Badr bin Hussein Al-Zahrani has been CEO of the General Commission for Audiovisual Media (GCAM) since May 2018.
On Monday, he cut the ribbon at the opening of Jeddah’s first cinema.
Saudi Arabia is taking measures to boost cultural activities and to promote media production in the Kingdom. Al-Zahrani said that the cinema journey in the Kingdom that was launched in April 2018 will continue in the future with the opening of more halls throughout Saudi Arabia.
He stressed that the opening of such entertainment venues is one of the most significant initiatives of the Quality of Life program 2020 that is part of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030.
Al-Zahrani holds a bachelor’s degree in geophysics from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, as well as an MBA from the London Business School.
He was a geophysicist at Saudi Aramco from 2006 to 2009. He worked as a project manager for the Saudi Arabian Football Federation in 2011, while maintaining a post as an exploratory systems analyst at Aramco from 2009 to 2012.
Al-Zahrani was a new business development manager at the company from 2012 to 2013, and was head of project development at the Aramco Business Development Center from 2013 to 2015. He was then head of strategy and program development at the center for a year.
At the start of 2018, he joined GCAM as director of business development, before becoming its CEO.