Nabilah al-Tunisi (born c. 1959) (Arabic:نبيلة التونسي), was the chief engineer for Saudi Aramco. In 2017 Al-Tunisi became the first female chairman of the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul).[1]
The daughter of a Saudi general, Al-Tunisi grew up in Riyadh. When she was 12, her family moved to Spain where her father became a military attaché at the Saudi Embassy in Madrid. While in Spain, she attended a Spanish-American school and took Arabic lessons at night. At the age of 15, she returned and completed high school in Riyadh.[2] But at the age of 17, she moved to Portland, Oregon to study electrical engineering at Lewis & Clark College,[3] with encouragement from her parents and where her brother was also studying.[4] Al-Tunisi's fascination with computers came as she was preparing for the requisite English test.[2]
By 1980 she had gained a Bachelor in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Portland and a masters in computer engineering from Oregon State University.[4][5]
Al-Tunisi also completed the Stanford’s Executive Business Program[6] in 2007, after being rejected two decades earlier for the Master's program there in Computer engineering.[2]
Her uncle, a friend of the Saudi oil minister, encouraged her to apply to Saudi Aramco,[7] in Houston. Al-Tunisi had first searched and applied for various positions in the tech industry, including Microsoft, and PG&E. She even turned down a job with Apple Inc.[3][4] before she joined the company as a computer systems engineer in 1982. In 1984, she moved to the engineering and project management division. In 1996, she led the company´s planning department for IT facilities and electrical networks.[8]
She served as General Manager of Northern Area Project Management in Saudi Aramco.[9] For Saudi Aramco, she also directed one of the largest hydrocarbon and petrochemical complex.[6] Al-Tunisi developed software to monitor oil assets and implemented automation systems for the transport of oil and gas.[2]
She became the chief engineer of Aramco in 2015.[4]In 2018, the Sadara Chemical Company opened for business. The joint project between Saudi Aramco and Dow Chemical was led by Al-Tunisi and took nearly 10 years of planning. She is also preparing the plastic production crude oil-to-chemical plant together with Saudi Arabian Basic Industries Corporation.[2]
Al-Tunisi is currently Managing Director of energy and water sector at Neom.[10]
In 2006, she was named on the 25 Most Influential Women in Project Management.[4]
In 2010 Oregon State University honored her with membership of their Academy of Distinguished Engineers.[5]
In 2014 Forbes Middle East listed her at # 4 in their list of the 200 Most Powerful Arab Women in Executive Management.[11]
In 2018, she ranked 17th on the Forbes List of most influential women in the Middle East.[12]