We recently had the privilege of interviewing Saad Anwar, the co-founder and CEO of Senyar Arabian Trading Company and European Segment Company. As a self-made millionaire, investor, serial entrepreneur and inspiration to dreamers, Saad Anwar knows the value of trust and teamwork in both personal and professional life.

Saad Anwar overcame barriers and grew into a compassionate and grateful leader. In this insightful conversation, Saad Anwar shares his beginnings, his career journey, his challenges and successes and gives a preview of his next plans.

The beginnings

We started the interview by asking: “First, could you tell us a little about your career and educational background?”

He shared: “When I was very young, I moved to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in 2003 for my father’s work. Coming from a humble background, I started my professional career at the age of 18 to accompany my family.

My professional journey began in 2016 when I graduated from high school and went to a job interview that same evening. I started my career as a Client Relations Executive at a consulting firm where I had the opportunity to learn about different niches of the industry. My time at the firm lasted about 5 months as I was laid off due to a restructuring of the company.”

He added: “However, in the same year, I held several positions in various organizations until 2017. In March of the same year, I decided to stop taking more jobs and start my company. The following year, I opened SHM to develop the talents of the youth in Jeddah and served as a board member of the organization for a year. In 2018, I joined Senyar Arabian Trading Company as a co-partner and served as its operations manager until 2022. In 2021, I bought an international company, European Segment Company in Slovakia. In the same year, together with my partners, I took over Senyar Arabian Trading and made it the official foreign investor in Saudi Arabia under our name.

Since 2022, I have been the CEO of Senyar Arabian Trading Company. After being featured on the cover of Business Outreach magazine in 2023 with the title “Business Leaders of The Year 2023”, I started investing in local businesses.”

How to be an effective leader

We wanted to learn more about Saad Anwar’s leadership style in his company and asked him: “How would you describe your leadership style in the context of the media industry?”

He said, “Leaders strengthen idealism when they pray for the development and growth of the team. For me, success is a partnership of efforts with like-minded people. And the company grows when everyone on the team grows.

There may be different opinions as everyone has their own way of working. But the idea is to always come together and form a company that exemplifies diversity, inclusion and equality. I have always allowed my employees to step out of their comfort zone and push their limits.”

Adaptability amidst uncertainty

Challenging phases are an inevitable part of any entrepreneurial journey. So we asked Saad Anwar, “What were the biggest hurdles you faced in your business and how did you overcome them?”

Saad shared, “In 2017, I faced quite a bit of difficulty because I wanted to start my business under the Saudi government’s regulations. My creativity and eagerness to achieve outstanding results were often exploited by some. But I keep those times present in my mind as a reminder of all that I went through.

When I started Senyar, it was a big challenge for me to start progressing immediately. I took up the challenge and took care of the accounting, operations, sales and marketing departments.

This division offered employment opportunities in the areas of accounts, operations, administration, sales, and marketing. I became the operations manager where I steered my role towards management, finance control, planning, and development.