Sara Al Binali

Sara Al-Binali is the Group Head of Corporate, Commercial, and International Banking at First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), the UAE’s largest bank, serving as a member of the executive committee. Sara has over 24 years of experience in financial services, investment, and banking. In her role at FAB, she is responsible for leading and growing the Corporate, Commercial, and International Banking division and for ensuring that it is aligned with the Group’s overall vision, strategy, and direction. Prior to this role, she served as the Head of Business Banking – responsible for driving the SME business for FAB. She also headed Strategic Planning for FAB and at First Gulf Bank (FGB) as it was known then, before FAB was created as a merged entity of FGB and the National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD). Before this she was Deputy Head of FGB’s International Business Group. Sara started her career at the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) working across several key investment management roles that were specifically focused on Far East Equities. She sits on number of boards including First Abu Dhabi Bank Securities, FAB Capital KSA, and Reem Finance. Sara graduated from Northwestern University in the United States with a degree in economics – and holds an Excellence and Awareness certification that she obtained at INSEAD’s Singapore campus.