Meet Muna Al Sayed Ali Al Hashemi: The New Chairperson of Bahrain's TRA
Royal Decree No. (40) of 2026 has appointed Eng. Muna Al Sayed Ali Al Hashemi as Chairperson of the Board of Directors of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) in the Kingdom of Bahrain, for a four-year term. She takes the helm of the body that regulates the Kingdom's telecommunications sector at a moment when digital infrastructure, cybersecurity, and data centres sit at the top of the national digital-transformation agenda.
Al Hashemi is no newcomer to the sector. She arrives at the regulator carrying deep operational experience built over three decades inside Bahrain's largest telecommunications operator.
From Inside the Sector to the Regulator's Chair
Al Hashemi holds a BSc in Electronic Engineering and a Master's in Engineering and Telecommunications. She began her career as a graduate trainee engineer at Batelco in 1994. From the engineering department, she moved through a range of divisions — customer services, accounts, product marketing and development, and consumer marketing — before taking charge of the company's Consumer Division.
In 2015 she was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Batelco's Bahrain operations, becoming the first Bahraini woman to lead a telecommunications operator in the Kingdom. She later moved to the role of Deputy CEO of the Batelco Group, where she helped drive the group's strategy and strengthen its digital capabilities across its operations in multiple markets.
Her tenure leading Batelco Bahrain was marked by an aggressive push on network and digital infrastructure. She oversaw a fibre rollout that reached the majority of the Kingdom and one of the fastest mobile LTE coverage build-outs in the market. Under her leadership the operator introduced Bahrain WiFi — extending public wireless access across major locations and laying groundwork for later smart-city solutions — expanded its cloud-services portfolio through a series of new offerings, and completed a major project to broaden the reach of its global network. By her own account, the period amounted to a strategic digital transformation and turnaround, delivering an EBITDA margin of around 40 percent with a focus on long-term shareholder value.
Alongside her executive roles, Al Hashemi served on the board of Umniah — the group's operation in Jordan — and holds a seat on Bahrain's Supreme Council for Women.
A Recognised Regional Profile
Al Hashemi has featured in regional rankings of women leaders. She was named by Forbes Middle East among the “100 Most Influential Women in the Middle East,” and by Arabian Business among the “30 Most Influential Women in the Arab World” in 2019.
What Her Appointment Signals
Placing Al Hashemi at the head of the TRA board installs a chair who knows the market from the inside — from the competitive dynamics between operators to the liberalisation of the sector, whose pivotal phases she lived through from the operator's side. That kind of operational depth rarely sits in the regulator's chair, and it may shape the Authority's approach to spectrum, competition, and infrastructure readiness for the next generation of services.
The reconstituted board is expected to steer Bahrain's telecommunications agenda, oversee sector regulation, and advance the Kingdom's digital-transformation priorities over the coming four years.
Gulf ICT's Takeaway
The story here isn't the name — it's the signal it carries. Bahrain is handing the regulation of its sector to a leader who spent her entire career inside it. The bet is that operational experience produces a more grounded regulator. The question worth watching: does knowing exactly “how the operator works” translate into faster, more responsive regulation — or into greater caution toward the very players who were, until recently, colleagues in the same market?
