INTERNATIONAL. Fatma Al-Bader is a woman with a mission: to help aspiring entrepreneurs in the Gulf region realise their dreams.

When asked about the state of young entrepreneurs in the Gulf, the Kuwaiti businesswoman beams with pride.

“The Gulf region thrives with young entrepreneurs. There are a lot of them (in Kuwait, the UAE, Oman, Al Qatar, Saudi Arabia) who have come up ideas that not even the West have, but who haven’t had the chance to expose themselves. I hope to be a part of that,” she says.

Her own rise to the top was nothing short of meteoric. Hailing from a predominantly matriarchal family, her grandfather had eight daughters, all educated abroad, and her mother was the first female pharmacist in Kuwait.

The financier recently spoke to INSEAD Knowledge in Syria about her passion for entrepreneurship and the reasons behind her success.

The projectile path

After graduating from George Washington University in 1992, she joined the Treasury Department of the National Bank of Kuwait, where she stayed for five years before moving to the Corporate Banking division of the Gulf Bank. In 2001, she became team leader at the bank. Within two short years she was recruited by Citigroup Private Bank to join their London office as Vice President of their Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) division, becoming the first Kuwaiti banker ever hired by this organisation.

After only three short years at Citigroup, the Alshaya Group, a mega Middle Eastern retailer with more than 55 international retail brands in three continents, snapped her up to head their new acquisition, Mabanee Company KSC. She joined Mabanee as CEO and led this publicly-listed real estate company in their development and delivery of the largest commercial project in Kuwait, The Avenues Mall. During her time there she successfully restructured the company and saw through the completion of the first phase of The Avenues Mall. Holding this position made Al-Bader the youngest and only female CEO in the Kuwaiti real estate sector.

Two years ago, Al-Bader embarked on her own venture and founded Khatif Holdings with two other investors. A 50 million US dollar venture capital, acquisition firm specialising in small and medium-sized enterprises in the Gulf region, Khatif allows Al-Bader to fulfil her passion -- helping young entrepreneurs learn and grow. She remains at Khatif today as founder and managing partner.

Building entrepreneurship

Al-Bader has made it her personal and corporate social mission to encourage and facilitate the development of this entrepreneurial talent, investing her own time and starting her own projects, as well as using Khatif as a platform.

“I am trying to spend my personal time with these entrepreneurs to help them with their business ideas, challenge their business ideas, help them with feasibility studies and help them find funding,” she told INSEAD Knowledge on the sidelines of the Arab International Women’s Forum in Damascus. “I’ve also started a small thing on my website called the Entrepreneurs Club, where I allow young entrepreneurs to post logos and links to their websites to show that the fantastic ideas they have come up with -- from scratch, with no consulting company, no Ernst and Young feasibility study.”

“The other thing I’m starting is a microfinance initiative with the governments in the GCC for these types for projects,” she continues. “In Kuwait especially, we have so much weight in the public sector I would like to move some of that to the private sector. If we create the environment and we create the funding I’m sure we can do a lot.”

She is an unequivocal advocate for SMEs, the role they play in driving society and the economy, and can see the value in supporting even the smallest fish. “I used to fund clients with less than 50,000 dollars,” she remarks. “They didn’t ask for special rates -- I charged them full rates -- and they are the ones who are still loyal to the bank today with turnovers of over three million dollars. So I think it’s very important … to expose young entrepreneurs and show them that there are tools and that there are people who will be dedicated to them. But it’s not all about money; sometimes we just need to listen to their ideas.”

Lifelong education

Having a premium education no doubt gave Al-Bader a head start. Following her degree from George Washington University, a series of executive management courses at Harvard and Wharton have kept her at the top of her game. “From my seventh and eighth year in banking I’ve been going to Harvard and since my 13th year to Wharton -- because it concentrates more on M&A -- just to develop myself further. These executive management courses teach by case studies; you will learn how to treat a situation, how to restructure, how to use numbers. Education is endless.”

She welcomes the arrival of top executive management schools like INSEAD to the Gulf, commenting that this will give people whose families won’t allow, or can’t afford, to send them abroad, the opportunity to pursue a Top 50 education locally. And, for people like her, she says it is brilliant because she “won’t have to take two weeks off.”

Family foundation

Above all, she credits her family for her success. “I come from a very supportive family. My father, brothers are very supportive of me getting into a career position, staying late, travelling alone … I have a very educated mother (and father) who helped me with my studies and challenged my essays and projects. I also feel I am the same as any man and I always try to get the same if not better,” she asserts.

But at the end of the day, it was Al-Bader’s own drive, ambition and ability to take risks confidently that catapulted her to where she is today. “I took my chances like anyone else,” she says, without hesitation. And her chances have paid off handsomely.

Note. This article was written by Elaine Ee-Meyers based on interviews for INSEAD Knowledge in Damascus by Eithne Treanor.

This article is republished courtesy of INSEAD Knowledge (http://knowledge.insead.edu)

Copyright INSEAD 2010.

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