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  High-ranking female professionals are becoming the order of the day in the country with women surgeons, doctors, nurses and entrepreneurs hardly still a rarity in the country. Perhaps the most vivid example of the new role for women in UAE society is Sheikha Lubna Al Qasimi, who last year took charge of the Ministry of Economy and Planning, becoming the first woman in the country and in the region to hold such a high political post. While there are other women ministers in the Gulf, in Bahrain, Oman and Qatar, Sheikha Lubna's role within the UAE Federal Government is the most senior to date.

  A popular speaker on women's issues, Islam, technology and Internet commerce, Sheikha Lubna has many ‘firsts’ in the country and is a source of inspiration for a whole generation of young women. Often described in the media as witty and with a hands-on management style, she has acted as a catalyst for change, raising the profile of women within the IT industry as well as within Middle East business circles. Throughout her career, at the Dubai Ports Authority and, most recently at Tejari.com, Sheikha Lubna has always proved she can deliver exceptional results. Her important contributions have not remained unnoticed and, throughout the course of her career, she has received many awards from organisations such as Dubai Quality Group, International Technology Publishing, Datamatix and the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

  Sheikha Lubna’s many professional achievements can only motivate young women looking to carve out a career for themselves and make a contribution to the UAE economy and society. A member of the Sharjah royal family, Sheikha Lubna is the first UAE national woman to receive an advanced IT degree. With a liking for mathematics and physics, which she discovered at 11, she became fascinated with technology from a very young age. She decided she wanted to study computer science when only 17 years old. She would never let go of her dream career and in 1981 she obtained a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from California State University. Venturing the world of technology was hardly something many women would do back then. In fact, there were only five women in her class consisting of 30 students.

  Sheikha Lubna grew up in a family which valued education tremendously, and this has become of vital importance to her as well. Years later, she would obtain a Masters Degree from Sharjah University.

  Back in 1981, after graduating university with flying colours, Sheikha Lubna received a number of attractive job offers from US companies but she declined them all as she chose to return to her native land. Upon arriving back in the UAE, instead of opting for a position within the public sector, which would have been a more direct path to the top, she joined a private Dubai-based software company, Datamation, where she was the only UAE national and the only woman on the team. Working from 8am to 6pm, just like everybody else, was hardly the normal routine for royal, but this was what Sheikha Lubna chose to do.

  Several jobs later, Sheikha Lubna became the Dubai branch manager for the General Information Authority, the organisation responsible for automating the federal government of the UAE. Her big break, however, would come later, in 1987, when she was appointed senior manager of the Information Systems Department at Dubai Ports Authority (DPA). She has never looked back ever since.

  Sheikha Lubna spent more than seven years at the Dubai Ports Authority, which is currently recognised as the most technologically advanced ports facility in the region and boasts a sophisticated e-system, which networks the ports and customs authority with the cargo community, thereby, streamlining paperwork and enabling efficient handling of cargo. Her contribution to the DPA includes improvements that reduced cargo processing time from one hour to just 10 minutes.

  It was at the Dubai Ports Authority where Sheikha Lubna was first faced with the challenge to look beyond her engineering expertise and act as a business manager. 'I came from a technology background; I was a techy, running a department of 100 technical people. But I learned that I had to be running and developing software that increased productivity for the port,' Sheikh Lubna told Arabies TRENDS magazine.

  'DPA is a global competitor in the international logistics and transport business. So I learned that the department was not just delivering software; it had to deliver results for the business.'

  Having proved her enterpreneureal and leadership skills at the Dubai Ports Authority, Sheikha Lubna was presented with the “Distinguished Government Employee Award” in 1999, by HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and United Arab Emirates Defense Minister. A year later, he personally asked her to head Tejari, the online business-to-business marketplace, which provides an online meeting point for buyers and sellers of a wide variety of goods and services.

  Back in 2000, Tejari.com was created within a mere 60 days and has quickly proved a big success. Currently, the company has over 50 employees and more than 3,000 clients from around the globe, including companies in nine Asia Pacific countries. Tejari.com is an important step in the strategy to establish Dubai as the trading hub of the Middle East and Asia region.

  The idea behind Tejari.com was to provide a flexible and transparent environment for both sellers and buyers, who will reap additional benefits associated with e-commerce such as improved efficacy, faster time to market, lower administrative costs and increased efficiency and profitability. Tejari.com allows organisations to search online catalogues, create auctions, perform spot-buys, and participate in reverse auctioning.

  The improved efficacy and transparency of using Tejari.com compared to more traditional trading methods explains why the system is now used to source a variety of goods and services – from heavy construction equipment to office supplies. The figures are equally as impressive – in less than three years Tejari.com has hosted 8,000 auctions and undertaken transactions worth more than US$500 million.

  While the Middle East’s premier online market place is nothing less than a success, the beginning wasn’t easy for Tejari’s dynamic Chief Executive Officer. At first, the online market place was used primarily by Dubai’s government sector, which played a huge role by supporting the initiative during the early stages if its development. The new medium was faced with the challenging task to earn its reputation as a secure and reliable way to do business. As the new system’s security was acknowledged, the private sector caught up with public institutions and currently Tejari’s client portfolio includes influential businesses such as ENOC and Emirates Airline as well as several banks.

  Under Sheikha Lubna’s leadership Tejari has received a number of awards, including the PC Magazine Award of Excellence in 2000, the ‘IT Project of the Year’ award by MEED in 2002, as well as an award for the ‘Best eContent Provider in ebusiness’ by the World Summit for Information Society in Geneva in 2003. During the same year, Tejari was also named a Super Brand by the UAE Super Brands Council.

  In 2001 Sheikha Lubna headed the Dubai e-government executive team responsible for instituting e-government initiatives throughout the public sector.

  As a minister Sheikha Lubna is faced with the challenge to prove her capabilities on an even larger scale. The Ministry of Economy and Planning is a new institution, which, in the government reshuffle, has replaced the previously separate planning, economy and commerce ministries. Although the new minister’s background is in information technology rather than economy, her hands-on management style augurs well for her success as the country's first female minister.

  One of Sheikha Lubna’s most important tasks at the Ministry of Economy and Planning will be to successfully implement the country’s new companies’ law as well as other economic and commercial regulations, designed to create a modern legal framework which will encourage further economic growth.

  Under the new companies’ law, which is expected to be issued shortly, foreigners will in some cases be allowed to own stakes in local companies higher than the current allowed maximum of 49 per cent.

  The Ministry, in co-ordination with the competent legal authorities, is also drafting a number of other laws including the bankruptcy law, which is related to the credit lending law and contributes to protecting the society and individuals, the security law, which regulates commercial loans and financing of projects, and the commercial proceedings law. The Ministry is also reviewing the trading agencies law comprehensively with the aim of amending it.

  There will be new laws regarding securities and commodities as well as investments and securities to ensure transparency. There will also be changes in the agency law in order to bring practices more in line with globalisation and World Trade Organisation regulations.

  For the first time, the companies’ law and other laws will have an official English-language translation, which will remove any uncertainties related to translation from Arabic.  

  To be issued before the end of the year, the new laws are a firm step forward for the country and will provide a solid, transparent and more sustainable framework for future economic growth.

  Despite her hectic work schedule, Sheikha Lubna is a respected figure in the country’s social life. She is a patron of various charitable initiatives and volunteers extensively with the “Friends of Cancer Patients” Society. She also serves on the board of Directors for the Dubai Autism Center. Her busy schedule includes a membership to the Board of Directors of Dubai’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry. She is also member of the Board of Trustees for Dubai University College, the Electronic-Total Quality Management College and the Zayed University in Dubai. A voracious reader, Sheikha Lubna loves travelling and has lived in the UK and USA as well as in Japan for a couple of months in 1992. She loves traveling and admits it is one of her favourite forms of recreation.