history

 

The Group’s history is rooted in the legacy of Mr Bahamdan’s father, the late Salem Bahamdan. Among Saudi Arabia’s early entrepreneurs, he started his business endeavors in the 1940s with a small grocery sto​re in the Holy City of Makkah. By the early 1950s he had moved to Riyadh and launched the first of the Bahamdan businesses, which consisted of a flourishing textile business and a group of ancillary companies that encompassed cosmetics, perfumeries and bookstores. While establishing and growing these enterprises, Salem Bahamdan passed down t​​​​​o his son a spirit of entrepreneurship and the foundations on which to create and build what has become the Bahamdan Group today.​​​

In starting the Group, Abdullah Bahamdan identified and seized upon market oppo​rtunities created by the growth and diversification of the Saudi Arabian economy and the rapidly evolving needs of its population. Early on, Mr Bahamdan realized that the transition to a sophisticated economy would require a broad range of services, and he began by building businesses that would meet this demand.​​​

Often exploiting first-mover advantage, he focused the Group on developing and structuring market-leading businesses, then sourcing appropriate teams to manage and grow them. In doing so, he placed significant value on forming partnerships with market leaders across geographies and sectors. He began by establishing ventures with local and regional players from the Middle East. Over time, as the Group expanded, it attracted blue-chip names with which he partnered both at home and across global markets.

Of particular note is that, while growing the Group into a sizable global investor, Abdullah Bahamdan simultaneously built a distinguished career as one of the region’s most prominent bankers. He enjoyed a long tenure of 57 years at the National Commercial Bank (NCB) of Saudi Arabia, which he helped to its position today as one of the Middle East region’s largest financial services providers.

Appointed as Chairman and Managing Director of NCB in 1999, he was instrumental in spearheading the turnaround of the bank at a critical juncture in its history. During this time, Abdullah Bahamdan oversaw the development and execution of a strategic three-year plan to restructure the bank's financial and operational structures, the results of which transformed NCB from one of the Kingdom’s three least profitable institutions in 1998 to among its most profitable and dynamic banks by 2002. He stayed at the helm in his joint capacity as Chairman and Managing Director, guiding the major activities of the organization for seven years. In these years, he initiated a Corporate Governance program that was aimed at separating oversight and supervision from management and execution. True to the principle of his program, in early 2006 he relinquished, and the Board abolished, the position of Managing Director. Execution and management were entrusted to a core group of capable executives led by the bank’s first-ever Chief Executive Officer.

Abdullah Bahamdan continued to provide leadership and insight to NCB through his Chairmanship of the Board of Directors until his retirement from the bank in May 2012. In his current capacity as Chairman of the Bahamdan Group, his vision and decades of experience continue to steer our activities. However, day-to-day management was entrusted to the third generation of Bahamdans in 2003 when Mr Bahamdan’s son, Kamal Bahamdan, assumed the role of Group CEO.

Like Abdullah Bahamdan, Kamal has followed in his father's footsteps, forging a career as a businessman and entrepreneur in his own right. He has established successful financial services companies and investment vehicles – independently of the Group – in the US and Europe, where he is recognized as a young global leader and strategic investor.

Under Kamal Bahamdan's leadership, the Group’s activities and interests have continued to be diversified and its investment approach, business structures and governance policies further institutionalized in order to ensure future success and the presence of this enduring family group and investment institution.