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Abdulrahman Hesham Al Sowaidi
Chief Executive Officer
Qatar Development Bank
Mr. Al-Sowaidi serves as Chief Executive Officer of Qatar Development Bank (QDB), where he leads initiatives to expand Qatar's private sector and boost its GDP contribution in alignment with Qatar National Vision 2030. He previously served as QDB's Executive Director of Strategy and Business Development, following an engineering career in the telecom and oil & gas sectors.
He holds advanced degrees from the University of Bradford and Hamad Bin Khalifa University. Mr. Al-Sowaidi is Chairman of ELAN Group and Qatar Business Incubation Center, and serves on the boards of Injaz Qatar, Qatar Finance and Business Academy, Qatar Fund for Development, QTech, and Manateq. He also sits on the QNDS 3 Consultative Group and represents the private sector chair in the World Economic Forum's “Skills Acceleration” initiative.
Speaking at SFF 2026
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12:20–12:40pmThu 19 NovFestival StageHall 1, Singapore EXPOPremium
Technology Rewiring
Technology, Capital and Geoeconomics: The Asia-Middle East Corridor
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Abdulrahman Hesham Al SowaidiChief Executive OfficerQatar Development Bank
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Sopnendu MohantyGroup Chief Executive OfficerGlobal Finance & Technology Network (GFTN)Moderator
About this session
Technology and capital are no longer neutral conduits of commerce; they are instruments and pressure points in geoeconomic competition. Yet fragmentation has not ended integration. It has made its terms more contested. The Asia–Middle East corridor crystallises the challenge: how to deepen financial and digital connectivity while managing exposure to strategic chokepoints, incompatible systems and concentrated dependencies. Its test is whether interoperable infrastructure and practical cooperation can turn interdependence into resilience and give shape to a more trusted architecture of finance.
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