Saudi Aramco announced this week that the former global Chairman and CEO of EY, Mark Weinberger, had joined the board effective 31 March. Mr Weinberger replaced Andrew Gould who resigned from the board earlier in March. While Mr Weinberger’s career has been in the financial services sector, he replaces the former CEO of oilfield services giant Schlumberger. This is a symbolic shift in focus for Aramco, which implemented a partial, domestic IPO in late-2019 (MEES, 6 December 2019), and is still eying a larger overseas offering. Still, the events of recent weeks have proven that fundamentally, Aramco will act according to the desires of the kingdom’s leadership rather than in the best interests of its balance sheet (MEES, 20 March).