Rania Nashar

Rania Nashar is the chair of the B20 Women in Business Action Council and CEO of Samba Financial Group. Nashar became a board member of the National Center for Performance Measurement (Adaa) earlier this week, along with Dr. Hussam Zaman, Faisal Ibrahim and Majid Al-Muneef. Health Minister Dr. Awwad Al-Awwad is the president of Adaa.

Nashar has advocated for female empowerment as a member of EMPOWER Alliance, saying: “Women in the front line combatting COVID-19 make up 70 percent of health workers, but only 25 percent of those leadership positions in the health sector are women.

“It is critical to increase female empowerment and the number of women in leadership positions, which is what we’re working toward at EMPOWER Alliance. We work with private and public sector representatives and CEOs to present strategies and policies that give women more leadership positions.”

EMPOWER stands for empowerment of progression of women’s economic representation, she explained.

Nashar obtained her bachelor’s degree in computer science and information technology, and took several finance and risk management programs at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business.

She joined Samba Financial Group in 1997, managing the audit and risk review functions for the group’s business and operation areas and aiding in the establishment of a centralized compliance department.

She also worked in the group’s private banking and consumer banking divisions, where she helped develop its electronic banking.