Lubna Olayan

Position: CEO, Olayan Financing Company

Biography: Lubna Olayan is chief executive officer (CEO) of the Olayan Financing Company, the holding company for the Olayan Group’s operations in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East. She is a member of the board of the Olayan Investment Company Establishment, the parent company of The Olayan Group. She is also a board member of Saudi Hollandi Bank and sits on the international advisory boards of Rolls Royce and Citigroup. From 1996 to 2004, she served on the board of Chelsfield, a UK property developer. Olayan is a member of the International Business Council of the World Economic Forum, and the international advisory board of the Council on Foreign Relations. In April 2007, she was elected to the board of trustees for Cornell University. Since 2002, she has been on the board of trustees of the Arab Thought Foundation, a Beirut-based thinktank focusing on issues facing the Arab world.

Contact Tel: (+9661) 474 9172

Sheikha Hanadi Nasser bin Khaled al-Thani

Position: Founder, Amwal

Biography: Founder and chair of Qatar Ladies Investment Company (Amwal), Sheikha Hanadi is also chief executive officer (CEO) of the Al-Waab City real estate development project and deputy chief executive officer of Nasser bin Khaled al-Thani & Sons Group. Hanadi founded Al-Waab City in 2005. The $1.73bn development covers retail and commercial facilities. She established Amwal in 1998. It was the first company to receive a licence to carry out investment banking, asset management and wealth management activities in Qatar. Prior to that, Sheikha Hanadi was a lecturing assistant in the Economics Department at Qatar University. Named Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2005, she also serves as a trustee on the boards of the Arab Women’s International Forum and the College of Business & Economics at Qatar University.

Contact Tel: (+974) 450 2442

Sheikha al-Bahar

Position: General manager, National Bank of Kuwait

Biography: Sheikha al-Bahar is general manager of the corporate banking group at the National Bank of Kuwait (NBK). She is also chairwoman of Al-Watany Bank of Egypt and vice-chairwoman of NBK Capital. Managing a portfolio of about $11bn, Al-Bahar leads NBK’s corporate banking group in the lending, marketing and investment banking areas, specialising in large and structured finance transactions. She is also responsible for relationships with domestic corporate and institutional clients, and international corporates operating in Kuwait. She has been involved in all of the Kuwait Investment Authority’s privatisation deals since 1994. Recently, she has managed transactions including a one-year $5m bridge loan for Saudi Telecom and a 14-year, $1.4bn project financing loan for Kuwait Paraxylene Production Company.

Contact Tel: (+ 965) 246 0168

Maha Hussain

Position: Chairwoman, Petrochemical Industries Company

Biography: Maha Hussain is the newly appointed chairwoman and managing director of Kuwait’s Petrochemical Industries Company (PIC). She has held the position of deputy chairwoman and deputy managing director of planning and joint ventures since November 2001. Hussain joined PIC as a chemical engineer in 1976 and has held various positions in the company. As chairwoman, she will oversee the company’s future investment in olefins and aromatics. Hussain is also chairwoman of Equate Petrochemical Company, a joint venture of PIC, the US’ Dow Chemical and the local Boubyan Petrochemical Company, and of ME Global, a joint venture of PIC and Dow Chemical. She is a member of the oversight committees for several petrochemicals projects. She holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of California in the US.

Contact Tel: (+ 965) 321 1132

Fatima al-Jaber

Position: Chief operating officer, Al-Jaber Group

Biography: Fatima al-Jaber is chief operating officer of the UAE’s Al-Jaber Group and sits on the group’s board of directors as executive director. She is also a member of the boards of directors of The National Investor (TNI) and the Abu Dhabi National Takaful Company. At Al-Jaber Group, she oversees the management of all of the group’s contracting, logistics, industrial, trading, investment and real estate subsidiaries. An engineer by profession, Al-Jaber worked with the Abu Dhabi government from 1998 until 2005. Her roles include assistant undersecretary for technical services at the Abu Dhabi Public Works Department and undersecretary for the building projects sector of the Abu Dhabi Municipality. Al-Jaber currently acts as deputy chairwoman of the Abu Dhabi Businesswomen’s Council and sits on the board of directors of the Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce & Industry.

Contact Tel: (+9712) 555 4300

Maryam Sharaf

Position: Chief financial officer, Dubai World

Biography: Maryam Sharaf was appointed group chief financial officer of Dubai World in July 2006 after previously serving as the group’s financial controller. She has been with the company for four years and has more than 20 years’ experience in the finance industry. Before joining the group, Sharaf held various senior management positions at Dubai Petroleum Company, a subsidiary of the US’ Conoco-Phillips. At Dubai World, her responsibilities include ensuring financial stability, overseeing corporate funding, risk-mitigation strategies, maintaining banking relationships with local and global banks, and maintaining an effective system of internal financial control. Dubai World is a holding company that manages and supervises the Dubai government’s portfolio of businesses and projects. Sharaf is a board member of Dubai World Corporation and sits on all Dubai World’s investment boards.

Contact Tel: (+9714) 881 8808

Salma Hareb

Position: CEO, Jebel Ali Free Zone Authority (Jafza) and Economic Zones World

Biography: In September 2005, Salma Hareb became the first woman in the Middle East and North Africa to head a free zone when she was appointed chief executive officer (CEO) of Jafza. With the creation of Economic Zones World in 2007, Hareb’s remit widened to include Jafza’s global operations under Jafza International, as well as other business parks within the group. In her role as CEO of Economic Zones World, she oversees Jafza, Jafza International, Techno Park and Dubai Auto Zone, and is focusing on creating a strong global presence for the different parts of the group. Hareb also serves as a board member for Dubai’s Ports & Free Zones Board, and for Dubai Exports Development Corporation, which was established in 2006. She is also a member of the board of Forsa, set up to encourage female entrepreneurs.

Contact Tel: (+9714) 801 0555

Maha al-Ghunaim

Position: Chairwoman, Global Investment House

Biography: Maha al-Ghunaim founded Kuwait’s Global Investment House in 1998 and is currently its chairwoman and managing director. Al-Ghunaim is responsible for growing the global business across the Middle East and helped to launch the Global Index on the Kuwait Stock Exchange. She is a board member of Kuwait’s National Industries Group, BankMuscat International (Bahrain), Dubai-based Depa United Group and Dubai International Financial Exchange. She serves as vice-chairwoman of National Ranges Company (Mayadeen) and Oman’s Shurooq Investment Services Company. She joined Kuwait Foreign Trading Contracting & Investment Company in 1982, where she became head of the portfolio management department in 1988. She was later appointed assistant general manager for asset management at Kuwait Investment Company.

Contact Tel: (+965) 240 0551

Donna Sultan

Position: CEO, KEO International Consultants

Biography: Donna Sultan is chief executive officer (CEO) of Kuwait’s KEO International Consultants, a consulting firm providing architectural design, civil engineering, and project and construction management services. Sultan joined KEO as a director in 1984. At the time, the firm had 300 employees and was primarily known as a medium-sized regional consultancy with annual fees of about $8m. She was appointed CEO in 1991, shortly after the end of the Gulf War, when the company had only 26 employees. Under her leadership, the firm recovered and today has nine offices, a staff of more than 1,600, and is actively involved in the design and management of some of the most prestigious projects in and outside the region. Its projected annual revenue for 2007 is more than $100m, boosted by expansion into the GCC, Asia, Iran, North Africa and Europe.

Contact Tel: (+965) 461 6000

Nahed Taher

Position: CEO, Gulf One Investment Bank

Biography: Nahed Taher is founder, chief executive officer (CEO) and an executive director of Saudi Arabia’s Gulf One Investment Bank. She was the first female to become CEO of an investment bank in the Gulf. Before she founded the bank, Taher was a managing partner at Compass Consulting, a financial advisory company. She was also chief economist and chairwoman of the risk and portfolio management committee at the National Commercial Bank in Jeddah. She served as a professor and head of the Economics Department at King Abdulaziz University. Taher is also a board member for the OECD-Mena financial group and the economic committee of the Mecca al-Mukaramah region. In 2006, she was awarded the Businesswoman of the Year title by Prince Hamid al-Nihayyan. In 2007, she received the Saudi Businesswoman of the Year award from Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz al-Saud.

Contact Tel: (+9662) 692 7764

Raja al-Gurg

Position: Managing director, Easa Saleh al-Gurg Group

Biography: Raja al-Gurg is managing director of Easa Saleh al-Gurg Group, a family business involved in trading, manufacturing, retail, franchising and real estate. She joined the group in 1989 as a member of the board of directors and now oversees the day-to-day operation and running of the business in the UAE. Having received a degree in English Literature from Kuwait University in 1977, she began her career as headmistress of Zabeel Secondary School for Girls in Dubai in 1978. Al-Gurg is a board member of the Dubai Chamber of Commerce & Industry and a member of the Dubai Economic Council. She serves as president of the Dubai Chambers of Commerce & Industry businesswomen’s committee, and is a member of the board of directors of the Dubai Women Association and the Arab International Women’s Forum.

Contact: Tel: (+9714) 2279666

Nabilah al-Tunisi

Position: Manager of project support and controls department, Saudi Aramco

Biography: As manager of the project support and controls department at Saudi Aramco, Al-Tunisi supervises 380 engineers, who are responsible for project cost control, expenditure forecasting, contract services, cost engineering and IT services. The department also carries out land and sea surveying for all of Saudi Aramco’s organisations. From 2002 to 2006, Al-Tunisi was general supervisor of the project controls and estimating division, where she developed project management information systems and led a team to provide accurate estimates for Aramco’s multibillion-dollar facility construction programme. Al-Tunisi started her career as a systems analyst in facilities planning in Dhahran, and in 1984 she joined Aramco in Houston, where she worked on the company’s supervisory control and data acquisition system.

Contact Tel: (+9663) 874 6646