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Mid East Info
20-05-2025
- Business
- Mid East Info
Lubna Olayan to Open Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit in Riyadh - Middle East Business News and Information
Olayan joins more than 40 distinguished speakers from 35 countries, including senior executives from FedEx, Goldman Sachs, Mastercard, Marriott International, and other global firms. The Summit marks one of the most significant gatherings of senior Saudi female leaders from the government at an international women's gathering. NEW YORK, May 20, 2025 —Lubna Olayan, one of Saudi Arabia's most prominent business leaders, who has appeared 12 times on Fortune's Most Powerful Women in Business list, will open the Fortune Most Powerful Women International Summit in Riyadh on May 20, 2025. Olayan will set the tone for the two-day gathering, which marks Fortune's first international Most Powerful Women summit in the Middle East — a milestone moment that reflects the Kingdom's focus on advancing women's leadership in business. The summit will also feature an unprecedented presence of senior Saudi female officials, representing leadership across multiple sectors of government, including: H.H. Princess Haifa Mohammed Al Saud – Vice Minister of Tourism H.E. Dr. Hala Al-Tuwaijri – President, Saudi Human Rights Commission H.E. Dr. Einas bint Suleiman Al-Eisa – Deputy Minister of Education Adwa Al-Arifi – Assistant Minister for Sport Affairs, Ministry of Sport Farah Ismail – Deputy Minister, Sectoral and Regional Development, Ministry of Economy and Planning These leaders will speak on how women in government are driving progress in key sectors—from economic diversification and education to wellness and tourism demonstrating the depth of Saudi Arabia's women leaders as the country continues to implement its Vision 2030 reform agenda. Taking place at The St. Regis Riyadh on May 20-21, the summit will convene around the theme 'A New Era for Business: Partnering for Global Prosperity.' It will bring together more than 150 of the world's most influential women—including CEOs, policymakers, and entrepreneurs—from 35 countries to explore new models of inclusive growth, innovation, and international cooperation. As part of the opening day, Fortune will also unveil its 2025 Most Powerful Women in Business list, celebrating the achievements of leading female executives and further elevating the event's global resonance. Joining the Summit's roster of global leaders is The Rt. Hon. Theresa May, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (2016–2019), who will headline the closing session on May 21. In a conversation moderated by Ellie Austin, Editorial Director of Fortune Most Powerful Women, May will offer her insights on fractured global alliances, climate leadership, and the role of bold, ethical leadership in navigating geopolitical uncertainty. The Summit's wider speaker roster includes senior executives from FedEx, Goldman Sachs, Mastercard, Marriott International, Microsoft, and other Fortune 500 companies, as well as international public sector. In addition to business and policy discussions, the Summit will spotlight women driving change across culture, media, and sport. On Day 2, a special MPW Spotlight on Women in Sports will feature Adwa Al-Arifi, Assistant Minister for Sport Affairs, in conversation with Noor Nugali, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Arab News. Al-Arifi will highlight the country's growing investment in women's sports, from school leagues to elite training centers, and its broader impact on public health and societal change. This will be followed by 'Playing to Win: Women, Sports, and Breaking Barriers', featuring: Aalia Al-Rasheed, Head of Women's Football, Saudi Arabian Football Federation Zam Zam Al Hammadi, Fighter, Professional Fighters League Rasha Alkhamis, President of the Saudi Mixed Martial Arts Federation Mashael AlObaidan, Rally Driver Lebanese actress and TV presenter Daniella Rahme will also appear as a special guest speaker. In a session with Fortune's Ellie Austin, Rahme will discuss the power of representation, building authentic personal brands, and leveraging visibility to elevate regional identity on the global stage. About Fortune: Fortune is a global multi-platform media company built on a legacy of trusted, award-winning reporting and information for those who want to make business better. Independently owned, Fortune tells the stories of the world's biggest companies and their leaders as well as a new generation of innovators who are moving business forward. Digitally and in print, Fortune measures corporate performance through rigorous benchmarks, and holds companies accountable, in regions around the world. Its iconic rankings include Fortune 500, Fortune Global 500, Most Powerful Women, and World's Most Admired Companies. Fortune builds world-class communities by convening industry thought leaders for exclusive summits and conferences, including the Fortune Global Forum, Brainstorm Tech, and Fortune Most Powerful Women.
Khaleej Times
20-05-2025
- Business
- Khaleej Times
First Abu Dhabi Bank CEO ranked most powerful businesswoman in GCC
Hana Al Rostamani, Group CEO at First Abu Dhabi Bank, has been ranked as the most powerful woman in business in the GCC, according to Fortune magazine's latest list. Along with Al Rostamani, who is ranked 76th on the global list, Shaikha Al-Bahar, Deputy Group Chief Executive Officer at National Bank of Kuwait, ranked 92nd. The duo feature in Fortune's 2025 edition of the Most Powerful Women in Business list. The 28th edition of the list honours 100 female leaders from the global business landscape — spotlighting those who hold power now and those on the rise to even greater influence. This year's iteration features 52 women from the US and 48 from other countries — eight from China; seven each from France and the UK; three each from Germany, Singapore, and Brazil; two each from Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, and Spain, and one each from the UAE and Kuwait. As the Group CEO of the UAE's largest lender – a bank with roughly $330 billion in assets – Al Rostamani is currently the only female chief executive of a publicly listed corporation in the UAE. She serves on several boards, including the Institute of International Finance, the US-UAE Business Council, and Buna, the Arab Monetary Fund's cross-border payment system. Al-Bahar was named Deputy Group CEO of the National Bank of Kuwait in 2014 after joining the institution in 1977. She is chair of the National Bank of Kuwait-France and the National Bank of Kuwait-Egypt as well as a board member with National Bank of Kuwait (International), the bank's UK subsidiary. Al-Bahar is credited with launching NBK RISE, a programme designed to empower women leaders and prepare them for senior leadership roles. With over $135 billion in total assets at the end of March 2025, the National Bank of Kuwait is one of the largest financial institutions in the country and one of the leading banks in the region. The list, compiled by Fortune editors is based on company size and health, as well as an executive's career trajectory, influence, innovation, and efforts to make business better. More than 50 women currently lead Fortune 500 companies, yet only 20 made this year's list — a testament to how increasingly competitive the ranking has become. 'In its 28th year, this iconic list of powerful women includes almost half from outside of the US, reminding us that the impact of women is being seen globally,' said Alyson Shontell, Fortune editor in chief and chief content officer. 'These are women transforming business today and preparing for a future during a time of tumult and uncertainty.' There are 16 newcomers, including Costco's chief operator and merchant Claudine Adamo (No. 43), helping millions of Americans navigate inflation by keeping prices low on essentials, and next-gen execs such as Julie Gao, CFO of ByteDance (No. 81), steering the TikTok owner's finances through its tangles with the US government. The top 10 Most Powerful Women in Business 2025 are: 1. Mary Barra, Chair and CEO, GM (US) 2. Julie Sweet, Chair and CEO, Accenture (US) 3. Jane Fraser, CEO, Citigroup (US) 4. Lisa Su, Chair and CEO, AMD (US) 5. Ana Botín, Executive Chairman, Banco Santander (Spain) 6. Tan Su Shan, Deputy CEO and Group Head of Institutional Banking, DBS Group (Singapore) 7. Thasunda Brown Duckett, President and CEO, TIAA (US) 8. Marta Ortega, Chairperson, Inditex (Spain) 9. Abigail Johnson, Chairman and CEO, Fidelity Investments (US) 10. Meng Wanzhou, Deputy Chairwoman, Rotating Chairwoman, and CFO, Huawei (China) 'This definitive ranking of the women at the top of the global business world…tells us both who wields power today and who is poised to climb even higher tomorrow,' writes Emma Hinchliffe, Fortune senior writer, author of Most Powerful Women Daily newsletter, and editor of the 100 Most Powerful Women in Business list of 2025.
Arab News
20-05-2025
- Business
- Arab News
Fortune reveals 100 Most Powerful Women in Business list for 2025
DUBAI: Fortune has announced the 2025 Most Powerful Women in Business list, featuring 100 leading businesswomen from sectors including finance, tech, healthcare, telecom, retail and energy. Its publication coincides with Fortune's inaugural Most Powerful Women International conference which is taking place in Riyadh on May 20-21. This year's edition of the list features 51 women from the US and 49 from other countries, including one each from the UAE and Kuwait. Hana Al-Rostamani, group CEO of First Abu Dhabi Bank, comes in at No. 76. She is currently the only female chief executive of a publicly listed corporation in the UAE, and serves on several boards, including the Institute of International Finance, the US-UAE Business Council, and the Arab Monetary Fund's cross-border payment system Buna. Shaikha Al-Bahar, deputy group CEO at the National Bank of Kuwait, features at No. 92. She has risen through the ranks since joining the bank in 1977 and was appointed to her current role in 2014. Al-Bahar is the only woman on NBK's executive management team. She is also chair of the National Bank of Kuwait France, and the National Bank of Kuwait Egypt, as well as a board member of the bank's UK subsidiary. 'The rise of women as CEOs is continuing, which is great,' said Alyson Shontell, editor-in-chief and chief content officer of Fortune. She told Arab News: 'There have been some years we've been doing the list where it has taken a step back. (But) this year, 11 percent of Fortune 500 (companies are) run by women, and that's the highest it has ever been.' There are several studies showing the correlation between 'diversity of thought and background' in leadership ranks and the financial outcome of a company, and so, 'we track it, and we track the progress (in) the hopes of making business better,' Shontell added. Mary Barra, CEO of @GM and No.1 on the 2025 #FortuneMPW list, shares what power means to her. — FORTUNE (@FortuneMagazine) May 20, 2025 The top 10 Most Powerful Women in Business 2025 are: 1. Mary Barra, chair and CEO, General Motors. 2. Julie Sweet, chair and CEO, Accenture. 3. Jane Fraser, CEO, Citigroup. 4. Lisa Su, chair and CEO, AMD. 5. Ana Botin, executive chairman, Banco Santander. 6. Tan Su Shan, deputy CEO and group head of institutional banking, DBS Group. 7. Thasunda Brown Duckett, president and CEO, TIAA. 8. Marta Ortega, chairperson, Inditex. 9. Abigail Johnson, chairman and CEO, Fidelity Investments. 10. Meng Wanzhou, deputy chairwoman, rotating chairwoman, and chief financial officer, Huawei. Compiled by Fortune editors, the list is based on several factors such as company size and health, as well as an executive's career trajectory, influence, innovation, and efforts to make business better. The full list can be found here.
Arab News
18-05-2025
- Business
- Arab News
‘It's a no-brainer to go where the progress is,' Fortune editor-in-chief tells Arab News ahead of Riyadh summit on women in business
RIYADH: The Fortune Most Powerful Women franchise, which includes an annual list of the 100 Most Powerful Women, began in 1998. Now, nearly three decades on, the publication is entering the Middle East region with the Fortune Most Powerful Women International conference in Riyadh on May 20 and 21. 'More and more women were getting into the upper ranks of business,' and 'we wanted to be on the ground covering it,' said Alyson Shontell, editor-in-chief and chief content officer of Fortune. 'There's no more exciting place for us to be right now (than Saudi Arabia) covering the world of business and women's progress,' she added. Despite reforms and transformation in the region, some still view it as a place with restricted freedom for women and media. However, Shontell is 'excited to go in judgment-free,' and connect with women in the region and 'show what they're doing to the world,' she said. The transformation in the Kingdom since Vision 2030 has been 'remarkable' and, she added, 'we want to see it for ourselves and show it to the world. 'It's a no-brainer to go where the progress is: the Middle East.' Fortune's ambition is 'to connect global power and the biggest businesses in the world,' and so 'we would love to build the most powerful women's network into a global network,' through which women in the Middle East feel connected to women in other parts of the world, she explained. This year, 11 percent of Fortune 500 companies are run by women, which is the highest number it has ever been, Shontell said. There is still a long way ahead before gender equality is reached in businesses, but 'that's a big reason why we think it's still important to show the changing evolution of power,' she said. Last year, Fortune also published a Most Powerful People list — 'to recognize powerful people as powerful people' — and that list was dominated by men. 'That's how the world is, and we're not going to pretend that it's otherwise,' Shontell said, adding that it is part of Fortune's mission to track progress, present the world as it is, and when there are changes, to showcase them as well. At the beginning of this year, US President Donald Trump issued an executive order on his second day in office calling titled 'Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity.' He has issued multiple orders since then aimed at rolling back the diversity, inclusion and equity (DEI) policies of major corporations, foundations, non-profits, educational institutions and even the government. One order, which deems DEI policies 'illegal,' suggests that these policies are a 'guise' for 'dangerous, demeaning, and immoral race- and sex-based preferences.' The directives have raised several concerns, some around women's participation in the workforce. Shontell, however, remains optimistic. 'There's a pretty strong commitment from women in the United States,' she said. 'We have made a lot of progress over the last 50 years here, and I don't think many people would like to see that backslide.' Shontell herself has been part of that commitment. She joined Business Insider in 2008, as the company's sixth employee going on to become editor-in-chief in 2016. When she was appointed as editor-in-chief at Fortune in 2021, she became the youngest and only woman to serve in that role in the company's 95 years. 'When you think of who the editor-in-chief of Fortune, or even Business Insider, is, you don't think of a young woman,' Shontell said. To illustrate her point, she said that even if one asked AI what it thought the editor of a business magazine looks like, it would draw up someone like JPMorgan Chase chairman and CEO, Jamie Dimon. And she was right. We asked Meta AI and ChatGPT: 'Can you generate an image of the editor-in-chief of a major global business publication?' The former gave us four images: one of a woman and three of men, while the latter gave a single image featuring a man. The most common reaction Shontell receives is surprise. But she doesn't mind. Rather, she likes surprising people and the feeling that 'no one sees you coming.' It 'kind of gives you something to work toward something to be extra proud of when you achieve it,' she said. For Shontell, the industry has been nothing but change since she stepped into it, which was well after the days of leisurely business lunches and thick magazines, she says. 'A lot of the trends that we're seeing now are just completely different than they were before,' and much of the conversation in the newsroom is around future-proofing the company, she said. The key, according to her, is a flexible team and the knack to recognize trends and understand which ones are here to stay. When she was at Business Insider, her goal was to get everyone to read it. Fortune, on the other hand, is not about scale. 'My goal is to continue to up our relevance and to broaden the audience just a little bit, but to keep it very much thought leadership,' she said. Shontell explained that it is hard to run a company in a fast-changing and unpredictable world, and so, the question is: 'How can we be the best asset for this global leadership reader?' The aim is to 'give them the information they need to do their jobs through the best of their abilities, so that the rest of us can all benefit from them making better decisions.' Fortune was relatively slow to embrace digital media with its website only launching in 2014. By the end of 2024, it had 24 million global users, and its social channels have a total of 7 million followers. From the archives: Streaming warriors. In our October 2019 issue, Fortune spotlighted the powerhouse women steering Netflix into its most competitive era yet. — FORTUNE (@FortuneMagazine) May 18, 2025 Still, not many younger audiences are aware of the brand or consume its content. Shontell admits that while Fortune has been very good at reaching C-suite audiences, 'we have increasingly been bad at reaching the next generation and pulling them up through their career path.' But now, with social media, she says 'we have permission to show up differently on different platforms' to reach a potential reader. That means speaking in a different tone of voice perhaps to reach GenZs and millennials on platforms like TikTok, which would be 'their first experience with us,' she said. It is a 'delicate balance' of 'how do you get that next gen reader so that Fortune will continue to exist and be read and widely known in 20 years, and how do you maintain that thought leadership at the same time?' As part of this effort, Fortune is reinventing its video offering this year and launching podcasts. Artificial intelligence is at the core of technology and any conversation about it, and undoubtedly is an 'incredibly powerful tool,' said Shontell. Despite the dangers of AI — fake news, misinformation, deepfakes — and concerns about potential job losses, Shontell believes AI will bring journalism back to its roots. Any news or information that can be rounded up and aggregated does not need humans and will be done by AI, but that is an 'exciting opportunity, because it will bring journalism back to its core roots of seeking original information and facts and bringing it to readers first with the best analysis (and) the best new information that you can get,' she said. Shontell says that in the last decade or so, the news media industry has almost lost its way, partly because the business model is predicated on cutting through noise and grabbing attention, instead of delivering news in a way that is aligned with the news company's specific approach. There will be 'hard change,' and news firms can either be a big publication with scale and a 'solid' business model like The New York Times or Bloomberg, or a smaller, niche publication; anything in the 'messy middle' will have a difficult time, she said.
Leaders
28-03-2025
- Business
- Leaders
Riyadh to Host Fortune's Inaugural Most Powerful Women International Summit
Fortune has announced its first Fortune Most Powerful Women International Summit that will take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on 20-21 May, 2025. This marks the first international summit in the region focused on female leadership. The Fortune Most Powerful Women community includes top leaders from various industries and governments worldwide. Renowned for its agenda-setting discussions, the Summit will address key forces shaping the global business landscape. Additionally, it will explore how public and private sectors can collaborate to enhance innovation and growth. Attendees will discuss pressing topics, including crisis leadership, adapting to economic shifts, scaling emerging technologies, and uncovering new opportunities in investing and healthcare. They will also examine the evolving businesses in sports, entertainment, and design. A Step Towards Vision 2030 Fortune is hosting this summit in Saudi Arabia to align with the country's Vision 2030 objectives, focusing on investing in growth, innovation, and women's progress in both business and society. As a result, the women's workforce participation rate has increased to 36%, more than doubled from 17% in 2017. Furthermore, Saudi women now own 45% of the nation's small and medium-sized businesses, significantly contributing to the economy's entrepreneurial development. Fortune's Most Powerful Women Summit will grant global leaders access to this burgeoning market. This event aims to foster partnership opportunities and expand the global community. 'Fortune strives to be at the center of new frontiers in global business, and Saudi Arabia is one of those places,' said Anastasia Nyrkovskaya, CEO of Fortune. 'It's an ideal time to gather the world's most influential women in Riyadh to inspire, connect, and drive progress.' Alyson Shontell, Editor in Chief of Fortune, emphasized the significance of Saudi Arabia's impact on the global economy in her piece titled 'Why Fortune MPW is Going Global.' She highlighted Fortune's commitment to fostering progress through authoritative journalism. 'Given Saudi Arabia's recent acceleration, especially for women, we are excited to document the progress there too.' Celebrating Inspirational Leadership On 20 May, Fortune will reveal its renowned 100 Most Powerful Women in Business list. Now in its 28th year, this list honors global female leaders who drive innovation across numerous sectors, including finance, technology, healthcare, telecom, retail, and energy. The 2024 edition recognized leaders from 19 countries and territories, with over half serving as CEOs of Fortune 500 and Global 500 companies. The Fortune Most Powerful Women International Summit will partner with the Saudi Conventions and Exhibitions General Authority (SCEGA). Fortune is a global media company known for its trusted reporting and information that aims to improve business practices. As an independently owned entity, Fortune tells the stories of significant companies and emerging innovators alike. Its iconic rankings include the Fortune 500, Fortune Global 500, Most Powerful Women, and World's Most Admired Companies. Short link :
