Executive education for women

A collection of top global business schools have taken note and over the last two years we have seen institutions such as the UK’s London Business School, the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia in the US, and French business school, HEC Paris, all launch Executive MBA and custom training programmes in the region. But, perhaps most significantly, several of these business schools have now turned their attention to a previously untapped market — executive education for women.

Though women play a crucial role in business in the Middle East, with an estimated 1,400 in the banking and finance professions who are in or approaching leadership roles, there are still significantly fewer women in executive positions than men. Businesses in the Middle East have recognised this as one of the barriers to true globalisation and have enlisted the help of some of the world’s leading business schools to help them to address the issue. Women constitute roughly 67 per cent of the total number of UAE nationals employed in banks, and are considered key contributors to its future social and economic progress. The need to educate and prepare women for senior roles is greater than ever.

David Newkirk, CEO of Darden Executive Education argues that the issue has become one of national importance. He says, “All businesses face the challenge of developing the next generation of leaders. In the UAE, developing women leaders for the financial services industries has taken on national prominence.”

Darden is one of the handful of schools that opened a programme specifically aimed at educating female executives. In partnership with the Emirates Institute of Banking and Financial Studies, the five-day course, called ‘Women Emerging in Leadership’, was attended by over 40 female professionals with five to 10 years of experience and management responsibilities.

Executive Education Director, Susian Brooks further stressed the wider importance of educating already successful women and helping them to become confident leaders: “The women chosen to attend the programme already hold significant positions in their financial institutions — they currently play a key role in the advancement of the region’s economic development and their influence is only set to grow.”

The programme included team exercises and simulations to help the women to understand their pivotal role within the Middle East and Gulf region and to hone their leadership skills.

Erika Hayes James, one of the course leaders says, “We studied the characteristics of exceptional female leaders. Our goal is for the women to conclude the programme with an action plan for evolving their leadership styles and enhancing leadership effectiveness across their enterprises.”

“While the setting was different, the challenge of developing women leaders is the same in Dubai as in the United States and elsewhere around the world,” says James, “creating a learning environment where people can understand themselves and how they want to lead.”

For Noora Jamshed, Head of the Ladies Branch at the Dubai Islamic Bank, the Darden programme proved to be very effective, and offered valuable interaction with other top level female executives. “The course was delivered in a way that encouraged contributions from everyone, and afforded the opportunity for us to connect with leaders from banks in our region.”

Darden is not the only business school taking note of the growing need for executive education for women. HEC Paris recently hosted a session for female executives in Doha, Qatar, introducing the HEC Executive MBA. The session was run to correspond with other national initiatives focused in developing women in leadership, such as plans to establish a national Women’s Leadership Centre.

The aim was to enable female executives with significant managerial experience who have, or expect to have, a strategic role within their companies, to meet other professional women and provide a forum for discussion with current female HEC EMBA participants. Joshua Kobb, Director of Global Initiatives and Acting COO at HEC Paris in Qatar, argued for the importance of engaging more of the region’s women in Executive Education.

“Women are high educational achievers. Qatar is committed to increasing female participation in the economy and improving access to top positions. HEC Paris in Qatar aims to support this goal by equipping women in leadership with the knowledge and skills to compete and excel at the highest level.”

—news@khaleejtimes.com