A family affair

Amna's experience with Dubai e-Government and at BinHendi Enterprises has helped to counter the inevitable whispers that her accession was a consequence of bias as opposed to merit. Moreover, she is determined to prove to any remaining skeptics that her father made exactly the right choice in promoting his eldest daughter.

"It is difficult to deal with, but eventually the work shows, and I can prove myself through what I do," she insists. "If I'm made CEO because I'm Mr BinHendi's daughter, and I don't do anything, then obviously those people are proved right. But I have proved myself through my work and through my decisions, and that's why I was made CEO. Critics just give me an added incentive, and I know that the outcome is the most important thing."

I note that over the course of our 40-minute conversation, Amna only once refers to her father as ‘dad'. Otherwise, it is strictly ‘Mr BinHendi'. Is there a certain professional distance between father and daughter?

"He is my father, but to be formal it is ‘Mr BinHendi'," Amna smiles. "And Mr BinHendi is there any time I need him, even if I have a small question. Even though I am a decision-maker I will still pick up the phone, because he's a good person to guide me - it is enough to learn from him."

While Amna is happy to take lessons from Mr BinHendi, her example is perhaps one that others could learn from too. After all, she is a young, successful woman in a market that has long been synonymous with male-dominated management structures.

She is also a UAE national, and feels strongly that the Emirati workforce is capable of more than it is currently achieving. "Most of the UAE nationals work in the government sector and they think the packages are better, and that they have more benefits, but actually that is not true," she argues.

"I feel we have so many potential stars, but they aren't courageous enough to leave the government sector and come to the private sector, because they are worried about a perceived insecurity."

With the region's governments determined that the burden of job creation should fall on the private sector over the coming decades, Amna is adamant that companies such as BinHendi Enterprises can lead the way. She points to the many UAE nationals already in prominent positions at the company, and insists that the old mentality is finally changing.

"We have many people from government sectors who were working as policemen or working in the municipality, who have now joined BinHendi," she says. "Nationals have the potential, but they just need people to convince them to actually make that change."

Likewise, women in the UAE and across the region are beginning to make their voices heard in the workplace. Amna feels that family firms, in particular, represent a unique opportunity for women to be appointed to positions of power and responsibility in the business world.

"I think we have many women that can prove themselves but they too just need the push," she says. "We have so many talented female UAE nationals that can do much better than men, but women need support from their families in order to go out and work.

"Many private sectors have proven that there are women more than capable of doing this," she continues. "I think that most of the family businesses have women taking more of a role, and this is another example of the mindset changing.

"I don't see it as a fight, but before people just had different mentalities - they weren't used to seeing women driving or women travelling or women working," she adds. "But over the last few years we have seen that the roads are half full with UAE women drivers, that so many UAE women are working, so I think the mentality of our people has changed a lot."

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