Sumayah al-Solaiman

Sumayah Solaiman Abdullah al-Solaiman (born 1976) is the Chief Executive Officer of the Architecture and Design Commission, one of the entities under the Ministry of Culture in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. She has been serving in this position since 2020. Before this role, she was the Dean of the College of Design at Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University.

Sumayah al-Solaiman earned a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture from King Faisal University in Dammam in 2000, followed by a Master’s degree in Architecture from the same university in 2002. She completed her PhD in Architecture and Design from Newcastle University in the United Kingdom in 2010. Additionally, she pursued a postdoctoral fellowship through the Ibn Khaldun Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States in 2014. Her administrative qualifications from MIT include courses such as 'Beyond Smart Cities: Emerging Design and Technology,' the executive program 'Negotiation and Influence,' an executive certificate in Management and Leadership, and a certificate in Strategy and Innovation. She authored the book Ala Khad al-Kawn (On the Cheek of the Universe), and is fluent in three languages: Arabic, German, and English.

Sumayah al-Solaiman held the position of Dean of the College of Design at Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University in Dammam City in 2017. She also held several other positions within the college, including Vice Dean for Quality and Development, Director of the Office of Patents and Technology Transfer, and Head of the Department of Print and Multimedia Design. She was also appointed as a member of the Municipal Council of the Eastern Province Municipality in 2016. Additionally, she oversaw the coordination of the Kingdom's first national pavilion at the sixteenth International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale in Italy. Sumayah officially represented the Kingdom and presented her researches at various international conferences.

In 2020, Minister of Culture Prince Badr Bin Abdullah Bin Farhan issued a decision appointing Sumayah al-Sulaiman as the CEO of the Architecture and Design Commission, one of eleven cultural commissions established by the Ministry of Culture that year.

Sumayah al-Solaiman undertakes several responsibilities at the Architecture and Design Commission, including advancing the sector by implementing the plans set forth by the Ministry of Culture. She oversees the sector’s operational strategy, arrangements, and licensing of activities related to architecture and design. These efforts aim to highlight and develop Saudi architectural styles in a manner that reflects pride in the Kingdom’s rich national identity.