Emirates NBD Is First UAE Banking Group to Publicly Commit To Female Leadership Targets, Aiming for 25 Percent of Senior Roles To Be Filled by Women by 2027

Emirates NBD, a leading banking group in the MENAT (Middle East, North Africa and Turkey) region is the first large UAE-owned bank to publicly commit to female leadership targets. On International Women’s Day, the Group has announced that they are aiming for a quarter of all senior positions to be filled by females over the next five years.

“On International Women’s Day, my personal pledge is to increase female representation at senior levels to 25 percent over the next five years. We know the strength of our culture, our continued growth and ESG commitments, and our relevance to our customers depend on having a truly diverse and inclusive organization. Women currently represent 41 percent of our workforce and while this exceeds industry standards, we must now increase female representation at senior levels and I am very committed to making this happen.” said Hesham Abdulla Al Qassim, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, Emirates NBD.

“We passionately believe in developing and promoting outstanding female leaders for the benefit of Emirates NBD and the broader UAE too. This is aligned with the UAE government’s focus on increasing female equality and representation across public and private sector workplaces. We are calling on every single woman at Emirates NBD to step up into leadership and that call is loudest to our UAE Nationals given our Emiratization ambitions. This represents the next stage of our Diversity and Inclusion journey, building on the 78 nationalities we are represented by across our offices, our strong culture of flexibility 

enabled through our permanent remote work policy, our industry-leading family leave policies and our ten-year track record of hiring People of Determination.” said Shayne Nelson, Group CEO, Emirates NBD.    

Emirates NBD will support females across the organization to reach their leadership potential through a range of internal and external programs, emphasizing the critical data and soft skills now considered a prerequisite for leadership in a digital era. It will also include accelerated role opportunities, executive courses, and coaching and mentoring. 

Its new female leadership targets and broader Diversity and Inclusion strategy also reflects Emirates NBD’s strengthening ESG framework and investments, to support the Group’s long-term commitment to encourage innovative investments for a more sustainable world.