President Ahmed al-Sharaa issued Decree No. 191 of 2026, appointing Engineer Omar Samer al-Halabi as advisor for economic affairs to the Presidency of the Republic and chairman of the board of directors of the sovereign wealth fund.
Article One of the decree stipulates the appointment of Engineer Omar Samer al-Halabi to the position of advisor for economic affairs to the Presidency of the Republic, while Article Two adds him to the membership of the Supreme Council for Economic Development in accordance with the provisions of Decree No. 115 of 2025.
Regarding the sovereign wealth fund, Article Three of the decree refers to the appointment of Engineer Omar Samer al-Halabi as chairman of its board of directors, formed by Decree No. 250 of 2025, with the rest of the members remaining unchanged. The decree annulled the operation of anything contrary to its provisions and ordered its notification to those concerned for implementation, in an organizational step aimed at strengthening the country's administrative and economic structure.
Omar Samer al-Halabi possesses professional experience exceeding twenty years working with governments, sovereign institutions, and the private sector in the Middle East and international markets. His experience has covered areas such as economic policies, institution building, sovereign investment, industrial development, trade, investment, labor market policies, private sector development, as well as financing, economic evaluation, and financial assessment.
Al-Halabi previously held the position of partner and head of economic consulting and public policy for the Middle East region at KPMG, and worked previously with the Saudi Public Investment Fund. He also spent about a decade at Johnson Controls, where he held leadership responsibilities in strategy and business development in the Middle East, focusing on deal structuring and developing investment tools.
Engineer Omar Samer al-Halabi holds a bachelor's degree in telecommunications engineering from the Egyptian University for Science and Technology, and a master's degree in business administration with distinction from IE Business School in Madrid. He also studied public policy analysis at the London School of Economics and Political Science, focusing on policy design and impact assessment.
Al-Halabi followed up specialized executive programs in strategy and innovation at the MIT Sloan School of Management, transformational strategy at Harvard Business School, and global business and economic development at the School of Management of Fudan University in China, enhancing his academic and practical qualifications for this new position.
Source: Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA)
Comments (0)