The Next Generation of Saudi Privacy Leaders Takes the Stage

Part 3 of our five-part series on the Privacy Leadership Workshop, hosted by Pyxos and the IAPP at the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce on June 22.

The most personal session of the day was conducted in Arabic, and the choice of language was itself the message. Four years ago, a panel of Saudi privacy professionals discussing the PDPL in Arabic, before a room of more than 100 practitioners, would not have been possible; the expertise simply had not been built yet. On June 22 it filled the stage. Basmah Alsubaie of Privacy Professionals, IAPP KSA chapter chair, moderated a panel of rising Saudi privacy leaders: Nawaf Jamal, IAPP KSA chapter chair and DPO at NEOM; Fatmah Al-qhtani, Senior DPO at Privacy Professionals; Nora Albati, Data Governance & Compliance Manager at Tamimi Markets; Latifa AlAkeel of KPMG Saudi Arabia; Reghab A. Aledayni of Saudi Tadawul Group; and Rahaf AlKhleef, Data Privacy Lead at Al Rajhi Takaful.

For Tahir Latif, who introduced the session, this panel was the point of a four-year journey. "It was a commitment on myself and Basmah at the time that we really wanted to uplift the Kingdom, to share our knowledge, to train more privacy professionals here," he told the room. "It's really gratifying today to see how far we've come." Introducing the lineup, he called it "very heartwarming to see, and to introduce to the stage now, the next generation of privacy leaders."

The conversation moved through the questions that define a career in this field: what first attracted each panelist to data privacy; what the next generation of DPOs will need to do differently as organizations move from formal PDPL compliance to evidence, accountability, and operational maturity; which skills will matter most, from legal knowledge and technology fluency to AI governance and the ability to influence senior stakeholders; and where young professionals need more support, whether mentoring, practical exposure, certification, or clearer pathways into leadership. The panelists traced their routes in from cybersecurity, legal practice, consulting, and governance and compliance functions across the financial and public sectors, and the pattern was unmistakable: almost no one arrives in privacy directly. The discipline claims people who can already see across functions, and it rewards them, because the refrain that carried through the session was one the whole day shared: privacy is a matter of everyone, and the professionals who advance are those who can carry it across the business rather than retreating into legal text.

Latif had set the frame for newcomers just before the panel, and it deserves to be quoted at length because it is the most useful expectation-setting a young professional will hear. "For those of you that are new to the profession, don't panic. It's a journey. It's a marathon, not a sprint. I know there's this fascination with 100 percent compliance. I don't know any privacy professional in the world that would put their hand up and say we are 100 percent compliant, and I would certainly never do that. Data is changing. It's dynamic. We're processing more data today than at any other time in human history. So take it slow, and make use of the community here."

The closing question went back to the senior leaders in the room: what should the current generation do to prepare the next? Hamza Saghir's three-part answer was the most quoted of the day. "Never stop learning; with the pace of change in the technology space, you've got to be absolutely at the front of it. Be brave; there's no such thing as asking a stupid question. There's a privacy community here, and you will be able to find an answer, but you've got to make that initial step and ask. And for the senior privacy professionals: make time available for the junior people. If you're able to spot it, offer advice. Have an open door policy. That's what's going to allow the community to grow, and for young privacy professionals to say, this is a career I want to adopt."

Latif closed with the charge that extended beyond the room. "For those of us that are more seasoned, please assist those that are on their journey. Become mentors. Everyone started their journey in their first job, and we all needed that helping hand. The one thing about the privacy community globally is that we're all connected, and the thing that binds us is trust. In this room today we've got experienced professionals and we've got rising stars. Come together as a community, continue to meet up, share the knowledge. Upskilling and capacity building are needed here in the Kingdom, and we can do it collectively."

Next in the series: five days, and the enforcement reality under the PDPL. That community also meets in the Pyxos masterclass series, which runs nearly every week. Visit pyxos.ai/masterclasses to join.

Key takeaways for DPOs

• The Saudi privacy talent pipeline is real and growing; hiring plans that assume expertise must be imported are a year out of date.
• Recruit from adjacent disciplines deliberately: cybersecurity, legal, consulting, and governance backgrounds are where the strongest privacy professionals are coming from.
• Abandon the 100 percent compliance framing, internally and in RFPs; data is dynamic, compliance is a continuous process, and honest maturity language is more defensible than a number.
• Invest in cross-functional communication skills over pure legal depth when developing junior staff; the panel's consensus was that influence, not citation, advances careers.
• If you are senior, mentorship is part of the job: open doors, unprompted advice, and time for junior colleagues are what convert a profession's shortage into its pipeline.
• Plug your team into the community; the IAPP chapter's meetups and networks are where practical answers to gray-area questions circulate first.

Our thanks to moderator Basmah Alsubaie (Privacy Professionals) and panelists Nawaf Jamal (NEOM), Fatmah Al-qhtani (Privacy Professionals), Nora Albati (Tamimi Markets), Latifa AlAkeel (KPMG Saudi Arabia), Reghab A. Aledayni (Saudi Tadawul Group), and Rahaf AlKhleef (Al Rajhi Takaful).