Saudi Arabia abruptly replaced Nadhmi al-Nasr, the longtime CEO of its ambitious and controversial “megacity” Neom project, on Tuesday, several outlets reported.
“Neom” is the name of a $500 billion future “zero-carbon” city being built under the orders of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) on the northern banks of the Red Sea. The Project is part of “Vision 2030,” a Saudi initiative that aims to diversify its economy and reduce its heavy reliance on oil revenue.
The prospective “megacity,” the crown prince has said, will compete with Miami as an international tourism venue and premier host destination for sporting and other entertainment. The project calls for the construction of several different neighborhoods, including a luxury island, a ski resort, a Silicon Valley-esque tech hub, and “The Line,” is a 106-mile-long skyscraper that will allegedly house several million people.
At press time, the “Neom” project is far from completion and the Saudi government has reportedly and significantly scaled back its 2030 goals for “The Line” down to “just a mile and a half” by 2030.
The company in charge of the project announced on its website on Tuesday that Nadhmi Al Nasr, who served as the project’s CEO since 2018, was replaced by Aiman Al Mudaifer. The company did not give any reason for the abrupt change.
“As Neom enters a new phase of delivery, this new leadership will ensure operational continuity, agility and efficiency to match the overall vision and objectives of the project,” the company said, asserting that “Al-Mudaifer has a deep and strategic understanding of Neom and its projects.”
“In his role at PIF, Eng. Al-Mudaifer oversees all local real estate investments and infrastructure projects. He is also a board member of multiple prominent companies within the Kingdom,” the statement continued.
While the company did not give a reason for al-Nasr’s replacement, sources told the British Times that he was “sacked.” Reuters reported on Tuesday that, according to an anonymous source with knowledge on the matter, al-Nasr’s departure is due to the former CEO “not delivering on key performance indicators,” without giving further details.
The Neom project has been marred by numerous reports of worker fatalities, inhumane work conditions, ethnic cleansing of the area where the city is to be built, and executives engaging in inappropriate workplace behavior. In late October, the British TV network ITV denounced that over the past eight years, 21,000 migrant workers from India, Bangladesh, and Nepal had so far died in the Saudi desert while working on the project. The Hindustan Times further reported that another 100,000 workers have gone missing.
In September, the Wall Street Journal reported that al-Nasr, the now former CEO, said in the past that he drives “everybody like a slave” during a meeting. Antoni Vives, a Spanish national and one of the lead developers of “The Line,” got in a physical brawl with a construction manager.
Vives was convicted of corruption in 2021 on public malfeasance charges committed during his tenure at the Barcelona city hall. According to the report, the Saudi crown prince said that he did not care “as long as Vives didn’t commit the crime in Saudi Arabia.”
In 2022, al-Nasr, the now former CEO, reportedly told one project executive “to walk into the desert to die, so he could urinate on his grave.”
In May, Rabih Alenezi, an exiled Saudi colonel denounced to the BBC that the Saudi government has ordered troops to kill members of the indigenous Huwaitat tribe that resist being evicted from their lands — where the construction of the “megacity” project is taking place.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
