PIF convenes 1,000 global executives in Riyadh to shape next phase of governance

20/05/2025 07:25 AST

Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund gathered over 1,000 top executives in Riyadh for its second Directors' Gathering, unveiling new governance priorities amid rapid portfolio expansion.

The event, which brought together representatives from approximately 220 portfolio firms - including over 100 established by PIF itself - focused on enhancing board performance, aligning strategic priorities, and promoting cross-sector synergies to deepen collaboration across the fund's growing portfolio.

Discussions were centered around redefining board impact in the context of national transformation, strengthening oversight in a changing risk landscape, and navigating new governance challenges posed by artificial intelligence and emerging technologies, according to a press release.

The event comes as PIF accelerates its dual mandate of advancing Saudi Arabia's economic diversification and generating long-term global returns. Since its 2015 transformation, the fund has grown into a globally influential investor, managing $941.3 billion in assets in 2024 and playing a key role in Vision 2030.

Speaking to the delegates, PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan, highlighted PIF's vision and that the roles of boards include three main priorities: brainstorming and setting strategy, ensuring the right governance frameworks are in place for management, and monitoring performance, with a view to the ever-changing macro-economic context and evolving innovations.

"He stressed that this could transform challenges into opportunities to lead, grow and innovate," the release added.

Al-Rumayyan also urged directors to view PIF and its 220 companies as a unified ecosystem, emphasizing the importance of leveraging the group's collective capabilities. He added that collaboration should be considered the primary measure of success.

The Directors' Gathering, launched in 2023, is a key pillar of PIF's corporate excellence agenda and serves as a platform for knowledge exchange and governance development not only within its portfolio but across Saudi Arabia's business ecosystem.

PIF was ranked as the world's second most active sovereign investor by deal value in February, committing $3 billion in global transactions, according to Global SWF, a data platform tracking sovereign wealth fund activity.

In a fireside chat titled "Aligning the Economic Vision," Minister of Economy and Planning Faisal Al-Ibrahim, who also sits on the the sovereign wealth fund's board, said the existence of PIF portfolio companies and the related ecosystem is in itself a form of resilience, according to a post on the fund's official X account.

Al-Ibrahim added: "We are transforming our economy and restructuring the Saudi economy to create more engines of growth, more drivers of progress, and a diversified set of growth sources."

In another fireside chat titled "Evolving Investment Strategy," Head of the Global Capital Finance Division and Head of the Investment Strategy and Economic Insights Division at PIF, Fahad Al-Saif, said the fund is responsible for investing in assets that generate maximum economic impact for Saudi Arabia while also maximizing financial returns for the fund.

"This is done within a robust framework, across duration for us to become a generational fund in the future," he said in another X post by PIF.

Arab News