Saudi sovereign wealth fund hires new corporate finance head, makes other changes

[DUBAI] Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund has hired Fahad al-Saif, the chief executive of the finance ministry's debt management centre, as its new corporate finance head.

He replaces Alireza Zaimi, who will become a special advisor to the fund's governor Yasir al-Rumayyan, the Public Investment Fund (PIF) said in a statement on Tuesday.

Mr Saif, who will also become a member of the fund's management committee, was responsible for building up the ministry's debt management expertise and brings more than 20 years of corporate and investment banking leadership experience to the role, it said.

PIF, which manages US$360 billion in assets, also named Rania Nashar, the former chief executive of Samba Financial Group , as senior advisor to Rumayyan.

Samba Financial Group is merging with National Commercial Bank, the kingdom's biggest lender.

The fund pursues a two-pronged strategy - building an international portfolio of investments and investing locally in projects that will help reduce Saudi Arabia's reliance on oil.

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Its employee count surpassed 1,000 as of December, marking an addition of about 300 since the start of the year despite the Covid-19 pandemic.

It also said that its chief of staff, Yazeed al-Humied, will become the new head of the fund's local holdings investments, replacing Rashed Sharif who has been named as managing director and chief executive of the merged entity of NCB Capital and Samba Capital.

Saad Alkroud was named as acting chief of staff, the statement said.

REUTERS