eFinancialCareers

It may still be difficult for women to make it to dizzy heights on the career ladder in financial services in the Middle East, but, as these five prove, it’s not impossible…

Maha al-Ghunaim
MD and chairperson, Global Investment House (Kuwait)

Al-Ghunaim is well known in Western markets and recently gained greater prominence: last week she announced plans to raise $500m from UK investors for a Middle East and North Africa private equity fund, and last month she floated Global Investment House (GIH) on the London Stock Exchange.

However, when she started GIH in 1998, after 18 years working for state-owned investment companies, she originally gave the role she now occupies to a man – such was the environment back then.

She now runs the firm, which has $9.5bn in assets under management and operates in 16 countries.

Soha Nashaat
Managing director, Barclays Private Bank, Middle East (Dubai)

Nashaat won the award for woman banker of the year in the Middle East in 2007, only a year after taking on the task of building Barclays' operation in the region from scratch.

Half Egyptian, half Syrian, and raised in Kuwait, Nashaat only returned to the Middle East in 2000. She had previously spent many years working in various countries for Merrill Lynch since joining as an intern in 1991.

Nahed Taher
Chief executive officer, Gulf One Investment Bank (Saudi Arabia)

Taher is a trail-blazer. In 2005, she became the first woman to head a bank in Saudi when she co-founded Gulf One.

Before setting up Gulf One Taher was a senior economist at National Commercial Bank in Saudi – the only woman in a workforce of 4,000 men. She was voted Saudi businesswoman of the year in 2007 and ranks among Forbes’ 100 most influential women in the world.

Mahasti Dadressen
Chief executive officer, Forsa LLC (Dubai)

It’s either a sign of more progressive times or, more likely, the growing amount of wealth owned by women in the GCC, that Forsa LLC – the first investment firm set up “for women, by women” – was launched in April. The new venture is part of state-owned investment group Dubai World.

Dadressen is a qualified chartered accountant and began her career at PricewaterhouseCoopers in 1994, before joining Saudi investment group Olayan as vice president.

Farah Foustok
Chief investment officer, ING Investment Management (Dubai)

When ING Investment Management became the latest Western asset manager to set up shop in Dubai last week, it looked to the local talent pool to head up its investment team.

Foustok, who had already managed to work her way up to head of asset management for the National Bank of Dubai, was an obvious choice. She was also able to persuade three of her colleagues to make the move to ING.