RIYADH — The Public Investment Fund (PIF), Saudi Arabia"s sovereign wealth fund, announced on Thursday the appointment of Rania Nashar as Head of Compliance and Governance Division. Nashar joined PIF as a Senior Advisor to the Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan in February 2021, where she advises Al-Rumayyan, in areas of Business and Governance, drawing on more than 20 years of professional experience in the banking industry. In addition, she is the Head of Compliance and Governance at the Fund. Before she joined PIF, Nashar served as the CEO of Samba Financial Group (SFG), making her the first Saudi woman to lead a major banking group in Saudi Arabia. She first joined SFG in 1997 at the start of her banking career, where she served in various positions across different divisions of the Group and played a pivotal role in bringing vital changes and developments to SFG’s business sectors. Nashar also holds various other leadership and advisory positions. During her time as CEO at SFG, she served as Vice Chair of the Samba Capital Board and as a Board member of Samba Bank Limited in Pakistan, Samba Global Markets Limited and Institute of International Finance “IIF” in USA. In March 2019, the Board of the Capital Market Authority of Saudi Arabia (CMA) appointed Nashar as Vice Chair of the CMA Advisory Committee. She also serves as Board member of Saudi Telecom Company (STC), Saudi Tadawul Group, the National Center for Performance Measurement, Saudi Space Commission and Saudi Polo Federation. — SG