Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Most leaders operate months, sometimes years, behind their sector, business, and now AI realities. They just don't know it yet. That's the problem I built GLEAC to solve. We're 2,500 experts, mentors, and operators across 50 domains and 90 countries. Outliers, contrarians, and deep domain specialists who see what's happening on the ground before it becomes a headline. Here's what most organizations get wrong: 1) They pay millions for the satellite view. Big consultancies hand your board a strategy built from frameworks, benchmarks, and best practices and then leave. The problem? That strategy was dead on arrival because nobody checked what's actually happening on the ground, with your people, in your company. We give you the street view. And we operationalize it. 2)We find your top 20%, assess real capabilities across your organization, and give your C-suite and board the unfiltered edge view they almost never get. Not the version that survived six layers of management. The real one. Then we build the culture to sustain it + AI-enable your teams and fill capability gaps from our network of operators who've done this before in their own industries. 3) And because your best people are also your most underleveraged external asset , our Social Capital AI Agent turns your top 20% into brand ambassadors, driving pipeline, partnerships, and reputation at a scale your marketing team can't match alone. Our clients include both the UAE and Saudi governments. We've been doing this for 5+ years. If you and your board are making decisions based on the satellite view, we should talk.
I'm having the time of my life. I operate and build alongside sovereign-level CEOs, Heads of Transformation, and AI leaders on leadership, go-to-market, getting the workforce AI-ready, and culture transformation. I anticipate what's around corners when it comes to innovation and GTM, I guide with good judgement and wise pattern recognition , and I see the whole operational picture across an organization. Most leaders in the ME region don't have the reps yet to see it fully. That gap is where avoidable mistakes get expensive. I move fast because I never come alone. I bring GLEAC with me: a community for the humans AI can't replace. 500+ contrarians, outliers, and deep operators across 50+ domains in 90 countries. We deploy as flocks. In the room with C-suites and Boards, designing AI workflows with your teams, breaking silos, fixing culture. Your human edge, on tap. And I practice what I sell. I've put AI agents across roughly 75% of GLEAC's own operations and freed up more than half my time as Interim CEO. Before GLEAC, I was the first Curator of People & Culture at Careem, the first unicorn in the Middle East. Nobody has the luxury of time at the pace AI is moving. You either move at the speed of the people who already see it, or you spend the next 18 months becoming irrelevant. If that's your moment, find me.
Behind this role: I raised a seed round of just under $2M from a US fund at a time when the Middle East wasn't ready for a female founder in AI and tech in 2019. Nobody handed me a playbook for that. Then came the harder part. I didn't just recruit 2,500 experts, mentors, and coaches . I created enough friction to filter true contrarians, outliers and deep operators and then added value that they chose to stay. GLEAC became their third place. A space to grow professionally, cross-pollinate across domains, and sharpen each other — not just serve clients. They share their knowledge, their reputation, and their trust. They act as back office to one another. They show up for each other before a client ever enters the picture. The proof? My first 10 community members are still here today with 20% joining our cap table. And I run a dual marketplace which means winning on two fronts simultaneously. On one side, I'm earning the confidence of powerful companies who could just as easily hand the work to McKinsey or Korn Ferry. On the other, I'm keeping 2,500 mentors engaged, valued, and choosing to stay. Most founders manage one side of that equation. I manage both. Every day. And I never stopped learning and ensuring everyone around GLEAC is on the same trajectory. I act as a dean of sorts, constantly cross-pollinating knowledge across domains and upskilling our experts so they stay ahead, not just relevant. The community doesn't just serve clients. It sharpens itself. Seven years later, that same instinct runs everything we do. The network. The street view. The edge view. It all started because I learned early: the right person in the right room changes everything.
This is some of the dinosaur like evidence I hope to leave to the world as a reminder that I was once here ............I awaken the potential of youths and adults in the areas of human soft skills. My Corporate Social Education training focusers on redefining the role of corporates in education and my School programs focus on leadership.
I was brought in to take a look at all things people and culture . It is where I first had access to data scientists to spot people attrition patterns . I also knew from this experience I could build a tech company with everything I know and was doing around people patterns and learning and development for decades. What a gift to be close to these Founders and team at such a critical early stage of their journey . The light went on for many things that led to Gleac here. In gratitude for this brief sprint with this unicorn in the making back then.
Geared towards start-ups, I designed the you -tube video and classroom series to fill the gaps in what I was seeing being taught to ensure start-ups got what they needed to thrive. There were 3 lecture series: Presentation Skills using a Pitch Deck, Standing Out- How to define your Zag, and Design Thinking and the 10 Innovation Types. I ran these sessions at Abu Dhabi University, Masdar Institute, Impact Hub, Lok Jack Business School and many other start-up hubs. All classes are now available on-line: http://growingleadersfoundation.com/studentpanel/ And yes all that 8 years of corporate law comes in handy...just maybe had to go through that to teach this! You can view Brain dates videos which are still on-going monthly here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQyLgavIZDmYaJRR3cb_jrA