Tamakkan hosts AmCham’s Women Achieve Anniversary
(From L-R) Gillian Arnott, Business Development Manager, Northrop Grumman, Theresa F. Weber, Executive Director, AmCham Abu Dhabi and Sana Bagersh, Chair, AmCham Abu Dhabi Women in Business Committee.
Women Achieve, an exciting initiative aimed at advancing women in business celebrated its second anniversary at an event hosted by Tamakkan. The AmCham Abu Dhabi “Women Achieve” platform invited all the signatories of the charter to an evening of inspiration and celebration. AmCham’s The Women in Business Committee introduced the success stories of each of the signatories, highlighting the progress within the organisations that help advance the principles of Women Achieve. At the event, Northrop Grumman was awarded the title of 2015 Women Achieve Champion for their significant contribution to women’s advancement.
Northrop Grumman was singled out for its outstanding work in promoting STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) to women, particularly Emirati women. “The Innovation Challenge,” which is open to both male a female engineering students, allows students access to mentors from Northrop Grumman.
The Women Achieve principles:
1. Provide a professional organizational environment conducive to the advancement of women.
2. Encourage women to grow through training, shadowing, coaching, and mentorship programs.
3. Consider female candidates for new opportunities.
4. Support female rising stars in their efforts to move into leadership positions.
5. Encourage women to serve on boards of different organizations.
6. Offer fair remuneration to female employees.
7. Promote internship to female candidates.
Theresa Weber
Executive Director, American Chamber of Commerce
“AmCham Abu Dhabi is very pleased to be celebrating the two year anniversary of the Women Achieve initiative. We have over 35 signatories to date including Boeing, Exxon Mobil, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, GE, Al Noor Hospital, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and many others. Our list of companies interested in signing grows by the day. We are proud that this initiative is making a difference.”
Sana Bagersh
CEO, BrandMoxie / Chair, Women in Business Committee, American Chamber of Commerce
“It is because of the leadership and vision of HH Sheikha Fatima Bint Mubarak that the women of the UAE today stand strong and enabled. We are able to celebrate women’s achievement today because of her commitment to the progress of women in the UAE. When the Women in Business committee came up with Women Achieve we knew we couldn’t change the world. We knew we have no regulatory, legislative or enforcement powers but we also knew that maybe a powerful idea could inject positive principles that would at least help facilitate the way to positive change.”
Elias B. Sayah
President & CEO, Sayah Engineering
“At my office, 90% of our engineers are women. A woman is the greatest creation on earth and no matter how much we pay women for all that they do in the office and life, we aren’t paying them enough.”
Hessa AlBahli
Compliance Manager at Mubadala GE Capital
“Today, Mubadala GE Capital offers career development programs for promising leaders with equal opportunity to females and I was thankfully and very proudly the result of such an initiative and I am now the first UAE National to hold Compliance Manager position in GE Capital.”
Henrik R. Mulvad
Managing Director, Accenture
“Diversity played a big role in high performance companies. There’s much more women on the boards and top positions in companies. But of course they were also women coming from different backgrounds, ages and education.”
Fay Gabriel
Owner, Regal International Projects Development and Facilities Services Consultant
“Women’s duty to inspire other women and empower them. If we don’t work for ourselves, we can not get a place under the sun.”
Dr. Amina El Saleh
Hospital Director, Al Noor Hospital
“I joined Al Noor for the first time in 1986 as a clinical nurse and made my way up through the career development proved myself at work and gained the trust of my patients and management. Currently I hold the position of Hospital Director in Al Noor Hospital Al Ain since 2006.”
Dana Salloum
Manager – Government, Industry and Community Engagement at Boeing Middle East
“In our internship program that we launched, 11 out of 15 were women. We’re very proud of the young Emirati women – these women were the best of the best interns that we had on a global scale not just by their own nationality; they competed with everybody else.”
Kerstin Ehmann
First Officer Rotary Wing Pilot, Falcon Aviation
“I always had the dream to fly one day. My husband who’s a pilot as well supported that dream along with my great and unforgettable surprise, Captain Mahmoud, General Manager for Falcon Aviation who said that he’s gonna support me for further training. That happened a year ago and now I am part of the group where I do what I really love doing.”
Robert Harward
Chief Executive, Lockheed Martin UAE
“Lockheed Martin, the largest defense company in the world in the United States at least, is a company of 112,000. 80,000 engineers, a large portion of them, women and the fact that our CEO and president is a woman, Marillyn Hewson. It’s a testament that we’re in a competitive global market – we don’t care about gender, color or nationality, we need those people who can get the job done.”
Rick Schwanthaler
Vice President, Louis Berger
“Developing cross-gender leadership is good for business. We look forward to contributing to this phenomenon and helping to contribute to its future success.”
Caroline Metcalf
Infrastructure Area Manager for Shaheen, Bechtel
“We want to continue to increase the awareness in the outside world about women’s involvement and engagement in engineering and construction to erode the perceptions of what women should and shouldn’t do and what women can and cannot do especially for the younger generations.”
Gillian Arnott
Business Development Manager, Northrop Grumman
“One of our big achievements here in the UAE is that we run a program with the Higher Colleges of Technology called Innovation Challenge, an HCT mentorship program where mentors come from the US to help students to build unmanned aerial vehicles to have them fly autonomously. The team that won last year was a co-ed team thus proving that putting male and female brains together for collaboration and innovation is the key to success.”
Brenda Regan
Escape Events, General Manager
“The Women’s Heritage Walk took place in honor of the UAE women who made this 140 kilometer journey twice a year. The 30 women who participated walked in the footsteps of their ancestors who helped sculpt this country. The experience was a celebration of the past and an invitation to vibrant future.”
Qaiser Anis
Managing Partner, Alliot Hadi Shahid
“We depend on women and their dedication and trustworthiness – 30% in both our offices in Abu Dhabi and Dubai are women and in the coming years, we’ll progress more on that.”
THE WOMEN ACHIEVE COMMITTEE:
Heather Smith
Hospital Administrator, Brightpoint Women’s Hospital
“We make great stride to make sure that when women come to us, there is no waiting time for them. When you get a group of women together, things can get really empowering. We’re women taking care of women.”
Jules Lewis
Founder, Mountain High
“I founded and started the business called Mountain High to encourage and inspire more women and men to explore the capabilities of their mind and their body in this incredible planet that we live on. For the last 12 years I’ve run over 50 expeditions to over 20 countries including the Arctic and Antarctica.”
Anna Heystek
Managing Director, BOTH Management Consultancy
“As a company helping set up other companies and taking care of all of the headache, I’m proud to say that BOTH Management is run by 70% women for seven years now.”
Vanessa Middleton
Library Head, Petroleum Institute
“We have over 500 beautiful drop-dead gorgeous women who wear their abayas with style and class but they know how to do those calculations better and faster than most guys on our campus. I’m always proud of them because they’re beautiful, they’re talented and they have this can-do attitude.”
