Abdulrahman bin Abdullah Al-Samari has been the vice president and managing director of the Local Content and Private Sector Development Unit (Namaa) since January 2017. Namaa participated in the first Saudi International Iron and Steel Conference, held on Sept. 16-18, where more than 40 countries and a large number of local and international companies were represented. Al-Samari said that this participation comes within the framework of the authority’s efforts to publicize its strategy in the development of local content at various levels, in addition to its role in raising awareness of the importance of local content in economic development and increasing demands from both the public and private sectors for local products and goods. Al-Samari graduated from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals with a bachelor’s degree in management information systems, and a master’s in business administration. He started at Saudi Aramco in 2004 as an analyst, working on projects that enhance data processing systems, before he joined the Northern Area Oil Operations, where he worked as as a planning analyst, accounting staff analyst and business systems analyst. In 2012, Al-Samari worked for four years as a strategy manager at Accenture, a company that offers services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital technology and operations. Between 2016 and 2017, he served as an adviser to the minister of economy and planning.