Company Profile

Faris AlGhannam

CEO and Board Member

Faris AlGhannam is currently Chief Executive Officer and Board Member of HSBC Saudi Arabia and a member of HSBC Middle East, North Africa and Turkey Executive Committee. Prior to this, Faris was leading the investment banking, capital markets and issuers services business and operations for HSBC in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Before joining HSBC, Faris worked for several years at another banking institution in London, the United Kingdom covering capital markets in the UK and EMEA.

Faris is also an Independent Director of Board and Chairman of the Audit Committee of a leading pharmaceutical manufacturer in MENA region, as well as an Independent Director of the Board of a leading consumers company in the Kingdom and a Board of Director of AlTamayyuz Finance & Accounting Excellence Academy. Faris is a member of the Finance Program Board for College of Business Administration, Prince Sultan University.

Faris holds an MBA from the Jones School of Business at Rice University and a BSc in Accounting from Prince Sultan University (first honors).

Khalid G. Al-Buainain

Board Member

Mr. Khalid Al-Buainain was appointed to the Board of HSBC Saudi Arabia in January 2019 as Independent, Non-Executive Director.

He has proven management expertise and brings a wealth of experience. He has held a number of senior managerial roles in different companies inside and outside of Saudi Arabia including a number of key positions with Saudi Aramco during the period from 1980 to 2015 as Senior Vice President for the Technical Services Business line, Senior Vice President for Engineering, Capital, and Operations Support, Senior Vice President for Downstream Business Line and Senior Vice President for Engineering Services. In addition, he had assumed board memberships in renowned companies inside and outside of Saudi Arabia as well as participating in their sub-committees. He is also a graduate of Harvard Business School Executive Program.

He received his Bachelor’s degree from King Fahd University for Petroleum & Minerals in 1980.

Abdulhameed AlMuhaideb

Board Member

Abdulhameed AlMuhaideb was appointed to the Board of HSBC Saudi Arabia in March 2020 as Independent Non-Executive Director.

Abdulhameed has been serving in ACWA Power for the last 15 years and currently run the CFO function. For a portfolio of USD 107 billion assets under management, Abdulhameed manages the finance, tax, insurance, investors relations, as well as enterprise business solutions. During his journey within ACWA Power, he handled multiple roles, including Executive Director under Assets Management where he was managing the world largest Concentrated Solar Power project (Noor Energy 950MW) as CEO since 2018. Prior to that, Abdulhameed used to serve as CEO of another renewable project as well as spent 6 years within the corporate finance function. He also served as a Board and committee member in couple of ACWA Power project companies, and its operation arm; NOMAC.

Currently, Abdulhameed serves as a Risk Committee member at Saudi Awwal Bank (SAB) as well as the Audit Committee member of Saudi Tadawul Group. Previously, Abdulhameed also used to serve as an Audit & Risk Committee Member in Savola Group.

Prior to joining ACWA Power, Abdulhameed had served in HSBC being part of the Global Investment Advisory team for two years. Abdulhameed completed his bachelor’s degree in finance at University of Miami, FL. He also holds a master degree (MBA) from Pepperdine University in California. He was also selected and completed KSA Leadership 2030 Program sponsored by HRH Mohammed bin Salman Foundation (MISK).

Gareth Thomas

Board Member

Gareth’s banking career spans over 30 years with a wealth of experience drawn from several global and regional leadership roles, with specialisation in debt issuance and infrastructure finance, risk management, trade and transactional banking products. Gareth has covered Middle East banking activity throughout his career.

Based in Dubai, Gareth became HSBC’s Chief Risk Officer for MENAT in October 2022. For the four years prior to this Gareth led HSBC's Global Banking business for MENAT, responsible for debt and equity capital markets, lending, infrastructure and real estate,advisory, payments and client coverage of governments, public institutions, banks and large corporates.

Prior to this Gareth was HSBC's Co-Head of Public Sector Banking, with a global focus on banking relationships with governments, development banks and other officially-mandated organisations. Gareth led efforts in the Middle East, Africa, Northern Europe and the Americas and continues to act as Senior Banker to several governments in the Middle East.

Gareth began his career in 1991 with Barclays Bank. This included a period as its Head of Corporate Banking for Dubai and Oman, based in Dubai. In 1998 Gareth joined ABN AMRO where he was promoted to Global Head of Emerging Markets, responsible for all debt products. Following the acquisition of ABN in 2008, Gareth ran Royal Bank of Scotland’s debt businesses for the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Africa and its Export Finance business globally, before being appointed RBS’ Global Head of Sovereigns & Public Sector.

Gareth joined HSBC in 2012.