Today's Edition
Mays Ibrahim (ABU DHABI)
In 2008, Najeeba Al Jabri was given about six months to help restart a major part of an aluminium plant after a serious incident. The plant was back in operation in around three.
She spent weeks at the site, keeping a sleeping bag in her office as the team worked through the recovery.
A trailblazer in her field, Al Jabri joined what was then Dubai Aluminium (DUBAL) in 2004 as a project engineer before being transferred to Potline 9 – becoming the first woman to work as an operations engineer in the Middle East aluminium industry.
“I tried not to focus on being the first woman. I focused on being an engineer and on doing the job well,” Al Jabri, now Chief ESG & Sustainability Officer at Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA), recalled in a recent interview with Aletihad.
That focus would shape a career that has taken her from plant operations to senior leadership, while the industry around her opened up to more Emirati women in technical and industrial roles.
The 2008 restart was one of the experiences that changed how Al Jabri viewed her own capabilities. Working through a high-pressure recovery showed her that she could make difficult decisions, lead a team and deliver when the consequences of getting it wrong were significant.
It also gave her a perspective on what it means to create opportunities for those who follow.
“Today, we see Emirati women working and succeeding across engineering, operations, technology, sustainability, safety and many other technical and leadership disciplines,” she said.
One of those women is Nadia Ahli, Director of Smelting Development Projects at EGA. With more than 18 years in aluminium technology, Ahli has worked on projects where engineering and innovation move from the drawing board into large-scale industrial operations.
One of the most challenging was the start-up of ALBA Potline 6 in Bahrain using EGA’s DX+ Ultra technology. Ahli was selected as project manager and was the only woman among EGA’s technical experts supporting the start-up. For her, the experience demonstrated that technical expertise alone is not enough to deliver major projects.
“It required leadership, teamwork, communication and the ability to make decisions under pressure while working with a large, diverse team,” she said. Her career also reflects the changing opportunities available to Emirati women in the industrial sector.
For Al Jabri, however, progress is not about making the standards easier. It is about ensuring women have the same opportunity to meet them.
“Women want the opportunity to compete, perform and succeed on merit,” she said. “When the standards are high and the opportunities are equal, achievement becomes even more meaningful.”
Both women see the progress as extending beyond their own careers. Al Jabri said that when she began, there were roles where she encountered very few women before her.
Today, young Emirati women entering engineering and technical fields can see women already succeeding in those positions.
This year, the UAE has extended its annual Emirati Women's Day on August 28 into a month-long nationwide celebration running through September 28.
