Equity Mag Jan_18 Book Folder

WOMAN LEADER
Investment Company shortly after she
completed her bachelor’s in business
administration. But to move up the ranks, she
quickly realised that she needed to tool herself
with additional qualifications. In 2009, she
enrolled herself into an executive MBA
programme at the London Business School. “I
did a 16-month executive MBA course from the
London Business School. My boss at that time
at the Abu Dhabi Investment Council would say
to me, ‘You’re a part-time student, but a fulltime
employee.’ But I managed both worlds.
The studies were very intense.” Here too, she
was again a torchbearer for women from the
UAE breaking their own glass ceilings. “I am
one of the first few Emirati women who
graduated from the London Business School.”
The gamble to go back to her books paid off and
Asma quickly found herself not long after that
appointed as the director of the national bank of
Abu Dhabi global multi-strategy fund. Having
reached a new peak in her financial career, she
decided to take a two-year sabbatical and go to San
Francisco where she could study psychology.
PSYCHOLOGY AND THE UAE
While the UAE has made remarkable strides in
the areas of infrastructure and technological
advancements, there are areas that are only
recently gaining traction – chief among them is
the requirement for locally trained and qualified
psychologists who can additionally recognise
and cater to the need to create a greater
awareness among people seeking help. “You
must appreciate the UAE is 46 years old and this
field was underrepresented. I was fortunate to
have my parents who studied and lived abroad
and had the necessary awareness. Ten-twenty
years ago there wasn’t much awareness of
mental health or self-development. It’s
surprising how quickly we’ve caught up though
with what the West is doing in this field.”
In San Francisco, Asma began conducting
community workshops where she counselled
homeless communities and children diagnosed
with Autism. She fulfilled over 360-hours of
one-on-one counselling and community
development work that she required to earn her
degree. Equipped with a freshly-minted
professional set of skills in psychology, Asma
decided to return to the UAE and conduct ‘selfdevelopment’
workshops here.
She prefers the term ‘self-development’ over
‘mental health’ not so much because of the
stigma surrounding the latter term, but because
the former is more inclusive to the course
content of her workshops titled ‘Creative
Expression’. “Mental health taps the emotions
and behaviour. Self-development is specifically
focused on interpersonal and intrapersonal
relations and focused on the development of
self.”
“My workshops focus on reinforcing one’s
own sense of self, asserting one’s own
personality, understanding all aspects the
character especially the less pretty ones, and
offering guidance and support. Creative
expression is tapping into a non-verbal message
of success in yourself. It can be through
movement meditation, painting, drawing or
writing.”
These workshops, as Asma explains, serve
three main purposes: assembling a like-minded
community, helping participants to set goals and
focus on what they want to achieve and thirdly
help them to learn more about themselves
during the course itself.
Interestingly, ever since Asma began
conducting her workshops here in the UAE, all
the participants have been women. “So far it’s
been 100 per cent Arab women who have
attended my workshop. Of these, around 90 per
cent are Emiratis. I’m actually quite surprised
how open and ready and encouraged these
women already are,” says Asma.
While committing herself to one-on-onecounselling
sessions and group workshops,
Asma has continued to pursue her finance
career. She’s now an investment banker with the
UAE’s sovereign wealth fund. “I’m part of the
asset management and treasury team. It’s my
responsibility to recommend high performance
managers, monitor the existing funds, do
investment diligence on new funds, and to
maintain relationships with fund managers.” As
a woman who has broken many firsts in the field
of finance and psychology, Asma remains
optimistic about the future of women in finance
in the region. “Emirati women are blessed to
have the opportunity to join investment banks
in the UAE. And we have all the support we
need whether its training or exposure from our
leaders and our management.
“The cultural aspect is very important. Us
Arab women have gone beyond the cultural
hurdle. There are some families in a few regions
where it’s difficult for women to work or enter
the workplace. But this is changing quickly and
I’ve seen the drive and motivation of women
change a lot.”
Through her workshops, Asma is driving that
change rather than passively waiting on the
sidelines and expecting the change to happen,
one woman at a time. Props.
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EQUITY