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"There is a system in place for the decision making process. With 6500 employees it's really important to implement these properly and make sure everyone understands them, adheres to them and sees why they're beneficial, as well as to extract as much value as possible from them instead of saying ‘ok, done, let's forget about it until next year'."

The process has been made even more complicated as Depa has a presence in 15 countries worldwide including Morocco, Egypt, Sudan and India. The structure Sweid and her fellow directors have put in place is now followed throughout the business, however she says that she has faced several demanding cultural obstacles along the way. "Doing this has been very difficult in a family run company in the Middle East culture, but we're over that now. Today, I'm really confident to say that everybody knows our procedures and policies and the company is run by rules and regulations that make sense without being overly bureaucratic."

The proceeds of the IPO won't be used to venture the company even further across the world explains Sweid. Instead, Depa plans to consolidate its home markets and "vertically integrate" the business.

"We are an emerging markets company and I think that's where the opportunity is right now. If you talk to international investors who want to invest they're investing because it is an emerging market company and because of its success in those areas.

"Venturing outside emerging markets is not really in the long-term goals of the company, rather we want to continue what we've done in the last two years. Through the acquisitions and vertical integration we've done we've increased our profit margins, secured supply and managed better timing for our clients."

Its biggest deal so far has been securing the contract to fit out 899 luxury apartments located in the Burj Dubai that recently broke the record as the world's tallest tower.

Emaar owns between 5 and 10% of Depa and is one of its major shareholders, however Sweid denies that the Burj contract was a conflict of interest.

"In a typical scenario whether it's Zabeel Investments or Emaar it's a negwotiating process. The Burj Dubai tendered the contract out to several companies and we were one of them. In reality there are very few companies that can take on a project that size.

"When you think about our projects and how they work, you have to buy every in advance, there's very little down payment for the project up front so we are pretty much financing everything and then it gets paid back over the duration of the project.

"When you bid for a project they ask you for a bank guarantee. If you're not a large company, and everyone knows the prize of the Burj project was US$160m then if you can't get the bank guarantee then you can't do the project so by default we were one of two players. The other one was a company who was half our size."

But despite leading the company ever closer to an IPO, Sweid has no intention or ambition to become a chief executive in later life. She would rather put her skills to "greater use", she says.

"I have no desire to become CEO or the head of a large consulting company. What I want to do is teach strategy to women, perhaps a bit of consulting on the side. There are not enough teachers for women. Inspiring confidence in someone and seeing someone learn that and take that in right in front of you is the best reward."

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