ACCA, the global body for professional accountants, interviewed Aurora50’s Suzanne Locke in its AB magazine as it investigated what the new board quota for one woman per private-joint stock company (which took effect as of January 2025) meant for women in leadership in the UAE.
This decision extends the 2021 requirement for public joint-stock companies and represents a major step in the UAE’s commitment to advancing women in leadership roles.
The challenge is that boards and nomination committees often don’t know about the talented women in the UAE. Too many of these women simply aren’t in their circles.
Suzanne Locke, Aurora50
Ms Locke told the ACCA: “The challenge is that boards and nomination committees often don’t know about the talented women in the UAE. Too many of these women simply aren’t in their circles.”
She advocates combining proactive mentorship and targeted development to identify and prepare more women for board roles.
Aurora50 helps boards and committees connect with senior executive women who might not be in members’ circles through its 12-week accelerator for women who want to become board directors, Pathway20. It also helps women in management become more adept at networking to build those circles through its GCC corporate women’s network, NOORA.
Ms Locke believes male leaders can play a critical role. “Male executives can be great allies to senior-level women by mentoring them, giving them board exposure, and nominating them when seats open up,” she says.
Male executives can be great allies to senior-level women.
Suzanne Locke, Aurora50
Aurora50 helps men and women to build inclusive workplaces, work on allyship and unconscious bias and for women to build their leadership through its tailored corporate training, the Accelerator for Internal Management (AIM) and bespoke DEI Consultancy services.
Journalist Paula Naoufal writes in summary: “The UAE is demonstrating that inclusive leadership isn’t just a policy but a powerful driver of growth and innovation.”
Ms Locke ends by saying: “Gender diversity is a business imperative for the future of the UAE.”
A new programme launched on International Women’s Day on Sunday aims to improve female representation at board level in the UAE, The National eports.
Al Arabiya reports that the UAE’s continued efforts to improve gender diversity in the boardroom have led to more women holding board positions this year (8.9 percent), up from 3.5 percent in 2020, according to research undertaken by Aurora50 and Mohammed Bin Rashid School of Government (MBRSG).
Reporting on the Emirates Securities and Commodities Authority (ESCA)’s mandate to put one woman director on every UAE listed board, Asharq Business Bloomberg says that women have only taken four new seats at listed companies on the two main UAE stock exchanges in the two months since, with 96 percent of positions held by men.
