Manama: Banking industry veteran Dr Mahnaz Safa will speak at a major conference hosted by Bahrain next month, it was announced yesterday.
Organised by the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) in co-operation with the Supreme Council for Women (SCW), the Women in the Financial and Banking Sector Conference will be held on November 30 at the Four Seasons Hotel Bahrain Bay under the patronage of Her Royal Highness Princess Sabeeka bint Ibrahim Al Khalifa, wife of His Majesty King Hamad and SCW
president.
Dr Safa is a senior London-based banker with more than two decades of top tier global banking experience.
She is currently a managing director at Citigroup where she advises investment banking clients on corporate finance and risk management.
Dr Safa is also the co-chair of Citi’s Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) Banking Executive Committee for Women’s Leadership.
She will take part in the conference’s keynote plenary session titled Leading the Change: Factors Shaping the Future of Women in Finance, where she will draw on her vast industry experience. Prior to joining Citi in 2013, Dr Safa was at UBS for 19 years where she headed the EMEA Debt Capital Markets business.
For her leadership in the industry, Dr Safa was chosen as one of Financial News’ Top 100 Women in Finance in 2010 and 2013.
In a statement, she said in her experience, factors critical to the promotion of women include: the presence of women as senior role models, a critical mass of women and the right cultural environment.
“At Citi a collective focus on these factors has ensured progress. We envisage that the drive we have at Citi, together with initiatives such as this, will help to further promote women within the financial industry,” Dr Safa added.
The conference marks the conclusion of a year-long campaign, being held as part of the 2015 Bahraini Women’s Day celebrations, to showcase and promote the role of women in the financial and banking sector.
“This gathering will serve as an important platform for facilitating discussion and debate on how best to support the development of women in the industry,” CBB executive director of corporate services Dr Huda Al Maskati said.
“The experience and track record of speakers like Dr Safa will highlight the contributions and value that women have added and continue to add to the sector.
Her example will also serve as a role model for attendees and the next generation of women.”
Over the past eight months, the CBB and SCW have hosted a series of events including roundtables and town hall sessions to highlight issues of importance relating to women’s advancement in the sector.
The conference is expected to bring together more than 250 members of the industry including senior members and heads of the kingdom’s top financial institutions, senior women in banking and finance and the next generation of women leaders.
Sponsors of the conference and campaign are National Bank of Bahrain, KFH-Bahrain and BBK (lead sponsors), Al Baraka Banking Group (ABG) as the Women’s Empowerment Partner for Islamic Banking, Moda Mall and the Four Seasons Hotel Bahrain Bay as lifestyle and hospitality
partners respectively.
Citi is a bronze sponsor of the conference.
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