Fatimah Salem Baeshen currently serves as a spokeswoman for the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Washington DC, since September 2017. Prior to that, she was a civil servant and economic consultant, and held positions at Aon, the Islamic Development Bank, the World Bank, Emirates Foundation for Youth Development, and the Saudi Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Economy and Planning.
Baeshen is a socioeconomic strategist with more than 15 years of experience in the fields of intersection of economic reform, human rights, private sector development and civic engagement. Baeshen is the first woman to hold a spokesperson’s position in the Saudi government.
Baeshen was born in Saudi Arabia, raised in the US, and grew up in Oxford, Mississippi. She graduated from Oxford High School in Oxford, Mississippi in 1997, attained a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology with distinction from the University of Massachusetts in 2002, and a Master of Arts in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Chicago in 2009 where she wrote her thesis on “Islamic Finance Regulation in Secular Markets.”
Recently, she served as a director at the Arabia Foundation, a non-profit organization based in Washington DC, in 2017.
Baeshen has a number of publications to her credit from the Islamic Finance News (IFN) which include “Abu Dhabi to the Rescue” issued in December 2009, “Al-Rajhi Bank: Still Growing Strong” issued in November 2009, “What Happens When Sukuk Default?” issued in December 2009, “A Modern Oasis” issued in November 2009 and “Kuwait Forms a Front” issued in December 2009.
Baeshen has also written columns for Arab News and Time.
She is one of the most important and prominent female Saudi figures as she is focused on the economic empowerment of Saudi women.
