The UK and Saudi Arabia leg of My Most Trusted,
a national and global super-community of
90,147
trusted connections in our Trusted Universe, October 2026
UK · Saudi Arabia
gahwa. Saudi coffee, light and scented with cardamom, poured for every guest, often before a word of business is said.
Take a tour of the UK-Saudi Arabia Bridge Meet the host in the middle
The UK-Saudi Arabia Business Bridge is for British companies that want clients, partners or investors in Saudi Arabia, and for Saudi firms looking for a trusted British supplier, adviser or partner.
Saudi Arabia is investing heavily in new cities, industry and services, and British firms are welcome there. But Saudi business still runs on who you know. Decision makers are hard to reach cold, and a recommendation from someone they respect counts for more than any brochure. This Bridge supplies that recommendation.
Most of our bridges have a host on each bank. This one has a single host who knows both, and every introduction across it passes through him. British and Saudi firms each tell him who they want to meet, and he decides whether the meeting is worth making.
UK
British firms that want Saudi clients, partners or investors.
HostUnited Kingdom
Abdur Rahman Ilott, known as AR, holds both ends of the Bridge from the United Kingdom. He is Chief Commercial Officer at REG-1, whose AI-native platform automates governance, legal, risk and compliance work, including Saudi requirements such as the PDPL and the frameworks of SDAIA, the NDMO, the NCA and SAMA.
He knows the Kingdom first hand. From 1997 to 2000 he was DHL's territory manager in Jubail Industrial City, selling to oil, gas and petrochemical companies across the Eastern Province, and he opened the first Aramco site office in DHL's history. He went on to run DHL's operations in Sudan as country manager, where his team was named Country of the Year for DHL's Near East, Maghreb and Greece area.
He speaks English, French and Arabic, holds a first class degree from SOAS, University of London, and has made 148 introductions on My Most Trusted.
More about ARSaudi Arabia
Saudi companies and investors looking for trusted British suppliers, advisers and partners.
In Saudi Arabia a meeting usually starts with gahwa: a small cup of light, cardamom scented coffee, poured for the guest first and refilled until they give the cup a gentle shake. Nobody hurries it, because the coffee is how two people decide whether they trust each other. A British firm that arrives with a slide deck and no introduction is rarely offered a second cup. One that arrives through someone both sides already know is halfway there before the coffee is poured.