Olayan Mohammed Alwetaid
Group CEO, stc
Saudi telecom firm stc recorded a 2.87 per cent increase in consolidated net profits after zakat and tax of SAR11.31bn in 2021, making it one of the Middle East’s most profitable mobile-phone operators. In December, Saudi’s Public Investment Fund sold part of its stake in the operator for $3.2bn. Alwetaid, who formerly worked at Aramco and took over as group CEO in March last year, has been at the forefront of overseeing the operator’s strategic expansion in international markets, but also domestically pushing forward with an ambitious and widespread 5G strategy – it recently partnered with Nokia to undertake the Middle East and Africa’s first trial of a 1-Terabit highcapacity channel.