With over 20 years of experience in the telecommunications industry, the group CEO is driving transformation initiatives towards STC’s 2020 Vision and digitisation of STC’s product and service offerings.

His efforts are mirrored in the company’s financial performance. STC’s net income rose 6.3 percent to SAR2.75bn ($733.3m) in the first quarter of 2019 amid ongoing cost optimisation initiatives. Gross profit for the first quarter of 2019 rose 14 percent to SAR 7.9bn ($2.1bn), while revenues for the first quarter totalled SAR13.38bn ($3.56bn), an 8.4 percent increase over the same quarter the previous year.Earnings before taxes, zakat, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) reached SAR5.38bn ($1.43bn), an increase of 19 percent.

Al Nasser said at the time: “What has been achieved this quarter compared to the comparable quarter last year was a result of our commitment to implement and achieve STC’s strategic plans. The commitment to provide the best technical services, the cost optimisation initiatives and the outstanding performance of our subsidiaries as well the investments in traditional and non-traditional sectors both had a positive impact on the financial results of the first quarter of this year.”

STC recently signed three agreements with international companies to deploy 5G networks across Saudi Arabia in a bid to launch one of the world’s fastest communications networks.

In February, it signed a deal with Ericsson to launch a mid-band 5G network in Saudi Arabia to deploy a 5G network using Ericsson commercial hardware and solutions including radio access network (RAN), packet core, transport, and Ericsson Network Manager.

The network modernisation – comprising latest wireless and fixed broadband technologies, boosted speed and 5G deployment – will operate on a 3.5 GHZ band.

A month later, it signed a deal with Huawei for the first trial of indoor 5G @3.5GHz in the Middle East and North Africa, the second such test in the world.

STC said through the 5G indoor solution, it will provide its customers with a faster and better user experience, and ensure that they enjoy the latest services, from 4K/8K video streaming to AR/VR video game applications.

The indoor 5G trial includes verification of 5G technologies and air interface DL peak throughput, it added in a statement.

In July 2019, it joined forces with HyperPay to provide STC Pay Now in the kingdom. HyperPay is one of the first payment gateways to offer STC Pay, a fast, secure, and preferred payment method in the kingdom. Merchants can now accept more payments through the convenience and reliability of STC Pay, which can easily be activated on merchants’ websites, allowing them to accept, secure, and manage payments with utmost flexibility. HyperPay has also enabled the ‘multiple partial refunds’ option, giving merchant partners a competitive advantage in the market.

Moreover, STC is rapidly increasing the number of women employed at the Riyadh-based firm. At the start of 2016, STC employed only a handful of women. “Less than 10,” according to Al Nasser.

The headcount wasn’t unique to STC. Saudi Arabia ranked four countries from last place among 144 countries in the World Economic Forum’s 2016 Global Gender Gap study of how equally women participated in business, politics, health and education.

However, a series of rapid reforms in the country since, including the directive to allow women the right to drive, as well boosting the female workplace participation rate to 30 percent by 2030, is spurring changes across the economy, including at STC.

“In 2018 we have more than 200 Saudi female employees in various business segments in 42 cities in the kingdom,” Al Nasser told CEO Middle East last year.

“We just hired another 100 new female graduates this September as part of our ‘Talent Incubation’ programme and have also appointed our first female director,” he said.

Al Nasser is also a board member at the Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA) and chairman of SAMENA Telecommunications Council, a tri-regional industry association representing the interests of more than 85 telecom operators in the MENA and Asia, whereby it sets policies and regulatory agendas.