Forbes, an American business magazine, has named two Pakistanis in its list of the Middle East’s ‘100 Most Powerful Businesswomen’ for the year 2024. This year’s list featured 100 entries, with 104 women from 27 different sectors and 28 nationalities, according to Forbes. The banking and financial services sector led the list with 26 entries, followed by health care with 13, and investments and technology with six entries each. There were 35 newcomers to the list, from 15 different sectors. Shaista Asif, co-founder and group chief executive officer (CEO) of PureHealth Holding health care network in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), was ranked 4th on the list. She co-founded the health care corporation in 2006 and was appointed group CEO in Dec. 2023. Her group’s initial public offering (IPO) raised a total of $986 million by offering 10 percent of its issued share capital on the first market of the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) in Dec. 2023. The IPO was oversubscribed by 483 times in the retail tranche and by 54 times in the professional subscriber tranche, according to Forbes. “In January 2024, the group acquired the UK’s largest independent operator of hospitals, Circle Health Group, for $1.2 billion before debt,” the American magazine reported. “PureHealth acquired Sheikh Shakbout Medical City, the U.A.E.’s largest health care complex, valued at $600 million with revenues of $585.4 million.”
Shazia Syed, another Pakistani and the Unilever general manager for North Africa, Levant and Iraq, secured 9th position on the list for her extensive experience working at several corporations. “Syed assumed her current role in 2021 and is also the Arabia Senior Customer Development Lead. She joined Unilever in 1989. She also sits on the board of United Bank Limited in Pakistan, is a member of the Board Risk & Compliance Committee, and is the chairperson of the Board Audit Committee,” Forbes wrote. “She previously sat on the boards of Pukka Tea and Pepsi Lipton, was the president of the Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce & Industry, and was the director of the Pakistan Business Council.”
