Waleed Al-Ibrahim

Saudi billionaire and one of the pioneers of the media industry in the Middle East and North Africa, Waleed bin Ibrahim bin Abdul Aziz Al Ibrahim is the brother of Al Gawhara bin Ibrahim bin Abdul Aziz Al Ibrahim, widow of King Fahd bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud.

The founder and owner of MBC Group (Middle East Television Center) and Al Arabiya News Channel, Al-Ibrahim was born in 1962 and has an American degree in media studies. He founded ARA production company in the early eighties, which was the beginning of the expansion of his work in this field.

Al-Ibrahim enjoys a good relationship with the Egyptian political elite. As such, MBC Egypt is one of the few channels that have not been concerned by the “sisification of the media system”. In 2017, MBC Group suffered a major financial crisis leading to an estimated 250 million USD loss, after the deal to get exclusive rights on the Saudi league championship failed. This led the group to lay off 150 employees in Egypt, Lebanon and other branches. This was the largest financial crisis that the group has been exposed to since its inception in 2002 in Dubai.

In 2017, Al-Ibrahim was detained in Saudi Arabia among a large number of princes and businessmen on suspicion of corruption after the issuance of a royal order to establish an anti-corruption committee. He was released in January 2018 after an unspecified financial settlement. He was detained more than 100 days with princes, former senior officials and businessmen at the Ritz-Carlton Riyadh on charges of financial and administrative corruption and money laundering.