The Gulf’s boardrooms look different than they did five years ago. Walk into a leadership meeting at a major bank in Riyadh, a tech firm in Dubai, or an energy company in Doha today, and you’re far more likely to find a woman leading the conversation; not attending it.
That shift didn’t happen by accident. It’s the product of policy changes across the GCC, a generation of women who pushed into industries that weren’t built with them in mind, and companies that finally started promoting on merit instead of habit.
For this year’s list, Arabian Business Times set out to recognize 30 women who are genuinely moving the needle across the GCC. These are not leaders defined simply by their titles, but women who are shaping strategy, entering new markets, building strong organizations, and creating an impact that will extend far beyond their own tenure.
Some are leading publicly listed companies, while others are scaling ambitious businesses that did not exist a decade ago. Several are also redefining leadership in industries such as construction, energy, and heavy manufacturing, sectors where women have historically had limited representation at the highest levels.
Together, they represent a new generation of leadership built on influence, execution, innovation, and lasting impact.
Here’s our list for 2026, along with how we put it together.
How We Selected These Leaders
Putting this list together was not simply about finding women with impressive job titles. The Arabian Business Times editorial team researched leaders, founders, entrepreneurs, researchers, and industry professionals across the GCC to identify women creating meaningful and visible impact in their respective fields.
Our selection considered several factors:
Leadership Impact: We looked at how each individual is influencing an organization, industry, community, or professional field through her leadership, decisions, and work.
Entrepreneurship and Business Building: We considered women who have founded businesses, launched startups, developed new ventures, or built emerging brands with strong growth potential and a clear market purpose.
Innovation and Expertise: Our research also included professionals, researchers, specialists, and innovators whose ideas, knowledge, or work are contributing to the development of their industries.
Professional Track Record: We reviewed career progression, business achievements, projects, expansion milestones, initiatives, and other evidence of sustained professional impact.
Industry Influence: We considered visibility within their sector, including thought leadership, industry contributions, speaking engagements, recognition, partnerships, awards, and influence among peers.
GCC Relevance: Priority was given to women whose work has a meaningful connection to the GCC, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Oman. We also aimed to represent a diverse mix of industries and professional backgrounds.
Growth and Forward Momentum: Particular attention was given to leaders who are actively building, expanding, innovating, entering new markets, launching initiatives, or creating new opportunities during 2025 and 2026.
The final selection is designed to highlight different forms of leadership. Some women on this list oversee established organizations, while others are building startups, advancing research, growing independent businesses, or creating influence within specialized industries. What connects them is the measurable direction, ambition, and impact of their work.
1. May Ahmed — Founder and CEO, H&T Boutique
For May Ahmed, luxury was never just about the price tag. It started with a fascination for craftsmanship, elegance, and how a single piece could carry culture and identity within it. That belief became H&T Boutique, a luxury bags brand built around storytelling and Middle Eastern and Egyptian heritage rather than trends. “It is not simply about owning an expensive item,” she says. “It is about owning a piece with meaning.”
Her brand has since been featured in Forbes and Vogue, presented at International Fashion Weekend Dubai, and recognized with the Millionaire Award and Best International Fashion Icon Award. But she’s quick to point out that recognition followed discipline, not the other way around. Moving H&T Boutique from a local business to an internationally known name meant a complete shift in mindset, she says, and the courage to step outside familiar boundaries.
She’s equally clear-eyed about the future, believing luxury fashion’s next decade will belong to brands that blend heritage with technology, without losing what made them authentic in the first place.
Why she made the list: Because she’s proof that culture, when treated as substance rather than decoration, can become a genuine competitive edge in a global luxury market.
Follow her on Instagram: @mayahmedd_official
2. Neslihan Batum — Founder, Nest Invest
Neslihan Batum has spent eighteen years guiding international investors through some of the world’s most sought after property markets, working across Türkiye, Dubai, Cyprus and Montenegro. As founder of Nest Invest, based in Ankara, she has built a boutique advisory platform that puts the client’s interests above every transaction, often advising them to wait or walk away when an opportunity does not truly fit their goals.
Her portfolio includes notable projects such as Nest Loft in North Cyprus and Ufuk Beytepe in Ankara, along with developments in Montenegro. Alongside her real estate work, Batum serves as a Mediterranean Luxury Yacht Advisor, bringing together residences, marinas and hospitality into one connected lifestyle experience for her clients.
She believes Türkiye’s real strength lies far beyond current property prices, rooted instead in its geography, culture, tourism and long term growth story. That perspective, paired with nearly two decades of cross market experience, has made her a trusted voice for investors exploring opportunities across the wider Mediterranean region.
Why she made the list: Batum earns her place among the Top 30 Visionary Women Business Leaders in 2026 for her ability to connect real estate, lifestyle and yachting into one Mediterranean investment story, while never losing sight of protecting her clients’ long term interests.
Follow her journey on Instagram: @neslihanbatum
3. Dr. Mariam Shaikh — Founder and CEO, MS Education
With over thirty five years in international education, Dr. Mariam Shaikh has helped shape the UAE into a recognised global education hub. Her journey began in the early 1980s when she founded her own nursery school, before going on to lead a major school group as Principal, growing it to more than seven thousand students and making it one of the largest Asian schools in the UAE.
She later moved into higher education, playing a key role in establishing the University of New Brunswick’s Dubai campus, one of the first overseas branch campuses in the region. She went on to hold senior leadership roles at the Canadian University of Dubai, Heriot Watt University and Amity University Dubai.
In 2020, she founded MS Education, now a trusted advisory firm connecting universities and students across the UAE and beyond. She also works closely with UNHCR, helping provide scholarships for refugee students, and has been recognised globally, including as a Global 200 Women Power Leader in 2024.
Why she made the list: Dr. Shaikh earns her place among the Top 30 Visionary Women Business Leaders in 2026 for decades spent building bridges between global universities and students, shaping the UAE into one of the world’s most trusted education destinations.
Connect with her on LinkedIn: Dr. Mariam Shaikh
https://www.instagram.com/dr.darcellstreeter
4. Dr. Darcell L. Streeter — CEO, Women’s Circle, Inc. and Founder, B.HER™ Global
Dr. Darcell L. Streeter has built a career at the intersection of education, workforce development and social impact, driven by a belief that systems should be designed for people rather than the other way around. As CEO of Women’s Circle, Inc., she leads Circle Forward, a global learning ecosystem connecting K-12 education with adult vocational training across regions including West Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia.
Her doctoral work on generative AI and culturally responsive design shaped the S.T.R.I.P.E. Prompt Architecture, a framework helping educators use AI in ways that stay human led and culturally grounded. Through B.HER Global and the Softness as a Superpower framework, she also challenges outdated ideas about what strong leadership looks like, encouraging women to lead from wholeness rather than exhaustion.
A Learning Sciences scholar, author and global speaker, Dr. Streeter continues to build systems designed to outlast her, rooted in community, dignity and lasting transformation.
Why she made the list: Dr. Streeter earns her place among the Top 30 Visionary Women Business Leaders in 2026 for building an education model rooted in equity and belonging, proving that leadership can be both deeply human and globally scalable.
Follow her on Instagram: @dr.darcellstreeter
5. Dr. Larisa Magomatova — Pediatric Cardiologist and CHD Advocate
Dr. Larisa Magomatova has spent years at one of Europe’s largest cardiology centres and is the author of parent education books on congenital heart disease. For the past five years, she has been part of an international field mission team bringing paediatric heart surgery directly to children who cannot travel for treatment, working across countries where congenital heart care is still developing.
Since 2021, the team has completed twelve missions to Iraq, performing close to seven hundred operations with a survival rate of approximately ninety seven percent, often treating infants with complex defects who had nowhere else to turn. Magomatova believes strongly in informed families, encouraging parents to track small daily changes in a child’s behaviour and appetite to catch problems early. “Do not fear the diagnosis, seek to understand it,” she often says.
Alongside her clinical work, she remains a vocal advocate for CHD awareness, believing technology can support but never replace real conversations between doctors and families.
Why she made the list: Dr. Magomatova earns her place among the Top 30 Visionary Women Business Leaders in 2026 for her rare blend of frontline clinical courage and long term patient education, bringing life saving surgery to children who would otherwise have no access to it, while empowering families with the knowledge to act early.
Follow her on Instagram: @doctor_lara95
6. Prof. Ona C. Miller, EdD, PhD — Founder and CEO, Global Female Civility Leadership Institute
Prof. Ona C. Miller has spent over two decades focused not on leadership training, but on institution building, helping organizations design the governance structures that allow their work to outlast any single leader. As Founder and CEO of the Global Female Civility Leadership Institute, she partners with universities, governments and nonprofits to audit governance systems and build leadership pipelines built to last for generations.
Her earlier ventures include the Global Library of Female Authors, founded in 2018 to preserve women’s intellectual contributions, along with the Female Civility Initiative and National Female Civility Day. In November 2025, she launched PurposePhD, extending her advisory work into education focused on purpose driven leadership development.
She currently serves as National Chairman of the Women and Entrepreneurship Committee with the Asian African Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and is an Honorary Member of the World Peace and Diplomacy Organisation.
Why she made the list: Prof. Miller shifts the conversation from whether women belong in leadership to how their institutions can be built to endure, a distinction that has quietly reshaped how organizations think about legacy.
Connect with her on LinkedIn: Prof. Ona C. Miller
7. Dr. Tumpa Banerjee — Founder, ARTROY FZE LLC
Before committing fully to the canvas, Dr. Tumpa Banerjee built a successful career in the corporate world until a powerful creative call demanded her full devotion. Stepping away to pursue art full-time, she has since established herself across Dubai for her contemporary and abstract art, a dynamic practice centered on evocative textures, expressive form, and intuitive movement that lets each piece find its own organic life.
She was born in Lucknow, India, and today calls Dubai home. Her exhibitions have travelled to nearly twenty countries, including a UNESCO backed show in Greece, and she holds an honorary Doctor of Philosophy in Fine Arts from Maryland State University. She also curates shows for other artists and runs workshops with special needs and autistic children, where color becomes a way to say what words can’t.
Awards have followed, including the UAE Icon Global Business Leaders Summit Award and Global Women of Influence 2025. But ask her what matters most, and she’ll talk about a child finding their voice through paint, not a trophy on a shelf.
Why she made the list: Because reinvention isn’t just a talking point for her, it’s a life she actually lived, and because she turns something as personal as abstract art into a language anyone, from any background, can understand.
Follow her on Instagram: @artroy.28 | Connect on LinkedIn: Dr. Tumpa Banerjee
8. Simone La-Rose — Founder, Edited 1791
Before Dubai, Simone La-Rose spent over two decades inside London’s most respected fashion houses, including Phoebe Philo, MATCHES Fashion, Victoria Beckham and Browns, where she learned that true luxury has nothing to do with volume. When a relocation to Dubai left her searching for work, two unrelated women asked her the exact same question within hours of each other: could she come detox their wardrobes. Forty eight hours later, Edited 1791 was born.
Her approach isn’t styling, it’s editing. Most clients, she found, were only wearing thirty percent of what they owned. Through a five stage process, from The First Draft to The Manuscript, she strips away the noise until a wardrobe finally makes sense, keeping the pieces that matter and clearing out the rest. “Buy only what you love, edit tremendously,” she says, echoing a lesson from her early mentor, Browns founder Joan Burstein.
Deliberately faceless as a brand, Edited 1791 puts the client at the center, not its founder, a rare choice in an industry built on personal visibility.
Why she made the list: Because she turned a deeply personal insight into a genuine business category, proving that in luxury, subtraction can be more powerful than addition.
Follow on Instagram: @edited1791_dxb
9. Sahar Karoubi — Founder and CEO, Bambuyu
Sahar Karoubi built Bambuyu out of simple household frustration, wondering why an everyday product like tissue paper was quietly contributing to global deforestation. Her research led her to bamboo, one of the fastest growing renewable resources, and became the foundation for a bamboo based tissue brand that refuses to compromise on softness or quality. Before Bambuyu, she spent over a decade in CPG and digital marketing, working with global names like Nestlé and L’Oréal, learning what actually drives customer loyalty.
That instinct has paid off. Bambuyu products now sit on shelves at Lulu Hypermarket, Union Coop, Choithrams and Organic Foods and Cafe, built without a marketing budget to match the giants she competes against. She famously walked away from two offers on Shark Tank Dubai, unwilling to give up equity that didn’t reflect where she believes the brand is heading. A TiE Women MENA winner, she continues to grow Bambuyu with the same instinct that started it, making everyday products gentler on people and the planet.
Why she made the list: Because she proved that sustainability and mass retail aren’t mutually exclusive, building a category defining brand on unit economics and community trust rather than funding rounds.
Connect on LinkedIn: Sahar Karoubi
10. Angana Maheshwari — Founder and CEO, Veganologie
During the pandemic, Angana Maheshwari went looking for a well made, affordable vegan leather bag and couldn’t find one. So she built it herself, launching Veganologie in 2022 with plant based materials like apple, bamboo and tea leather, proving conscious fashion doesn’t have to compromise on design. A global citizen raised across India, Germany, Luxembourg, London and New York, she holds degrees from NYU and LSE, skills she now applies to a brand built on transparency as much as aesthetics.
Veganologie has since opened retail spaces at Wafi Mall, Dubai Festival City and Gate Avenue DIFC, and Maheshwari presented the brand to UAE Vice President Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan at Qasr Al Watan. She has been featured in L’Officiel Arabia and Madame Arabia, and received the Global Changemakers Award for Sustainability from the ESG Research Foundation. Since launch, Veganologie has also planted mangrove trees along the UAE coastline as part of its environmental commitment.
Why she made the list: Because she turned a personal shopping frustration into one of the region’s most credible conscious luxury brands, proving ethics and aesthetics were never really in conflict.
Connect on LinkedIn: Angana Maheshwari
11. Shahad Geoffrey — Co-Founder and CEO, TAFFI Inc.
Shahad Geoffrey founded TAFFI in 2021 to solve a problem she saw clearly, that personalized styling had long been reserved for the wealthy while everyday online shoppers were left guessing. Today, TAFFI’s AI powered stylist and discovery assistant helps global fashion brands, including Adidas, turn browsing into complete outfit recommendations, without relying on discounting to drive sales.
Her work hasn’t gone unnoticed. TAFFI became the subject of a Harvard Business School case study after Professor Paul Gompers researched startups across 31 countries, and Geoffrey has since returned to Harvard multiple times to speak directly with MBA students about the journey. She was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list and recognized among the 50 most impactful women in Saudi Arabia by Arabian Business.
Before TAFFI, she worked as a fellow at Draper Associates under Tim Draper, writing deal memos for companies now valued at over eight billion dollars. She holds a degree in International Business from INSEEC University in Paris.
Why she made the list: Because she built the Gulf’s first VC backed fashion tech startup from scratch, proving Saudi Arabia’s AI ecosystem can produce ideas serious enough for a Harvard classroom.
Connect on LinkedIn: Shahad Geoffrey
12. Thuraya Nasser Al-Mulla — Founder and CEO, Receipts
Thuraya Nasser Al-Mulla founded Receipts in 2022 with a simple but powerful idea, that every digital receipt could become more than a transaction record, turning it into a loyalty engine that plugs directly into a merchant’s existing point of sale system. Built out of Qatar, the platform now sits at the intersection of fintech, retail and sustainability, supporting circular economy principles across the GCC’s consumer economy.
Her work has earned her recognition as Fintech Entrepreneur of the Year in 2023 and Women Entrepreneur of the Year in Tech in 2025. She has taken the stage twice at Web Summit Qatar, becoming part of the country’s first ever speaker cohort at the world’s largest technology gathering, and is an active member of the Paris Fintech Forum. Alongside building Receipts, she also leads program strategy for Qatar Foundation’s Qutors initiative, supporting IB students and educators across the country.
A computer engineering graduate of Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Al-Mulla continues to champion Qatar’s growing tech ecosystem, particularly the rise of women building within it.
Why she made the list: Because she’s proving that fintech innovation in the Gulf doesn’t have to choose between commerce and sustainability, it can build both into the same infrastructure.
Connect on LinkedIn: Thuraya Nasser Al-Mulla
13. Noor Al Muhaideb — CEO and Founding Partner, Opaal Interiors and Detay Living
Noor Al Muhaideb’s eye for design took shape early, leading her to earn a Bachelor of Interior Design from the American University of Sharjah in 2002. She spent the next fifteen years at Emaar Properties, delivering residential, hospitality and commercial projects that shaped much of her creative instinct today. In 2016, she founded Opaal Interiors, followed by Detay Living, building spaces known across Dubai for their timeless, elegant style.
What sets Al Muhaideb apart isn’t just her design sense but her commitment to the next generation, mentoring young designers at Opaal the way she once wished someone had mentored her. She’s known for guiding clients closely through every stage of a project, regardless of budget or scale, a client focused approach that has become central to her companies’ reputation. As a mother of four, she credits her family as her biggest source of motivation, alongside a habit of studying other business leaders’ journeys for perspective.
Why she made the list: Because she’s built a design empire on relationships and mentorship as much as aesthetics, proving that lasting influence in interiors comes from empowering others, not just creating beautiful rooms.
Connect on LinkedIn: Noor Al Muhaideb
14. Sarah Jones — Co-Founder and CEO, RAYNE
Sarah Jones started her entrepreneurial life at fourteen, selling items on eBay, long before she ever imagined ending up on the cover of Law Middle East. After years working in finance and M&A, where late nights were simply the norm, becoming a mother of five made her question why legal careers couldn’t be built around real life instead of against it.
That question became RAYNE, which she co-founded with Oliver Berger in 2023 to give lawyers across the Middle East the flexibility to take on high calibre assignments on their own terms, whether that’s three days a week, fully remote, or built around school pickups. In just a few years, RAYNE has grown into the largest ALSP in the region, working on over 100 assignments in 2025 alone, and was recently shortlisted for Legal Services Innovator of the Year at the LexisNexis Middle East Women in Law Awards.
Jones speaks openly about returning to work four times after having children, and has made that conversation, rather than just flexibility policy, central to how RAYNE is built.
Why she made the list: Because she didn’t just talk about work life balance, she built an entire company proving legal careers and family life were never meant to be a trade off.
Connect on LinkedIn: Sarah Jones
15. Rawan Alsahsah — Founder and CEO, RIS Group
Rawan Alsahsah founded RIS Group in 2002, becoming one of the first Saudi women to build and lead a successful group of companies, at a time when the country’s furniture and design industry looked very different than it does today. In 2014, she launched RIS Living, the first premium Saudi furniture brand, raising the bar for quality and customer service across the sector and later introducing global names like Jonathan Adler and Kelly Wearstler to the Saudi market for the first time.
Today, RIS Group operates across four sub-brands, serving both private and public sector clients throughout the GCC. In 2019, she expanded her creative vision further with Rawan Isaac, a New York based furnishings line drawing on Art Deco boldness and mid-century modern simplicity. Her work has earned recognition including the IIDA International Excellence Award and a spot among City Scape Community’s Top 6 Female Founders of Architecture and Interior Design Firms in MENA.
A member of the Young Presidents Organization and the Saudi Council of Engineers, she remains a vocal advocate for women building businesses across the region.
Why she made the list: Because more than two decades ago, she built an industry category in Saudi Arabia that barely existed, and she’s still setting the trends others now follow.
Connect on LinkedIn: Rawan Alsahsah
16. Deena Al-Ansari — Co-Founder, The Beauty Company W.L.L.
Deena Al-Ansari has spent nearly seventeen years building The Beauty Company, growing it from a straightforward product distribution business into something she sees as a platform for genuine impact across the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. What began as pure hustle shifted after she found a spiritual path that reshaped how she leads, blending strategy with a deeper sense of purpose.
That shift shows up directly in the brands she’s built. PINX supports underprivileged children, while SD Hair works to uplift mothers and women in need, each one designed to weave compassion into commerce rather than treat profitability and purpose as separate goals. For Al-Ansari, business has become less about chasing success in the traditional sense and more about the vehicle it offers to create meaningful change.
Her approach reflects a broader shift many entrepreneurs are only beginning to embrace, that leadership rooted in soulful intention rather than hustle alone can still build something highly profitable.
Why she made the list: Because she’s redefining what leadership looks like in beauty, proving strategy and spiritual wisdom aren’t opposing forces but can build something more sustainable together.
Connect on LinkedIn: Deena Al-Ansari
Soon More Leaders Will Be Added here
CLOSING
Thirty names can’t capture everything happening across the Gulf’s business landscape right now; there are dozens of other women doing equally consequential work outside this list, and that’s exactly the point. The bench is deep, and it’s getting deeper every year.
What stands out looking at this year’s group as a whole isn’t just seniority. It’s range; women leading in sectors that were closed to them a generation ago, and doing it while based in the region, not despite it.
We’ll be revisiting this list annually. If there’s a leader you think we should be watching for next year, Contact us — we’re always tracking who’s next.
