Abdelwahab: The True Strength of a CFO Lies in Recognizing His Role as an Active Partner in Driving Business Growth

 

CFO: “Our role is not only to safeguard capital, but to build the future—transforming numbers into strategy and vision into sustainable reality.”

Future of Finance in the Middle East… Abdelwahab: CFOs Must Adopt a Startup Mindset in Financial Leadership

Financial Advisor: “A successful partnership between executive and financial leadership is what truly shapes the future of a company.”

Dr. Mohamed Abdelwahab, Chief Financial Officer of Abdelwahab: The True Strength of a CFO Lies in Recognizing His Role as an Active Partner in Driving Business Growth United Pharmacies in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, will be a featured speaker at the 7th edition of the “Future of Finance: Egypt and the Middle East 2025” conference, sponsored by Drive Finance and held in Cairo on September 6, 2025.

This conference is recognized as one of the region’s premier events in the financial and banking sector, bringing together top experts and corporate leaders to discuss future trends and digital transformation in finance.

Dr. Abdelwahab will contribute to the strategic panel session titled: “Which CFO Does Your Business Need: The Accountant, the FP&A Leader, the Strategic Partner, or the CEO’s Co-Pilot?”

Drawing on his extensive experience as a financial leader in the healthcare sector, Dr. Abdelwahab will share valuable insights on the unique financial challenges facing the pharmaceutical industry. He will also highlight the evolution of financial leadership, strategic partnership models within healthcare, and how CFOs can adapt their roles to drive business growth in highly regulated industries while ensuring compliance and operational excellence.

Commenting on his participation, Dr. Abdelwahab expressed his enthusiasm, stating:

“The true strength of a CFO comes from recognizing his role as an active partner in the business journey—not merely a recorder of numbers. Success does not rest on vision alone, nor on numbers alone, but on the integration of both. The CEO asks: ‘Where are we going?’ while the CFO asks: ‘How do we finance this direction and ensure its sustainability?’”

He added: “This partnership is what shapes the company’s future. While accounting preserves the past and ensures accuracy in operations, finance is the compass that charts the course forward. Our role is not only to protect capital, but to build the future—turning numbers into strategy and vision into a sustainable reality.”

Dr. Abdelwahab also emphasized the importance of adopting a startup mindset in financial leadership, saying:

“I have learned to approach every quarter as a blank page, every challenge as data, and every success as an opportunity to ask: ‘What can we build next?’ Stagnation is easy, but real progress requires curiosity, speed, and a willingness to take risks on new ideas. A successful CFO is not a gatekeeper of money, but a creator of spaces for innovation—driving resilience and setting a pace that competitors struggle to keep up with.”