• Graduate of King Saudi University, Faculty of Arts, Department of Archeology and Museums, with major in Ancient (pre-historic) Archeology;
• Member in 'Marsa Al Ahlam' Diving Center, Jeddah;
• Currently commissioned with the formation of tourism, marketing and business youth committees at the Chamber of Commerce & Industry in Riyadh.

I grew up in two different environments: Banking environment following track of my late father's career who spent 30 years with Mohammed & Abdullah Ibrahim Sobaiea Exchange Corporation and a 50% profit sharing partner with Sobaiea Exchange Corporation, Nasirea branch as well as my maternal grandfather, the late sheikh Saleh Ba Zuhair who owned a bank in Dammam for almost 26 years. In this context, to me, a banking culture is like a trade secret.

The other cultural background in which I was raised is a religious one, when I accompanied my uncle Mohammed Ahmed Ba Shmeil who was a writer and a poet and who held the post of chief of the Public Morality Department in Makkah during the rule of the late King Faisal bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud. He is also the author of Military Campaigns at the time of Prophet Mohammed. This series of books is still selling and taught at Arab universities as a basic reference to the Prophet campaigns (Ghazawat).

My early start in business was in the field of trading when I was still in the high school stage. I started business by running a showroom located on Motanabbi Street in Malaz. The store specialized in sewing materials. At that time, we had no competitors. When I joined college, I also owned an electronics showroom (Zal for Electronics) in North Riyadh. In this manner, I had a serious start since the early stages of my life. This stage in my life was characterized with a great deal of austerity, hard work and discipline. I worked even during holidays. My father was always proud of me and I could read his satisfaction with my performance on his face, as I started drawing my goals in life!

I participated in a cultural competition at Jazeera Newspaper titled "Education during the reign of the late King Abdulaziz". After the competition, I received a telephone call from the editor-in-chief, Mr. Mohammed Waeal, who is currently the editor-in-chief of Al Yawm Daily newspaper in the Eastern province. He congratulated me for my research capability and for the selection of references. In fact, the credit goes to our grand educator the late Sheikh Othman Al Saleh who kindly assisted me in drafting the key note speech which I delivered on behalf of the winners in this competition. The prize awarding ceremony for this competition was sponsored by HRH Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Vice-Governor of Riyadh. HRH thanked me personally for that speech and offered me an Omega wrest watch as a souvenir.

Before I joined the banking career, I had certain plans to follow up my higher education towards a PhD degree or to join King Faisal Air Academy. My dream was to become an F-15 pilot. Although there was a big difference between my academic career and my professional career, my above-mentioned background helped render me as a successful banker.

I started the banking career in early 1994 when I joined Sulaimania Branch as a teller. However, I was assigned certain banking functions that were irrelevant to cash handling. In 1997, I was transferred to Badea Branch to hold the post of an assistant operations manager until1999, when I moved to Woroud Branch to hold the post of a marketing manager. Again, in 2002, I moved to Shefa Branch to hold the post of an operations manager until 2005 when I moved to Badea Branch to hold the same post. By that time, I had sufficient exposure to qualify me for promotion to the post of a branch manager. In 2006, my father was delighted to know that I was promoted to the post of a branch manager at Sulaimania Branch. At that time, I recalled the old days that I spent at this branch which did not change much since its establishment in 1983.

Any banker can use the bank where he works as a tool for realizing his dreams. In this regard, ambition is the name of the game for achieving success and confidence.

One last word for my colleagues: Treat people in the same manner as you would like to be treated.

Put a big smile on your face and make your smile a constant channel of communication with your clients.