The news was confirmed by STC’s board on Saturday, with Al Nasser citing personal circumstances.
In its notice to Tadawul, the Saudi stock exchange, STC said a nomination and remuneration committee had been appointed to “start searching for a CEO successor”. A list of names will be submitted to the board, “while taking STC’s succession plan into consideration”.
The statement also read: “STC board of directors extended their sincere gratitude and appreciation to Eng. Nasser S. Alnasser for his commitment and dedication during his tenure in STC and wishes him all the best in his future endeavours.”
Al Nasser was appointed acting CEO in February 2018 following the departure of Khaled Bin Hussain Biyari, who had been appointed assistant minister of defence by the government. Al Nasser took on the interim role for an initial six-month term before being confirmed as the new CEO.
Since then STC has looked to broaden its focus beyond Saudi Arabia as part of a MENA region expansion strategy. In January it entered talks to take a 55% share of Vodafone Egypt and earlier this month unveiled plans to establish a “premier digital hub for the MENA region”, part of the firm’s “dare strategy 2.0” and supporting the national economic diversification plan, Vision 2030.
At home, the telco has been awarded a contract to deploy the largest 5G network in the Middle East, covering 450 domestic locations, and STC has also been awarded the 5G contract for Saudi’s new mega city, NEOM. There, the advanced 5G and IoT network will see robotics, AI and human machine interface technologies rolled out.
