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Although our interview is the last appointment of her day, Dr Muhadditha Al Hashimi is all smiles as she offers me a seat and orders refreshments before settling down herself. The CEO of Dubai Healthcare City (DHCC) exudes an air of quiet control as she looks out through the wide glass doors of the conference room across the first floor of her kingdom before explaining the concept behind it.
"This is a very ambitious project," she begins, "there's a need in this region to address the quality of healthcare. Our objective is to raise the bar in the region and to gain patient trust."
Established as Government of Dubai initiative to create a regional centre for medical services and life science research and development, DHCC, the first medical Free Zone in the world, has attracted institutions from across the globe to come and set up in the Emirate.
The onus, as Al Hashimi explains, is on filling the current gap in healthcare provisions.
"Usually, anyone with the smallest little health problem gets on the next flight out, so really our goal is to create here that environment that people feel the need to seek outside," she explains frankly. "We want Dubai to become a medical hub as much as it is a tourist destination."
As one of the first in her family to go on to higher education, Al Hashimi is used to pushing the boundaries. Having been granted a government scholarship to study abroad in the 1980s, she completed her Bachelor's, Master's and PhD in the USA.
She credits these cultural and professional experiences, alongside her impressive academic background, with helping her set high standards for her own company.
"When I started my education in the US in the 1980s it was a culture shock.
"I'd never been outside the UAE, my English was not that great, so I had to learn and adapt - but coming back here was another culture shock," she laughs.
"I'd been gone for 14 years, the US became my home, obviously I was back for holidays but living here again is very different, but again, you adapt."
This ability to embrace change is one that has come in useful in her appointment as the country's first female head of a healthcare corporation.
While acknowledging that her appointmant may have raised a few corporate eyebrows, Al Hashimi is unfazed by the challenges of being in the spotlight.
"This position was vacant for many years, so when I assumed the position, and being a female, I'm sure that it caused a stir in the community," she admits. "It was a groundbreaking appointment.
"But if you look at my credentials or come and talk to me you'll see that we will commit - regardless of my being female or not - we will commit and we are going to deliver on this project," she emphasises.
Al Hashimi is, however, quick to dismiss any talk of her gender having affected her professional life in either a positive or a negative manner, insisting that ability and results are what people base their judgement on.
"I manage to disperse any misconceptions from the very first meeting; being female doesn't matter, it's what you are able to achieve regardless of your gender." A statement that is given increased weight by the surge of female graduates entering the field of medicine.
"If you talk about physicians, in the UAE 70% of our graduates are women," she explains with a twinkle.
"Which shows that they are able to cope with our entry requirements, if you look at the grade percentile in high school it is mainly girls who are achieving in the 90% and higher and those are the students who are eligible for medical school and scholarships.
"It's part of a global trend," she adds, laughing, "we do have smarter girls than boys - maybe the boys are distracted by other things!"
All levity aside, Al Hashimi is very serious about the standards that she expects from her staff and requires from organisations and medical practitioners wanting to become part of DHCC. The group demands similar professional credentials for physicians as those currently employed in Western healthcare systems, and the same applies to building and hygiene standards for the clinics wishing to be part of the facility.
"We look at European guidelines for building the hospitals and clinics from the ventilation system to the patient floors in the facility," she says.
