vice chairman of Emaar EC, he heads the West Coast Portfolio Management Department at the Public Investment Fund, the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund. His appointment therefore puts a senior PIF executive directly in charge of the company’s day-to-day running. Before joining the fund, he was vice president of investment business development at Sulaiman A. Al Rajhi Real Estate Investment Company, and he has also held roles at Global Investment House, Ernst & Young and SABB Bank.
His academic background is in finance. AlHamdan holds a bachelor’s degree in finance from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals and an MBA from the University of Wales. Emaar EC is the developer behind King Abdullah Economic City on the Red Sea coast north of Jeddah. The city includes King Abdullah Port and an industrial zone known as the Industrial Valley.
The handover is short. For now, the appointment brings board oversight and daily management closer together, since the incoming managing director has sat on the board as vice chairman. The Tadawul filing is the only official statement on the change so far. Alnowaiser remains in post until the end of the month, leaving a single day between his exit and AlHamdan’s start. The company has not said whether it plans to appoint a separate chief executive later or whether AlHamdan will keep his vice chairman role alongside the managing director position. Investors in the Tadawul-listed developer will look for any change in strategy, and for signs of how closely the company’s plans will now track the Public Investment Fund’s wider priorities for the west coast of the kingdom.
