Jack MacGowan

Jack MacGowan is the newly appointed CEO of Al Waha Duty Free Company which was registered in November 2024 and formally launched by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) in March 2025, with the objective of growing and transforming travel retail in the Kingdom and supporting Project 2030.

Before stepping into this role, Jack advised boards in the U.S. (PCRP), chaired tech firm Digi Systems in Ireland, and served as Director (and briefly, Interim CEO) of Sodaflo in the UK. 

He spent 14 years at the Dublin Airport Authority, first leading commercial operations for the airport group and then serving as CEO of ARI, a powerhouse in global travel retail, for seven years.  At ARI, Jack led expansion into Asia, New Zealand, and the Middle East, doubling revenues to $1.2 billion and tripling both EBITDA and shareholder returns. By the time he exited in 2018, the company had grown into a 4,000-person strong enterprise spanning North America, Europe, the Middle East, and the Asia Pacific region. 

Jack’s early career included key marketing roles at Shell, strategic consulting at McKinsey in London, and international management posts with Diageo across the UK, USA, Greece, and Russia. He holds engineering degrees from Trinity College Dublin and Cambridge University, and an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.  

Now based in Riyadh where Jack lives with his wife, Petrina Smyth, and their two children. He also serves as a Non-Executive Director at Tailwind Inc.