Olayan Mohammed Alwetaid

Group CEO, stc Group 

Origin: Saudi Arabia

Residence: Saudi Arabia

Sector: Telecoms

Alwetaid leads one of the largest telecom companies in the Arab world, whose brand value has increased by almost twofold to $12.3bn in 2022 from $6.2bn in 2017. With his astute guidance, stc Group’s total revenue exceeded SAR67.4bn for the first time in 2022 while its operating profit surged by 15 per cent to SAR15.1bn. 

In addition to the $500m stc Group allotted to the digital transformation in the kingdom, the company invested $300m in venture capital firm, STV, in October 2022. The telecom giant has more than 47.16 million mobile telecom subscriptions across four countries in the Middle East and Southeast Asia. 

Alwetaid headed stc Bahrain before he was appointed group CEO in 2021 and under his leadership, the company unveiled plans to invest $1bn in data centres in October 2022. The Public Investment Fund made a non-binding offer to acquire 51 per cent of Telecom Towers Company (TAWAL) from stc Group, a deal that is valued at SAR21.9bn.