# Ghanim Bin Saad Al Saad

Ghanim Bin Saad Al Saad (Arabic: غانم بن سعد ال سعد born 23 August 1964 in Doha, Qatar) is a Qatari businessperson. He is chairman of GSSG Holding, a private family holding company diversified across dozens of sectors and companies in Qatar and around the world.

## Education

Al Saad holds a BA in Social Sciences from Qatar University, as well as an MA in Social Policy & Administration from University of Kent, and a PhD in SMEs from Greenwich University, London.

## Career

Al Saad has worked in both the public and private sectors. Since 2014, all Al Saad’s activity has been conducted exclusively in the private business sector.
He founded in 1993 the Ghanim Bin Saad Al Saad & Sons (GSSG) Holding.GSSG encompasses more than 40 companies in Qatar and worldwide in diverse sectors, such as maritime, engineering, education, and hotel & hospitality.
One of GSSG's subsidiaries is Rizon Jet, the first private jet operator in the Middle East, which has its own terminal in Qatar, with its VIP Terminal in Doha inaugurated on 10 March 2012. The company offers a wide range of services to the business and private aviation industry, including aircraft charter, aircraft management, and handling facilities.
In the TMT realm, GSSG Holding owns Media Group International, which serves TV channels and networks, movie studios, and network operators and provides telecommunications, broadcasting, integrated systems, and state-of- the-art security solutions.
Al Saad joined the General Assembly of Qatar Charity in 2001. He became a board member in 2001.He was appointed as chairman of the charity on 13 October 2010 and he remains the current chairman.
He held the position of chairman and managing director of Barwa Real Estate Company (January 2006 – April 2011).Barwa Real estate is a semi-governmental real estate company 45% owned by Qatari Diar and 55% listed on the Doha Stock Exchange.
From 2008 to 2011, Al Saad was CEO and Board member of Qatari Diar. Qatari Diar is the wholly owned real estate investment arm of the Qatar Investment Authority and the Government of Qatar.
He was chairman of the Qatar Railways Company for 2010–2011.
Al Saad was a member of the Qatar-Bahrain Causeway Committee.
Al Saad joined the General Assembly of Qatar Charity in 2001, and he was its Chairman from 2010 to 2013. Qatar Charity is a non-Governmental organization, working for the Qatari Society and other communities in need.
Al Saad ranks number 12 on the CEO Middle East Property Power List. He was featured at number 27 on the Arabian Business Qatar Power List of 2012. Al Saad has also received the title of ‘Datuk’, the Malaysian equivalent of a British peerage, from the King of Malaysia.
Al Saad is also Chairman of Oryx Group and LAMAT. Both companies focus on the global energy sector to promote the transition to low-emission energy models. LAMAT was created in 2017, and Oryx Group was created in 2020 and is especially active in the Caribbean and Latin America.
In July 2024, Oryx Group reached an agreement in Curaçao to lease and operate the terminal at Bullenbaai and the Emmastad facility in Willemstad for a period of 30 years. With a storage capacity of over 30 million barrels, both Bullenbaal and Emmastad are pivotal for the efficient handling of oil imports and exports in the Caribbean and other regions.

## Controversies

Brazilian prosecutors and the FBI discovered that Al Saad transferred USD 22 million to the bank account of the Brazilian Football Federation’s former chairman Ricardo Teixeira in January 2011. Authorities believed the multi-million payment was directed to Teixeira as well as three other FIFA officials, Jack Warner, Nicolas Leoz and Mohamed Bin Hammam, in exchange for voting in December 2010 in favor of Qatar to hold the 2022 World Cup
Al Saad was named on Israel's N12 news by Dr. Udi Levi, a former chief of Mossad's Anti Terror Financing Unit as the Qatari link to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bureau

## Other information

Al Saad was a featured speaker at the "Renewing the Arab World" conference at the Arab Institute in Paris, January 2015 along with President of France François Hollande, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, Jacques Lang, President of the Arab World Institute and many other international leaders dedicated to building stronger relationships among all religions.