For anyone doubting how far Saudi Arabia has come in striving to bridge the gender gap, then they need look no further than Noelle Al Jaweini.
The kingdom has been transformed in recent years courtesy of Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman and a sweeping reform programme, as part of the country’s Vision 2030, which has seen a number of restrictions lifted.
Women can attend certain sporting events at stadiums, which was forbidden until a few years ago. They are no longer required to use separate entrances from men although some establishments still use them. They can also now apply for passports, drive, live by themselves and travel on their own.
And Al Jaweini, who is chief of cash markets at Saudi Exchange (Saudi Tadawul Group) and has been involved in the country’s financial sector for the last ten years, is confident that there is more to come thanks to the support networks in place.
She told Arabian Business: “Any achievement doesn’t come without its set of challenges. Working in a male dominated field at the time six years ago (with Saudi Exchange) and even before that, ten-plus years ago, when I started my career, things have drastically changed since then.
“Basically you just have to be willing to come into the office and not be afraid to shatter the glass ceiling and knock on every door of opportunity that you have. Luckily, with the support of the Saudi Tadawul Group and the efforts that have been exerted in terms of various initiatives to promote women empowerment, I’ve been able to do so and fortunate enough to have that opportunity.”
After a spell with an international management consultancy, Al Jaweini joined Saudi Exchange, initially as a chief analyst, through to managing equity product development, to her current role, where she looks after the entire business for cash markets. In her six years she has overseen 30 projects.
“I’ve grown with the exchange and I feel absolutely delighted to have had this opportunity to be at the centre of the financial sector and, as the exchange is growing, grow with it as well,” she said.
Between 2018 and 2020, female participation in the workforce in Saudi grew to around 65 percent, while, at the end of last year, women accounted for 33 percent of the country’s total workforce – up from nearly 18 percent five years ago.
But Al Jaweini insists the challenges faced, in working for the largest stock exchange in the Middle East, are not simply reserved to females.
“You always have challenges when you have tight timelines to launch products and such an ambitious plan. I don’t think it’s related to being a woman, I think it’s just a challenge that anyone would face going into their job with such an ambitious agenda,” said Al Jaweini.
“It’s just a matter of commitment, keeping focused on the end result and ensuring that things are going as planned.”
Saudi Tadawul Group surged on its trading debut earlier this month after the stock exchange raised $1 billion, making it the biggest exchange IPO since Euronext went public in 2014.
The exchange had 222 listed securities as of November 30 and is the most active in the region.
“We’ve had extremely healthy liquidity over the course of the last couple of years and even before that. But of course activity has been increasing across all investor types and this is something that we’ve seen that is not only unique to the Saudi market, but is something that has been globally as well,” said Al Jaweini.
As of the end of last month, the exchange’s added daily traded value (ADTV) was around $2.4bn, compared to $2.2bn at the same period last year.
While in Q3, it represented three out of the five listings in the region, raising around $1.1 trillion in terms of capital.
The pipeline for IPOs in the kingdom is “deeper than ever”, chief executive officer Khalid al Hussan said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. “It will be even better next year,” he said, adding that technology, healthcare and education companies are among the newcomers to the market.
Meanwhile, the debt market raised $2.9bn in capital. Al Jaweini said: “We’ve also seen various reforms across the debt market in terms of incentivising liquidity, making the listing process easier, working with various stakeholders across the capital market ecosystem to make this attractive for both issuers and investors.”
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