The ranking features 50 entries representing 53 leaders across eight countries
The UAE has cemented its position as the Middle East’s leading technology hub, accounting for nearly half of the region’s most powerful tech leaders, according to Forbes Middle East’s inaugural Top Tech Leaders 2026 ranking.
Forbes Middle East has unveiled its inaugural ranking of the Top Tech Leaders 2026, consisting of three distinct lists:
- Top Tech Leaders in Government,
- Top Tech Leaders of Global Companies, and
- Top Tech CEOs
These spotlighted the decision-makers driving the region’s technology transformation at a pivotal moment.
For this list, only the leaders based in MENA were considered, and their impact, experience, company size, achievements, technological initiatives, and investments were taken into account.
The ranking features 50 entries representing 53 leaders across eight countries. The UAE dominated the 2026 ranking, being home to 25 leaders, accounting for 47 per cent of the total listees, while Saudi Arabia stood second with 15 listees, making up over 28 per cent of the cohort.
Egypt is home to four, followed by Kuwait with three, Oman and Bahrain with two each, while Morocco and Qatar are each represented by one executive.
Dr. Mohamed Al Kuwaiti, Head of Cybersecurity for the U.A.E. Government, topped the ranking in the Middle East’s Top Tech Leaders in Government list, which highlights senior public-sector leaders running national entities that regulate, secure, and enable technology ecosystems.
Abdullah bin Sharaf Alghamdi, President of Saudi Data & AI Authority (SDAIA), and Faisal Al Bannai, Secretary-General of the UAE’s Advanced Technology Research Council (ATRC), secured the second and third spots, respectively.
To curate this list, the entity’s mandate and responsibilities, the scale and breadth of work and influence, and the leader’s remit were considered.
Ronaldo Mouchawar, Vice President, Middle East, Africa, & Türkiye at Amazon, ranked first in the Middle East’s Top Tech Leaders of Global Companies list, that spotlights the regional leaders at global technology firms who are pushing cloud, platforms, enterprise software, and AI across Middle Eastern markets.
Anthony Nakache, Managing Director, MENA at Google, and Abdul Rahman Al Thehaiban, Managing Director, MENA & Türkiye at Google Cloud, were both ranked second, while Fares Akkad, Managing Director, Middle East & Africa at Meta, secured the third spot. For this list, achievements over the past year, scope of role, business scale, and industry experience were examined, with the prerequisite that the company needs to be featured on the Forbes 2025 Global 2000 list.
Peng Xiao, Group CEO at G42, ranked first in the Middle East’s Top Tech CEOs list that recognizes founders and executives leading some of the region’s most influential technology companies.
Hatem Dowidar, Group CEO at e&, and Olayan Alwetaid, Group CEO at stc Group, secured the second and third spots, respectively.
To compose this list, we considered only CEOs of MENA‑headquartered companies, assessing their regional impact, experience in role, company scale, past‑year performance, technological initiatives, and announced investments or deals.
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