H.E. Deemah AlYahya made history as the founding Secretary-General of the Digital Cooperation Organisation, and the first Saudi woman to lead an international organisation. Since her appointment in 2021 and reappointment in May 2025, she has grown the DCO from five founding member states to sixteen nations representing over $3.5 trillion in combined GDP and more than 800 million people — building a multilateral institution dedicated to digital and AI economic cooperation from the ground up.
Before the DCO, she led Saudi Arabia’s National Digital Transformation Unit and drove the Saudi Codes programme, training more than 1.2 million people in digital skills. She also founded Women Spark, which has trained over 26,000 women in technology since 2013. In March 2026, she received the Technology Diplomacy Award at The Montgomery Summit.
