Sulaiman bin Abdul-Aziz Al-Rajhi

Sheikh Sulaiman bin Abdul-Aziz Al-Rajhi (born 1920) is a Saudi Arabian corporate figure and billionaire. He is the chairman of Al Rajhi Bank, one of the largest companies in Saudi Arabia and the largest Islamic bank in the world. As of 2011, his wealth was estimated by Forbes to be $7.7 billion, making him the 120th richest person in the world. He received the 2012 King Faisal International Prize for dedicating half his fortune to charity, starting an Islamic bank, supporting charity work and implementing effective national projects.^[1]

Biography

Sulaiman Al-Rajhi was born in Al Bukairiyah and grew up in the Nejd desert where he and his brother Saleh began their business by changing money for pilgrims taking camel caravans across the desert to the cities of Mecca and Medina. Sulaiman Abdul Aziz Al Rajhi holds the largest individual stake in his family's Al Rajhi Bank, which has consistently reported the most profitable operations amongst all of Saudi Arabia's banking groups. A co-founder of the bank, with older brother, Saleh, he is currently the chairman of what is nationally recognized as the Tadawul's most venerable institution.

The Al Rajhi brothers’ business growth and expansion was fed by the flood of migrant workers to Saudi Arabia during the 1970s oil boom. The Al Rajhis helped them send their earnings home to places like Indonesia and Pakistan. In 1983, the brothers won permission to open Saudi Arabia’s first Islamic bank, one that would observe religious tenets such as a ban on interest. The Al Rajhi family continue to be Al Rajhi Bank's majority share holders though Sulaiman and his brothers have diversified family investments into gypsum, agriculture, steel, and other industrial sectors. His higher educational degree was elementary degree. He lives in Saudi Arabia and has at least 23 children.^[2]