Yasir Al-Rumayyan

Yasir Al-Rumayyan was born in 1970 and graduated from King Faisal University in Alahsa in 1993, later completing a general management program at Harvard Business School.[1]

He began his career at Saudi Hollandi Bank, becoming head of international brokerage before joining the Capital Markets Authority (CMA), where he was head of securities listings.[2][3]

Between 2011 and 2015, Al-Rumayyan was CEO of Saudi Fransi Capital (SFC), the investment banking arm of Banque Saudi Fransi.[1][4] During his tenure, SFC moved into online trading and signed a cooperation agreement with the US investment firm BlackRock.[5][6] From 2014 to 2015 he also served on the board of directors of the Saudi Stock Exchange.[4]

In September 2015, Al-Rumayyan was appointed managing director of the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, with a mandate to seek international investments with the potential for knowledge and technology transfer to the Saudi economy.[7][8]

In June 2016, PIF invested $3.5 billion in the US-based Uber Technologies Inc. In a statement on the deal, Al-Rumayyan cited the importance of increased urban mobility and local employment in support of the Saudi Vision 2030 economic reform program.[9] He joined Uber's board of directors as part of the agreement.[10]

In August 2016, Al-Rumayyan joined the board of the state oil company Saudi Aramco as part of a move toward closer cooperation between Aramco and PIF in restructuring the Saudi economy.[11] In October that year, PIF under Al-Rumayyan invested $45 billion in the newly established SoftBank Vision Fund, a technology-focused investment vehicle.[12] A further overseas investment by PIF followed in May 2017 with a $20 billion contribution to a joint US infrastructure fund with Blackstone.[13]

In October 2017, Al-Rumayyan announced that PIF would aim to increase its assets under management to more than $400 billion and create more than 20,000 new jobs by 2020.[14][13] At the same time he presented a new investment strategy for the fund, based on four objectives of maximizing assets, investing in new sectors, localizing technologies, and developing economic partnerships.[14] He also said PIF would borrow conservatively to finance specific assets and would seek further partnerships such as those with Blackstone and SoftBank.[7][15]

In September 2018, Al-Rumayyan announced PIF's first step in incorporating loans and debt instruments into its long term strategy, with an $11 billion loan facility.[16] The following month he said the fund would aim to increase the percentage of international assets in its portfolio from 10% to 50% by 2030.[17]

At the Milken Institute in Abu Dhabi in February 2019, Al-Rumayyan announced that PIF would open new offices in London, New York and San Francisco, and would increase its workforce from 450 to 700 by the end of 2019.[18][19] He also said the fund would invest in renewable energy projects in Saudi Arabia, including the local manufacture of solar panels.[18]