Ayman Hariri

Ayman Rafic Hariri (born 16 May 1978) is a Lebanese billionaire businessman and technology entrepreneur, best known as the co-founder, CEO and CPO of the social network Vero and as former deputy CEO of Saudi Oger. ¹ He is the second-youngest son of the former Lebanese prime minister and tycoon Rafic Hariri and his wife Nazik Hariri, and a brother of former prime minister Saad Hariri, according to the Arabic article. ^{1 2} Forbes estimated his net worth at US$1.4 billion as of September 2026 — a dated press estimate, cited as such. ¹

Hariri was born in Saudi Arabia and moved at the age of two to Lebanon, his father's birthplace; at twelve he moved to Paris to attend school. ¹ The Arabic article gives his birth year as 1979, against 16 May 1978 in the English article and Wikidata; the discrepancy is recorded as it stands. ² Following his half-brothers Bahaa, Saad and Houssam, he studied in the United States at Georgetown University, graduating in 1999 with a bachelor's degree in computer science; while at Georgetown he interned at Intelsat as a programmer. ¹

In 2001 Hariri co-founded Epok with Scott Birnbaum, a distributed software platform for cross-network collaboration aimed mainly at enterprises and concerned with data privacy. ¹ Following his father's assassination on 14 February 2005 in Beirut, he returned to Saudi Arabia to support his family's business and became deputy CEO and deputy chairman of Saudi Oger, overseeing some of its largest projects, including King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Princess Nourah Bint Abdul Rahman University in Riyadh and the Ritz Carlton in Riyadh. ¹

Following his departure from Saudi Oger in 2013 and divestment in 2016, Hariri expanded into private investment through Red Sea Ventures, which invested in technology companies including an early involvement in Nest. ¹ The Arabic article records that he ranked 22nd among rich Arabs in Forbes's 2010 list and that he ran Saudi Oger together with his brother Saad. ² In 2017 he sold a 42.24% stake in GroupeMed Holding to OLT Holding, valued at approximately $535 million. ¹

After a few years of development, Hariri launched the social network Vero in 2015; it carries no advertising and is supported by a subscription model, and is based in New York according to the Arabic article. ^{1 2}

This section presents positions reported in the sources; it is not the museum's verdict on any of them.

Saudi Oger and the workers' wages: In late February 2018 Vero saw a marked increase in users and in scrutiny, which focused especially on Saudi Oger's inability to pay its migrant workers during 2016. ¹ According to a Vero statement given to USA Today and Gizmodo, Hariri ceased his duties as deputy CEO and deputy chairman of the family company in 2013; Gizmodo, however, found references to him still holding those positions as late as February 2016, including in one of Vero's own press releases. ¹

The Russian developers claim: In February 2018 a Twitter user criticised Vero for employing Russian developers and questioned whether the app could be trusted on that basis. A Vero spokesman told Time that the company, "like almost every global technology company", uses developers from across the world including the US, Russia, the UK, Europe and Africa, and dismissed the claim as baseless. ¹

The English article records that Hariri is married with three children, formerly lived in Paris, and now lives in Dubai with his wife and children; the Arabic article names his wife as Serine Salahuddin al-Bitar and records a son named Rafic after his father. ^{1 2} He owns a collection of rare comic books, named The Impossible Collection, which he exhibited in London in 2016. ¹

• "Ayman Hariri", English Wikipedia, revision of 13 October 2026. ¹
• «أيمن الحريري», Arabic Wikipedia, revision of 25 June 2026. ²
• Wikidata item Q21662949. ³