{"id":82037,"date":"2026-02-09T06:34:58","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T09:34:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tech.einnews.com\/article\/890661003"},"modified":"2026-02-09T06:34:58","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T09:34:58","slug":"who-are-the-top-tech-leaders-of-mena-forbes-reveals-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/2026\/02\/09\/who-are-the-top-tech-leaders-of-mena-forbes-reveals-list\/","title":{"rendered":"Who are the top tech leaders of MENA? Forbes reveals list"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Who
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The UAE has emerged as the region\u2019s undisputed tech leadership hub, topping Forbes Middle East\u2019s inaugural Top Tech Leaders 2026 ranking, which highlights the executives shaping the Middle East and North Africa\u2019s digital transformation.<\/p>\n

Unveiled this week, the ranking spans three categories\u2014Top Tech Leaders in Government, Top Tech Leaders of Global Companies, and Top Tech CEOs\u2014and focuses exclusively on leaders based in the MENA region. The selection was based on criteria including leadership impact, experience, company scale, achievements, technological initiatives, and investments.<\/p>\n

The list features 50 entries representing 53 leaders across eight countries, with the UAE accounting for 25 leaders, or 47% of the total, underscoring its dominance as a regional technology powerhouse. Saudi Arabia ranked second with 15 leaders, representing more than 28% of the cohort. Egypt followed with four entries, Kuwait with three, Oman and Bahrain with two each, while Morocco and Qatar were represented by one leader each.<\/p>\n

Dr  Mohamed Al Kuwaiti, Head of Cybersecurity for the UAE Government, topped the ranking in the Middle East\u2019s Top Tech Leaders in Government list, which highlights senior public-sector leaders running national entities that regulate, secure, and enable technology ecosystems. Abdullah bin Sharaf Alghamdi, President of Saudi Data & AI Authority (SDAIA), and Faisal Al Bannai, Secretary-General of the UAE\u2019s Advanced Technology Research Council (ATRC), secured the second and third spots, respectively. To curate this list, the entity\u2019s mandate and responsibilities, the scale and breadth of work and influence, and the leader\u2019s remit were considered.  <\/p>\n

Ronaldo Mouchawar, Vice President\u2014Middle East, Africa, & T\u00fcrkiye at Amazon, ranked first in the Middle East\u2019s Top Tech Leaders of Global Companies list, that spotlights the regional leaders at global technology firms who are pushing cloud, platforms, enterprise software, and AI across Middle Eastern markets. Anthony Nakache, Managing Director\u2014MENA at Google, and Abdul Rahman Al Thehaiban, Managing Director\u2014MENA & T\u00fcrkiye at Google Cloud, were both ranked second, while Fares Akkad, Managing Director\u2014Middle East & Africa at Meta, secured the third spot.  For this list, achievements over the past year, scope of role, business scale, and industry experience were examined, with the prerequisite that the company needs to be featured on the Forbes 2025 Global 2000 list. <\/p>\n

Peng Xiao, Group CEO at G42, ranked first in the Middle East\u2019s Top Tech CEOs list that recognises founders and executives leading some of the region\u2019s most influential technology companies. Hatem Dowidar, Group CEO at e&, and Olayan Alwetaid, Group CEO at stc Group, secured the second and third spots, respectively. To compose this list, we considered only CEOs of MENA headquartered companies, assessing their regional impact, experience in role, company scale, past year performance, technological initiatives, and announced investments or deals. \u2013 TradeArabia News Service<\/b><\/p>\n

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… the region\u00e2\u0080\u0099s undisputed tech<\/span> leadership hub, topping Forbes … East\u00e2\u0080\u0099s inaugural Top Tech<\/span> Leaders 2026 ranking, which … categories\u00e2\u0080\u0094Top Tech<\/span> Leaders in Government, Top Tech<\/span> Leaders of … regulate, secure, and enable technology<\/span> ecosystems. Abdullah bin Sharaf …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82037\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}