The first female head of a prominent banking institution in the Gulf, Maryam Bahlooq was appointed CEO of Tanfeeth, a fully-owned subsidiary of the Emirates NBD Group in June last year.

Prior to her appointment, Bahlooq had worked at Emirates NBD for 17 years serving last serving as acting group head, Human Resources and leading the HR Business Partnership unit at the company, in charge of recruitment, nationalisation and business partnership.

She has been particularly praised for her ability to manage the people management aspect of the bank’s mergers and acquisitions, both local and international. Her role at Tanfeeth sees her responsible for more than 2,700 employees at the   shared services company established in 2011 to manage the bank’s operations and customer service.