As the managing director of Prime Services Middle East for the French bank Société Générale, Saleha Osmani Eliard is a financial force to contend with.
But 12 years ago, when she first joined the female empowerment platform 100 Women in Finance (100WF) as a junior portfolio manager living in London, Ms Eliard says she was full of self-doubt.
"I attended a talk for 100 Women in Finance, attended by around 700 women and 150 men, which changed my life," says Ms Eliard, a Briton, now 36 and living in Abu Dhabi. "There was a presentation by a lady about how men and women look at job descriptions differently. A man would look and think: ‘I can do 50 per cent of this, I’m going to apply tomorrow’. A woman would think ‘I can only do 50 per cent of it, I’m not going to bother applying’. It made me realise how the worst enemy you can have is self-doubt."
While 100WF is a non-profit with 15,000 members globally in 21 locations that first launched in 2001, the Middle East chapter only launched in the UAE last October. But with women around the world celebrating the social, economic and cultural achievements of their gender today through International Women’s Day, Ms Eliard explains what drove her to open a chapter here.
The banking executive moved to the UAE nine years ago and continued to attend 100WF events whenever she was back in London or travelling as part of her job to other financial capitals. Then last year, she decided the time was right to bring the concept to the UAE, where women’s involvement in the fin­ancial sector seemed to be on the up.
A 2016 survey of Emiratis by Oxford Strategic Consulting, for example, found that women were significantly more likely than men to want to work in banking and finance (29 per cent versus 11 per cent)
"I was one of a number of women keen to bring 100WF to the Middle East, but we never felt that we had enough mom­entum," she explains. "But things are changing in this region. For the last three or four years, more women in the Middle East have been joining the field of finance; local as well as expat women are now working in the banking industry and government organisations."
After a pre-launch event in Abu Dhabi, "to test our waters", Ms Eliard officially launched 100WF’s Middle East chapter in October in Dubai, enlisting Sheikha Hend Al Qassemi (author of The Black Book of Arabia, a collection of real-life women’s stories), to inaugurate. Women flew in from Bahrain, Kuwait, and also as far afield as London and New York to attend. Since then the Dubai chapter has hosted monthly events.
100WF, which until last year was called 100 Women in Hedge Funds, was first formed when a trio of Wall Street women, Dana Hall, Carol Kim and Sarah Dyer, brought together 100 seasoned female industry leaders. Their initial goal was to form a professional community to teach women to better leverage their collective relationships and improve communication within the alternative investment industry.
But as the group evolved, its man­date changed to focus on three core pillars: education, professional leverage and philanthropy.
American Alishia Sullivan, a partner of the law firm Squire, Patton Boggs’ Abu Dhabi office, recently signed up to the Middle East chapter.
"I feel the presenters at the events have a different message," says the 43-year-old. "It isn’t just about ‘how do you do the work-life-balance?’ and ‘how do we manage it all as mums and working?’ which has been overdone. Although it’s geared towards women, the presentations aren’t focused on gender, and I like that. It also has a really diverse group of attendees, who are all serious professional people."
Ms Sullivan was also attracted by the opportunity to attend events worldwide, as well as in the Middle East. "I’m going to London for a week this month for a conference and before I go, I’ll look to see if there’s any 100WF events on there then."
Interestingly, while only women can join 100WF, men can attend events too, as ‘supporters.’
As the organisation has grown from the hedge fund world, Ms Eliard says the topics tend to be tilted to that industry. The next event will focus on the regulation of hedge funds in DIFC. "The majority of our members are women who are working in finance or have some connection to finance – otherwise they’d probably find some of our topics a little bit boring," Ms Eliard admits.
But not all the events are financially themed. 100WF’s first education event, held in January in Abu Dhabi, was a session run by communications expert Kim A Page on how to make your voice one of your best business-winning skills.

Source: The National