Forbes Middle East - English Issue - February 2021

WORLD’S 10 YOUNGEST FEMALE BILLIONAIRES 2020’S BIGGEST WINS FOR WOMEN

TOP INDIAN BUSINESS LEADERS

GLOBAL FEMALE ENTREPRENEURSHIP THE WORLD’S MOST POWERFUL WOMEN

REEM ASAAD Cisco, Vice President, Middle East and Africa

“YOU DON'T HAVE THESE MEGAPROJECTS ACROSS EUROPE AND THE U.S. LIKE YOU SEE IN THE MIDDLE EAST.”

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2021 ISSUE 101

THE MIDDLE EAST’S POWER BUSINESSWOMEN

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2021 ISSUE 101

FEARLESS FEMALE LEADERS TAKING THEIR SEATS AT THE HEAD OF THE TABLE. OTHERS.............................. $8

OMAN.......................... OMR 3

BAHRAIN....................BHD 3

UAE.............................AED 30

QATAR........................QAR 30

KUWAIT...................KWD 2.5

SAUDI ARABIA........ SAR 30

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F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2021

6 I Sidelines Starting Strong

By Claudine Coletti

LEADERBOARD

1

8I

CONTENTS

WOMEN LEADERS

2020’s Biggest Wins For Women Last year the world witnessed some significant moments for women’s rights and gender parity. From new laws to more senior leadership representation, here are some of last year’s groundbreaking wins for women.

By Jamila Gandhi

8

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

10 I

In Numbers Global Female Entrepreneurship

By Jamila Gandhi BILLIONAIRES

12 I

World’s 10 Youngest Female Billionaires

66

Top Indian Business Leaders In The Middle East 2021

Of the 2,095 global billionaires, the top 10 youngest women have all acquired their fortune thanks to the success of their family business. Figures are as of January 1, 2021.

By Jamila Gandhi

14 I

The World’s Most Powerful Women Billionaire Edition These 12 female billionaires featured on Forbes’ 2020 annual ranking of the World’s 100 Most Powerful Women. They are worth a collective $156 billion. Figures are as of February 2, 2021.

66

By Jamila Gandhi

20 I Billionaires Behind The

Vaccines

As pharmaceutical companies hit the headlines thanks to the development and production of COVID-19 vaccines, we take a look at some of the healthcare billionaires behind the doses. Net worth figures are as of January 25, 2021.

By Layan Abo Shkier

80 I Thoughts On Equality

F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

THOUGHT LEADERS

24 I Middle East Family Offices: Positioning To Thrive By Scott Whalan 31 I The Year That Was… And The Way Ahead By Hussein Sayed JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2021

34

CONTENTS

2

The Middle East’s Power Businesswomen 2021

Fearless female leaders taking their seats at the head of the table.

56

56

Exploring New Horizons Najla Al Shirawi, CEO of Bahrain’s SICO, has been with the 25-year-old investment bank since its very early years. Today she is leading its multibillion-dollar expansion, with Saudi Arabia the next port of call.

By Jason Lasrado

F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2021

3

F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2021

January / February 2021

Issue 101

•

CONTENTS

4

INSIDE

•

COVER STORY

26

Taking On Zoom

Cover photo courtesy of Cisco

Reem Asaad, VP for the Middle East and Africa at Cisco, is finding opportunities to keep the region’s customers connected in an era of remote work, distance learning, and evolving technology.

By Samuel Wendel

F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2021

5

SIDELINES

FORBES MIDDLE EAST

6

Starting Strong You’ve got to give it to 2021, this new year began knowing it had a dauntingly heavy weight of expectation on its shoulders. At midnight on December 31, 2020, people around the world held their breath and offered up a silent prayer for change, a new beginning, a hopeful future.

One month in and I think it’s fair to say it has delivered a mixed bag so far, but as always let’s focus on the positives.

Vaccines: the most important discussion of the day. Personally, I feel very lucky that vaccines are not a new thing to me. I clearly remember rolling up the sleeve of my school shirt for a shot, and I still have a small scar from the BCG. I was not aware then of whether there were different options available, nor did I ask. But the roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccinations has changed things. At the time of writing, China, the U.K., Russia, and the U.S. both on its own and with Germany have developed vaccines, and how they work, how effective they are, who will have one, which one is the best, and whether they have tiny robots in them have become common debates around many tables. One of the key questions of course is who is benefitting? Last year, two of the COVID-19 vaccines minted at least four new billionaires according to Forbes, including German BioNTech co-founder, Uğur Şahin, who joined the three-comma-club 12 years after establishing his company. In this issue we take a look at the moneymakers behind these pioneering medicines. (For the record, I have just had the first shot of Sinopharm, and so far I feel robot-free.)

Another ground-breaking event occurred last month, which witnessed the swearing in of the U.S.’s new President following an election that seemed to go on for years. But, as good as his inauguration speech was, I feel like Joe Biden’s thunder was stolen a little—and I don’t just mean by Amanda Gorman’s astounding reading. As the world watched on January 20, Kamala Harris become the first woman to be sworn in as Vice President of the U.S. This was a moving historic moment and a proud day for women everywhere. As the world’s largest economy and one of its most powerful influences, what happens in the U.S. impacts us all. For those of us that prayed to 2021 for change, this moment felt like an answer.

So, it’s fitting to be combining our first issue of 2021 with our annual list of the Middle East’s Power Businesswomen. In this ranking we celebrate the power and influence of women in the Middle East, highlighting the achievements and accolades of the region’s most fearless females heading its biggest organizations. This year we can say more than ever that these formidable business leaders have world-class strength, stamina, and ingenuity because they have all led their companies through 2020, one of the most testing battlegrounds many businesses have ever found themselves on. They are survivors, commanders, and innovators—and that’s why this list is a suitable start to this particular new year.

2021 may have a long way to go, but this feels like a good way to begin.

—Claudine Coletti, Managing Editor

F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2021

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2021 ISSUE 101 Dr. Nasser Bin Aqeel Al Tayyar President & Publisher Khuloud Al Omian Editor-in-Chief Forbes Middle East, CEO - Arab Publisher House

khuloud@forbesmiddleeast.com

Editorial

Sales

Claudine Coletti Managing Editor claudine@forbesmiddleeast.com

Ruth Pulkury Senior Vice President - Sales ruth@forbesmiddleeast.com

Laurice Constantine Digital Managing Editor laurice@forbesmiddleeast.com

Philip Alexander Senior Sales Manager philip@forbesmiddleeast.com

Fouzia Azzab Arabic Editor fouzia@forbesmiddleeast.com Jamila Gandhi Reporter jamila@forbesmiddleeast.com

Fiona Pereira Senior Sales Manager fiona@forbesmiddleeast.com

Samar Khouri Online Editor samar@forbesmiddleeast.com

Karthik Krishnan Sales Representative karthik@forbesmiddleeast.com

Amany Zaher Quality Assurance Editor amany@forbesmiddleeast.com Cherry Aisne Trinidad Online Reporter aisne@forbesmiddleeast.com Nermeen Abbas nermeen@forbesmiddleeast.com

Upeksha Udayangani Sales Coordinator upeksha@forbesmiddleeast.com Tayyab Riaz Mohammed Financial Controller riaz@forbesmiddleeast.com

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Research

Jason Lasrado jason@forbesmiddleeast.com Ahmed Mabrouk ahmed@forbesmiddleeast.com Soumer Al Daas Head of Creative soumer@forbesmiddleeast.com Julie Marquez, Sinnate Yafa Graphic Designers Daniyal Baig Innovation Director daniyal@forbesmiddleeast.com Kashif Baig Event Producer kashif@forbesmiddleeast.com Mohammed Ashkar IT Administrator ashkar@forbesmiddleeast.com Muhammad Saim Aziz Web Developer saim@forbesmiddleeast.com Habibullah A. Qadir Operations Manager habib@forbesmiddleeast.com Mrinalini Vijay Head of Human Resources hr@forbesmiddleeast.com

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By Jamila Gandhi

• LEADERBOARD • Women Leaders

2020’s Biggest Wins For Women Last year the world witnessed some significant moments for women’s rights and gender parity. From new laws to more senior leadership representation, here are some of last year’s groundbreaking wins for women.

Firsts In American Politics In November, Kamala Harris became the first woman in American history elected to the vice presidency, shattering barriers that have kept men entrenched at the highest levels of American politics for many years.

The California native is no stranger to firsts. In 2010, Harris became the first F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

African-American and first woman to serve as California’s attorney general.

In 2016, Harris was the first IndianAmerican woman to be elected to the U.S. Senate. In August of 2020, she became the first Black woman and first Asian-American woman to appear on a major political party’s presidential ticket. Forbes ranked the 56-year-old

Kamala Harris In January 2021, Kamala Harris was sworn in as America’s first female Vice President.

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2021

Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP

LEADERBOARD

8

Scientific Achievements At Nobel 2020

Kuwait Introduces Domestic Violence Law In September, Kuwait issued a law on domestic violence protection, signaling a historic victory for the nation’s women’s rights lobbyists.

The bill set the minimum standard and legal protection procedures for domestic violence victims to maintain family unity without threatening its stability in society.

As per the law, domestic violence is defined as “physical, psychological, sexual or financial mistreatment, whether in words or actions.” The regulation will encourage abuse victims to report assaults and enable the Minister of Social Affairs to build special teams to investigate and follow up domestic violence cases.

Image from source

First Arab Woman Appointed As IPA President Sheikha Bodour bint Sultan Al Qasimi became the first woman from the Arab world and only the second woman ever to be appointed as International Publishers Association (IPA) President since the organization was founded in 1896.

The historic announcement was made in November, with Bodour to formally take over her new role in January. She has been serving as vice F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

Sheikha Bodour bint Sultan Al Qasimi

president since her election to the post at the 2018 General Assembly.

Bodour is only the second woman after Ana Maria Cabanellas of Argentina to be appointed as President in IPA’s 124-yearhistory. IPA is among the world’s most prestigious federations of national and regional publishers’ organizations. Based in Geneva, Switzerland, the institution’s members comprise over 83 organizations from 69 countries.

The U.A.E.’s New Equal Pay Law In September, the president of the U.A.E., Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, issued a decree to ensure equal pay for both men and women in the private sector.

As per the Decree of Federal Law No.06 for 2020, “female employees shall receive wages equal to that of males if they perform the same work or another of equal value. The procedures, controls, and standards Caroline Hagen Kjos necessary for evaluating work of

The Nobel prizes, which remain very much a man’s world, named four female laureates in October.

French researcher Emmanuelle Charpentier and American biochemist Jennifer Doudna were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing a technology that can rewrite DNA in cells. The duo’s win is only the third time in Nobel history that a woman or an all-female team have taken the chemistry prize after Marie Curie and Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin won it in 1911 and 1964, respectively.

The honor also marks the first time in the chemistry prize’s history that two women won without sharing the prize with a man.

Astronomer and physics professor Andrea Ghez was also part of the science awardees, sharing the Nobel Prize for Physics. She made history as the fourth woman ever to win the prize in physics, an accolade first achieved by Marie Curie in 1903.

American poet and professor of English at Yale University, Louise Gluck, was awarded the Literature Prize.

Since its inception in 1901, only 58 women have been recognized with a Nobel prize, representing only 6.2% of the 934 laureates overall, as per AFP data.

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9 LEADERBOARD

equal value will be set under a decision to be issued by the Cabinet, based on a proposal from the Minister of Human Resources and Emiratization.”

In the UN Development Programme’s 2019 Gender Inequality Index, the U.A.E. climbed 23 places to rank first in the Arab region and 26th globally.

vice-president-elect of the U.S. third on its list of the world’s most powerful women in 2020.

President Joe Biden also announced an all-women senior communications team, marking another first for the White House. At least 131 women are set to serve in the U.S. Congress in 2021, surpassing the 2019 record of 127 women, according to the Center of American Women and Politics.

By Jamila Gandhi

• LEADERBOARD • Entrepreneurship

LEADERBOARD

10

Global Female Entrepreneurship

T

he global rate of female entrepreneurship has been growing faster than that of male entrepreneurs, with over 250 million women worldwide engaged in entrepreneurship, according to 2020 data from Visa. But findings show that raising capital remains a big challenge for female founders, and they disproportionately bore the brunt of tightened investor dollars last year.

With the emergence of the novel coronavirus in 2020, a growing body of research has warned of a gender regression on what had been slow but still considerable progress in the venture capital (VC) world. Research by Visa found that 79% of female entrepreneurs in the U.S. feel more empowered now than they did five years ago, yet 66% report difficulty in obtaining the funding they need. Similarly, a 2019 Columbia Business School study showed that ventures led by women are 63% less likely to receive VC funding, despite being just as likely to achieve exit outcomes through IPOs or acquisitions as ventures led by men, if they receive support.

In 2010, only 3% of invested dollars went to female-only founded companies and in 2019, almost 10 years later, the figure remained at just 3%, according to a “Funding to Female Founders” report by CrunchBase. Over that decade, female-only founders raised an average of 13% less than male-only founded firms and 10% less than F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

• In Numbers •

250

million women worldwide engaged in entrepreneurship.

79%

of female entrepreneurs in the U.S. feel more empowered now than they did five years ago.

66%

report difficulty in obtaining the funding they need.

63%

less likely to receive VC funding if the venture is led by women.

3%

of invested dollars went to female-only founded companies.

7%

of partners or decisionmakers at the top 100 venture firms are women.

female-male co-founded companies.

Globally, overall deal activity for female-founded firms plunged last year, with women founders receiving 4.3% of venture deals in the first quarter, down from 7.1% compared to the same period a year ago, data by Pitchbook found.

The problem continues at the source of funding opportunities. A CrunchBase “Women in Venture” report revealed that only 7% of partners or decision-makers at the top 100 venture firms are women.

Beyond business owners, COVID-19 has impacted employed professionals too. “COVID-19 has disrupted the workplace in ways we’ve never seen before,” highlighted the annual “Women in the Workplace” study by McKinsey & Company and LeanIn.Org. The report pointed to signs that women are leaving the workforce at higher rates than men.

In 2020, investors also adopted a more risk-averse approach to capital deployment and doubled down on existing portfolios amid shelter-in-place orders and travel restrictions. As a result of these dynamics, McKinsey & Company discovered that 1 in 4 women are contemplating downshifting their careers or leaving the workforce.

Alongside support networks for startups and greater representation of women in leadership, female entrepreneurs need the same funding opportunities as their male counterparts to reach their full potential as founders—VCs and investors still need to catch up.

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2021

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• DIGITAL STORES • Caroline Hagen Kjos

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JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2021

• LEADERBOARD •

By Jamila Gandhi

Billionaires

World’s 10 Youngest

Female Billionaires

Of the 2,095 global billionaires, the top 10 youngest women have all acquired their fortune thanks to the success of their family business.

Figures are as of January 1, 2021.

Alexandra Andresen, Katharina Andresen Age: 25, 26 Net worth:

$1.5 billion each Citizenship: Norway Source of wealth:

Investments

Katharina Andresen

F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

The Andresen sisters inherited 42% of their family-owned investment company Ferd in 2007. The sisters’ father, Johan, still runs the company and controls 70% of the votes via a dualclass share structure.

Ferd is the Norwegian Andreson’s family investment firm, which owns stakes in several Scandinavian manufacturing, finance, and tech firms. The Andresen family has been a household name in Norway for over 100 years, primarily known for its tobacco brand, which they sold in 2005.

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Illustration by Soumer Daas

LEADERBOARD

12

Age: 29 Net worth: $1.3 billion Citizenship: Germany Source of wealth: Publishing Furtwaengler, daughter of publishing magnate Hubert Burda and the doctor and actress Maria Furtwaengler, owns 25% of Burda Media Group. Its portfolio consists of some 600 media products in 24 countries, including Focus, Bunte, Elle and Harper’s Bazaar’s German editions. She is a member of Burda Media’s board of directors, as is her brother Jacob, and she performs as a singer-songwriter under the stage name Lisa Fou. Before studying at a music conservatory in California, she studied art history at Cambridge University.

Lisa Draexlmaier

Age: 30 Net worth: $1.8 billion Citizenship: Germany Source of wealth: Auto parts

Danish shoe manufacturer, ECCO. Its products are sold in 90 countries from more than 2,200 ECCO shops and online. ECCO was founded by Kasprzak’s late grandfather, Karl Toosbuy, in 1963. She is a dressage rider and competed in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, placing 14th. Kasprzak operates a private dressage barn in Haderslev.

Eva Maria Braun-Luedicke and Friederike Braun-Luedicke

Age: 34, 37 Net worth: $1.4 billion each Citizenship: Germany Source of wealth: Medical technology Eva and Friederike own 12% each of the medical device company B. Braun Melsungen, which was started in 1839 as a small pharmacy selling herbal remedies. Today, with more than

Lisa and her father, Fritz Draexlmaier, preside over auto parts maker Fritz Draexlmaier Holding GmbH, of which Lisa is the sole owner. The company counts Audi, BMW, Cadillac, Land Rover, Maserati, MercedesBenz, Porsche, and Tesla among its customers. Subsidiaries worldwide are named after the late Lisa Draexlmaier, Lisa’s grandmother, who co-founded the Draexlmaier group. The conglomerate got its start in 1958 with an order for 50,000 wiring harnesses for the Goggomobil, a microcar produced by Hans Glas GmbH.

Illustration by Soumer Daas

Age: 35, 36 Net worth: $1.2 billion each Citizenship: Australia Source of wealth: Mining

Ginia and Hope are the daughters of Australian mining mogul Gina Rinehart, Australia’s richest person.

Together with their other two siblings, they are the beneficiaries of a trust that owns a large stake in mining giant Hancock Prospecting. Hope joined then withdrew from a four-year court battle to remove her mother as trustee.

Ginia stayed out of the long-running

Age: 37 Net worth: $2.7 billion Citizenship: Norway Source of wealth: Diversified

Age: 32 Net worth: $1.1 billion Citizenship: Denmark Source of wealth: Shoes

F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

Ginia Rinehart and Hope Welker

Caroline Hagen Kjos

Anna Kasprzak

Kasprzak, along with her brother André and mother Hanni, owns

64,000 employees globally, B. Braun manufactures products ranging from infusion and injection solutions to surgical instruments. Their mother, Barbara, is a member of the company’s supervisory board. Their mother’s cousin Ludwig Georg Braun took the reins in 1977 when the company had just $24 million in annual sales.

Caroline Hagen Kjos

Hagen Kjos became chairman of her family’s Canica AS holding company in 2014. The Swiss resident also received a majority stake in Canica at that time. Her father, Norwegian billionaire Stein Erik Hagen, founded discount supermarket Rimi with his father in the 1970s. It merged with Sweden’s ICA group in 1998 and later with Dutch retailer Ahold; Hagen eventually sold his stake, forming Canica AS with the proceeds.

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13 LEADERBOARD

Elisabeth Furtwaengler

• LEADERBOARD •

By Jamila Gandhi

Billionaires

The World’s Most Powerful Women Billionaire Edition

These 12 female billionaires featured on Forbes’ 2020 annual ranking of the World’s 100 Most Powerful Women.

They are worth a collective $156 billion. Figures are as of February 2, 2021.

CEO, Fidelity Investments Rank on list: 9 Net worth: $15 billion Source of wealth:

Money management Citizenship: U.S. Johnson has served as CEO of Fidelity Investments since 2014 and has been chairman since 2016. Her grandfather, Edward Johnson II, founded the Boston-based mutual fund giant in 1946. She owns an estimated 24.5% stake in the firm, which has nearly $2.9 trillion in managed assets.

The Massachusetts resident worked summers at Fidelity through college and joined full-time as an analyst in 1988 after receiving a Harvard M.B.A.

Safra Catz CEO, Oracle Rank on list: 15 Net worth: $1.2 billion Source of wealth: Software Citizenship: U.S.

Abigail Johnson

F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

Catz has served as CEO of software firm Oracle since September 2014, when founder and fellow billionaire Larry Ellison stepped down from the role. She joined Oracle in 1999 and is credited with spearheading Oracle’s aggressive acquisition strategy, helping close more than 130 acquisitions. Catz and her husband, Gal Tirosh, gave $250,000 to President Trump’s fundraising committee in June 2020.

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Illustration by Soumer Daas

LEADERBOARD

14

Abigail Johnson

Founder and President, Emerson Collective Rank on list: 42 Net worth: $22.7 billion

15

Source of wealth:

Apple, Disney Citizenship: U.S.

Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey Media tycoon Rank on list: 20 Net worth: $2.6 billion Source of wealth:

TV shows

Illustration by Soumer Daas; Angela Merkel photo by 360b/Shutetrstock.com

Citizenship: U.S. Winfrey has transitioned her hit talk show, which ran for 25 years, into a media and business empire.

The former news anchor built the reinvested profits from her talk show into $2 billion, as per Forbes estimates. In 2011, Winfrey launched the cable channel OWN. Her 25.5% of the network is worth more than $65 million. In March 2020, she returned to the small screen on Apple TV+ for an interview show about COVID-19 as part of her multiyear pact with the streaming service.

F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

Sheryl Sandberg COO, Facebook Rank on list: 22 Net worth: $1.8 billion Source of wealth:

Facebook Citizenship: U.S.

Powell Jobs inherited billions of dollars of stock in Apple and Disney from her late husband, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.

She purchased stakes in the parent of the NBA’s Washington Wizards and several media outlets.

She has been putting her fortune to work through Emerson Collective, a hybrid investment, social impact, and philanthropic firm founded in 2004.

Powell Jobs launched the Emerson Collective Foundation during the second half of 2016 with a gift of $1.2 billion.

Gina Rinehart Executive Chairwoman, Hancock Prospecting Rank on list: 45 Net worth: $17.2 billion Source of wealth: Mining Citizenship: Australia

As Chief Operating Officer at Facebook, Sandberg led the social media company from a $56 million loss in 2008 to $18.5 billion in profits The daughter of highin 2019. Her focus on profile iron-ore explorer positioning Facebook Lang Hancock, Rinehart as a platform for small rebuilt her late father’s business advertising financially distressed helped increase ad company, Hancock revenue by 27% during Prospecting. The most 2019, to $69.7 billion. significant piece of her Sandberg and Zuckerberg fortune comes from the have spent much of Roy Hill mining project, 2020 defending how the which started shipments to Caroline company polices hate Hagen Kjos Asia in 2015. The mining speech on its platform.

Angela Merkel Country: Germany Role: Chancellor

since November 2005 Age: 66 On Forbes’ 2020 ranking of the World’s 100 Most Powerful Women, Germany’s Angela Merkel topped the list for the second year in a row. This year may be different, as in 2021 she steps down as the Chancellor of Germany, a role she has held for over 15 years.

Former physicist Merkel grew up in East Germany before entering politics in 1989. She became minister for youth and women in 1991, and the minister for the environment, nature conservation and nuclear safety in 1994.

In 2005 she became chancellor of Germany— she was the first woman, the first East German, and the youngest person to ever hold the role. In 2017 she won her fourth consecutive term, but the following year she announced that she wouldn't seek another.

Merkel remains the de facto leader of Europe, leading the region's largest economy after steering Germany through financial crisis and back to growth. At last year’s G20 summit, she urged for further reform of the World Trade Organization.

magnate is also Australia’s

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2021

LEADERBOARD

Laurene Powell Jobs

World #1

third-largest cattle producer, with a portfolio of properties across the country.

Chairwomen, Biel Crystal Rank on list: 81 Net worth: $9.1 billion

MacKenzie Scott

Source of wealth:

Philanthropist Rank on list: 67 Net worth: $59 billion

Smartphone screens Citizenship: Hong Kong

Source of wealth:

Amazon Citizenship: U.S. Scott is an author and the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, to whom she was married for 25 years.

They divorced in mid2019. As part of the divorce settlement, Jeff transferred 25% of his Amazon stake to MacKenzie, which was 4% of the company. In late July 2020, she announced she’d given nearly $1.7 billion to 119 nonprofit groups and changed her last name from Bezos to Scott.

Kiran MazumdarShaw

Lee Boo-jin

investors. The company has received Indian regulatory permission to conduct phase 4 trials for its drug Itolizumab as a potential treatment for Covid19. Her philanthropic initiative, the Mazumdar Shaw Medical Centre, aims to create a sustainable, affordable cancer care model.

she set up a watch parts company with relatives in an apartment in Shenzhen.

Her consumer electronics supplier also laminates display panels for Tesla.

Zhou Qunfei

Source of wealth:

Founder, Chair, and Managing Director, Biocon Rank on list: 68 Net worth: $4 billion

Founder and CEO, Lens Technology Rank on list: 70 Net worth: $15.9 billion

Source of wealth:

Smartphone screens Citizenship: Hong Kong

Biopharma Citizenship: India Mazumdar-Shaw, India’s richest self-made woman, founded India’s largest listed biopharmaceutical firm by revenue in 1978.

The firm has successfully forayed into the lucrative US biosimilars market, catching the attention of F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

Source of wealth:

Qunfei chairs Lens Technology, a smartphone screen supplier whose customers include Samsung, LG, Microsoft, and Nokia. A migrant factory worker as a teenager, Zhou first took the plunge as an entrepreneur in 1993 when

Judy Faulkner Founder and CEO, Epic Systems Rank on list: 74 Net worth: $5.5 billion Health, IT Citizenship: U.S. Faulkner founded America’s leading medical-record software provider, Epic, in a Wisconsin basement in 1979. Epic supports over 250 million patients’ medical records and is used by top medical centers such as Johns Hopkins and Mayo Clinic. A computer programmer, Faulkner signed the Giving Pledge in 2015 and has agreed to eventually gift 99% of her stake in Epic to a private charitable foundation.

Ying and her husband Yeung Kin-man own Hong Kong’s Biel Crystal Manufactory, earning them a combined fortune of approximately $8.3 billion as of April 2020. Ying, Biel’s chairwoman, owns 49% of the business; Yeung holds 51%. Biel is the largest supplier of glass screens for cell phones, tablets, and watches to Apple and employs 100,000 people in mainland China.

Lee Boo-jin President and CEO, Hotel Shilla Rank on list: 90 Net worth: $2 billion Source of wealth:

Samsung Citizenship: South Korea The president and chief executive of Hotel Shilla, one of Seoul’s top lodging and conference centers, has also served as an advisor for the trading department of Samsung C&T, her family’s de-facto holding company. With her brother embroiled in a bribery scandal, Boo-jin has been speculated as a possible successor to the family empire. Hotel Shilla is also the country’s biggest duty-free operator after Lotte.

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2021

Illustration by Soumer Daas

LEADERBOARD

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Lam Wai Ying

THE FUTURE OF YOUR BUSINESS Learn more about it in GBM reports in partnership with IDC

Government

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Retail

Banking

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PRO M OTI O N

Empowering People Through Digitalization And Trust

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Ajay Bhalla, President for Cyber & Intelligence at Mastercard, explains the relevance of the company’s latest Digital Intelligence Index and what the data reveals about global digital economies and trust.

What is the Digital Intelligence Index and why is it important to track?

The Digital Intelligence Index is the result of a collaboration between Mastercard and The Fletcher School at Tufts University. It charts the progress economies have made in advancing digitalization, fostering trust and integrating connectivity into the lives of billions.

As digital innovation spreads, people, countries and continents have become wealthier, more developed and increasingly resilient to economic shocks. But the benefits have not reached everyone yet, nor are the gains made in some places guaranteed to last. The Digital Intelligence Index is crucial for informing interventions—by government, business and the third sector—to foster inclusive and trustworthy digital economies around the world.

What are the two components of the index and how are they measured?

The index sheds insight on two of the most important indicators of global

economic growth and prosperity: Digital Evolution and Digital Trust.

The Digital Evolution scorecard measures 160 indicators in 90 economies across four key pillars: institutional environment, demand conditions, supply conditions, and the capacity for innovation and change.

It captures an economy’s state and historical momentum from the physical past to the digital present.

The Digital Trust scorecard is the bridge that connects an economy’s journey from the digital present to an intelligent and inclusive digital future. It measures 198 indicators in 42 of the index’s economies across four key pillars: behavior, attitudes, environment, and experience.

What are this year’s findings?

The most dynamic digital economies—including the U.S., South Korea, Taiwan, the U.A.E. and Germany—significantly outperformed the OECD GDP growth rate in Q2 2020 amidst the global lockdown. During this period, digital technologies held societies and

TheF O thoughts in this R B E S M I expressed D D L E E A S T.C O M advertorial are those of the client.

their economies together across the world. Knowledge and informationbased parts of the economy helped societies to function effectively, despite widespread social distancing measures. These economies feature a combination of high levels of available talent, active R&D collaboration between industry and academia, and a strong record of creating and bringing digital products and services into the mainstream.

Many mature digital economies— such as New Zealand, the Netherlands, Canada and those in the Nordics—showed advanced adoption but slowing momentum.

They are trading off speed for sustainability by increasingly investing in policies that promote digital inclusion and strengthen institutional guardrails, distributing the gains from the digital economy across society.

Meanwhile, many emerging and developing economies—such as Kenya, Uruguay and Chile— demonstrate strong and growing

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PRO M OTI O N

digital demand, despite lower levels of advancement. Governments here need to do more to nurture their digital economies and instill trust in their emerging digital ecosystems.

What do these findings mean for economies facing the challenges of a global pandemic and postpandemic future?

There are different challenges for different economies across this year’s index, but globally there is an urgency to ensure that the benefits of digitalization are evenly spread across society.

For many emerging economies, there is a pressing need for governments to meet growing demand for digitalization with improved supply conditions. But, for the wider global economy, the focus is on entering an “after access” phase. Here investments in digital inclusion and trust are proving greater determinants of digital competitiveness. This includes factors such as the quality of access, facilitation of effective use of digital technologies,

At Mastercard, we are passionate about building trust in the digital economy.

Trust is our business.

We’ve maintained trust by ensuring the consumer continues to be at the heart of our work as we build products and services to make their lives more convenient, their interactions more seamless and, at every single stage, more secure.

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accountable institutions, robust data governance policies and fostering trust.

Which economies fared the best and the worst on the Digital Evolution scorecard?

Economies such as the U.S., Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, the U.A.E. and Germany proved to be highly digitally advanced and exhibit high momentum. They are leaders in driving innovation, building on their existing advantages in efficient and effective ways. Despite infrastructure gaps in many emerging economies, such as Latin America and SubSaharan Africa, their younger demographics display enthusiasm for a digital future, with increased use of social media and mobile payments.

Which economies fared the best and the worst on the Digital Trust scorecard?

Mature approaches to digitalization and related policymaking are established in Sweden, the Netherlands and Denmark, including measures around privacy, security and accountability that strengthen the trust environment. Citizens in these economies tend to have more optimistic attitudes around the future of digitalization.

Where economies—such as the U.S., Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore—deliver the holy grail of advanced infrastructure, broad access and unparalleled interaction, seamless experience is matched by high levels of engagement.

Economies such as Brazil, Colombia and Mexico are beginning to build momentum on behavior scores, demonstrating substantial engagement on social media and other new technologies, while the likes of China, Indonesia and Vietnam have increasingly favorable attitudes about their digital future,

buoyed by rapidly expanding digital adoption and opportunity.

How has Mastercard helped to build trust in the digital economy?

At Mastercard, we are passionate about building trust in the digital economy. Trust is our business.

We’ve maintained trust by ensuring the consumer continues to be at the heart of our work as we build products and services to make their lives more convenient, their interactions more seamless and, at every single stage, more secure.

We have led the way on new standards, such as EMV, QR and tokenization, and solutions that enhance secure payment experiences. Whether through innovations such as biometrics, contactless or digital identity, we are committed to retaining the trust and confidence of consumers.

Why is this trust so important?

Without trust, you can’t do business.

More so now than perhaps at any other point in history. Today, the evolving ecosystem requires us to shift from securing transactions to protecting trust in every interaction— across entire cyber environments, during the consumer’s digital transaction journey and across multiple payment flows.

In short, trust is the key factor in any relationship or transaction and economies can only go so far without it. With new forms of e-commerce and mobile payments emerging in all corners of the globe, consumers need to understand and trust that they will work and their information will be safe.

www.mastercard.com

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By Layan Abo Shkier

Billionaires

Billionaires Behind The Vaccines As pharmaceutical companies hit the headlines thanks to the development and production of COVID-19 vaccines, we take a look at some of the healthcare billionaires behind the doses. Net worth figures are as of January 25, 2021.

Thomas and Andreas Struengmann Net worth: $10.6 billion each Citizenship: Germany Source of wealth:

Pharmaceuticals

Cyrus Poonawalla Net worth: $11.5 billion Citizenship: India Source of wealth: Vaccines Poonawalla founded the Serum Institute of India in 1966, which is the largest vaccine maker by doses in the world today, producing over 1.5 billion doses of several vaccines every year. With nearly $800 million of investment, the Indian tycoon joined the race for producing COVID-19 vaccines in 2020, establishing multiple partnerships with COVID-19 vaccine developers. Serum is now working on trials in India of the treatments developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University. Serum sold its Czech unit to U.S. vaccine company, Novavax, and signed an agreement with the firm to codevelop a coronavirus vaccine. All of this has contributed to increasing Poonawalla’s net worth by 40% to reach $11.5 billion in January 2021, up from $8.2 billion recorded in April 2020.

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The twin Struengmann brothers’ Switzerlandbased investment firm, Santo Holding, invests in biotech, pharmaceutical, health and science firms, including BioNTech. The Struengmann brothers’ net fortune jumped from $4.4 billion in March 2019 to $9.6 billion each in April 2020. Pfizer and BioNTech announced in November 2020 that their COVID-19 vaccine could be up to 95% effective. By December, the Struengmann brothers were worth $11.7 billion each— although a month later that had dropped by $1.1 billion.

Besides BioNTech, the twin brothers’ investment portfolio also includes Uruguay’s drugmaker Mega Pharma.

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Mint / Getty Images

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• LEADERBOARD •

Uğur Şahin

Uğur Şahin, Photo by Andreas Arnold / dpa / AFP; Stéphane Bancel, photo by Eric PIERMONT / AFP; Timothy Springer, Bloomberg/Bloombergy via Getty Images ; Robert Langer, photo by Kimberly White / Getty Images via AFP

Net worth: $4.5 billion Citizenship: Germany Source of wealth: Biotechnology

Stéphane Bancel Net worth:$4.2 billion Citizenship: France Source of wealth: Biotechnology

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Physician and immunologist Şahin co-founded German Biotech firm BioNTech with his wife in 2008, of which he currently owns 18%. He joined the billionaires’ club in mid2020 with his net worth reaching $5.3 billion in December thanks to the COVID-19 vaccine that his company produced in partnership with American pharma giant, Pfizer. Using the messenger RNA molecule, Şahin initiated “Project Lightspeed” in January 2020 to create a COVID-19 vaccine. In November, BioNTech and Pfizer announced that their vaccine was 95% effective. The news raised BioNTech’s stocks and boosted Şahin’s net worth, making him eligible for the threecomma-club for the first time.

Timothy Springer Net worth:$2.1 billion Citizenship: U.S. Source of wealth: Biotechnology Springer was a founding investor in Moderna Therapeutics in 2010, putting $5 million into the firm. The 3.5% he owns of the company was worth $1.6 billion a decade later. He joined the billionaires club in 2020, following a 12% rise in Moderna’s stocks as a result of positive developments in its COVID-19 vaccine trails. Between March 2020— when WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic—and May, the firm’s stocks more than tripled. Besides Moderna, the Harvard Medical School professor is an investor in three other biotech companies: Selecta Biosciences, Scholar Rock and Morphic Therapeutic.

As the CEO of Massachusettsbased biotech company, Moderna Therapeutics, 2019 was not the best for Net worth:$1.6 billion Bancel and his firm, Citizenship: U.S. as it ended the year with Source of wealth: Biotechnology a net loss of $514 million. In 2020 the Langer is a founding investor in Massachusettssituation was turned upside down, and based biotech firm, Moderna, owning 3% of the company’s stocks jumped by more the company. He joined the three-comma-club than 468%. In April, Moderna said it was in November 2020, becoming the third billionaire that Moderna beginning phase 2 human trials for its minted last year. Between November and early December, his fortune COVID-19 vaccine, which boosted its stocks rose from roughly $1.1 billion to $2 billion, before declining to $1.7 by almost 12%, reserving a spot for Bancel billion following a drop in Moderna’s stocks by 17% on December for the first time in the three-comma-club 18. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor is known as with a net worth of around $1 billion. the “Edison of Medicine” for his work in biomedical engineering. He Bancel currently owns 6% of Moderna, alsoHagen owns Kjos smaller shares in publicly-traded biotech startups: SQZ down from the 9% he had at that time, as he Caroline Biotechnologies and Frequency Therapeutics. sold some of his shares in late 2020.

Robert Langer

F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

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PRO M OTI O N

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Solidifying Mass Access To The Financial Markets Hisham Mansour, Co-founder and Managing Director at the CFI Financial Group, reveals what makes the trading and investments brand stand out from competitors.

TheF O thoughts in this R B E S M I expressed D D L E E A S T.C O M advertorial are those of the client.

he financial markets have long been an exciting endeavor for individuals who are diverse by nature.

For sure, the main goal remains to make money and benefit from opportunities, but additionally some went after trading for the thrill, others for the status of it. Regardless of the reason, this has only fueled its growth exponentially over the past 100 years and, more prominently, the last 20 years.

Ever since CFI came into existence more than 22 years ago, our ultimate goal has been to become that brand, that name people quickly associate with trading and investing. A very familiar sound that imprints in their minds, and for good reasons. We aim to provide all that traders require, and we do this through a combination of different elements that make up the company and the team behind it.

The past year has seen the world grappling with a pandemic that is still affecting humanity as we speak. Despite the difficulties that faced nearly every individual on this earth, the online world thrived, and businesses that integrate part or all of their business models through means of being online saw great benefit and continue to reap the rewards of such opportunities as they evolve dynamically and quickly.

CFI was one of those firms, leveraging growth across all of its operations and maintaining a steady stream of continuous improvements that are passed on to traders and investors.

Some of those changes include offering thousands of CFDs on stocks, currencies, commodities, indices and ETFs from a single interface, a powerful trading infrastructure boosted by zero commissions, ultra-competitive

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spreads and a model geared at providing low latency and fast execution, especially during fast markets. Additionally, free daily educational and analytical webinars catering to all levels of experience are among the long list of features that help the firm maintain its competitiveness and leadership within the industry.

While the list goes on, and our improvements are no longer seeing long breaks in between, we have a certain belief at CFI, one that really gives us a powerful edge in how we approach this business and cater to traders and investors: “You are not just a number.”

Despite the exponential growth we witnessed, we remain extremely hands-on with every trader. You will never be treated as just a number, pushed towards the back of the flow queue while we wait to process a transaction you requested or feedback you are looking to provide.

We have a diverse, proactive and highly experienced specialist team that is zealous in making sure clients are happy and getting what they deserve and more. We are confident in this service and the support that our team provides because a large percentage of our clients are referrals from previous clients who were impressed by how they were treated in comparison to other renowned companies, where brand awareness and name dominate over real support and authenticity.

We are not your typical or average trading provider that is geared at securing the biggest number of clients and, once they are on-board, moving to the next one. To us, long-term partnerships take on a whole new meaning. We stress this as we seek to create an environment where traders only need to focus on trading and

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“For us, long-term partnerships take on a whole new meaning and we stress on it as we seek to create an environment where traders only need to focus on trading and not whether their provider is not processing a deposit fast enough or no one is picking up the phone when needed.” not whether their provider is not processing a deposit fast enough or picking up the phone when needed.

We offer reliability, something that will give you peace of mind for years to come and give you time to focus on other things in life as well. It’s one less thing to worry about that is part of your daily routine.

Such a mentality is a broad belief in the company, one that moves across the entire hierarchy, and it’s naturally born from having the right team. We rely on those individuals to provide what we preach and the executives work on a lead by example model to keep everyone motivated and ready for new challenges while enjoying milestones and wins. Furthermore, we empower our team members by listening to their needs and feedback, making sure they have the right tools to deliver and create a great workflow balance within a fast and highly dynamic industry.

We are confident in the combination of elements we use to drive CFI closer towards its vision. With the help of Dr. Demetrios Zamboglou, our Chief Operating Officer, aside from a highly personalized approach that we are very proud of and a carefully selected and trained team, we have also built an environment where it’s okay to make mistakes. We are not fans of totalitarian and cutthroat cultures. At the end of the day, we’re

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all human and our imperfections are exactly what give us an edge and allow us to do things differently.

The right way of doing things is a balance between the flexibility that it’s okay to make mistakes while also learning and deriving lessons from them. Last but not least, evaluate things day after day and make sure to rectify and adjust what is not working while empowering and improving what is bringing success and to a certain extent, this by itself is a standalone recipe for success.

The future is bright for this industry, and while there’s a bit of consolidation that keeps happening, we continue to work on creating the peace of mind that clients deserve. We do that through several regulated entities around the world under the CFI Financial Group, as well as thousands of trading products. The ease of getting started, the access to the markets, or just the support that we give you will really make you question whether you are being treated fairly elsewhere, or as just another number.

CM

EMPOWER YOURSELF

www.cfifinancial.com

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2021

CM

• THOUGHT LEADERS •

By Scott Whalan, Partner at Deloitte Middle East

Middle East Family Offices: Positioning To Thrive

THOUGHT LEADERS

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T

he resilience of family enterprises in the Middle East has been intensely tested by the COVID19 pandemic. Families have had to quickly adapt their business models and strategies to ensure continuity and create platforms to thrive amidst widespread economic disruptions. This created major challenges for some families, but unique opportunities for many others.

Although many family businesses across the region have suffered falls in revenue, some groups with dexterous leadership have managed to return to pre-crisis levels with swift maneuvers; many others expect to move up to this stage in the medium term. Families remain focused on investing in areas such as technology and many are taking the opportunity to expand organically or via acquisition across the value chain of their existing business. Overall there seems to be a sense of optimism.

In response to the pandemic, many families have revisited and adjusted their business strategies, particularly their medium-term plans. The trends are visible in their pursuit of leaner and more agile operations and their repositioning of investment portfolios. Their engagement in broader all-encompassing transformation exercises is becoming more prevalent. Not surprisingly, it is evident that most businesses are placing emphasis on cost reduction and technological improvements as the traditional working culture has now shifted—a large part of it from the physical to the online world.

From a private wealth perspective, much of the focus remains on institutionalizing the family office, unifying wealth governance structures across local, regional, and global jurisdictions, and diversifying the asset base away from underlying operating businesses to sustain wealth for future generations.

Most families operate separate private wealth structures for the family wealth, with the majority employing nonfamily members within these vehicles. Whilst many of the families were adequately braced for the impact of COVID-19, technology and risk management within the private office vehicle stand out to be the most exposed F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

areas going into the pandemic and requiring further improvement. For now, both inward and outward investment remains a priority, albeit mindful of risks such as further waves of COVID-19 across the world, geo-political disturbances and credit risks. This is the focus of all family enterprises, independent of their business structures.

Succession planning has always been a top priority for most families in the Middle East, with many of them confident that the “next gen” will be ready to lead within the coming few years.

But this pandemic has encouraged/hastened families to draw up a clear plan on how the business will be managed and divided in the future. However, it is important that the readiness of the family must be supported by the readiness of the enterprise and vice versa to ensure an effective transition of responsibility and authority between generations. The alignment of these two areas continues be an area of focus as well as a concern.

All businesses have learned something from the crisis—practical elements around the need for liquidity, contingency planning and communication, and unanimous appreciation for technology. Virtual meetings and some form of “work from home” are considered by many as a permanent shift, though many family offices will continue to prefer to engage in person.

Broadly, the pandemic has forced family businesses to learn general lessons around flexibility, both in the workplace and operationally, and the importance of diversification. In fact, families that held diverse portfolios and were well prepared in areas such as governance and cash flow management seemed to be most resilient to the immediate impact of the pandemic.

Throughout the pandemic, family offices have shown resilience and the ability to swiftly shift their strategic focus while simultaneously looking for opportunities across the market. Very few businesses navigated the crisis unaffected, but many family businesses responded quickly and are taking the opportunity to rationalize their operations and investment portfolios and realigning the focus and future priorities of the family.

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The New Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 The latest foldable device on the market heralds a new era for business and entertainment devices.

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he Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 is a perfect hybrid of a smartphone and tablet.

It is a futuristic, flexible communication and entertainment device wrapped into one. This is the most versatile device available in the market globally and currently has no robust competitors in regards to the technology, features, specs, or style offered. With this phone, Samsung has established itself in the category of foldable phones/tablets.

Dual display screens When folded shut, the Galaxy Z Fold2 is a cutting-edge smartphone with a 6.2-inch cover screen that can be used to make calls, quick Google searches, and check messages and app notifications.

Perfect for when users are on the go, moving, or busy.

When unfolded, it changes into a 7.6-inch display screen. The expansive display gives users more room to be productive—perfect for

texting, conference calls, and emails.

It emits less blue light, minimizing eye strain while viewing photos and videos or playing games.

The device’s Dynamic AMOLED 2X display means that the images aren’t washed out. The display improves the contrast between dark and light digital content aspects for more brilliant picture quality. The screen is also bright enough and always visible in outdoor settings, even during midday when the sun is bright.

Breakthrough technology—smooth hinges, seamless transition, multitasking, and the Flex Mode Samsung’s Hideaway Hinge technology is the most advanced mechanism for folding smartphones, with it being engineered for incredibly smooth movement. This technology is one of the phone’s unique features and lets users transition seamlessly between the smaller and larger displays.

The app continuity lets users open an application on the cover screen, then unfold to see it on the bigger screen with an optimized user interface. When the device is unfolded, the app automatically adjusts to take advantage of the larger screen. The two displays work seamlessly to maintain app continuity.

Users of the phone can use multiple apps simultaneously. The upgraded multi-window layout lets users multitask with two apps on the cover screen and open a third app with split screen when unfolded.

For example, users can play music on YouTube while reading news, sending an email, and making notes simultaneously. The multi-window interface also enables users to drag and drop files between applications without sifting through menus.

Another unique feature is the flex mode. It stands by itself, so users can view the screen even without holding the device in their hand.

A subtle palette of sophisticated hues The back of the modern and futuristic Galaxy Z Fold2 has a matte finish that is resistant to fingerprint smudges. It is available in two rich colors, Mystic Black and Mystic Bronze for a premium and timeless look. The color of the hinge can be customized to reflect your style when bought from Samsung.com.

The Galaxy Z Fold2 offers hyper-fast 5G connectivity, speed, and performance to adapt to technologies that it will roll out soon.

www.samsung.com

The thoughts expressed in this advertorial are those of the client.

F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

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• COVER STORY •

REEM ASAAD • CISCO

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TAKING ON

ZOOM Reem Asaad, VP for the Middle East and Africa at Cisco, is finding opportunities to keep the region’s customers connected in an era of remote work, distance learning, and evolving technology.

BY SAMUEL WENDEL F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

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Reem Asaad, VP for the Middle East and Africa at Cisco

Image courtesy of Cisco

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REEM ASAAD • CISCO

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WITH

remote working and distance learning now entrenched in everyday life and general online activity at an all-time high, technology companies in the Middle East are capitalizing on new opportunities, from telemedicine to e-commerce.

One key player in the region has proved to be Cisco Systems. The U.S. tech giant has long provided networking gear in the Middle East, from routers and switches to the phones dotting desks in office buildings from Dubai to Amman. But 2020 showed that the company, which has a market cap of roughly $190 billion, can still find new ways to keep customers connected.

“We have a great opportunity to accelerate digital agendas for governments and businesses and individuals,” says Reem Asaad, Cisco’s VP for the Middle East and Africa, who joined the company in January 2020. “There are so many untapped opportunities that we can leverage.”

She herself can be counted as one way the company is evolving. Her hiring just over a year ago signaled a new era in the region for Cisco.

Not only was Asaad an outsider, who came over from Cairo-based business process outsourcing firm Raya Contact Center, she was also Cisco’s first regional boss actually from the region and the first woman in that role here.

Since she started, the pandemic has driven considerable growth in the region, in particular for Webex—Cisco’s videoconferencing and online collaboration platform aimed at enterprises. Although Zoom gets much of the hype, Webex is also enjoying robust usage, including significant growth in the Middle East and Africa last year, according to Asaad.

More than 3,600 customers in the Middle East and Africa used Webex between March and June 2020, accounting for more than 204 million meeting minutes, according to Cisco. That included Webex hosting 1.8 million

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individual meetings in the region during that span. Globally, Reuters reported in April 2020 that Webex had registered a record 324 million attendees in March, with usage more than doubling in the Americas. By October, Webex globally had nearly 600 million monthly participants, almost double the number at the pandemic’s start.

Asaad points in particular to Webex’s potential in education. Over the first three months of the COVID-19 pandemic, Cisco reported that 538 educational institutions in the Middle East and Africa combined had spent 65 million minutes using Webex. In Saudi Arabia, Umm Al-Qura University has deployed Webex across its 36 colleges and 120,000 students, staff, faculty, and other participants.

“The company’s products are supported by good customer service and meet our demand, particularly when our requirements and circumstances were changed,” says Khaled Almotairi, Umm Al-Qura’s dean of e-learning and distance education. Meanwhile, Asaad reports that 450 educational institutions and 22 million students are using Webex in Egypt, where Cisco is working with the ministry of education. “The whole concept of education has changed,” she says.

And with events and conferences getting canceled and shifted online, Cisco has offered up Webex as a solution. Expo 2020 has deployed the software for 2,000 members of its team, while meetings between global leaders at the G20 Summit hosted by Saudi Arabia were carried out on Webex.

Looking ahead, Asaad expects the platform to continue to play a bigger role in Cisco’s regional product playbook alongside networking, cybersecurity, and data centers.

Of those areas, Asaad also singles out cybersecurity. “Security and cyber needs have totally changed because now we’re all out there in the virtual world,” she says.

The pandemic has certainly created opportunities for Webex, but its rising prominence also points to larger trends within Cisco globally, part of an ongoing evolution within the California-based company.

Under current CEO, Chuck Robbins, who took over from long-time leader John Chambers in 2015, Cisco has moved away from its roots as a hardware vendor and JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2021

Image from source

Meanwhile, enterprise IT spending in the Middle East and North Africa took a hit last year, contracting 4% and losing $1.5 billion in value, according to Jyoti Lalchandani, IDC’s group VP and regional managing director for the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa.

However, he expects the segment—which includes enterprise hardware, software, and IT services—to recover in 2021 and grow by 4.8% in the region.

Overall, IT spending per capita in several local countries is still relatively low compared to other regions, but growth in the evolving small and medium-sized business segment represents a longer-term growth opportunity for ICT players. The pandemic has also created key shifts that should shape the digital economy regionally and impact tech spending.

Those range from companies reinventing F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

business models for the digital economy to remote work, allowing employers to consider new workplace arrangements. “Offices will require redesign and digital enhancement as blended work becomes the norm,” says Lalchandani. “These trends will lead to a fundamental re-imagination of work.”

Of course, Cisco isn’t the only ICT player chasing opportunities in the Middle East.

Chinese competitor Huawei is making moves in the region, including recently-announced plans to establish a flagship store in Riyadh, the largest such store outside China.

Meanwhile, Dell Technologies signed an agreement in December 2020 to work with the digital arm of the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority on workforce transformation solutions for customers. Simultaneously, Webex also has formidable competition, such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams.

Nevertheless, Asaad is bullish on Cisco’s prospects. “Growth is coming from the Middle East, despite all challenges that we’re navigating through,” she says. “There is an appetite for technology, and there is a real need for services and innovation.”

From her vantage point, Asaad reports that the areas she oversees are contributing to Cisco’s global business in unique ways.

There’s notable growth coming from services regionally, she says, because there’s a big focus on cloud services, and countries here tend to leapfrog when it comes to technology.

C

isco is also involved in a number of mega projects in the region, including serving as the official digital network partner for Dubai’s Expo 2020 and playing a role in the upcoming World Cup set for Qatar in 2022.

The company inked new deals locally last year, such as a multi-million-dollar advisory agreement announced in March 2020 to design a portfolio of customized smart services for The Red Sea Project, a luxury tourism development in Saudi Arabia. That will include Cisco delivering designs for services around mobility, utilities, administration and other elements of the project. In April 2020, U.A.E.based Medcare Hospitals & Medical Centres unveiled videoconferencing health services for patients with help from Cisco.

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Webex Although Zoom gets much of the hype, Webex is also enjoying robust usage.

embraced software and services. The move came as the pioneering IT firm faced disruptive new technology in the form of cloud computing and intensifying competition. “There’s a big shift into software and subscription models and payas-you-go models,” says Asaad.

Still, although Webex gained notable momentum in 2020, the pandemic brought its share of challenges for Cisco too. The company recorded $49.3 billion in global revenues in its 2020 financial year, down 5%.

But it did achieve its target of bringing half its revenue from software and services last year.

The company doesn’t break down results for the region specifically, but 26% of last year’s revenues came from Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, which was down 3%.

S REEM ASAAD • CISCO

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ome of the biggest projects Cisco has done since Asaad joined have come from the Middle East, in areas such as oil and gas, operational technology and education. She points to work Cisco did last year with Saudi Arabia’s e-government program Yesser, which saw Webex deployed for over 70,000 employees, and reports that Egypt’s New Administrative Capital is using Cisco’s network and solutions. “You don’t have these megaprojects across Europe and the U.S. like you see in the Middle East,” says Asaad.

Although she’s a new hire for Cisco, Asaad is well acquainted with its business. Across a career spanning over 25 years, she has been both a Cisco client and partner. “They were not strangers,” she says.

Her roots in the tech industry stretch back to her teenage years in Egypt.

Aged 16, she already aspired to study information technology, a path that led her to the University of Houston in the U.S., where she majored in computer science. “My aspiration was always to learn more about technology,” she says.

“I think with technology we can really bridge the digital divide and really help our region.”

Still, she started her career in the U.S., joining AIG in Houston after graduating in 1993, serving as a programmer analyst, project manager and technical consultant.

She worked in the U.S. until 2005, when she returned to Egypt. There she joined Raya Holding for Financial Investments, an investment management company, serving as its director of IT, investor relations, and corporate communications.

That was the first of many roles with the company, including taking over its data center operation in 2012, where she oversaw the launch of a public cloud platform for customers. Five years later, Asaad became CEO of Raya Contact Center, its business process outsourcing arm. The company had operations in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa and counted multinationals as customers.

F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

VIDEO STARS The pandemic has been a boost for the technology sector in general, and in particular platforms offering free videoconferencing saw a jump in the number of users. Here’s a look at three major global competitors. Numbers as of April 2020.

Zoom

Company: Zoom Number of daily meeting participants:

300 million Free meetings up to: 40mins

Teams Company: Microsoft Number of daily meeting participants:

200 million Free meetings up to: One hour

Meet Company: Google Number of daily meeting participants:

100 million Free meetings up to: One hour

That included providing technical support to Cisco through Raya Contact Center’s Europe operations.

That relationship ended up being a precursor to a job offer after Cisco’s then VP for the region, David Meads, moved to another role in the company in 2019.

In announcing Asaad’s appointment in early 2020, Cisco said its new regional head would focus on strengthening collaborations with governments, customers, and partners and accelerating their digitization agendas. COVID-19’s arrival soon put those expectations to the test, with Webex set to play a starring role.

Her welcome to the company included a regional tour to get to know the team, which numbers 2,500 employees and contractors, but she had little time to get settled before the pandemic forced office closures. It helped that her team was already using online collaboration tools. “We have virtual teams across the theater,” says Asaad. The same couldn’t be said for customers.

Cisco had to adapt quickly to Webex hosting an unprecedented number of meetings, participants, and conferences.

“The whole focus at the beginning was to scale Webex to be able to carry this bigger load,” says Asaad.

But Cisco also recognized an opportunity and worked to entice new users to Webex.

That included a promotion in the U.A.E., offering a free 90-day business license and more features for free Webex accounts, such as removing time limits for calls. By June, Cisco had announced its largest ever deployment of Webex in the U.A.E. through its partnership with Expo 2020.

Meanwhile, Cisco rolled out a rash of new features for Webex, such as background noise cancellation, as well as integrations with applications including Dropbox, Salesforce, and Work by Facebook. More changes are coming too, including real-time Arabic translation during calls. “We’re reimagining the whole application and the new model for working remotely,” says Asaad.

In a year that changed how the Middle East stays connected, it appears Asaad has answered the call for Cisco.

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• THOUGHT LEADERS •

By Hussein Sayed, Chief Market Strategist for the Gulf and Middle East region at FXTM

M

arkets entered 2020 on a calm note, with a continuation of the longest bull run in history expected and hoped for. But this was to change within a few weeks, with stock market volatility thrown into full-blown panic mode in March with the onset of the global pandemic. Perhaps the best reflection of a tumult is seen in Wall Street’s “fear gauge,” known as the Vix (volatility index), which reflects the ebb and flow of anxiety levels expected in the S&P500.

Entering the year at 13, and with a long-term average around 21, the Vix skyrocketed to a record 85.

The speed and severity of the pandemic and global lockdowns were in many ways matched by the size of the central bank and government stimulus worldwide and the magnitude of the equity market rebounds. Interest rate cuts, bond buying (to the tune of $7.5 trillion in 2020, according to the IMF) and liquidity measures of central banks helped governments finance essential fiscal measures to support their economies. This reassured investors that policy would remain supportive until vaccines pave the way for a return to normality. It also helped support equity and credit valuations. By the start of June, Vix returned to its 200-day moving average.

During this time oil prices collapsed. The cost of such a symbolic physical asset going below zero was astounding. The interplay between financial and physical markets is always complex, but in 2020 we saw its extreme—a toxic mix of unchecked production, zero storage capacity, and zero demand lured speculators into pushing the price to -$37 per barrel. It is almost absolutely unlikely that we will see this happen again.

When will we get normality in a post-pandemic environment? Economic scarring will remain a

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concern, while new ways of work and play may have to be continued. On a global level, the emergence of a tripolar world of the U.S., Europe and Asia will continue, increasingly creating their own economic ecosystems and supply chains.

Total fragmentation is not likely but the return of globalization will also not be on the cards.

The new President in the White House will have a huge bearing on the re-forming of global alliances. The blue sweep has been the catalyst for U.S. 10-year bond yields to climb above 1%. The sharp rally in risk markets since the vaccine news in early November, more government stimuli and a Brexit deal, all caused yields to double. With inflation expectations also moving higher, the dollar is expected to continue suffering, having already lost nearly 7% of its value in 2020. Falls of between 5-10% this year are forecast by many on Wall Street as the safe haven nature of the greenback fades, while higher inflation and ultra-loose monetary policy erodes the value of the global reserve currency.

Traders rarely see a straight-line selloff of the dollar; a stalling world economy or vaccination distribution issues are likely to delay the great greenback sale. Undoubtedly, the U.S. Federal Reserve will have a big say, especially if it takes away the stimulus punchbowl too early. The central bank may well be prepared to tolerate core prices running above their target of 2%, but it is also cognizant of a long period of ultra-low interest rates and slumbering inflation. Underlying economic growth should support equities but higher interest rates will weigh on growth and tech stocks in particular. Investors will be wise to watch how high the Fed allows rates to drift, as withdrawal of emergency measures will generate potentially significant market volatility.

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31 THOUGHT LEADERS

The Year That Was… And The Way Ahead

PRO M OTI O N

Ghassan Aboud Group Disrupts Trade With New BuyGro Marketplace App The Ghassan Aboud Group (GAG)—a multi-disciplined conglomerate founded in 1994—is embarking on a journey of innovation and entrepreneurship, with new concepts and companies forming into shape in various business sectors.

Angelo Djaffardjee, CEO of Food Distribution at GAG, talks about the group’s latest offering, BuyGro.

G

AG is an international conglomerate with diversified interests across key industries including automotive, hospitality, real estate, retail, healthcare, logistics, pastoral, media, trade, and distribution. The latest addition to GAG is BuyGro, an app that connects merchants and trade customers digitally, improving the reach and quality of offerings while reducing costs. Interested sellers can now start listing their products on the app for free and buyers can enjoy an improved shopping experience with a variety of options by downloading the BuyGro Marketplace app.

GAG focuses on the collective value of creation and growth, and has continuously sought creative solutions for arising problems. Since its incorporation, the group has spread its business operations across AsiaPacific, the Middle East, Europe, and Africa. GAG launched several projects during 2020 in healthcare, trade and distribution to support the community, the latest being BuyGro. The pandemic fuelled an evaluation of existing business models. One transformation caused by this black swan event was a new way of looking at distribution to traditional trade. GAG launched the BuyGro marketplace, which aims to disrupt traditional trade and set new standards, shifting the focus towards

The thoughts expressed in this advertorial are those of the client.

PRO M OTI O N

“The BuyGro Marketplace app is a one-stop-shop, with wide inventory visibility and a large market offering that provides over 6,000 grocery shops, cafes and restaurants with the flexibility and control needed to find new products for their shops.” digital and assisting merchants and trade customers to grow faster and more sustainably.

The BuyGro team is directing its efforts towards digitally connecting brand principals, manufacturers, distributors, and wholesalers with retailers in need of their products. This is especially crucial as the pandemic worldwide continues to force distributors and retailers to consider cost reduction, efficiency and better service levels while maintaining rigorous safety standards.

The BuyGro Marketplace app is a one-stop-shop, with wide inventory visibility and a large market offering that provides over 6,000 grocery shops, cafes and restaurants with the flexibility and control needed to find new products for their shops. It is one of the most advanced apps of its kind in the U.A.E. and we are certain that it will be of great value

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for both independent trade buyers and distributors. The app closes all distribution gaps, it is cost and time saving, as well as easy to use with zero setup fees. The perfect tool for a successful trade experience.

When it comes to sellers, the app increases brand visibility, business opportunities, exposure to new prospects, as well as improves the seller’s commercial and logistics costs. The app uses AI to provide data, stock, and market analytics for both parties allowing for informative and effective decision making.

As market leaders in logistics, retail and food distribution, we thoroughly grasp the pain points of getting the right products at the right price. Deriving from both a place of need and knowledge encouraged us to create a compelling value proposition. Besides BuyGro, GAG’s subsidiaries continually seek development and improvement,

whether it be in creating a sustainable shopping experience at their retail stores, in water recycling and minimizing the environmental footprint of its logistics hub, in choosing local and digitalizing where opportunities arise.

Having the U.A.E. as its headquarters is an invaluable advantage and contributes to its strategy strongly. The U.A.E. has been ranked 34th globally and first regionally in 2020’s Global Innovation Index, continuing to lead the region for the fifth consecutive year. It is an exceptional hub for businesses. The system is geared towards meeting all the needs of business owners looking to scale their products to the outside markets. This, alongside the entrepreneurial spirit of the community itself, makes the U.A.E. the perfect place to launch businesses.

The U.A.E.’s government has always fostered an innovative ecosystem. The country’s overall business-friendly approach, alongside the continued growth of its presence both regionally and globally, is very appealing.

It attracts businesses to set up regional operations to service customers locally, in the GCC and internationally. Innovation is part of the pillar of “United in Knowledge” in the country’s Vision 2021, which focuses on building a competitive economy. As the country proceeds to increase its investment in entrepreneurship, GAG plans to play a key role in finding new solutions, innovations and discoveries that will significantly enhance the quality of life.

www.gagroup.net

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The Middle East’s

THE LIST

34

Power Businesswomen

T

his year’s annual ranking of the Middle East’s most powerful women in business comes off the back of one of the most challenging years that most companies have experienced in recent history. The 50 leaders we highlight here have shown resilience, flexibility, and strength in the face of unprecedented adversity, both in the workplace and in their communities.

Overall, this year’s power businesswomen hail from 19 countries and work across 16 sectors. Egypt scored the most entries in the list with eight, followed by the U.A.E with seven. The banking and financial services sector is the most dominant, with 16 entries. Eight of these leaders hold executive positions in regional divisions of multinational companies, such as Heike Harmgart, who heads the SEMED region for EBRD, and Elissar Farah Antonios, who heads Citigroup’s MENA cluster and serves as CEO of Citigroup UAE. And seven hold positions in government entities, including Aisha Bin Bishr head of Smart Dubai, and Nezha Hayat, head of Morocco’s Capital Market Authority.

Last year, three women from the Middle East also featured on Forbes’ ranking of the World’s 100 Most Powerful Women. Raja Easa Al Gurg, Managing Director of the Easa Saleh Al Gurg Group, Renuka Jagtiani, Chairwoman and CEO of the Landmark Group, and Rania Nashar, Senior Advisor to the Governor of Saudi’s Public Investment Fund, ranked 89th, 98th, and 99th respectively.

Aside from accomplishments at work, many of these leaders have also been working towards giving back to the community, particularly when it comes to alleviating challenges caused by the pandemic. For example, Renuka Jagtiani’s Landmark Group and Jagtiani Foundation have pledged nearly $4 million to communities in the Middle East and India impacted by the pandemic, and Luma Fawaz’s Oasis500 has waived rent payments for all its participating startups. Many also head women’s organizations in their home countries, while others have launched NGOs and initiatives supporting women, such as Farah Foustok’s TARA.

Sectors

Methodology We considered the below criteria, with each point assigned a weight: • Size of the business in terms of revenue, assets, AUM, market capitalization, and number of employees.

• Accomplishments by the person achieved over the last year.

• Designation.

• Overall work experience of the person.

• CSR and other initiatives by the person and/or by their company.

• Editorial points.

Healthcare

3

E-commerce

1

Oil and Gas

3

Insurance

1

Retail

3

Law

1

Banking and Financial Services

16

Diversified

5

Consumer Goods

2

Logistics

1

Investments

4

Food and Beverage

2

Pharmaceuticals

1

Technology

4

Entrepreneurship

2

Telecommunications

1

To nominate yourself or someone else for our lists, email: info@forbesmiddleeast.com F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

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The Middle East’s

Power Businesswomen 2021

1. Raja Easa Al Gurg

Group Managing Director COMPANY: Easa Saleh Al Gurg NATIONALITY: Emirati SECTOR: Diversified Al Gurg is the managing director and vice chairperson of U.A.E.-based Easa Saleh Al Gurg Group (ESAG), a family-owned conglomerate that has been operating for more than 60 years. She has been with the company for more than 30 years.

Al Gurg is also a proponent of gender equality. She serves as the president of the Dubai Business Women Council, and as a board member of the Dubai Women’s Association and the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry. She was also the first Emirati woman to be appointed to the board of HSBC Middle East. Al Gurg was recently appointed as deputy chairman of the National Bank of Fujairah. She ranked #89 on Forbes’ list of The World’s Most Powerful Women 2020.

ESAG owns 27 companies operating in industries such as retail, construction and real estate, and has joint ventures with brands such as Siemens and Unilever. In 2020, the diversified group and its charity foundation announced a $3.5 million package to support U.A.E. government initiatives to alleviate challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nationality Egyptian

8

Emirati

7

Jordanian

4

Kuwaiti

4

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Moroccan

4

American

1

Indian

1

Saudi

4

Brazilian Italian

1

Palestinian

1

Bahraini

3

British

1

Polish

1

Lebanese

3

French

1

Tunisian

1

Omani

3

German

1

Turkish

1

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Image from source

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2. Renuka Jagtiani

5. Sarah Al Suhaimi

Chairwoman & CEO COMPANY: Landmark Group NATIONALITY: Indian SECTOR: Retail

Chairperson; CEO & Board Member COMPANY: Tadawul; NCB Capital NATIONALITY: Saudi SECTOR: Banking and Financial

3. Hana Al Rostamani Group CEO COMPANY: FAB NATIONALITY: Emirati SECTOR: Banking and Financial Services FAB announced in late January that Hana Al Rostamani, Deputy Group CEO and Head of Personal Banking, will succeed André Sayegh as the new Group CEO. Al Rostamani has more than 22 years of experience in the field of banking and financial services. She is a board member of the AW Rostamani Group, chairperson of FAB Private Bank Suisse, and a member of MasterCard Advisory.

The personal banking group at FAB Group contributed 37% of the group revenue and generated net profit worth $952 million in 2019. In 2020, the group reported over $5 billion in revenues with $2.9 billion net income.

4. Rania Nashar

Images from source

Senior Advisor to the Governor COMPANY: Saudi’s Public Investment Fund NATIONALITY: Saudi SECTOR: Banking and Financial Services Nashar was appointed CEO of Saudi Arabia’s Samba Financial Group in 2017, making her the first female CEO of the bank. Nashar led the bank for nearly four years, where it earned around $2 billion in total operating income in the first nine months of 2020. Last year, it was announced that the bank would merge with the National Commercial Bank to create a new bank worth $223 billion in assets. Nashar stepped down from her role as CEO from January 31, 2021.

She serves as the Senior Advisor to the Governor of Saudi’s Public Investment Fund, Yasir Al-Rumayyan.

Nashar previously served as a board member for Samba’s global markets subsidiary and has over 20 years of experience in the commercial banking sector. Nashar is also a board member of the Saudi Stock Exchange, Tadawul. She ranked #99 on Forbes’ list of The World’s Most Powerful Women 2020.

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Services

Al Suhaimi has served as the CEO of NCB Capital since 2014, one of the largest asset management firms in Saudi Arabia and one of the largest sharia-compliant asset managers in the world with over $37 billion of assets under management. She is also a board member.

She also serves as chairperson of the Saudi Stock Exchange, Tadawul, which has a market cap of $2.4 trillion. In 2019, the exchange saw the listing of one of the world’s largest companies, Saudi Aramco, valued at $1.9 trillion.

Al Suhaimi completed the Public Administration Executive Program at Harvard Business School.

6. Lubna Olayan Chairperson COMPANY: SABB NATIONALITY: Saudi SECTOR: Banking and Financial Services After serving as CEO of Olayan Financing Company for over 33 years, Lubna Olayan announced her retirement in 2019. She still serves as a member of the Board of Directors, Shareholders’ Board and Olayan Family Council. She became chairperson of Saudi British Bank (SABB) in June 2019 and also serves as the chairwoman of Alawwal Bank, which is set to merge with SABB. SABB made $1.8 billion in total operating income in the first nine months of 2020. Olayan was the first woman to join the board of a publicly listed company in Saudi Arabia.

Olayan is a member of one of the wealthiest families in the Middle East, and the Olayan Group ranked third in Forbes Middle East’s top 100 family businesses in the Middle East 2020. She ranked #7 on Forbes’ list of the Most Powerful Women In Finance 2017.

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37 THE LIST • POWER BUSINESSWOMEN

For more than 20 years, Jagtiani has led the corporate strategy and expansion efforts of U.A.E.-based conglomerate Landmark Group, one of the biggest retail conglomerates in the Middle East.

Jagtiani oversees more than 50,000 employees. She has helped grow the group’s fashion and hospitality businesses, which offer brands like Splash, Babyshop, Home Center, and Krispy Kreme. Currently, the group operates over 2,300 outlets, encompassing over 30 million square feet across 22 countries. Jagtiani ranked #98 on Forbes’ list of The World’s Most Powerful Women 2020.

The Landmark Group and the Jagtiani Foundation have taken on a number of initiatives to support communities impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic in the Middle East and India, pledging a total of nearly $4 million.

8. Nezha Hayat Chairperson & CEO COMPANY: Morocco’s Capital Market Authority NATIONALITY: Moroccan SECTOR: Banking and Financial Services Hayat has been chairperson and CEO of Morocco’s Capital Market Authority since 2016, which is responsible for the country’s non-banking capital markets such as the stock exchange and brokerage firms. The Casablanca Stock Exchange currently has a market cap of more than $65.35 billion.

She is also president of the Africa/Middle East Regional Committee (AMERC) of the International Organization of Securities Commissions until 2022. As an advocate of women’s rights, she is one of the founding members and president of Club des Femmes Administrateurs d‘entreprises in Morocco (CFA Maroc), a non-profit organization that works to promote the participation of women on the boards of directors of public and private companies.

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9. Heike Harmgart Managing Director Southern & Eastern Mediterranean Region COMPANY: European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) NATIONALITY: German SECTOR: Banking and Financial Services

7. Wadha Ahmed

Al-Khateeb

Deputy CEO Mina Abdulla Refinery COMPANY: Kuwait National

Petroleum Company NATIONALITY: Kuwaiti SECTOR: Oil and Gas

Harmgart has been in her current role since January 2020. She heads the bank’s operations in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia, and the West Bank and Gaza. She manages a team of 150 staff with an annual business volume of over $2.4 billion.

Harmgart previously worked with the Economist Intelligence Unit and Institute of Fiscal Studies, and has a PhD in economics from University College London.

In 2020, the EBRD unveiled a $1.2 billion emergency coronavirus financing package, as well as committed all the bank’s activities in 2020/21, worth $25 billion, to help its regions counter the impact of the pandemic. The EBRD invested $2.7 billion in the SEMED region in 2020, with more than $16 billion invested in the region since 2012.

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Images from source

Al-Khateeb has been with the Kuwait National Petroleum Company for 25 years and assumed her current position in 2019. In the same year, the company made nearly $25 billion in revenues.

Al-Khateeb was the first woman to head the Gas Processors Association GCC Chapter. She was a board member for the Kuwait Styrene Company during the fiscal year of 2018/19, and she has been chairperson for the Kuwait Paraxylene Production Company since May 2019.

The Mina Abdullah Refinery, which specializes in refining high sulfur heavy crude, currently has a capacity of 270,000 barrels per day and covers an area of 7.835 square kilometers. It is also the second refinery in Kuwait to be registered on the UN’s Clean Development Mechanism.

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10. Mona Yousuf

Almoayyed

Managing Director COMPANY: Y.K. Almoayyed & Sons NATIONALITY: Bahraini SECTOR: Diversified

39 THE LIST • POWER BUSINESSWOMEN

Y.K. Almoayyed & Sons is a diversified family business in Bahrain operating in market segments including automobiles, electronics and luxury goods. The group represents over 300 international brands including Nissan, Ford, Sony, Nikon and Toshiba. Almoayyed has been with the company for 20 years.

In December 2018, Almoayyed was appointed as a member of the Bahrain Shura Council by HRH King Hamad Bin Isa Al Khalifa. She is also a member of the Public Utilities & Environment Committee, which works towards a greener Bahrain.

11. Shaikha Khaled

Al Bahar

Deputy Group CEO COMPANY: National Bank

Images from source

of Kuwait Group NATIONALITY: Kuwaiti SECTOR: Banking and Financial Services NBK is one of the largest banks in Kuwait with $100 billion in assets as of Q3 2020. The bank ranked #10 on Forbes Middle East’s list of the “Top 100 Companies 2020.” It now has 150 branches in 15 countries across four continents.

Al Bahar also serves as the chairperson of Human Development and Urban Planning under Kuwait’s Supreme Council for Planning & Development, where she worked on Kuwait’s healthcare and education reform strategy.

NBK has contributed to social sustainability during the COVID-19 pandemic, donating $3.3 million to Kuwait Red Crescent Society. Al Bahar was ranked #85 on Forbes’ list of Power Women 2012.

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12. Henadi Al-Saleh Chairperson COMPANY: Agility NATIONALITY: Kuwaiti SECTOR: Logistics Al-Saleh oversees Agility’s corporate governance program and leads the technology ventures team. Agility recorded revenue of $3.8 billion in the first nine months of 2020.

Al-Saleh has over two decades of experience and previously worked at NBK Capital in Kuwait.

Agility donated more than $130,000 to “Feena Khair” to support Bahrain’s COVID-19 mitigation efforts. It also shipped 23 tons of glass vials from Italy to Brazil during the peak of the pandemic in Italy, and delivered 150,000 bars of soap and hygiene products across Indonesia for UNICEF.

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13. Aisha Bin Bishr Director General COMPANY: Smart Dubai NATIONALITY: Emirati SECTOR: Technology Smart Dubai has launched 130 initiatives with government and private sector entities, including the Dubai Data Initiative, the Happiness Agenda and the Dubai Paperless Strategy. Bin Bishr led the creation of “The Smart City Index,” which was the first-ever benchmark for smart city implementation across the globe in cooperation with ITU and the UN. Before taking up her current role, Bin Bishr served as the Assistant Director General of the Dubai Executive Office, and worked as the Assistant Undersecretary of the U.A.E. Ministry of Labor.

According to the Emirates News Agency, 62 Dubai government entities benefitted from Smart Dubai’s services during the COVID-19 outbreak, with a 300% increase in capacity in the Government Information Network.

Al Roudhan CEO COMPANY: Zain Kuwait NATIONALITY: Kuwaiti SECTOR: Telecommunications Al Roudhan started her career at Zain in 1998 and has been CEO of Zain Kuwait since 2015, becoming the first female CEO within Zain Group. Zain Kuwait is the group’s most profitable company.

Its revenues amounted to $1.1 billion in 2019, with 2.8 million clients and a recorded net income of $273 million.

Al Roudhan has over 23 years of experience and is a member of the GSMA Arab World regional interest group and the GSMA Chief Regulatory Officer Group (CROG).

Zain Kuwait was one of the first operators in the Middle East and Africa to provide 5G technology. The company invested $209 million in capital expenditure in 2019 with a focus on developing its 5G network and digital platform.

16. Elham

Mahfouz

CEO COMPANY: Commercial Bank of Kuwait NATIONALITY: Egyptian SECTOR: Banking and

Financial Services

14. Randa Muhammad Sadik Deputy CEO COMPANY: Arab Bank NATIONALITY: Jordanian SECTOR: Banking and Financial Services Sadik has been in her current role for more than ten years. The Arab Bank has one of the largest global Arab banking networks with over 600 branches spanning five continents. It recorded $52.5 billion in assets and $1.4 billion in total income in the first nine months of 2020.

Sadik previously worked with NBK for 24 years where she was the Group General Manager of the International Banking Group.

Arab Bank Group owns a 49% stake in Oman Arab Bank, which merged with Alizz Islamic Bank in 2020.

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Mahfouz joined CBK in 2000 and was appointed CEO in November 2014. She has been working in banking and finance for approximately 30 years.

CBK has achieved operating income worth $316 million in the first nine months of 2020 and recorded $56.5 million in net profit.

In September of 2020, credit rating agency Fitch affirmed the bank’s rating at “A+”, with a stable outlook.

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40

15. Eaman

17. Mona Zulficar Founding Partner & Chair of Executive Committee; Chairperson COMPANY: Zulficar & Partners; EFG Hermes NATIONALITY: Egyptian SECTOR: Law A practicing attorney for more than 35 years, Zulficar is a specialist in major restructuring and M&A transactions. She has handled major deals including the sale of Citibank’s retail business to CIB, the acquisition of Piraeus Bank by ABK, and the sale of Barclays Bank to Attijariwafa Bank (AWB).

Zulficar has played a key role in drafting and developing economic legislation as adviser to various governmental entities. She also served as a member of the national drafting committees for the new Telecom Law and the new Capital Market Regulations in Egypt.

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Pakinam Kafafi image from Taqa Arabia

18. Pakinam Kafafi CEO COMPANY: TAQA Arabia NATIONALITY: Egyptian SECTOR: Oil and Gas Kafafi has been in her current role since 2013, before which she was Chief Investment Officer at TAQA Arabia. She started her career in investment banking before joining the Gas & Energy Group, or Genco, in 2003 as an investment manager. Genco was acquired in 2006 by Qalaa Holdings and folded into the newly formed TAQA Arabia.

Last year TAQA Arabia was forced to postpone its highly-anticipated IPO. TAQA has also been able to finalize and secure a $10 million loan by the EBRD to finance renewable energy projects.

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19. Salwa Idrissi Akhannouch Founder & CEO COMPANY: AKSAL Group NATIONALITY: Moroccan SECTOR: Retail Akhannouch founded the AKSAL Group in 2004. The group, which has 1,130 employees, is the sole franchisee for 45 leading brands in Morocco, including Fendi, Gucci, Ralph Lauren, Zara, Banana Republic, Massimo Dutti, Pull & Bear and Gap. In 2008, Akhannouch launched the Morocco Mall, which officially opened three years later.

In 2011, Akhannouch created a Training Academy for careers in retail, the AKSAL Academy. She launched her cosmetics brand Yan&One in 2017 and established the AKSAL SOCIAL INITIATIVE to support social, cultural, educational, and health projects.

Al Rostamani

COO, Managing Director COMPANY: AW Rostamani Group NATIONALITY: Emirati SECTOR: Diversified The AW Rostamani Group was founded in 1954.

Today, the group has 14 companies with more than 4,000 employees. The group’s biggest business unit, Arabian Automobiles, is one of the Gulf region’s largest car dealers, holding exclusive rights to distribute Nissan, INFINITI, and Renault. The group’s revenues reached $2 billion.

Amina is the COO of the group, overseeing Group HR, Group IT and Group Strategy. She also oversees the group properties division as the CEO of AWR Properties. Huda has been the managing director and board member of the group since 2007. She monitors and manages the performance of the companies under the group’s portfolio.

21. Elissar Farah Antonios MENA Cluster Head & CEO- U.A.E. COMPANY: Citigroup NATIONALITY: Lebanese SECTOR: Banking and Financial Services Antonios became the first woman to run the MENA Operations of Citigroup when she was appointed Head of the MENA cluster in December 2020. Antonios joined Citi in 2005. She has more than 30 years of banking experience in the Middle East.

Antonios led the initiative to establish Citi in ADGM, as well as deals with ADNOC, Mubadala, ADIA, Emirates, Etihad, Majid Al Futtaim, DP World, and PWC Middle East.

In 2020, Citi U.A.E. contributed $50,000 to the “UAE 10 million meals initiative” from the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum Humanitarian and Charity Establishment. The charity will use the funds to provide 20,000 meals to communities affected by COVID-19 outbreak in the U.A.E.

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Image from source; Elissar Farah Antonios, image credit: Citigroup

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20. Amina & Huda

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Image courtesy of Cisco

22. Reem Asaad Vice President, Middle East and Africa COMPANY: Cisco NATIONALITY: Egyptian SECTOR: Technology

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Asaad has over two decades of experience and currently oversees 2,500 employees and contractors at Cisco. The company’s global revenues hit $49.3 billion in the 2019/20 financial year, 26% of which came from the EMEA region.

In 2019, Cisco enabled 538 universities and schools across the region to conduct distance learning via Webex. Over 370,000 students in MENA gained Cisco Networking Academy certifications in the 2019/20 financial year—a 27% increase.

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23. Reem Osman CEO, U.A.E. COMPANY: Saudi German Hospitals Group NATIONALITY: Saudi SECTOR: Healthcare Osman has over 20 years of experience. She has previously received awards for her humanitarian work, and the international organization for development and human rights has nominated her as a peace ambassador.

First founded in 1988, the Saudi German Hospitals Group is one of the largest healthcare providers in the region. In 2019, the group opened new branches in the U.A.E. and Saudi Arabia. It aims to complete six new centers in Dubai by the end of 2021.

25. Hend

ElSherbini CEO COMPANY: Integrated

Diagnostics Holdings (IDH) NATIONALITY: Egyptian SECTOR: Healthcare

24. Zainab Kufaishi Head of Middle East and Africa & Senior Executive Officer, Invesco Dubai COMPANY: Invesco Asset Management Ltd NATIONALITY: British SECTOR: Banking and Financial Services Kufaishi has 17 years of experience, of which she has spent 11 years with Invesco.

She has also served on the board of the Dubai chapter of Ellevate, a professional women’s networking organization.

Invesco’s revenues for the region grew by over 25% in 2020. It achieved total operating revenue worth nearly $1.5 billion during the third quarter of 2020, and has reported assets under management of $1.2 trillion by the end of November 2020. In 2020, Invesco contributed over $1 million to global COVID-19 relief efforts.

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ElSherbini has more than 30 years of experience in the healthcare sector, of which she has spent 16 of them with IDH. She started the EDGE certification process with the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), which focuses on measuring gender diversity, inclusivity and health levels in the workplace.

IDH is a consumer healthcare company in the Middle East and Africa with operations in Egypt, Jordan, Sudan, and Nigeria. The group served more than seven million patients across 452 branch labs and recorded revenues of $140 million in 2019.

It recorded $106 million in revenues in the first nine months of 2020, out of which $45.8 million was recorded in the third quarter, making it one of the fastest yearon-year growth rates for a single quarter on record for the company.

In 2020, IDH formed a COVID-19 committee and helped to financially support the non-regular workforce who lost their jobs due to the pandemic.

The company covered medicine requirements on a monthly basis and donated medical equipment to Cairo University Educational Hospitals.

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Hend ElSherbini image courtesy of Integrated Diagnostics Holdings (IDH); Images from source

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27. Melda Yasar Cebe Managing Director, Middle East And Africa COMPANY: Kraft Heinz NATIONALITY: Turkish SECTOR: Food and Beverage

28. Christelle Saghbini

Melda Yasar Cebe image by Garage Studio for Forbes Middle East; Images from source

General Manager General Medicines Sanofi Africa Zone & Managing Director Sanofi Egypt COMPANY: Sanofi Egypt NATIONALITY: French SECTOR: Pharmaceuticals Saghbini has been with Sanofi for more than 20 years, and currently oversees 1,200 people.

Sanofi Egypt has launched more than 10 new treatments in the last two years, and it has signed an MoU with Egyptian health authorities in 2019 to provide educational programs for the proper management of cancer patients in Egypt, in collaboration with the National Training Institute (NTI) and The Egyptian Foundation for Medical Science (EFMS).

26. Hoda Mansour Managing Director, Egypt and New Frontiers South Countries COMPANY: SAP MENA LLC NATIONALITY: Egyptian British

SECTOR: Technology In 2020, Mansour was promoted to lead Lebanon, Jordan, Libya, Sudan, Yemen and Palestine. She joined SAP in 2013 and was appointed Managing Director of SAP Egypt in 2018 making her the first woman to be appointed by SAP as a Managing Director in the Middle East and Africa region.

Mansour participated in a campaign to raise $2.5 million in collaboration with the American Chamber of Commerce to help fight COVID-19.

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Cebe is a trained chemical engineer with 19 years of experience in FMCG companies including Procter & Gamble, Gillette, and KraftHeinz. She is one of the few female managing directors in the FMCG industry in the Middle East and Africa. She has worked across more than 15 categories in over 100 countries. Under her leadership, the company gained 5% market share of local sauces in just five months.

Heinz has become the regional market leader in base tomato paste, reaching 17.1% market share in Egypt and 6% in Carrefour.

29. Marzena Kulis Managing Director, Middle East COMPANY: Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices NATIONALITY: Polish SECTOR: Healthcare Kulis has been with Johnson & Johnson since 2013 and has been leading the medical devices business in the Middle East since 2019. Before this role she managed the company’s $250 million business in Central and Eastern Europe. She previously worked for the World Bank on projects related to healthcare systems and reforms in Poland, the Baltics, and the Balkans.

In 2019, Kulis launched a “Beat Colorectal Cancer” campaign in Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E., Kuwait, Oman, Jordan, Egypt, and Bahrain. The campaign reached 4,000 people, with 1,700 screened, 1,200 tested, and three diagnosed and treated.

31. Rola Abu Manneh CEO

COMPANY: Standard Chartered Bank, U.A.E. NATIONALITY: Emirati SECTOR: Banking and Financial Services Abu Manneh has been in her current role since 2018. She has over 25 years of experience under her belt. She was the first Emirati woman to head a bank in the U.A.E. and has helped to transform the U.A.E. business into one of the biggest five markets for the Standard Chartered Group. The bank’s total operating income amounted to $503.6 million in 2019, with total assets valued at $13.4 billion.

Since the onset of the global pandemic in March, Standard Chartered has donated over $25 million in the U.A.E. to NGOs, private organizations and local government authorities.

In addition, a total of 30,000 N95 masks were donated to Dubai Health Authority and the Authority of Social Contribution (Ma’an).

32. Mervat Zohdy

El Sayed Soltan

Executive Chairperson COMPANY: Export Development

30. Haifa Al Khaifi CEO; CFO COMPANY: Energy Development Oman; PDO NATIONALITY: Omani SECTOR: Oil and Gas Haifa was named CEO of Energy Development Oman (EDO) in January, a new holding company established in late 2020 with the mandate to, among other things, represent the government’s stake in Petroleum Development Oman (PDO), the largest oil and gas producer in the sultanate that produces 1.21 million boe/day. Al Khaifi will lead EDO’s team alongside her role as the Finance Director of PDO, which she has held since 2012 after joining the company in 1998. Haifa was also the board director and treasurer at Oman Society for Petroleum Services (OPAL) for two years.

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Bank of Egypt NATIONALITY: Egyptian SECTOR: Banking and Financial Services Soltan has been in her current role since 2016.

She has 36 years of banking experience behind her. She previously worked as the Regional Head of Financial Institutions, covering North Africa and the Levant in HSBC Middle East, and was Vice President for Global Transaction Banking in Deutsche Bank Egypt, also covering North Africa and the Levant. Soltan has an MBA from the American University in Cairo.

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Marzena Kulis photo by Garage Studio for Forbes Middle East; Mervat Zohdy El Sayed Soltan image from EDBE; Images from source

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33. Rita Maria Zniber Chairman & CEO COMPANY: Diana Holding NATIONALITY: Moroccan SECTOR: Food and Beverage

34. Nadia Al Saeed

35. Jalila Mezni

CEO COMPANY: Bank al Etihad

Co-Founder & CEO COMPANY: Societe d’Articles

NATIONALITY: Jordanian SECTOR: Banking and Financial Services

Rita Maria Zniber image from Diana Holding; Nadia Al Saeed image courtesy of Bank Al Etihad; Jalila Mezni image from SAH Group; Miriem Bensalah Chaqroun image from Oulmès

Al Saeed has served as the CEO of Bank al Etihad for over 12 years. Al Saeed spearheaded the bank’s digital transformation, launching an app in 2019, which is now being used by 85% of the bank’s clients on a daily basis. She also served as Jordan’s ICT minister in 2004.

Bank al Etihad is the third largest lender in Jordan by total assets. Assets have grown by more than four times on a consolidated basis under Al Saeed and reached $6.4 billion in 2019. In 2020, it took on a number of initiatives to help alleviate the challenges posed by the pandemic. These included providing SMEs with low interest rates through the Central Bank of Jordan, and partnering with Careem to deliver cash to customers through “Careem Cash.”

Hygieniques (SAH Group) NATIONALITY: Tunisian SECTOR: Consumer Goods

Mezni co-founded the Societe d’Articles Hygieniques (SAH Group) in 1994.

The company was listed in on the Bourse de Tunis in 2014. In 2019 it had a presence in 20 African countries, with nine production facilities employing over 4,000 people. It started its operations in Senegal in 2020. SAH Group recorded revenues of $239 million in 2020, recording a 12.6% increase compared to 2019.

36. Miriem Bensalah

Chaqroun

CEO; Director COMPANY: Les Eaux Minerales

d’Oulmes; Holmarcom Group NATIONALITY: Moroccan SECTOR: Consumer Goods

Chaqroun joined her family business, Holmarcom Group, in 1986. It was founded in 1978.

She is also the CEO of Les Eaux Minerales d’Oulmes, which is listed on the Casablanca Stock Exchange and is one of the leading mineral water brands in Morocco. Chaqroun has been appointed by the UN Secretary General as a member of the Global Investors Alliance for Sustainable Development.

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Zniber has more than 50 years of experience in the food and beverage industry. She also founded the Rita Zniber Foundation, which enables the adoption of abandoned children.

Diana Holding’s scope includes agriculture, olive growing, poultry farming, and trade and distribution.

Its olive sector spans 1,000 hectares of olive groves with an annual production of 500 tons of extra virgin olive oil. Under its agriculture segment is a composting platform that has a production capacity of 10,000 tons per year.

37. Mona Ataya CEO & Founder COMPANY: Mumzworld NATIONALITY: Palestinian SECTOR: E-commerce Ataya founded e-commerce platform Mumzworld with Leena Khalil in 2011. In 2019, Mumzworld built a 66,000 sq. ft. warehouse in Dubai Industrial Park, which is now the epicenter of the business and houses over 250,000 products.

After raising $20 million in new capital in January 2020, the company has now secured a total of $50 million in funding, making it one of the highest-funded women-led e-commerce businesses in the region. Ataya says they now plan on regional expansion across North Africa and the Levant.

38. Hind Bahwan Founder & Chairperson COMPANY: Bahwan

CyberTek Group NATIONALITY: Omani SECTOR: Technology Bahwan founded BCT in 1999. She is also the Chairperson of the Omani French Friendship Association, and in 2020 she launched a fragrance brand, Ojar.

BCT is a global provider of digital transformation solutions in the areas of Predictive Analytics, Digital Experience and Digital Supply Chain Management, and has delivered solutions in 20 countries across North America, the Middle East, Far East, Africa and Asia.

Images from source

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39. Yasmine & Farida Mohamed Farid Khamis Chair; Deputy Chair for Financing COMPANY: Oriental Weavers Group NATIONALITY: Egyptian SECTOR: Retail Oriental Weavers Group is considered one of the largest machine-made rug and carpet manufacturers in the world. It was founded by Egyptian business mogul Mohamed Khamis.

Yasmine joined the company in 1999 and became chair in October 2020 when her father passed away in September 2020. Farida is also a member of the Young President’s Organization.

The company has 803,500 square meters of warehouses across Egypt, the U.S., and China, as well as distribution and warehousing centers in Egypt, the U.S., the U.K., Germany, and Canada. It reported $645 million in revenues in 2019.

41. Claudia Vergueiro Massei CEO COMPANY: Siemens Oman NATIONALITY: Brazilian Italian SECTOR: Diversified With 14 years of experience, Massei was appointed as the CEO of Siemens Oman in 2018. Massei has been selected as a member of the World Economic Forum, participating in the Global Future Council on Energy Technologies and on the Closing Future Skills Gaps Taskforce in Oman. She was also selected as a LinkedIn top voice in 2020 for her contribution on thought leadership related to technology and to diversity and inclusion.

In 2020, Siemens Oman delivered the full electrification of Liwa Plastic Industrial Complex and Duqm Power Plant, as well as implementing energy efficiency technology at Sultan Qaboos University College of Science.

40. Areej & Lujaina

Mohsin Haider Darwish

Images from source

Chairperson; Chairperson for Infrastructure, Technology, Industrial & Consumer Solutions (ITICS) COMPANY: Mohsin Haider Darwish LLC NATIONALITY: Omani SECTOR: Diversified Mohsin Haider Darwish LLC was established in 1987. Areej added new luxury automotive brands such as McLaren to the business. She also established her own business venture under the name of “Areej Mohsin Haider Darwish LLC” and launched two brands: “Blessing Chocolates & Gifts” and “First Impression Artwork.” Lujaina is involved in the strategic and operational aspects of the business and is responsible for the Omanization strategy of the group.

The company has partnered with Swedish-Swiss ABB for renewable energy and electric stations and has ventured into new sectors in line with the Oman 2040 vision.

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42. Najla Al Shirawi CEO COMPANY: SICO NATIONALITY: Bahraini SECTOR: Banking and

Financial Services

Al Shirawi has been with SICO for more than 20 years and became the CEO in 2014. She is also a board member at several organizations and committees, including the Bahrain Economic Development Board, Eskan Bank, the Deposit Protection Scheme in Bahrain, Bahrain Associations of Banks, and the Bahrain Institute of Banking and Finance.

SICO recorded $21.5 million in total income in the first nine months of 2020. Al Shirawi has focused on expansion efforts, with the Saudi Capital Markets Authority giving SICO regulatory approval to offer asset management services in 2019. In 2020, SICO signed an agreement with Bank Muscat to acquire a majority stake amounting to 72.71% in Saudi-based Muscat Capital. It also launched a global markets platform.

Image courtesy of SICO

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43. Manal Jarrar General Manager COMPANY: National Insurance Company NATIONALITY: Jordanian SECTOR: Insurance Jarrar has more than 25 years of experience. The National Insurance Company is listed on Amman Stock Exchange. Jarrar’s helped the company raise its grade from B- to B in US-based credit rating agency AM Best’s financial strength rating.

The company reported $15.5 million in total revenues, $19 million in gross written premiums, and $38.8 million in total assets in the first nine months of 2020.

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44. Farah Foustok

Images from source

CEO, Middle East COMPANY: Lazard Gulf Ltd NATIONALITY: Lebanese SECTOR: Investments Foustok began working in investment in 1994 and joined Lazard Gulf Limited in 2014.

She has helped to develop an inclusive workplace and launched a speed mentoring initiative, TARA. Previously, she worked at NBD Investment Bank, EFG-Hermes, Deutsche Bank in London, and Morgan Stanley. Foustok holds an MBA from Imperial College London.

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47. Noor Sweid Founder and General Partner COMPANY: Global Ventures NATIONALITY: American SECTOR: Investments Global Ventures has a diverse portfolio of startups including HolidayMe, Mumzworld, Kitopi, and Tabby. Before founding Global Ventures, Sweid served as the chief investment officer of the Dubai Future Foundation and was a founding partner of Leap Ventures.

Sweid was recognized as one of the World’s Top 50 Women in Tech by Forbes in 2018.

Aside from venture capital, Sweid founded a chain of yoga and pilates studios in the Middle East, which she sold in 2014. She is a member of the forum of Young Global Leaders by the World Economic Forum and serves as chairwoman of the Middle East Venture Capital Association.

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45. Leila Hoteit Managing Director and Senior Partner COMPANY: Boston Consulting Group NATIONALITY: Lebanese SECTOR: Investments

Narjes Farookh Jamal image credit: Bahrain Bourse; Images from source

Hoteit leads BCG’s education and human-capital-development efforts in the Middle East. In 2020, the sector grew over 50% compared to 2019.

Hoteit was also selected to be on the leadership team of BCG’s social impact practice, which grew over 60% in 2020. As the leader for U.A.E. government work within BCG, she partnered with the U.A.E. federal and local governments in Abu Dhabi and Dubai to mitigate the impact of the pandemic in the economic, healthcare and welfare aspects.

In 2020, BCG worked on over 900 social impact projects across the world, with over 30% of the group’s managing directors and partners involved in the work. Over 300 of these projects were directed to COVID19 support efforts over more than 40 countries.

46. Narjes Farookh Jamal Chief Operating Officer COMPANY: Bahrain Bourse NATIONALITY: Bahraini SECTOR: Banking and Financial Services Jamal heads the digital transformation function at the Bahrain Bourse and is a board member at Bahrain Clear.

The Bahrain Bourse’s market capitalization stands at $24 billion. Among its CSR initiatives is a six-month program for the youth, TradeQuest, which teaches middle school students skills such as investment and trading.

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48. Najla Ahmed Al Midfa CEO COMPANY: Sharjah Entrepreneurship Center (Sheraa) NATIONALITY: Emirati SECTOR: Entrepreneurship

49. Luma Fawaz CEO COMPANY: Oasis500 NATIONALITY: Jordanian SECTOR: Investments Fawaz was appointed CEO of Ammanbased pre-seed and seed fund manager and accelerator Oasis500 in 2018, after serving as Head of Investments since 2015. The company has invested $9.9 million in 169 startups that have raised over $60 million, creating more than 800 direct jobs and 4,000 indirect jobs.

Some startups in its portfolio include MadfooatCom, Audiogram and Crowd Analyzer. In 2020, Oasis500 invested $1.4 million in 14 startups.

According to the company, Fawaz has increased female contributions as founding team members in the organization to 36%. In 2020, Oasis500 waived rent payments from all its startups to provide support during the pandemic.

50. Elissa Freiha Founder & CEO COMPANY: Womena NATIONALITY: Emirati SECTOR: Entrepreneurship

Images from source

The founder of female-focused company Womena has invested in more than 35 companies. Freiha is also an executive producer at Womentum, a documentary series and a three-month acceleration program focused on women-led tech startups from across MENA. Womentum is the result of a partnership between Standard Chartered and Womena. Freiha helped to expand the business to Egypt by setting up official headquarters in Cairo.

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Al Midfa is vice-chairperson of Young Arab Leaders, a board member of Endeavor UAE, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Emirates Schools Establishment.

Sheraa has a portfolio of over 100 startups, which have raised over $70 million in investment, created over 1,300 jobs, and generated over $80 million in revenue. It also hosts the annual Sharjah Entrepreneurship Festival, a gathering of over 4,000 entrepreneurs, investors, mentors, and ecosystem supporters working to inspire the next generation of changemakers.

PRO M OTI O N

Connecting To The Possibilities Of A Contactless Future 54

Girish Nanda, U.A.E. & Oman Country Manager at Mastercard, explores how contactless technology has transformed consumer experiences and why this innovation is here to stay in the post-COVID-19 era.

A

contactless, touchless, and frictionless world has brought with it a sense of renewal.

Disruptions can bring about a new order of rejuvenation and innovation, which is especially relevant as we find ourselves in a new year that is still delivering disruption by the bucketload.

The need for social distancing has changed behaviors in such a way that we must step out of past comfort zones to find new ones— from navigating the elbow-greeting to getting used to virtual offices. We now have more opportunities than ever before to engage with touch-free experiences and get “in touch” with a future that minimizes contact for dayto-day activities.

Contactless technologies are unlocking the forcefield of a vast virtual landscape that is in many respects our generation’s version of the New World. What awaits us in our own Age of Discovery? How will this world be different from the one we’ve left behind?

Many of the things we used to do, we will continue to do. Only, with far fewer touch points along the way and offering much more convenience.

Let’s take travel. At Abu Dhabi International Airport, 53 touchless elevators use infrared sensors to detect fingers three centimeters away. Etihad Airways has trialed self-service check-in body scanners that can also check vital signs by using motion sensors and voice recognition. Hotel groups like Marriott,

“With contactless transactions, regardless of payment method—a contactless card, a mobile device or a wearable—we are advancing consumer choice, fuelling the future of commerce by making checkout safe, seamless and straightforward.”

The F Othoughts R B E S M I Dexpressed D L E E A S T.CinOthis M advertorial are those of the client.

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Hilton, IHG and Hyatt have installed mobile access solutions that use Bluetooth to provide keyless room entry via a guest’s smartphone.

In the entertainment industry, digital options are stepping confidently onto the virtual stage.

The world’s biggest virtual rock concert is planned as part of Global Village’s reopening, and e-sports are scoring big as more people turn to their screens to engage and connect while apart. The 2020 Indian Premier League, which was hosted in the U.A.E., enjoyed record viewership while promoting the country as an exciting tourist destination for cricket fans worldwide. It’s a win-win.

The appetite for contactless is also flourishing in the food and beverage industry. Restaurant menus are increasingly accessible on mobile devices through simple QR codes. Delivery Hero recently partnered with Mastercard to offer contactless payment-on-delivery for Talabat, HungerStation and Zomato orders. Burger King also revealed the touchless experiences it envisions as part of its “Restaurant of the Future”, including ordering ahead on the app, pick up lockers and conveyor belt deliveries for drive-through orders.

The rapid acceleration of contactless payments continues to shape the future of consumer experience, and it is a trend that is here to stay. Whilst originally driven by convenience, public health and hygiene have accelerated the transition to contactless at a previously unimaginable pace.

Today, nearly 40% of instore transactions globally are contactless. The figure is growing because contactless payments are easier, cleaner, and faster. In fact, Mastercard data for March 2020 found over 100% year-on-year growth in the U.A.E. In a consumer sentiment survey conducted by Mastercard,

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eight in 10 regional respondents said they would continue to use contactless post-pandemic.

Much of our world is becoming touchless, fueled by contactless payments. This transition also offers exceptional security for peace of mind.

As a founding partner of the industry standards EMVco, Mastercard has been pioneering and driving security in the payment card industry. With our unique multi-layered approach to security, we go above and beyond what is required, having mandated the support of Combined Data Authentication on all of our contactless cards and terminals since 2011. This is one of the things that makes us different.

With contactless transactions, regardless of payment method—a contactless card, a mobile device or a wearable—we are advancing consumer choice, fueling the future of commerce by making checkout safe, seamless and straightforward. For merchants, the increased speed can save thousands of hours at checkout and reduce operational costs.

Governments, businesses, communities, and societies find

ways to make contactless payments more accessible and play a crucial part in recovery efforts.

The economic impact of cash payments is estimated at 1.5% of GDP and while economies tip into recession, the savings that digital and contactless commerce bring can be critical.

It’s a digital transformation journey that Mastercard has spearheaded for the past 15 years, working with industry partners and across sectors to increase the use of electronic payments and make “security by design” central to its development of contactless technology.

Touchless is not out of touch.

It’s about being connected in a different way to safe and secure financial transactions. This brave new world of touchless digitization, embedded machine learning, digital analytics, connected devices, and contactless payments connects us to a future of priceless possibilities.

www.mastercard.ae

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• POWER BUSINESSWOMEN •

NAJLA AL SHIRAWI • SICO

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EXPLORING

NEW

HORIZONS Najla Al Shirawi, CEO of Bahrain’s SICO, has been with the 25-year-old investment bank since its very early years. Today she is leading its multi-billion-dollar expansion, with Saudi Arabia the next port of call.

BY JASON LASRADO F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

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Najla Al Shirawi, CEO of Bahrain’s SICO

Image courtesy of SICO

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a small nation—the smallest in the GCC— Bahrain can still pack a punch. When it comes to its wealth and its potential for growth in several key sectors, the island is an attractive place for investment, even during a crisis. Look at last year as a case in point.

As the world woke up to the realities of a new pandemic, Bahrain still managed to attract $885 million in direct investment through companies opening or expanding in the kingdom, according to figures announced last month by its Economic Development Board.

One such homegrown company with its eyes on expansion in 2020 was SICO, a Manama-based regional asset manager, broker, and investment bank with more than $2.3 billion currently in assets under management. CEO, Najla Al Shirawi, led the charge last year as the 25-year-old company plowed ahead with its first steps towards a presence on the ground in Saudi Arabia, negotiating the acquisition of a majority stake in Bank Muscat’s wholly-owned Riyadh-based subsidiary, Muscat Capital. An agreement was signed at the end of the year.

On the cusp of announcing its acquisition approval from Saudi’s Capital Markets Authority (CMA), Al Shirawi says this isn’t the only expansion SICO has in its sights.

“We continue to look for opportunities,” she reveals. “This is something that is crucial to our business as we are looking to expand our capabilities. We don’t believe in acquiring businesses just to bring in more assets under management.”

The investment bank is growing off the back of a trying year. 2020 began on an optimistic note, with the bank’s net profit for 2019 increasing by 63% compared to 2018, and its performance fee for 2019 hitting $5.9 million, up from just $1 million the year before. But 2020 pinched. Although Q1 figures for last year are not available as the

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Central Bank of Bahrain exempted banks from publishing them, financial reports show that profits for the first nine months of 2020 were down 52% compared to the same period in 2019. A silver lining came in the form of brokerage income, which recorded an increase of about 45% in the first nine months of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019.

But now, as the new year begins, plans are on track. SICO first started looking to Saudi two years ago, kicking things off by buying around 10% of its capital in treasury shares from existing shareholders to attract a new shareholder through an M&A deal.

“That was the masterplan,” says the CEO. Muscat Capital stood out as a licensed fullyfunctional investment bank that had been operational in Saudi for over a decade. It had a good track record, clean balance sheet and, more importantly, it was owned by a single shareholder, Bank Muscat. With $1.4 billion in assets under management, it offers a promising opportunity for SICO. “Muscat Capital is quite robust in terms of how they are run, the management, the client base, but also they will complement SICO, and the overlap is minimal,” adds Al Shirawi.

With this initial deal, Bank Muscat will own roughly 9%—or 38,563,894 shares—of SICO, which will in return own 72.7% of Muscat Capital. Al Shirawi reveals that SICO has at the same time agreed to buy the remaining stake in Muscat Capital within the next three years, eventually becoming the sole owner. In the meantime, the transaction offers further diversification for Bank Muscat, which is Oman’s biggest bank with $31 billion in assets.

“It doesn’t make sense for a large bank like Bank Muscat to remain invested with just 25%,” says Al Shirawi. “At the same time, for SICO to continue growing the business, we need to have full control and for this company to be a fully-owned subsidiary.”

A

long with its current presence in Bahrain and the U.A.E., the new acquisition opens the doors to the Saudi market for SICO— and it’s not hard to see why this is an attractive prospect. According to the CEO, the largest economy in the Middle East will also be the largest growth driver for SICO in the future.

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Bahrain

PREJU SURESH / Shutterstock.com

Last year, Bahrain attracted $885 million in direct investment.

At the end of 2019, Saudi Aramco’s recordbreaking IPO sent the kingdom’s markets soaring and set off a wave of public listings.

Last year, despite the downturn caused by the pandemic, the Saudi stock exchange saw four new listings. The CMA has also been encouraging many of the country’s smaller family-operated companies and financial services companies to list over the last couple of years, creating a small-cap market called Nomu in February 2017, which saw 10 listings in its first year. These reforms, alongside Saudi’s Vision 2030 plans, will provide a number of opportunities for investment banking. “If you look at the Vision 2030, it’s clear that there will be greater emphasize on the expansion of the Saudi capital markets, which just means direct business to the likes of

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SICO,” agrees Al Shirawi.

The CEO has a unique perspective on SICO’s future, having worked there for most of its existence. Al Shirawi joined the company in 1997, just two years after it was established. At the time she was fresh from her international MBA, having first studied civil engineering at the University of Bahrain. “I’ve always been very good at Math and interested in analytics,” she says. The MBA sparked an interest in corporate finance, and the young graduate applied to SICO, intrigued by an opportunity to work in financial markets. She quickly got an interview with the CEO and was offered a job the next day.

She joined the corporate finance team at a pivotal time for the young company. In 1997, SICO obtained its investment banking license, established its investment banking division, and served as advisor and manager on its first two IPOs, for the Arab Insurance Group and Bahrain Duty Free. “What I remember from those early days is that we were a very small team, and we were trying to build our identity in the market,” Al Shirawi reminisces. “The corporate finance team was basically two—it was myself and my boss, the head of the department—so you can image the amount of work we did and how much satisfaction we got from the successes achieved.”

Her diligence paid off. She grew with the company, moving from corporate finance to asset management to property investment and treasury. She entered the C-suite as Chief Operating Officer before being named Deputy CEO in 2013 and CEO a year later. As a result, she has witnessed almost all of SICO’s milestones, including its listing on the Bahrain Bourse stock exchange in 2003. Other more recent achievements include listing Bahrain’s first REIT in 2015, followed a year later by the launch of the Bahrain Liquidity Fund, the kingdom’s only liquidity fund. Then, in 2017, SICO launched SICO LIVE, the investment bank’s online trading platform.

Under Al Shirawi’s leadership, SICO’s current moves are the first time that it has JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2021

59 NAJLA AL SHIRAWI • SICO

Saudi’s financial markets have matured considerably since June 2015, when the government opened its stock exchange, Tadawul, to foreign investment. It went on to introduce a real estate investment trust (REIT) regime in November 2016. Today, 17 REITs are listed on Tadawul, including the Al Mashaar REIT, which is managed by Muscat Capital and was valued at approximately $117.8 million as of January 2021. In June 2018, Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) upgraded Saudi Arabia from standalone to emerging market status.

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pursued growth this aggressively, according to the CEO. Traditionally it has taken a more conservative approach.

“At the peak of the market, back in 2007, everyone went into establishing on-ground presence in regional markets, everyone had a flag somewhere,” she explains.

“We have not gone into that.” This means that, although the bank has always been well-capitalized, it has only raised capital once before, in 2008, when it needed a bigger balance sheet to apply for a wholesale banking license. Even then, much like for the Saudi expansion, this excess capital was raised from existing shareholders.

likely affect much of the region. “The biggest challenge short term for investment management companies is the inability to travel and have face-to-face time with both existing and potential investors,” says Khurram Akram, Head of Institutional Sales for MENA at Union Bancaire Privée. “The inescapable longer term challenge will always be the volatile oil price and the impact this has on government spending and budgets within certain countries in the GCC.” And the industry remains highly competitive, despite some high-profile failures. In 2018, Abraaj Capital—one of the region’s biggest asset management companies, oday the Social Insurance Organization of with $14 billion in assets under management— Bahrain is the largest shareholder in SICO, collapsed amid controversy. And more recently, in with 50.3%. Other shareholders include 2020, Al Masah Capital was placed in liquidation after Bahraini banks, and around 5% of the being fined for allegedly misleading investors about company is owned by its employees. This risk-averse fees. Upcoming consolidations in the commercial attitude makes SICO one of the oldest independent banking sector will also streamline the industry, such investment banks (not as with the merger of NCB a subsidiary of a larger and Samba Financial local or international Group in Saudi Arabia, as Asset Giants bank) in the region not to well as the likely merger of The top five asset managers in the world have have been recapitalized their investment banking more assets under management (AUM) than the GDP of the U.S. BlackRock manages 40 times more or acquired. It has also arms, NCB Capital and wealth than that of Elon Musk. meant that growth outside SAMBA Capital. “The asset its home country has been management industry in Blackrock relatively slow—its first the region will continue • AUM: $8.7 trillion foray outside Bahrain came to witness consolidation.

• Countries present: 38 in 2012 when it established Smaller players are finding a brokerage business in it increasingly harder to Vanguard the U.A.E. Despite this, grow their AUMs as they • AUM: $7.1 trillion the CEO asserts that they face tougher competition • Countries present: 14 are not just a local player. from global banks “We look at the region offering a larger suite of as a whole, and we look products,” agrees Sherif State Street Global at ourselves as a regional El-Haddad, Head of Asset Advisors player,” she insists.

Management at Al Mal • AUM: $3.5 trillion SICO could still face Capital.

• Countries present: 19 some challenges ahead.

None of this phases Al Like all other countries, Shirawi. “On the surface, Fidelity Asset Bahrain’s economy was the market is very crowded, Management adversely affected by the however, there is an • AUM: $3.5 trillion pandemic. Its budget deficit opportunity for a niche as of Q3 2020 almost doubled in the first player,” she says. “We have • Countries present: 13 half of 2020 due to the twin a lot to achieve in the next BNY Mellon hammer blows of COVIDthree to five years—you put Investment 19 and low crude oil prices. a plan for yourself, and you Management The country is also in the put a plan for your team process of borrowing more and your organization.

• AUM: $2.2 trillion funds through a bond “Any success that SICO • Countries: 35 issue. Pandemic-driven achieves is a success for all Source: Company websites. Figures as of December 31, 2020. challenges, however, will of us.”

T

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Intelligent Automation Will Drive Digital Transformation In The Middle East Milan Sheth, EVP-IMEA at Automation Anywhere reveals how the last year has affected the company’s growth and discusses its biggest successes. as reporting urgent requests, improving team collaboration and enhancing customer responses.

AARI represents a significant next step in the evolution of automation in the workplace.

What have been the most recent major breakthroughs in your company?

One of our biggest breakthroughs in 2020 was the launch of the Automation Anywhere Robotic Interface (AARI)—a smart digital assistant that brings personalized consumer experiences to the workplace by enabling all employees to participate in the automation of day-to-day business tasks. It operates like popular digital assistants Siri and Alexa but can be designed to handle various business processes from the front office to the back office. We are seeing many tangible benefits of AARI, such

Do you think COVID-19 has accelerated technology adoption amongst corporates?

The COVID-19 pandemic fueled customer demand for automation to maintain business resilience and increase productivity. Over the last eight months, we’ve seen a greater urgency for automation by organizations that need to become more resilient to keep business moving and employees connected across teams and systems. This further validates a massive market opportunity and signals a seismic shift in the way we work, with automation at the forefront. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is now among one of the fastest-growing technologies we’ve seen in the last

TheF O thoughts in this R B E S M I expressed D D L E E A S T.C O M advertorial are those of the client.

decade and its trajectory is driving our company’s growth as well.

Can you name some of the industry verticals that have accelerated automation adoption?

The pandemic created a greater urgency for businesses to become more resilient and this has accelerated their drive towards becoming fully-digital organizations.

Many organizations were caught off guard by the COVID-19 pandemic and were forced to implement automation to maintain key business processes during the crisis. CIOs have told us that what they had planned to implement over a fiveyear horizon, they are now planning to do in one year. This is huge.

Post COVID-19, I believe that automation adoption will steadily increase year over year as organizations implement software bots to increase efficiencies in the front and back office.

We’ve seen accelerated adoption of automation across all industries as organizations work to keep employees connected across teams and systems while enabling remote work, and this will continue.

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PRO M OTI O N

Automation Anywhere’s customer roster now includes nine out of 10 of the top public sector agencies, seven out of 10 of the top telecom companies, eight out of 10 of the top healthcare companies, six out of 10 of the top technology companies, and seven out of 10 of the top financial institutions.

During your conversations with C-level executives, what are they concerned about while adopting automation?

Automation technology is creating opportunities, paving the way for new and altered jobs, increasing productivity, and improving the delivery of public services. Therefore, we need to think about implications for hiring, reskilling, upskilling, lifelong learning, and reorganizing the way we think about jobs.

Preparing the world for the future workforce doesn’t just fall to academic institutions to empower the workers of tomorrow.

Organizations must invest in reskilling programs to help today’s employees adapt and thrive in this new economic order. For example, at Automation Anywhere University we have trained more than 1.1 million developers, partners, analysts, students and employees in RPA. Imagine the impact if every large company launched similar programs—it would create a workforce well positioned for the 133 million new jobs of tomorrow.

In a technology puzzle, how crucial is automation, and what are the other technologies it can work with to form a solid business infrastructure?

By using bots to automate business processes, organizations can use human workers to focus on the higher-level, strategic, and empathetic work that they do best.

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Accelerated by COVID-19, we are seeing a lot more organizations deploying RPA, and particularly cloud-based RPA as a way to solve pain points brought on by a surge in manual processes.

Cloud-based RPA has emerged as a technology to help automate critical business processes with software bots, while companies recalibrate human labor and manual efforts.

Just a few years ago and especially before the pandemic,

growing acceptance of automation in the Middle East, and 2020 has driven that further. Large-scale conglomerates are building on their RPA plans and accelerating efforts to strengthen business resiliency.

Hybrid work culture is the way forward. Remote working and digital workers are increasingly becoming the norm in the region, so any intelligent automation tools that can enhance their service delivery and help them to perform better are now being implemented.

“Preparing the world for the future workforce doesn’t just fall to academic institutions to empower the workers of tomorrow.

Organizations must invest in reskilling programs to help today’s employees adapt and thrive in this new economic order.” on-prem was considered the safer option to run business applications while cloud was considered risky.

Today, with all of us working from home, this near-overnight switch to remote work is driving the adoption of cloud as the primary delivery model for intelligent automation.

Cloud is now considered the safer choice, with on-prem becoming riskier and more costly. The clearest testament to this transformation towards cloud is the 600% growth that we have witnessed in the first half of 2020. In fact, we had as many as four cloud wins per day in the first half of 2020, signaling its rising importance.

What has 2020 been like for Automation Anywhere in the Middle East and what are your future plans?

The objective of entering the Middle East market was always to drive localized solutions to meet regional customer needs. There is a

We are seeing RPA implementations across finance, oil and gas, manufacturing and supply chain organizations.

Enterprises are embarking on their digital transformation journeys and discovering and automating processes to improve productivity and customer experiences. The Middle East is going to be one of the fastest growing regions in the domain of automation in the immediate future, and we are happy to be part of that growth curve. The company’s investment in people, premises and partnerships in the region are well-placed to accelerate our growth momentum, aiding in the region’s digital transformation goals.

www.automationanywhere.com

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THE LIST

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TOP INDIAN BUSINESS LEADERS IN THE MIDDLE EAST Sector

T

he business relationship between India and the Arab world goes back centuries. Some gulf countries even used the Indian rupee as currency before they gained independence. Today the Indian diaspora is the largest expat population in the Middle East.

With so many Indians employed in the region, some have started their own businesses, and a few have made it big. There are eight billionaires of Indian origin based in the Middle East. Some of the largest homegrown brands in the region were started by Indian expats, including Lulu Hypermarket, which is owned by billionaire Yusuff Ali. Fellow Indian billionaire Ravi Pillai’s RP Group claims to employ 100,000 people, making it one of the largest private employers in the Middle East.

To highlight their achievements, here is a list of 30 business leaders of Indian origin who have achieved great success in business in the Middle East.

Methodology • Net worth—taken from the Forbes’ World Billionaires list, assets, revenues, and other financial metrics.

• Contribution and importance to their sector(s).

• Growth and achievements in the last year.

• Employment impact.

• Social impact and other CSR activity.

Healthcare

2

Industrials, Retail

1

9

Electronics

1

Jewelry

1

Retail

4

Financial Services

1

Logistics

1

Real Estate and Construction

3

Food and Beverages

1

Technology

1

Heavy Equipment

1

Education

2

Industrials

1

Trading and Distribution

1

Diversified

To nominate yourself or someone else for our lists, email: info@forbesmiddleeast.com F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

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1. Yusuff Ali M.A. Chairman and Managing Director COMPANY: LuLu Group

International SECTOR: Retail

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Ali founded Lulu Group International over five decades ago. Since then the group has grown to become a diversified business conglomerate with sales worth $8.4 billion and operations in more than 22 countries across the world. The group is primarily focused on the retail industry, with more than 190 hypermarkets, supermarkets and shopping malls, under the flagship brand of Lulu, which employs more than 55,000 people comprising of 45 different nationalities, serving more than 1.6 million customers per day. The group also has interests in hospitality, food processing, and sourcing and exporting fruit and vegetables.

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Image from Lulu Group International

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Top Indian Business Leaders In The Middle East

2. Renuka Jagtiani Chairwoman, CEO COMPANY: Landmark Group SECTOR: Retail Jagtiani has led the Landmark Group’s corporate strategy and expansion into new markets for more than 20 years. The group was founded by her husband Micky Jagtiani, who is valued at $2.3 billion. Landmark currently operates over 2,300 outlets, encompassing over 30 million square feet across 22 countries. Jagtiani personally heads the group’s CSR initiatives through the LIFE Foundation and the Jagtiani Foundation. She featured on Forbes’ 2020 list of the world’s most powerful women.

4. Sunil Vaswani Group Chairman COMPANY: Stallion Group SECTOR: Diversified Vaswani’s Dubai-headquartered Stallion Group—named after his favorite animal— gets the bulk of its $4 billion in revenue from Africa. The group’s businesses span commodities trading, frozen foods, auto assembly, and dealerships, including Nissan, Volkswagen, Audi, and Porsche. Vaswani is currently expanding its footprint in Africa with a $9 billion investment in sectors such as steel, petrochemicals and agriculture. The Stallion Empowerment Initiative supports education, healthcare and youth empowerment programs in Africa.

3. Sunny Varkey

Images from source

Founder Chairman COMPANY: GEMS Education SECTOR: Education Varkey’s parents were Indian expat teachers, who migrated to Dubai in 1959 and founded a small school based in a villa. Today their son controls GEMS Education—the world’s largest operator of K-12 schools, which owns and operates 66 schools and educates over 119,000 students in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe and the U.S. The Varkey Foundation sponsors the global teachers prize—a $1 million award presented annually to a teacher for their contribution to the profession.

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5. Ravi Pillai Founder and Chairman COMPANY: RP Group of Companies SECTOR: Real Estate and Construction

6. Div Turakhia Founder COMPANY: Div Global Holdings Limited

Technology

Turakhia is most well-known for Media.net, which he founded in 2010 and that went on to become one of the top three largest online advertising businesses worldwide. In 2016, he sold Media.net in an all-cash deal for $900 million. Turakhia has also been the CIO of his family office for the last 10 years, and is now actively managing his global investments. He is a member of the Council for Artificial Intelligence, which supports Dubai’s vision to play a major role in AI on the global stage.

7. Shamsheer Vayalil Chairman & Managing Director COMPANY: VPS Healthcare SECTOR: Healthcare Vayalil—son-in-law of Gulf retailing billionaire Yusuff Ali M.A.—founded VPS Healthcare, a network of hospitals, clinics and pharmacies. Born into a business family in Kerala state, he migrated to the Middle East after his medical studies and worked as a radiologist at a local hospital.

Backed initially by his wealthy father-inlaw, he began with one hospital in Abu Dhabi in 2007. VPS also owns the Rockland Hospital chain in Delhi and the VPS Lakeshore Hospital in Kochi. Vayalil is also vice-chairman and managing director of investment firm Amanat Holdings. He is currently valued at $1.3 billion by Forbes.

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Images from source

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Since establishing his company in 1978, Pillai has built his business empire into a $7.8 billion construction heavyweight over 42 years.

The RP Group today has 20 companies under its umbrella spanning real estate, retail, hospitality, healthcare and education. Its completed projects are worth over $25 billion combined, including Saudi Aramco’s JAZAN Refinery Project, Kuwait National Petroleum Company’s Clean Fuel Refinery Project, and the Sadara Project. In 2019, Pillai said the company plans to invest $1.4 billion into hospitality to grow its Raviz brand. With over 100,000 employees, the group is one of the biggest employers in the Gulf.

8. Rizwan Sajan Founder and Chairman COMPANY: Danube Group SECTOR: Diversified

Sajan founded the Danube Group in 1993. As of 2019, the group had an annual turnover of around $1.3 billion. Today it has interests spanning home décor, building materials, residential properties, architectural cladding, healthcare, hospitality, and media. As of March 2020, the real estate developer had delivered 2,155 units with a combined sales value of $571.7 million. In 2019, Rizwan was among the first foreigners to receive the U.A.E.’s new 10-year residence visa in recognition of his group of companies’ contributions to the country’s economy.

Rizwan Sajan photo by Raja for Forbes Middle East; KP Basheer image from source

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9. K P Basheer Chairman COMPANY: Western International Group SECTOR: Diversified KP established a shop in Bahrain called Gift Palace in 1986. He went on to diversify into several businesses, which he consolidated into the Western International Group . Today the group comprises of 14 brands across fashion and apparel, electronics, retail and e commerce verticals. Geepas, which sells electronics, kitchen appliances, lighting devices and personal care products, is among its flagship brands. The Nesto supermarket chain has 85 outlets across the GCC and India. The group employees 15,000 people and its products are sold in 90 countries.

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10. P.N.C. Menon Founder and Chairman COMPANY: Sobha Group SECTOR: Real Estate and

70 THE LIST • TOP INDIAN BUSINESS LEADERS

Construction

P.N.C. Menon’s founded real estate firm Sobha Realty in 1976 as an interior decorating business in Oman. It has since expanded into the U.A.E., Bahrain, Brunei, and India. In 1995, Menon started Sobha Developers in Bangalore. The India division is now run by Menon’s son, while he runs the Middle East operations. Some major projects include Al Fattan Crystal Towers in Dubai, the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque in Oman, and QasrAl Sarab Desert Resort in Abu Dhabi. In 2019, the company unveiled its $4 billion Sobha Hartland project in Dubai’s Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum City.

11. Thumbay Moideen Founder President COMPANY: Thumbay Group SECTOR: Diversified

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Images from source

Since founding the Thumbay Group in 1998, Moideen has ventured into multiple areas of the healthcare sector, including health education and medical research. The Thumbay University Hospital in Ajman, which was built at a cost of over $272 million, can treat more than 20,000 patients daily. The group plans to increase its hospital network to 15 by 2022 with around 1,000 beds in the U.A.E., 1,500 in India, and 1,000 across other parts of the GCC and Africa. The group also has interests in diagnostics, pharmacies, communications, real estate, publishing, technology, medical tourism, and trading.

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12. Adeeb Ahamed Managing Director COMPANY: LuLu Financial Group SECTOR: Financial Services

Ahamed established the LuLu Financial Group in 2008. Today the company provides financial services in more than 200 branches across 11 countries. Expanding into hospitality, Ahamed launched Twenty14 Holdings in 2014, which has since acquired more than $750 million worth of assets around Europe, the Middle East, and India. He is also the managing director of Tablez, which operates food and lifestyle brands in the U.A.E. and on the Indian subcontinent.

Image courtesy of Lulu Financial Group

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13. Faizal Kottikollan Founder and Chairman COMPANY: KEF Holdings SECTOR: Diversified

15. Paras Shahdadpuri Chairman COMPANY: Nikai Group SECTOR: Electronics Shahdadpuri founded the Nikai Group in Dubai in 1987, and over two decades expended it into a global conglomerate with business interests in electronics and appliances, information technology, general trading, and food. The group’s electronics brand exports over 400 products to 60 countries. Shahdadpuri oversees over 5,000 employees. He is involved in community development in India and the UAE, supporting groups including the Dubai Autism Center, the Al Noor Training Centre for Children with Special Needs, and Rashid Centre for The Determined Ones. Before entering the business world he was a diplomat with the Indian Foreign Services.

14. Ramesh Ramakrishnan Chairman COMPANY: Transworld Group SECTOR: Logistics Ramakrishnan has been the chairman of Transworld Group since 1989.

The group’s revenues hit $875 million in 2019, with operations spanning 20 countries. With over 35 years of experience, Ramakrishnan leads a team of more than 2,000 employees, including those in the GCC, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, and India.

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Kottikollon runs KEF Holdings an investment company that he founded after selling ETC, one of the largest foundries in the world, to Tyco for $400 million. The KEF group which has operations in healthcare development and infrastructure apart from other strategic investments across diversified sectors in Singapore, India, and the U.A.E. Over the last year, the group’s flagship hospital, Meitra, set up the state’s first Tele-ICU at Beach Hospital, Kozhikode. In 2014, Faizal launched KEF Infra, which was among the world’s largest fully integrated offsite infra manufacturing facility, in 2018, KEF Holdings, under leadership, announced the merger of KEF Infra with Katerra, a Softbank-backed Silicon Valley infra tech company, He is also a Member of the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s prestigious panel of ‘Champions of Change for Infrastructure’.

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16. Ashok Bhawandas Awtani Chairman and Managing Director COMPANY: Neelkamal Group of Companies SECTOR: Diversified

17. Siddeek Ahmed Chairman and Managing Director COMPANY: Eram Group SECTOR: Diversified

Images from source

Ahmed heads the Eram Group, a business conglomerate comprising over 40 companies across sectors including oil and gas, power, construction, manufacturing, travel, healthcare, IT, media, logistics, automotive and training and education. The group has operations in the Middle East, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the U.S. Eram Scientific received a $411,083 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to fund research into toilet hygiene, water, and energy conservation solutions.

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Awtani founded the Neelkamal Group of Companies in Dubai in 1975 as a retail trader of textiles. Since them the group has expanded into sectors including apparel and plastic products manufacturing, logistics, and hospitality.

In 2020, the firm helped in the mass production of face masks and PPE Kits to supply the local Kenyan market.

Awtani leads a team of 8,000 people.

18. Kamal Puri Chairman COMPANY: Skyline

International Group Limited SECTOR: Education

Puri established the Skyline International Group in 1990 in Sharjah with a focus on education. Since then it has expanded its portfolio into healthcare, hospitality, manufacturing, and agriculture. With a team of 1,400, Puri oversees the group’s operations in the U.A.E., Canada, the U.S., India, and Nigeria. Skyline University College secured international accreditation in 2020.

Photo by Raja for Forbes Middle East

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19. Shamlal Ahamed Managing Director International Operations COMPANY: Malabar Gold and

75 THE LIST • TOP INDIAN BUSINESS LEADERS

Diamonds SECTOR: Jewelry

Ahamed took over his father’s jewellery retailing business in 1993.

Malabar Gold and Diamonds has 12 jewelry brands and an annual turnover of $4.5 billion, with a network of 250 outlets spread across 10 countries.

It has 14 wholesale units, as well as offices, design centers and factories in India, the Middle East, the Far East, and the U.S. Ahamed oversees a workforce of 13,000.

20. Anil G Pillai Managing Director COMPANY: Airolink Group SECTOR: Real Estate and

Images from source

Construction

Pillai founded the construction group, Airolink, in Ireland in 2001. It now operates in Ireland, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and India. The company has executed projects worth over $1.9 billion, including six shopping complexes, three hotels, and a number of government schools and ministry buildings. Today the company has a presence in the aviation, trading, hospitality, medical, and finance sectors. In 2019, Pillai was appointed as a UN Counsellor and Consultant by the International Committee for Protection of Human Rights. Pillai holds a doctorate in business management and an honorary doctorate in construction.

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21. Naresh

Bhawnani Founder and Chairman COMPANY: West Zone Group SECTOR: Retail Bhawnani opened his first supermarket in 2005, and over the last 15 years the West Zone Group has diversified into supermarkets, hypermarkets, logistics, shopping malls, real estate, construction, technology, hospitality and F&B in the U.A.E. Supermarkets and hypermarkets remain at the forefront of the group’s activities, with more than 100 located across the country covering more than 500,000 square feet of retail space.

Bhawnani oversees more than 5,000 employees. The group recently acquired supermarket chain, Safestway, along with three Giant branches and one G-Mart from Giant Group.

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22. Pradeep

Kumar Handa Chairman/ Vice Chairman and Group CEO COMPANY: Royale Hayat

Hospital / KAPICO Group Holding Company SECTOR: Diversified

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Images from source

Handa is vice-chair and group CEO of Kuwait-based KAPICO Group Holding, a holding company run by two families, which was founded in 1950 as an automotive spare parts business. The multinational conglomerate today has more than 40 subsidiary and joint venture companies across 11 countries in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia.

The group’s business spans the automotive, healthcare, retail and hospitality sectors, as well as infrastructure development.

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23. Birbal Singh Dana Chairman and Managing Director COMPANY: Dana Group of Companies SECTOR: Industrials, Retail

24. Lalu Samuel Chairman and Managing Director COMPANY: Kingston Holdings SECTOR: Trading and Distribution Trained in business and accounting, Samuel started the Sharjah-based Kingston Holdings in 1996, which is now one of the largest manufacturers and distributors of electrical products in the Middle East, generating an annual turnover of $160 million. The diversified company is involved in manufacturing, regional distribution, third-party logistics, headhunting, smart home solutions, advertising, media promotions and project development. The group’s operations span 120 countries and regions including the Middle East, India, Africa, Europe, Canada, and the U.S. Samuel oversees more than 400 employees.

25. Dhananjay M. Datar Managing Director COMPANY: Al Adil Trading Company SECTOR: Retail

Images from source

Datar transformed Al Adil Trading from a small grocery store into a chain of 47 specialty supermarkets across the GCC and India, including two spice factories, two flour mills, and an import-export company. Datar is among the recipients of the U.A.E.’s 10-year residency visa. In June 2020 Datar reportedly provided free tickets to Indian migrants who were stranded in Dubai due to the COVID-19 pandemic and wished to go back home.

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Dana spent almost 20 years as a general surgeon before founding the Dana Group of Companies in 1991. Today, the group consists of 12 companies in the U.A.E. as well as operations across Qatar, Libya and India. It stocks flat steel products in the Middle East, with diversified operations in steel, lubricants, retail, healthcare and hospitality. It also manufactures sandwich panels, fencing, profiles, and cable trays.

27. Bharat Bhatia CEO COMPANY: Conares SECTOR: Industrials Bhatia founded Conares in 1988. The company initially focused on steel trading, but later set up manufacturing facilities in the U.A.E., which are today spread across 1.5 million square feet and have the capacity to manufacture more than a million megatonnes of steel rebars, pipes, and color-coated coils per year. Its steel has been used in several projects in the U.A.E., including Etihad Rail and Expo 2020. Bhatia has also business interests in the F&B and real estate sectors.

26. Harish Tahiliani Managing Director COMPANY: Arab India Spices SECTOR: Food and Beverages Tahiliani came to the UAE in 1994 to join his family businesses that was founded in 1986, over the years he has grown the business from being a small mall Indian spices and pulses trading company, set up in Sharjah Industrial Area UAE, to a multinational company with a supply chain covering the Far East, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, Europe, North America, and Australia. In March 2020, Hamriyah Free Zone Authority announced that Arab India Spices would build 12 silos worth $40 million at the Sharjah Food Park. The project will increase the company’s investments in the U.A.E. from $95 million to $136 million. Arab India Spices has provided repatriation tickets and over 10,000 food parcels to residents affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The company also sold its products at a 50% discount.

28. Kiran Asher Group Managing Director COMPANY: Al Ansari Group SECTOR: Diversified Asher founded Al Ansari Trading Enterprise LLC in 1975 and has since expanded the organization across the GCC and Asia.

Now with 10 units and more than 4,000 employees worldwide, the diversified group’s major activities include construction, manufacturing, industries, trading, services and real estate. In 2020, the group increased its market share in the steel and building materials unit.

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Harish Tahiliani photo by Bobby Sahotra' images from source

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29. Hillary Pinto Managing Director and Founder COMPANY: Al Faris Group SECTOR: Heavy Equipment

79 THE LIST • TOP INDIAN BUSINESS LEADERS

Pinto founded the Al Faris Group 25 years ago, a diversified conglomerate that offers heavy lifting and transport equipment services as well as energy solutions. The group has helped construct iconic projects including the Dubai Metro, the Dubai Mall, Dubai International Airport, Riyadh Metro, Expo 2020 Dubai, the Burj Khalifa, the Dubai Dry Docks and Jebel Ali Free Zone.

The group employs 3,200 people across the U.A.E., Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. In June 2020, the group bought 69 mobile and crawler cranes worth $97 million from German-Swiss heavy equipment manufacturer Liebherr.

30. Zulekha Daud Founder and Chairperson COMPANY: Zulekha

Images from source

Healthcare Group SECTOR: Healthcare

Daud founded the Zulekha Healthcare Group, which includes two multidisciplinary hospitals in Dubai and Sharjah, as well as four U.A.E. medical centers and three pharmacies providing specialized treatments in over 30 disciplines. In the mid-1960s, she treated the U.A.E.’s Founding Father, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan on a visit to Al Ain. In 2020, Zulekha Hospital was re-accredited by the Joint Commission International.

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• THOUGHTS ON •

Equality “Women will only have true equality when men share with them the responsibility of bringing up the next generation.”

—Ruth Bader Ginsburg

“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”

—George Orwell

“We came equals into this world, and equals shall we go out of it.”

—George Mason

“Equality is the soul of liberty; there is, in fact, no liberty without it.”

—Frances Wright

“The extension of women’s rights is the basic principle of all social progress.”

—Charles Fourier

“There should be no discrimination against languages people speak, skin color, or religion.”

—Malala Yousafzai “Gender equality is more than a goal in itself.

It is a precondition for meeting the challenge of reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development and building good governance.”

—Kofi Annan “People are pretty much alike. It’s only that our differences are more susceptible to definition than our similarities.”

—Linda Ellerbee “Virtue can only flourish among equals.”

—Mary Wollstonecraft F O R B E S M I D D L E E A S T.C O M

“One of the things about equality is not just that you be treated equally to a man, but that you treat yourself equally to the way you treat a man.”

—Marlo Thomas

“All men are created equal, it is only men themselves who place themselves above equality.”

—David Allan Coe Ruth Bader Ginsburg

FINAL THOUGHT Frances Wright

“No struggle can ever succeed without women participating side by side with men.”

—Muhammad Ali Jinnah

Mary Wollstonecraft

“All this talk about equality.

The only thing people really have in common is that they are all going to die.”

—Bob Dylan

“As women continue to break barriers and define success on their own terms, the power in spotlighting their leadership lessons and hard-won wisdom is crucial.”

—Moira Forbes

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Images from Wikipedia; Moira Forbes, image from Forbes.com

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