Women in Saudi Arabia are achieving great success across different areas, breaking barriers and motivating the next generation. Abeer Al-Bornu and Demah Alwan are standout examples of determination and accomplishment in their careers, inspiring others with their passion and resilience.
Abeer Al-Bornu: An Icon of Corporate Governance
Abeer Al-Bornu’s love for managing businesses brought her a thriving career in insurance. With over 14 years in overseeing rules, risk, and following standards, she led teams in banks before joining Bupa Arabia. Now as Corporate Governance Director, she’s crucial in connecting the board’s work with the company’s. Her wins include setting up the Code of Conduct, boosting business management, and enforcing some of the best methods.
Abeer values how Bupa Arabia aids her in managing work and family, being a top supporter of women in Saudi Arabia. They’re dedicated to easing the struggles of working moms, ensuring a work setting that lets them handle work and different family responsibilities well.
The company offers women several perks to maintain this balance, such as flexible schedules, telecommuting options, onsite childcare, and recent initiatives such as permitting mothers to work remotely on the initial two days of Ramadan and enabling women to telecommute every Thursday throughout Ramadan.
Demah Alwan: A Beacon of Leadership
Demah Alwan embarked on her career at Bupa Arabia through the Future Leaders Program in the Information Technology (IT) division in 2017. Despite being the only woman in her team, she saw challenges as opportunities to learn and grow. Her strong communication and interpersonal skills enabled her to build trust among colleagues, leading to her progression in the company. She made history as the first woman to hold the Manager position in IT and later became the Senior Executive Manager for IT Projects and Strategies. Currently, she manages a team of 15 members, developing strategies aligned with the company’s goals and the evolving technology landscape.
Demah stresses the value of fundamental abilities she honed during her time at Bupa Arabia. These include effective communication, clear articulation, empathy, resilience, and the capacity to unite people towards a shared objective. She sees these abilities as crucial for success in any domain and is dedicated to continually enhancing them.
Demah also spoke about the hurdles and challenges she’s had to deal with throughout her career, where one of the major ones was to manage the implementation of new and upcoming technologies that are complex indifferent ways, within a short time period. What truly helped her and pushed her to perform to her best were her confidence, courage, separating each part of the work into tasks that are easy to take on, with effective planning and motivating her team to work cohesively together. Demah’s leadership and problem-solving skills were definitely honed and well developed, pushing her to take on major leadership roles within the company.
Common Themes and Advice
Abeer and Demah both highlight the importance of core skills and teamwork while having the same goal. They also talk about staying strong and focused when facing different challenges. Demah encourages women to learn and grow, gaining new skills to help them make a difference and an impact. Abeer suggests specializing and gaining experience in governance, risk, and compliance, working in various places to learn more in order to develop personal skills and take on new challenges and opportunities.
Abeer Al-Bornu and Demah Alwan stand out as Saudi women who’ve achieved impressive success throughout their careers, inspiring young women to envision a bright future in Saudi Arabia. Their journeys showcase how women are able to thrive in diverse fields, sparking ambition in future generations.
