Reaching for the Top

Dr Nahed Taher was one of just four Arab women to be recognised by Forbes in its list of the 100 most influential women in the world in 2006, after she became the first woman to head a Saudi investment bank. Here, she shares her thoughts about what it takes to succeed in an exclusive interview with Business Management.

It’s been a long road to the top, but by taking the top job at a Middle Eastern financial institution, Nahed Taher has achieved what no other woman before her has done and in doing so broken through the glass ceiling faced by many women in business, but which is especially acute in the Middle East. “The more I faced challenges, the more I wanted to succeed,” she says defiantly. Spoken like a true entrepreneur.

Taher began her studies at the King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and went on to attend Lancaster University Management School in the UK to obtain a second masters degree and eventually a doctorate in economics in 2001. She then returned to Saudi Arabia to become a financial consultant, before securing a position at the National Commercial Bank – the first female senior manager to be hired at a bank of 4000 men – which at the time covered a quarter of the Saudi banking sector. Through hard graft and determination, and with the general manager and chairman’s support, she worked her way up the corporate ladder to become the first female chief economist at the bank.

By the end of 2005, at age 42, Taher founded Gulf One Investment Bank in Bahrain and became the first female CEO of a financial institution in the region. By the second quarter of 2006, the investment bank was up and running with a capital base of US$1 billion, focusing on mega-energy and infrastructure investments, including vital economic sectors such as water, power, mining, transport and downstream petrochemicals. Investors, including Gulf pension funds, flocked to her endeavour, committing over US$10 billion to finance infrastructure across the Middle East and India. And so a business success story was born.

Indeed, when you consider her upbringing, it’s unsurprising that Taher entered a high-powered, high-pressure industry. “It’s the way I’ve been raised; I have family that has long worked in business, mainly oil,” she explains. Her uncle was the ex-governor of Petromene, and her father the vice president. “Before this, my father was an economist and headed the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries. With all my knowledge about oil and through the intelligent discussions we had as a family, I realised that oil was not the way of the future. I wanted to make a difference, and I wanted to utilise this black gold to provide real added value to my country and create diversification for our one-commodity economy.”

The result was the creation of Gulf One Investment Bank, which was born out of a conviction for a fundamentally different approach that would mobilise the real opportunities naturally inherent in the region. A knowledge-based infrastructure investment bank, Gulf One is part of the GCC trend towards unleashing the potential of the region and the creation of lasting wealth – something that Taher is unwaveringly committed to.

Determination
So what drove Taher to succeed in a world where women are prohibited to drive, vote or hold high-level government office and where tradition deprives women of control over basic choices such as what to wear and when to get married? “The challenges I faced,” she answers. “I don’t give up when I face challenges and as a female, an economist and a banker, I faced many challenges but I refused to stop. I was in fact motivated to move faster because of these challenges and I felt the need to make a difference to my people, to my country, to my economy.”

And what has been the response in the workplace? “I have always had great support from my colleagues because I really respect our traditions,” says Taher. “I don’t go breaking rules to satisfy the Western perspective on the way that a woman should work. I believe we should comply with our tradition – we should modernise, not Westernise. And that’s what made people respect me, see me as a professional within my abaya, within my traditional clothing.”

It was this mutual respect that Taher believes helped catapult her to success. Without the support from high officials and the business people she worked with, she never would have been able to do the deals that she has or had the opportunity to prove herself. “I was involved with the first privatised airport in the whole region with my bank, and took an award – Deal of the Year – from Euro Money on that. I have also recently launched a huge US$2 billion fund and I’ve got the support of the GCC government and international governments investing with me, and that means a lot. Everything I am doing is very economically and politically influential and so in turn this means I have the support and the belief from my people and I’m very thankful to them for this.”

Achievements
With an impressive business profile behind her, Taher explains how she feels about her achievements. “My achievements mean that I can help my region because I can see the lack of specialisation in the banking industry and add value to the future prosperity of these countries.” She is determined to focus on the niche market she works in and accelerate the economic growth of these sectors. “From an international perspective, it seems as though we have many funds that we can do whatever we like with in order to utilise economic growth, but that is simply not true,” she stresses. “We have a huge funding gap because our needs are surpassing our income, we have high unemployment and we have high poverty ratios, and this is because the structure of the economies is wrong. This needs to change.” Taher goes on to explain that she feels that she would never feel that she succeeded if she didn’t add value: “I not only want to make money through the bank and conclude deals, but I really want to add value to the region and to society.”

This perspective has given her some important life lessons through her busy career, the most important of which is the need to make things happen, not wait for them to happen to us. “We need to take the initiative and move forward,” she argues. “Whenever you have good intentions you need to have a vision and work at it by being aggressive and decisive – that is what makes things happen. We do not need to wait for the government to issue rules or the private sector to do something.”

It’s a trait she feels she shares with her peers. “There is most definitely a shared element between the successful people in the world in terms of having a vision, moving for it and overcoming any challenges,” she explains. “If you look at somebody like Bill Gates or Warren Buffet, who are role models for me, they started from scratch, and they are now doing huge business around the world. By believing in something, being creative and creating opportunities, you will succeed.”

Getting personal
Taher is clearly passionate and dedicated to her cause and claims to enjoy every bit of her day, from managing people to working on new deals. “Every day we have a new challenge because our deals are not the same kind of deal as you would find in retail banking. Every day we experience new things, new deals and new challenges, especially in the sector we are in. The region is new to privatisation, diversification and long-term projects and this has an impact. I have all this happiness and fulfilment inside me when I see what is happening – deals are closing, we are making and securing infrastructure and creating jobs, and we are executing what was thought to be almost impossible.”

Her public image is important in this regard, especially when it means that she has inspired young people or won respect from highly professional people or royals. “This means so much to me and makes me want to do even more for my people, because I can see that I am adding value by encouraging them to do the same or even better.”

For Taher, wealth is about human capital and intangible assets. “The real wealth is in the brain,” explains Taher. “Even in my bank, we really believe in investing in the brain as human capital assets can add huge value to money and create wealth. Wealth creation and not wealth management should be the vision of our region.”

As a keen swimmer and horse-rider, material possessions are “something minor” to Taher; she would rather that her family are all healthy and happy. “What is important are my family, my home, and my happiness comes from adding value to people – when I see I can help a poor person or create a job for somebody sitting idle,” she says.

Looking ahead
Taher is determined that she will not leave her life without putting a stamp in making things happen, in a professional way. “In Islam, we say that everybody is responsible for the other. Never be selfish or think, ‘I should make money. I should make something for myself only.’ You are responsible for your neighbour. You’re responsible for other people.

“I would like to leave my legacy as this: a message that I’m working not only for myself and for my kids, but for every person in the region and maybe in the world as well. Every person that is respectful and a hard worker, I’m working for him.”

Great ideas… Nahed Taher’s top tips for business success.
1. Always have faith in your ideas: “For me as a Muslim, I believe in God, and that he will help you all the way”
2. Work hard and work smart: “Instead of competing with the current market, create a niche market”
3.Wealth creation, not wealth management: “It’s not about saving the dollars together; it’s how much you make out of the savings”

The Middle East in the 21st century
“If we really utilise our money well, we could be the leaders in the next century. I believe that we can capitalise on attracting international intelligent money as well – money that comes with experience and spills over on to our economy – and we can prosper and be the largest economy in the world in a few decades.

“But it really depends on how we take our position into the future, from government policies to privatisation issues as well as the support from the private sectors. The private sector has to work very hard in diversification and in knowledgebase industries.”

An infrastructure for investment
Gulf One Investment Bank is constantly researching new avenues of investment. Just this year, the company has been focusing on strategic options for the GCC countries, the challenges of financing the water industry, inflation in Saudi Arabia and the currency peg debacle. The bank has also been looking at financing the aviation industry.

“The economic boom in the GCC region, along with the associated growth in population and demand for air travel and tourism, would entail rapid expansion and development of the aviation and other transport and logistics infrastructures,” says Taher. “But promotion and financing of such infrastructure would require huge capital investment as well as proper planning and management, safety standards, maintenance and the appropriate regulatory framework. Despite the massive oil windfall the region has garnered from recent record oil prices, the amounts needed to develop and upgrade the region’s transport infrastructure is much larger than what the government can provide. There is, therefore, the need for greater private sector participation in transport financing and management through either privately owned entities or public-private partnership schemes.

“The GCC aviation firms, particularly the private operators, have compared favourably with international comparators in terms of key financial ratios and have great potential for enhancing their competitiveness in the global market. What is needed is a level playing field to enable them to improve their efficiency.”