Some 36 Qataris have been ranked in the 2013 Arabian Business Power 500, a list of the region’s most influential Arabs.

Qatar Holding chief Ahmad Al Sayed is the highest-ranking Qatari, at No.7. Arabian Business reports:

As head of Qatar Holding, a subsidiary of  Qatar Investment Authority, Al Sayed is the man whose nod means everything. Among the investments that Qatar Holding has been involved with during 2012 are: a 20 percent investment in Ferrovial, a one percent stake in luxury goods behemoth LVMH and an undisclosed chunk of Credit Suisse. The firm also played a key role in the biggest merger of last year, between Glencore and Xstrata. Expect Al Sayed to be just as busy this year.

Neither of the two Qatari men who made it to the top 10 last year feature in this year’s index. Mohammad Bin Hammam, who in 2012 was president of the Asian Football Federation, formerly ranked No.3 and Wadah Khanfar, then director general of the Al Jazeera Network, was No.6.

Other locals who made it to the top 100 this year include Akbar Al Baker, CEO of Qatar Airways (24th); Bader Al Darwish, chairman of Darwish Holding (63rd); and Hisham Al Mana, head of leading automotive distributors Saleh Al Hamad Al Mana Co. (77th).

This year’s index also features a record 118 women, three of them Qatari. They include ICTQatar head Dr. Hessa Al Jaber (232th), Qatariat founder Buthaina Al Ansari (357th); and nuclear scientist Dr. Ilham Al Qaradawi (463rd).

For the ninth year in a row, the top spot in the ranking went to Saudi Arabia’s Prince Alwaleed, chairman of Kingdom Holding and one the world’s wealthiest people.

Olympic double gold champion Mo Farah (3rd) and Twitter operations chief Mazen Rawashdeh (5th) also featured.

Thoughts?

Credit: Photo of Ahmad Al Sayed courtesy of Qatar Holding

Note: This article has been corrected to reflect that some Arabs who made the list reside in Qatar, but are not nationals.