About

As senior vice president, general counsel and secretary of what is often referred to as the world’s most valuable company Saudi Aramco, Nabeel Al Mansour is one of the most notable general counsel worldwide, particularly in light of his central role in the much-heralded potential future initial public offering of the company which has been the talk of the business world for some time. The pressure inherent in this role is something that Al Mansour is uniquely suited to dealing with, having been with the company since 1990 and in its in-house legal team since 2000. In his current role since 2016, Al Mansour has led Aramco’s legal teams in supporting ‘the negotiations and development of significant investments and join ventures between Saudi Aramco and world-leading oil and gas, and chemicals companies’. His work on Saudi Aramco’s acquisition of a 70% majority stake in SABIC for US$69.1bn was a particularly impressive example of this. The extremely high level of ability displayed by the company’s legal team is largely a result of Al Mansour’s internal efforts, which have been highly notable: ‘Leading a multi-year strategic transformation programme for the legal organisation was a particular highlight, which led to transforming it from a small and organisationally-flat in-house group to a best-in-class international legal organisation currently staffed by over 250 employees worldwide’. On the subject of the potentially historic Aramco IPO, Al Mansour regards the part he has played in its preparation as a particularly rewarding chapter in his career. ‘Overseeing the legal support provided to prepare Saudi Aramco for its historic IPO including transforming the company’s governance and corporate form to a joint stock company is among my top three career highlights’, he says.