Rania Nashar

Rania Mahmoud Nashar (born 1974) is a Saudi banker who has held leadership positions in the private sector within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. She served as the Chief Executive Officer of Samba Financial Group. She later joined the Public Investment Fund (PIF) in 2020 as an advisor to the Governor and Head of Compliance and Governance for Public Investment. She is a member of several boards of directors for governmental and private entities. Forbes listed her among the Top One Hundred Most Powerful Businesswomen in the Middle East for 2023.

Rania Nashar joined Samba Financial Group and progressed through various roles over twenty-four years. She held multiple positions in governance, risk management, and compliance until she became the Chief Executive Officer of Samba Financial Group in 2017, making her the first Saudi woman to hold an executive position in a banking group.

On December 22, 2020, the PIF announced her appointment as an Advisor to the Governor, Yasir al-Rumayyan. She later assumed the role of Head of Compliance and Governance for Public Investment at the fund. Additionally, she was appointed as the Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of the Regional Voluntary Carbon Market Company, a global leader in voluntary carbon markets owned by the PIF and the Saudi Tadawul Group.

Rania Nashar has obtained several board memberships in governmental entities and private sector companies. She was appointed as a board member of the National Center for Performance Measurement (ADAA).

She was also appointed as a board member of the Saudi Space Commission (now the Saudi Space Agency) in 2019.

She served as the chair of the Saudi B20 Women in Business Action Council. She is one of two Saudi women who co-chaired the Private Sector Alliance for the Empowerment and Economic Representation of Women (EMPOWER) initiative. Through her leadership roles, she worked to support women's empowerment. She also served as the Saudi Chair of the Private Sector Alliance for the Empowerment and Representation of Women during the Kingdom's presidency of the G20 in 2020.

Rania Nashar also holds board memberships at the Small and Medium Enterprises Bank, the Saudi Telecom Company (stc), the Advisory Committee of the Capital Market Authority in its sixth session, and the Saudi Polo Federation.

Rania Nashar has participated in numerous economic events and forums, including a workshop on "Empowering the Role of Women in the Saudi Economy" organized by the Saudi Economic Association in 2019. She also took part in a session titled "An Economy Targeting Women" held on the sidelines of the Future Investment Initiative in 2019. Additionally, she participated in the sessions of the Future Investment Initiative (FII) in 2022 and in a virtual meeting organized by the Communication and Financial Knowledge Center (CFKC) titled "Business Twenty B20: Role and Objectives" in 2020.