DUBAI, 11 July 2004 — A female Kuwaiti civil servant believes the future for Arab businesswomen is promising, with traditional family values beginning to support, rather than discourage, female leadership in the public and private sectors.
Nabila Al-Anjari, an assistant undersecretary in the Kuwait Ministry for Information, said family support was vital to Arab women to lead successful professional lives. She was speaking after her appointment as a corporate ambassador for the “Leaders in Dubai” event, which will be staged at the Dubai International Convention Center on Nov. 29-30.
“Building a leader begins at home, and the family must believe in the ability of women to be successful,” Al-Anjari said. “Arab women no longer have to fight to reach their goals, but are supported to reach them.”
“Education is the key to future success and now, especially in Kuwait, women are encouraged to advance — the country has stopped distinguishing between men and women, and those who hold the highest leadership positions do so on merit.”
With her appointment Al-Anjari joins some of Arabia’s biggest business names including Bharat Jashanmal, the managing director of the leading retail chain Jashanmal Group, Khamis Al-Muqla, chairman and managing director of Gulf Saatchi & Saatchi, Lebanese businessman Jacques J. Sarraf, the former head of Lebanon’s Association of Industrialists and chairman of the country’s giant Malia Group, and industrialist Abdullah Al-Zamil of Saudi Arabia’s Zamil Industrial Investment Company.
“Nabila’s appointment is a reflection of the changing Middle East corporate scene, which now increasingly sees women taking up key governmental and boardroom positions,” said Jessica Sutherland, the general manager, IIR Exhibitions & Conferences, which is organizing the event.
The corporate ambassador program was initiated at the request of our keynote speakers, who wanted a group of the region’s most recognized and contemporary business leaders to be their VIP guests at the event to network ideas for future regional leadership development. The fact that they will now hear from a female perspective is a necessary element in the development of the ambassadorial role.
The event will see seven of the world’s premier speakers on leadership address an expected audience of 1,500 of the region’s top business executives. The speakers are the former Mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani, Harvard Business School’s Professor Michael Porter, management guru Tom Peters, best-selling author Frank Maguire, MIT professor of management and economics Lester Thurow, influential futurist Alvin Toffler and former GE Chairman and CEO Jack Welch.
