Mohammad Alawi

Chairman, Saudi Retail Forum; Deputy Chairman & Board Member

Mohammad Alawi is a business leader in retail and commercial real estate who serves as Deputy Chairman and Board Member of Alsarah Holding Company. He has chaired the board of Azad Properties, a Saudi developer of commercial and retail destinations. During his chairmanship the company signed a memorandum of understanding with the National Housing Company in February 2025 to explore a 700,000-square-metre commercial project in Khuzam, northern Riyadh, and in December 2025 opened Souq7 in Jeddah's Al-Jamea district, the Kingdom's largest open-air retail and entertainment destination, spanning 720,000 square metres with more than 3,500 stores across seven specialised zones. He has also served on the board of Red Sea Markets Company. Alawi describes retail real estate as a strategic pillar of national development, and argues that the shift from souks to malls followed changing consumer preferences and urban planning, so every property should be studied for functionality, demographics and trends before it is built.