Women’s Day 2022, we are applauding women who turned ordinary into extraordinary
Women are a symbol of strength, resilience in face of challenges and inspiration when nothing seems to go right. Every woman has the power to turn dust to gold and this powers comes from inside. It will not be wrong to say that one day is not enough to celebrate women around us – women who broke and made new records; crossed barriers; achieved marvels and managed to keep the wheel of everyday mundane life on track for those around them.
Celebrating this women’s day, we bring you five women who set milestones in their respective fields. These women showed the world that there’s nothing a woman cannot do! All these women will also be part of our “In Conversation Series”.
Kelly Hodgkin
Kelly Hodgkin is a successful entrepreneur and serial investor who has been in Dubai for 13 years. She has established several businesses and her career is very varied, combining a lot of her personal passions which include fashion, fitness and cookery. One of the co-founders of The Real Business Women of Dubai, a platform that empowers women to reach their potential, she is also a mother to three sons. The businesses she is involved in include: Gym Clothing Co, a homegrown UAE fitness clothing brand, Thomas Royall, a swimwear label, and Nood, a company that designs sustainable adhesive bra alternatives.
Naila Rahim
Naila Rahim is a mother, CEO, Founder and an entrepreneur of Light of Sakina. A Dubai based luxury company, with aromatic scents at the heart of its being. Previously, Naila was a board member of a global petroleum company however her love for sustainability and giving back to the community took her on a journey to create Light of Sakina, where she started out by training widows in the art of candle making via the internet. Fast forward today, she has a full-fledged UAE based team that creates luxury lifestyle items including candles in Dubai, strengthening the Made in UAE brand in the spirit of giving back to the community. USD 1 from each sale is still donated to charity. Naila is a single mother to 5 beautiful children and enjoys photography in her spare time.
Ozlem (Oz) Erbas Soydaner
Ozlem (Oz) Erbas Soydaner is the Founder & CEO of Sprout, a business which makes nutrient-dense foods for kids that are 100% plant-based and entirely driven by scientific research, which the company ensures through liaisons with nutrition authorities & experts around the world. After becoming a parent Oz saw a market gap in healthy children food and founded Sprout. At Sprout being a biochemist and a serious hobby-chef, Oz is involved in all thing’s nutrition, product research & development, partnerships, business strategy and coordinating operations.
She conceptualized Sprout in May 2019 and the company officially launched in April 2020 in Dubai. Since January 2020, Oz has also been a Council Member of the Dubai Business Women Council (DBWC).
Anjali Samuel
Anjali Samuel is the co-founder and managing partner of Dubai-based human resource solution provider Mindfield Resources that helps corporates and organizations across Middle East and Africa hire the best-in-class talent. She looks over talent acquisition and management and offers a host of comprehensive and personalized HR solutions to the companies associated with Mindfield Resources.
She has also launched a platform for young graduates to help them choose a suitable and enriching career where she guides the underprivileged young minds to success. In addition, she also leverages her educational background to personally counsel parents and help them realize the aspirations they have for their children.
Being a philanthropist and an ardent supporter of animal welfare, she works to contribute to protect and help canines all across UAE. Her philanthropic activities also focus on poverty mitigation, uplifting underprivileged children and various other critical social issues. Defying every odd, Anjali Samuel proves time and again that nothing’s impossible if you have your heart set on it.
Meiny Prins
Meiny Prins, global CEO and co-owner of high-tech company Priva, Expo 2020 Champion at the Netherlands Pavilion and Ambassador of the Dutch Horticulture sector. Meiny devotes a large part of her life to promoting sustainability, innovation and internationalization and is a much sought-after authority in this field. With her clear, inspirational message on sustainability, she bridges the gap between companies, governments and sectors.
In her capacity as CEO, Meiny was named Businesswoman of the Year in 2009. That same year, Priva received the first CleanTech Star awarded by WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature). In 2015 Meiny was acknowledged as an Influential Leader for sustainability by AACSB International.
Meiny also founded the Sustainable Urban Delta Foundation to inspire cities to re-think urban development by creating space for food production. The foundation aims to connect those seek to share ideas and specific needs for sustainable initiatives, and in turn create new opportunities on a social, ecological and economic level, solving many of today’s environmental problems caused by current food production methods.
