WMOE Workshop

Dr. Shaikha Almaskari

Dr. Shaikha Al Maskari is the Chairperson of Al Maskari Holding, AMH, and of Tricon Group. Shaikha is also Chairperson of Johnson Controls & Global Communications, JCGC. She began her career with ADNOC Group. In 1989 she took charge of her family company, Tricon Energy Operations, grew it to become Tricon Group with companies in the UAE, GCC, USA, Europe, Turkey and Singapore. In 2008, Shaikha established Al Maskari Holding, AMH, an umbrella organization for all her family companies, divested non-core subsidiaries, merged synergetic portfolios, and focused investments on oil, gas, and power generation focusing on renewable energy and mining. Shaikha founded the Global Institute of Justice & Technology and the Global Paramedic & Rescue Academy which have trained hundreds of UAE Ministry of Interior personnel in advanced Police Sciences, security and emergency services. Shaikha set up her family charity, United Mercy Foundation (presently operated under AMH) which sponsors orphans, provides food, medical and emergency relief in the ME, Africa and Asia. In 2006 she co-founded the Diyar Bakir Micro-credit project in Turkey, which has since launched over 38,000 entrepreneurs. In 2010, Shaikha formed “Global Social Empowerment Alliance, GSEA”, to drive transformation of family/social mind sets to raise children on C4 (Confidence, Conscience, Compassion and Collaboration) for human sustainability through good global citizenship (with cross-ethnic, cross-cultural and interfaith harmonious co-existence).

Dr. Arwa Hussein

Arwa Hussein is an Assistant Professor in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering Department, Port Said University, Egypt. Dr. Arwa had her Ph. D. degree in structure reliability from Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon, Portugal. Beside teaching in Port Said University, she is working in the Quality Assurance unit, which aims at developing academic programs in the faculty of engineering for accreditation.

Marine Engineering has historically been a male-dominated industry and that tradition runs long and deep. Dr Arwa will talk about the contribution of women in Marine and Offshore Engineering in academia and industry fields, and will ask: Is “Marine and Offshore Engineering” the wrong career for women? What are the challenges and the hurdles? Is it cultural factors, and how we get over it?

Dr. Nadia Alhasani

Dr. Nadia M. Alhasani, is Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Dean of the Women in Science and Engineering Program (WiSE) and Acting Dean of Student Affairs at the Petroleum Institute in Abu Dhabi. Completed her bachelor degree from the College of Engineering, University of Baghdad, and graduate degrees from MIT and the University of Pennsylvania. Held the position of Assistant Vice Chancellor for academic affairs at the American University of Sharjah 2003-6, as well as teaching positions at the University of Pennsylvania, Miami of Florida, Notre Dame of Indiana, and Michigan. Recipient of the 2006-7 Research Fellow at the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Art and Architecture at MIT, 1990-91 Willard A. Oberdick Fellowship in the Building Sciences from the University of Michigan, 1992 Graham Foundation Grant, Chicago, and 1994 National ACSA Faculty Teaching Award, Washington DC. Lectured and published in the field of building production, technology and culture, and higher education in the Middle East.

Dr. Tabarak Ballal

Tabarak Ballal is Director of Undergraduate Programmes in the School of Construction Management and Engineering at the University of Reading. Having qualified as a Civil Engineer, she started off her professional career as Site Engineer working on multi-million dollar projects. She holds an MBA from the University of Dundee and a PhD from Loughborough University, UK. She lectures at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Her teaching portfolio includes design and construction management, knowledge management, creativity and innovation. She also provides supervision for MSc and PhD studies. Her research interests include knowledge management and innovation in construction; women in construction and engineering; project management and construction in developing and emerging economies. She has published widely in journals and conferences. Dr Ballal is a member of the National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC).

Dr. Tabarak addresses the challenges that women face in ‘rising to the top’ in engineering professions in the UK. Despite females being equally represented at the point of entry to engineering degree programmes and to a large extent as junior graduate engineers, this 1:1 ratio sharply drops to less than 1:10 at senior management level and further reduces at Boardroom level to 1:30. The causes for the leaking pipeline phenomenon are complex and diverse. These include industry characteristics, organisational culture, work-life balance and lack of women leaders in engineering. Dr Ballal will give an overview of the causes outlined above and reviews current attempts to tackle them.

Dr. Hifaa Alajmi

Hifaa Mohammed Alajmi is a Kuwaiti professional who has been working in Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) since 2000 within different departments, and as Senior Process engineer in the Production Operations Group since 2006. She has practised many levels of engineering; from operation planning & control to engineering design and researches; and was involved with the Oil sectors in many strategic projects and accomplished many assignments and taken up several positions. Recently she received PhD degree from the Royal School of Mines at Imperial College London within the Petroleum Engineering and Rock Mechanics Group, her research area is Heavy Oil reservoirs management. Also, Alajmi won a scholarship to join the prestigious MBA course-Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Design, offered by the Design London and Imperial College Business School Hifaa Alajmi received her Master degree in Environment engineering and Bachelor degree in Chemical Engineering from Kuwait University. She has undergone specialized training courses, holds many professional certifications and participated in many professional and scientific conferences within and outside Kuwait. She conducts researches and publishes scientific papers in the areas of Environment, optimal designs, unconventional oil production technologies, economic evaluation of the EOR methods and reservoir simulation modelling. Hifaa is a member of a number of Professional Associations locally and internationally. Also, recently Hifaa Alajmi had been selected as one of the Top-100 Future development leaders in Kuwait (THUKUR). .

While it remains intricate to access accurate gender data regarding the percentage of women in the overall composition of human resources in the oil and gas industry in Kuwait, a recent survey carried out by (Capello, 2011) reveals that the current percentage of women in the oil and gas industry workforce is roughly double recent years. In the past five years, female workers have increased in oil and gas companies. Diverse approaches such as quotas and general guidelines have been implemented in order to establish or accelerate the increase of female workers’ percentages in the industry in the recent years. In contemporary times, the theme of women empowerment or advancing the progress of the female gender within the corporate echelons, in addition to the increase of their percentages in the overall workforce, have gained relevance in the Kuwait oil and gas industry. According to Rostand and Soupa (2011), there are several social and environmental factors that have increasingly impeded the progress of women in the oil and gas industry. It is evident that a change of attitude, as well as an improvement of corporate policies in regard to the needs of women in the oil industry is mandatory. The existing policies, as well as government laws that are applicable for the women’s fundamental biological condition as mothers are insufficient in ensuring egalitarianism their successful professional development. In the opinion of this paper, the most critical efforts for revitalizing the female workforce in the oil and gas industry ought to be put into practice regardless of the culture, or religious inclinations in order to attract women to engineering careers. Effective strategies that would develop, as well as retain the female composition in the workforce are required for the sustainability of the Kuwaiti oil and gas industry, taking into consideration the workforce deficiency envisioned in the near future.

Eng. Bashayer Al-Awwad

Bashayer Ibrahem Al-Awwad is a Kuwaiti Engineer who has been graduated as a computer engineer from Kuwait University. Her Engineering Bachelor didn’t stop her from having a Diploma in French language (DELF) 2008. 2011 she was elected to be the Vice president of the World Federation of Engineering Organizations(WFEO), Chairwoman of the "Women in Engineering" Standing Committee (WIE). She is the Secretary of the e-City for Arab Countries, the manager of E-Heritage Project in Bait Al-Othman Museum, the Editor of the "e-Tha7yah" magazine, the first e-learning Magazine in Kuwait. Along with that, She where being selected for the 2010 Edition of Marquis Who's Who in the World. Distinguished as one of the foremost leading achievers in engineering field from around the global. Honored to be one of the 23 women from around the world mentioned in the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) 2012 List of Role Model Women in Information Technology and telecommunication. Honored to Award the Medal of the Arab Union for Voluntary Work of the Arab League, Egypt 14 July 2012 As for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), she is a board member in Kuwait section since 2004 along with the chair of the Women in Engineering (WIE). She became the first Kuwaiti woman to be selected as The WIE Coordinator of Region8 (Europe, Africa &Middle East) for 2010. With this full of achievements volunteering life, on 2008 she was honored to get a congratulatory letter from his highness Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah the Amir of Kuwait for being an Outstanding Women Engineer and for the great role and effort in the Society. .

ICT is considered as an assistance tool to empower Women in the social, cultural, economic, and engineering fields of life and it is very important to benefit from the ICT applications and technologies and develop applications, services and contents that serve Women empowerment. ICT Also offers various opportunities for work and development for Women and it is necessary to raise awareness among the society members in particular the girls on these various opportunities. So it’s so useful using ICTs for Women’s Empowerment in the Marine and offshore Engineering careers and industry as well .

Eng. Najat Abu-Haliqa

Najat Yassin Abu-Haliqa has been a Systems & Quality Assurance Analyst at Saudi Aramco since 1982 involved in the design, development and maintenance of HR Applications with responsibilities across the full project lifecycle from feasibility study through design, development, testing and implementation together with associated Project Management. She is a Wellness Champion and was awarded “Saudi Aramco Wellness Champion of the Year 2010” for her work in organizing, with the help of Saudi Aramco Medical Services, wellness sessions on “Seven Habits of Healthy People “for IT employees. She is also a trainer and researcher in the field of the use of Computers in Education and Children and has published her research. She is an organiser, speaker, and facilitator and has participated in many national and international workshops/forums in these different roles from UNESCO in Paris, Egypt, UAE, Bahrain, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. She has a special interest to promote and motivate Leadership, Innovation, Wellness and Emotional Intelligence. She is the Chairperson of IEEE Women in Engineering Saudi Section (Eastern Province), a founding member of Saudi Computer Society and a member of AlFaisal University Advisory Board at College of Engineering in Riyadh. .

The author presents some of her valuable and scrutinized tips drawn from her survival working tool kit. We mirror each other and we learn through our interaction with each others. Nevertheless, She believes in the saying: "You are an original. Do not be a copy". .. Be youself.