JEDDAH, 16 March 2005 — British marketing giant WPP has appointed Olayan Financing Company CEO Lubna S. Al-Olayan as non-executive director. She joins the board of WPP with immediate effect.
Al-Olayan is a distinguished business figure in the Arab world and beyond. As CEO of the Riyadh-based Olayan Financing Company, she is responsible for The Olayan Group’s operating businesses and investments in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East. These include some 40 companies engaged in product distribution, manufacturing and services, often in partnership with leading multinationals.
Olayan Financing Company is a major investor in the Kingdom’s economy, and it is consistently ranked in the top echelon of Saudi and Gulf companies. Internationally, The Olayan Group is a leading private investor with emphasis on public and private equities, particularly in Europe and the United States, and on fixed income securities.
Al-Olayan is a member of the board of directors of Olayan Investments Company Establishment, the group’s parent entity. She also holds other executive positions and board memberships in several group-related entities.
In December 2004, Al-Olayan was elected to the board of Saudi Hollandi Bank, becoming the first woman to join the board of a Saudi-listed company. She served on the board of Chelsfield, the UK property developer, from 1996 to 2004.
Al-Olayan is a member of INSEAD’s International Council and the World Links Advisory Council, World Bank. She is active in the World Economic Forum, serving on its Arab Business Council and Women Leadership Initiative and as co-chair of the forum’s January 2005 annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. She is also a trustee of the Arab Thought Foundation.
Named by Fortune magazine as one of the 50 most powerful women, Al-Olayan is the recipient of numerous business achievement awards and is an outspoken advocate of progressive business practices in the Middle East.
Prior to joining The Olayan Group —founded in 1947 by her father, Suliman S. Al-Olayan — she worked for Morgan Guaranty in New York after an American education, obtaining a BSc in agriculture from Cornell University and an MBA from Indiana University.
Established as a marketing services group in 1986, WPP constructed its offer originally based on “below-the-line” marketing services capabilities in the UK and US. Since then, WPP has grown to become one of the world’s leading advertising and marketing services groups, comprising leading brands such as J. Walter Thompson, Ogilvy & Mather, Y&R Advertising, MindShare, Hill and Knowlton, Landor, Burson Marsteller and Research International.
WPP is a public company, listed in New York and London, with its main shareholders based in the US and the UK.