Amal Jamil Fatani

Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology

Amal Jamil Fatani is a Saudi academic and leader with more than three decades of experience in higher education, scientific research, human rights, women and youth empowerment and cross-cultural collaboration. She is Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology and an Advisory Board Member at the College of Pharmacy, King Saud University. In 2020 the Ministry of Education appointed her Cultural Attaché at the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in the United Kingdom, responsible for more than 14,000 Saudi students at nearly 80 UK universities, with a further 600 students in Ireland in her final year. Over her four-year tenure she revitalized 29 Saudi student clubs, institutionalized annual elections, fostered volunteering and national representation, oversaw 11 student research symposia and 30 cultural discussions under the London Cultural Saloon, standardized club performance with Gold and Silver recognition plaques, and led more than 300 engagements with stakeholders in both countries, while helping to facilitate high-level delegations between the UK and Saudi Arabia. She served as Sherpa for the Science 20 during Saudi Arabia’s G20 Presidency in 2020 and supported the Women 20 in several initiatives. She was appointed by royal decree as a Board Member of the Saudi Human Rights Commission, contributing to committees on family, women, children and civic rights, and she represented the Kingdom in delegations to the United Nations in Geneva and New York, the Arab League in Cairo and official visits to Canada. Her governance experience includes board roles at Mawhiba, the Saudi Research Science Institute at KAUST, Al Yamamah University, Alfaisal University, the University of Prince Mugrin and King Faisal University. At the Ministry of Higher Education she served as Consultant and General Supervisor of Female Affairs, establishing the biannual Female Leaders Forum. At King Saud University she held pioneering roles as Chair of the Pharmacology and Toxicology Department, the first Vice Dean of the Female College of Pharmacy and the first Dean overseeing nine female scientific and medical colleges. In the corporate sector she was Vice President at Tata Consultancy Services’ all-women Business Process and Digital Services Centre, where she helped grow the workforce from 400 to nearly 1,000 employees and contributed to award-winning sustainability and empowerment initiatives. She holds a PhD from the University of Strathclyde and has more than 50 scientific publications, with research collaborations spanning King Saud University, the National Guard’s Antivenom Centre, King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre, the University of Strathclyde and Yale School of Medicine.