Breaking with past traditions

Competence, perseverance and “not taking no for an answer” are the recipes for success for Soha Nashaat, managing director and head of Middle East, North Africa and Turkey for Barclays Wealth and already the Financial Times’ leading business woman in the Arab World for two consecutive years. “You have to be always on top of developments, be adaptable to changes in an industry which changes very rapidly, and you can’t let setbacks shake your self-confidence,” says Ms Nashaat, whose Egyptian and Syrian parents raised her in Kuwait, before she studied in the US and then moved to Argentina. “Women have to work harder,” she adds, as in large organisations, it is ‘an old-boys network.’ “Once they show their capabilities, then it is an equal playing field but for women it is harder to break in.” Having moved to Dubai two years ago from London, where she was heading the offshore Middle East business for Merrill Lynch, Ms Nashaat’s role for the past two years has involved building the business and creating the brand of Barclays Wealth in the Middle East. But what Ms Nashaat is most proud of is the break she generally makes with the industry’s past traditions in the way she manages people. “It was always a very macho, masculine, aggressive way of managing people and I brought in a very different, maybe softer or more compassionate way of managing the units and the people.” Showing compassion and “listening not only for what people tell you, but also for non verbal cues, picking up holistically on how your team is feeling as opposed to just the deal they are working on,” is what is really important. “I think in the long-term, this really adds profitability to firms, because you build a strong culture and loyalty. Wealth management is an industry where your capital is your people, so if you are not training, developing and retaining the best people you are going to fail, no matter what wonderful products you have got.” Ms Nashaat’s goal for the future is to build “the best wealth management team in the region.” And while she always hires the best person for the job, she is also proactively looking for women. “I would like to add more women bankers, because, I think women can penetrate relationships deeper.” Also women can access certain pockets of wealth in the Middle East that men cannot, she says, explaining that in certain GCC countries it is quite difficult for a man to network within the women’s market. “So if you find an amazing well-networked competent woman, from a pure business perspective it makes a lot of sense to hire her.”

“Once they show their capabilities, then it is an equal playing field but for women it is harder to break in”