RIYADH: Coinciding with International Women’s Day, AstraZeneca and Pearl Initiative hosted this year’s Women in Leadership Summit in Riyadh.
The summit, featuring prominent experts from across the Middle East and Africa discussed fields such as medicine, education, and entrepreneurship to highlight the role of women in driving impact and creating a sustainable future in the region.
The summit is expected to become an annual event at different locations around the MENA region, aimed at advancing gender equality by bringing together an exclusive selection of influential women and men in various industries.
Pelin Incesu, area vice president for the Middle East and Africa at AstraZeneca, said: “Although there has been some progress toward gender equality in the workplace, the world is still far from achieving its (equality) goal.”
Panel discussions were held where speakers shared views about how they have achieved their dreams despite facing challenges.
Mustafa Alshehri, sustainability executive director at SABIC and a vice chair of Global Compact Network Saudi Arabia, shed light on how the Kingdom went through major changes in terms of empowering women in male-dominated industries.
“Sometimes it is not about how much experience you have in the field, but it is more about getting to know people and how to get recognized,” he said.
Rehaf Gassas, CEO of the Saudi Heritage Preservation Society, emphasized the significance of being surrounded by positive minds, as people who believed in her pushed her to become a CEO at a young age.
Muna Abusulayman, one of the top media personalities in the Arab world, told Arab News there are two types of leaders, including extroverts who usually get leadership roles. “They are risk-takers with active personalities,” she said.
“The second type of leader is the ones who we see right here; they keep giving and giving till somebody says ‘this person needs to be the CEO’.”
She added: “Saudi Arabia has accelerated female leadership, and the point now is no longer about female leadership so much as how can we manage diversity, how can we allow the harmonious coming together so that we can increase productivity, and serve the country better, and we can increase profits in all sectors.”
