9 Lebanese listed among region's 100 most powerful businesswomen

Compiled annually by Forbes, the list features female entrepreneurs working in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) who hold executive or management positions in large regional and international companies.

Criteria taken into consideration include impact made on the regional market, size of business and years of experience.

Nine Lebanese women

The first Lebanese woman on the Forbes list is Samira Bouazza who ranked 18th place. Bouazza is the CEO and managing director of Multiply Group.

Multiply Group was founded in 2003 and focuses on several sectors including media, energy, beauty and digital economy. The company was listed on the Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange in December 2021.

Last year, Multiply Group acquired a 7.3 percent stake in Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (TAQA) for $2.7 billion and 80 percent of International Energy Holding.

Mona Ataya, a Lebanese-Palestinian entrepreneur came in at 32nd place. This is Ataya’s third consecutive time on the list. She was also featured in 50 Over 50: Europe, Middle East and Africa 2023, alongside Lebanese singer Najwa Karam.

Ataya is the co-founder of Mumzworld, a retail platform for mothers and newborns that launched in 2011, the first of its kind in the region.

Ataya has been CEO of Saudi Arabia’s Tamer Group since 2021, the same year the group acquired Mumzworld.

Today, Ataya’s platform serves 2.5 million customers across the Middle East with over 350,000 products from 6,500 global brands.

Leila Sarhan, along with her Emirati colleague Saeeda Jaffar ranked 40th place. Serhan is vice president of Visa and oversees the group’s operations across the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

In the pharmacological sector, Olfat Sami Berro, Roche’s Middle East Area Head, ranked 50th.

Nine places down is French-Lebanese Rima Assi, a senior and managing partner at McKinsey in Abu Dhabi.

Farah Foustok, CEO and managing director at Lazard Asset Management, ranked 68th.

Leila Hoteit, managing director and senior partner in Boston Consulting Group, Elda Choucair, CEO of Omnicom Media Group, and May Nasrallah, founder and executive chairwoman of Novo Partners, ranked 70th, 74th and 98th respectively.  

This article was originally published in French in L'Orient Le-Jour. Translation by Joelle El Khoury.

Neuf Libanaises parmi les 100 femmes d’affaires les plus puissantes de la région