Hanan Alahmadi

Hanan Abdulrahim Al-Ahmadi is a Saudi Arabian academic who has been a member of the Consultative Assembly of Saudi Arabia since 2013 and Assistant Speaker since October 2020. She is the first woman to hold the position and in December 2020 became the first woman to chair a session of the body.

Early life and education Al-Ahmadi is from Mecca. She graduated from King Saud University with a bachelor's degree in economics in 1986 and from the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in the United States with a master's in health administration in 1989. Her PhD thesis was entitled Determinants of Job Satisfaction among Saudi Arabian Male and Female Physicians: A Qualitative Study.

Career Al-Ahmadi was a professor of health services administration and the director general of the women's branch of the Institute of Public Administration.

Al-Ahmadi is a member of the board of trustees of the Riyadh Economic Forum, the Saudi Management Association, and the editorial board of the Journal of Public Administration She served on the Economic and Energy Committee, the Health and Environment Affairs committee, and the Fifth Parliamentary Friendship Committee. In October 2013, one of the women appointed, Latifa al-Shaalan proposed that the Transportation Committee should recommend that women be allowed to drive. Al-Ahmadi, who drove while she lived in the United States, said she welcomed the recommendation but would probably not drive herself even if permitted. She said, "Some who are more courageous than me might do it. But it is not an easy thing." Al-Ahmadi's is the third highest position of the body and she is the first woman to assume a leadership position in the body. In a statement issued upon her appointment, Al-Ahmadi said, "This important position embodies the support of the Monarch and the Crown Prince for Saudi women and their keenness to activate their participation in national decision-making process and to enhance their participation in the comprehensive development that the Kingdom is witnessing in all fields."

Selected publications