The MidEast’s most powerful Arab businesswomen in 2021 (according to Forbes Middle East)
Title: Chairperson
Nationality: Saudi
Company: Olayan Group
Sector: Diversified
Saudi businesswoman Hutham Olayan is chairperson, director and senior executive of the Olayan Group.
The group, founded in 1947 by Suleiman Olayan, began as a Saudi trucking, contracting and trading business, and grew into more than 50 companies with offices around the world.
Olayan has headed the group’s US presence since 1985, and is currently president and CEO of Olayan America and other US affiliates of the group.
She is responsible for all the group’s investment activity in the Americas, and oversees a substantial portfolio of public and private equities, real estate and other specialized assets.
Olayan is also a director of Morgan Stanley and a former director of Thermo Electron Corporation. She is a member of the General Atlantic executive advisory board, and also serves on the boards of institutions, including the American University of Beirut, Peter G. Peterson Institute for International Economics, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the MasterCard Foundation.