5 Bahrainis among Forbes’ 100 most powerful bizwomen list

Manama : Five Bahrainis have figured among 100 women named as most powerful businesswomen in the Arab world in a list compiled by Forbes Middle East.

Y K Almoayyed & Sons Managing Director Mona Almoayyed, Batelco CEO Muna Al Hashemi, Bahrain Mumtalak Holding Company Chief Financial Officer Suha Karzoon, Al Salam Bank Chair Shaikha Hessa Al Khalifa and Securities & Investment Company CEO Najla Al Shirawi are the people who made it to the Forbes’ list of 100 most powerful Arab businesswomen. 

Mona Almoayyed

Among the five, Almoayyed ranked the highest after achieving rank 9. Al Hashemi ranked at 16, Karzoon at 27,  Shaikha Hessa at 57, and Al Shirawi at 89. Lubna S. Olayan from Saudi Arabia, who is the CEO of Olayan Financing Company, was ranked as the Most Powerful Arab Businesswomen of 2017.

“This year in particular, women across the Arab world appear to be cracking the remaining glass ceilings, and nowhere more so it seems than in the banking sector. The region’s banks have raised several high-achieving and long-serving women to its highest positions, with the industry representing 28% of our 2017 list. Saudi Arabia took the lead in high-level appointments. Rania Mahmoud Nashar, CEO of Samba Financial Group, became the first woman to head a commercial bank in the Kingdom, Latifa Homoud Alsabhan was promoted as the CFO of Arab National Bank, and Sarah Al Suhaimi, CEO of NCB Capital, was appointed as chair of the country’s stock market, Tadawul, as the Kingdom looks to join MSCI emerging markets index. The region’s governments have also appointed women to key roles in finance and industry,” Forbes stated.

“To compile these rankings, we collected information from annual reports and company websites, as well as other primary sources. We looked at: Company revenues or GDP in the case of government departments and ministries, years of experience, scope of the role or ministry,” Forbes stated explaining the criteria while compiling the list.