50 Over 50: EMEA 2022
Ladies around the globe are proving that fifty and past is the brand new golden age. Listed here are the founders, enterprise and political leaders, scientists and vanguards main the way in which all through Europe, the Center East and Africa.
With reporting by Nicola Slawson, Samantha Todd, Justin Conklin and Giacomo Tognini
66 | Managing Director, Easa Saleh Al Gurg Group | U.A.E
Raja Al Gurg
Businesswoman Al Gurg is the managing director and vice chair of the Easa Saleh Al Gurg Group, which is among the largest conglomerates within the Center East. Moreover, she is the Dubai Enterprise Ladies Council president and board member of the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Business. In 2020, Al Gurg was awarded the Legion of Honor, Chevalier (Knight) by French President Emmanuel Macron for her efforts in strengthening the partnership between France and the U.A.E.
56 | Board Member, Al Jaber Group; Chair, Al Bashayer Funding Group | U.A.E
Fatima Al Jaber
An architectural engineer by coaching, al Jaber is among the most influential girls within the U.A.E. She was the longtime chief working officer of the Al Jaber Group, a 50,000-employee conglomerate based by her father with companies in building, logistics and manufacturing. She now sits on the corporate’s board, and likewise serves as board chair of Al Bashayer Funding Group, a funding store with $22 billion in belongings underneath administration working throughout the Gulf, Center East and Asia.
73 | Journalist-Historian | Belarus
Svetlana Alexievich
In 2015, Alexievich grew to become the primary girl from Belarus to win the Nobel Prize in literature. A critic of dictatorial regimes, her writing on Soviet and post-Soviet life has been hailed for its give attention to the person and the underlying humanity of individuals caught in a disaster. In 2020, Alexievich joined a council advocating for a peaceable transition of energy within the Belarusian presidential election. She was its solely member who was not arrested for taking part, and in fall 2020, left Belarus for Germany.
55 | Architect-Founder, RAW-NY | U.A.E
Raya Ani
Ani’s work is partially impressed by her mom, who’d dreamed of being an architect however as an alternative grew to become an artwork instructor. Ani accomplished her undergraduate diploma at Baghdad College and her graduate diploma at MIT; within the many years since, her work has taken her from the UNESCO World Heritage marsh website in southern Iraq to the Aspire sports activities advanced in Qatar. For years Ani was named one of many high architects within the Center East, and she or he was the designer liable for the Iraq Pavilion for the 2020 Dubai Expo.
61 | Founder-CEO, Starling Financial institution | U.Ok.
Anne Boden
Fed up with Britain’s musty banking system, Boden began her personal digital financial institution, Starling, in 2014. Earlier than becoming a member of the fintech increase in her fifties, Boden had a distinguished 30-year profession at many international monetary heavyweights, together with the Royal Financial institution of Scotland. Starling, which has received Greatest British Financial institution yearly since 2018, now has practically £8 billion value of deposits and greater than two million buyer accounts. Boden’s memoir, Banking On It: How I Disrupted an Business, was revealed in 2020.
56 | Companion, 83North| U.Ok.
Laurel Bowden
Bowden is a accomplice at 83North, the worldwide enterprise capital agency previously often called Greylock IL. In 2019 the agency raised a $300 million fund to spend money on Europe and Israel. She joined in 2008 and scored an enormous exit that 12 months when funds startup Zettle was acquired by PayPal for $2.2 billion. She’s additionally led investments in supply service Simply Eat, in addition to software program corporations Hybris and Qliktech. She is an angel investor in corporations like Fizzback and Wix.
53 | Cofounder-Scientist | France
Emmanuelle Charpentier
After years of counting on short-term grants to fund her work, Charpentier, a microbiologist, was 45 earlier than she was capable of make use of her personal lab technician. The additional fingers quickly paid off: At 51, she received the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for locating a game-changing gene-editing approach, sharing the often male-dominated accolade with American colleague Jennifer Doudna. The gene-therapy firm she co-founded, CRISPR Therapeutics, went public in 2016 and now boasts a more-than $5 billion market cap.
57 | Inventive Director, Christian Dior | Italy
Maria Grazia Chiuri
Raised in Rome by a dressmaker mom, Chiuri has greater than 25 years of expertise within the style business, beginning as a purse designer at Fendi. After turning 50, she reached a profession milestone and have become the primary girl to steer the famed home of Christian Dior because the model was created in 1946. Previous to her appointment, Chiuri had a profitable eight-year tenure as co-creative director of Valentino.
87 | Actor, | U.Ok.
Dame Judi Dench
Although Dench made her skilled performing debut in 1957, she received her solely Oscar on the age of 64: Greatest Supporting Actress for her position as Queen Elizabeth I within the 1998 movie Shakespeare In Love. She’s collected many different accolades–together with a damehood in 1988 plus six British Academy Movie Awards, seven Olivier Awards and a Tony. Dench helps quite a few charities, together with Calibre Audio, a “free for all times” audiobook service for anybody who has a incapacity that makes studying print tough.
62 | Founder-Govt Chair, Mbekani Group | South Africa
Judy Dlamini
Dlamini started her profession as a medical physician earlier than transitioning into enterprise and launching her firm Mbekani Group, a conglomerate with corporations starting from surgical gear to luxurious style, in 1996. Her 2017 e book, Equal however Completely different, investigated the intersection of race, gender and social class in feminine leaders’ careers. She serves as chancellor of the College of the Witwatersrand and can also be on the board of the Gender-Based mostly Violence and Femicide Response Fund.
54 | Founder-CEO, AppsTech | Cameroon
Rebecca Enonchong
The Cameroonian know-how entrepreneur leads AppsTech, a world supplier of enterprise utility options, which she based in 1999. In 2015, Enonchong cofounded I/O Areas, an inclusive coworking house. She is understood for her work selling know-how in Africa and has chaired the African Middle for Expertise, Innovation and Ventures Areas since 2010. She was named a World Chief for Tomorrow by the World Financial Discussion board. In 2021, Enonchong was confirmed as vice chair of the board of the WHO Basis.
55 | President, France Televisions / European Broadcasting Union | France
Delphine Ernotte
In 2015, Ernotte grew to become the primary feminine CEO of France Télévisions, France’s nationwide tv broadcaster. In 2020, Ernotte was elected to be the primary feminine president of the European Broadcasting Union, an alliance of 115 public service media organizations throughout Europe. She has additionally been a member of the World Activity Power for Public Media since its founding in 2019, which has a mandate to defend the pursuits and values of public media on a world scale.
62 | Writer | U.Ok.
Bernardine Evaristo
An award-winning novelist, poet, dramatist, essayist and activist, Evaristo received the Booker Prize in 2019 for her novel Woman, Girl, Different. She was the primary Black girl and Black British individual to win the distinguished award in its 50-year-history. In 2020, Evaristo grew to become the primary Black feminine creator to high the paperback fiction chart within the U.Ok. She has additionally spoken out in regards to the lack of tales about–and by–older girls in British fiction.
68 | Managing Director, Worldwide Financial Fund | Bulgaria
Kristalina Georgieva
Georgieva was appointed as chief of the worldwide monetary establishment in 2019, making her the primary individual from an rising market to steer the company. Regardless of the custom that IMF candidates shouldn’t be older than 65 at first of their time period, the rule was waived for Georgieva. In 2021 the IMF’s govt board gave her a vote of confidence after allegations that she manipulated information throughout her time period as a senior World Financial institution official, the place she began as an environmental economist in 1993.
59 | Vaccinologist, Oxford College | U.Ok.
Sarah Gilbert
Gilbert led the event of the Covid-19 vaccine at Oxford College and have become a face of the struggle to finish the pandemic. Final 12 months the co-inventor of the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab was acknowledged with a damehood and even had a Barbie doll made in her honor. Some two billion doses of the vaccine have been launched to greater than 170 international locations since its emergency authorization within the U.Ok. in late 2020.
68 | Chief justice, Supreme Courtroom of Israel | Israel
Esther Hayut
Described by Jerusalem Publish as being “on monitor to be amongst Israel’s most influential chief justices,” Hayut was appointed Chief Justice in 2017. When she was sworn in, she pledged to “defend” the court docket from politically motivated makes an attempt to weaken it. Born to 2 Romanian Holocaust survivors, she was raised by her grandparents in Israel and is now thought of probably the most highly effective girls in Israel.
59 | Director, Vatican Museum | Italy
Barbara Jatta
Jatta, an Italian artwork historian, has been in control of one of many world’s most-visited museums since 2016. She is the primary girl within the place, which oversees the Museums’ roughly 70,000 artworks (together with Michelangelo’s portray of the Sistine Chapel ceiling). Jatta has been praised for main many revolutionary initiatives since taking up, together with digitizing the Vatican library and creating interactive digital excursions, which had been well-liked internationally in the course of the pandemic.
55 | President-Managing Director, Discovery EMEA | Poland
Kasia Kieli
Kieli based the Poland workplace of U.S. media large Discovery in 2000. Beginning with a workforce of two, at present she oversees greater than 4,000 staff and is liable for Discovery’s largest worldwide operation—one which captures greater than a billion annual viewers. In 2018, she led Discovery’s takeover of TVN, the No. 1 broadcaster in Poland. Final December the corporate survived proposed laws that might have blocked overseas corporations from holding a controlling stake in Polish broadcast media.
66 | President, European Central Financial institution | France
Christine Lagarde
Lagarde has grow to be accustomed to being launched as “the primary.” In 2011, at 55, she was the primary girl appointed to run the Worldwide Financial Fund. In 2019, she grew to become the primary feminine president of the European Central Financial institution, a task that places her in control of the financial coverage that impacts Europe’s practically 750 million residents. She is an outspoken advocate for gender reform within the finance sector.
59 | Astrophysicist | France
Anne-Marie Lagrange
Lagrange is an astrophysicist who has been working on the Grenoble Institute in France since 1990. A lot of her profession has been dedicated to the evaluation of the star Beta Pictoris within the constellation Pictor. In 2019, Lagrange led a worldwide workforce in discovering a brand new planet on this constellation. Along with a number of scientific prizes, she was awarded Légion d’honneur, France’s highest honor, in 2012, and the Nationwide Order of Benefit in 2015.
52 | Chief conductor, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra | Finland
Susanna Mälkki
In 2016, Mälkki, a Finnish conductor and cellist, was the primary girl appointed chief conductor of the 144-year-old Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra. Mälkki made her Carnegie Corridor debut with the New York Philharmonic this month. After asserting she’s going to step down from her present put up on the finish of the 2022-23 season, she is rumored to be the following music director of the NY Phil—which might make her the primary girl to carry the title.
56 | Founder, make-up artist, Pat McGrath | U.Ok.
Pat McGrath
Born right into a working class household, McGrath grew to become the primary make-up artist to be made a British dame in 2021. Now thought of probably the most influential make-up artists on the planet, McGrath rose to fame by way of her collaborations with designer Miuccia Prada and photographer Steven Meisel. In 2015, as she was turning 50, she launched Pat McGrath Labs; its strains and collaborations (with manufacturers like Supreme and high-end shops like Selfridges) repeatedly promote out rapidly after launching.
68 | Board Director | Sweden
Sarah McPhee
McPhee started her profession in Mozambique as a program supervisor for the U.N., however rapidly pivoted to economics and by no means seemed again. After getting a graduate diploma on the Stockholm College of Economics, McPhee went on to run enterprise divisions at PwC, GE Capital and several other Swedish pension funds. From 2008 till 2015 she ran Sweden’s SPP Pension funding fund, and within the years since has been an in-demand board director, serving on the chief committee of funds unicorn Klarna, Swedish industrial large Axel Johnson, and Houdini Sportswear.
58 | CEO, Thyssenkrupp Group | Germany
Martina Merz
In 2019, Merz, an engineer, grew to become the primary girl to steer one in all Germany’s large industrial companies when she was appointed the chief govt of the German conglomerate. With greater than 100,000 staff and roughly $38 billion in fiscal 2020-2021 income, Thyssenkrupp is among the world’s largest metal producers. Prior, Merz spent greater than 20 years working at Bosch and, extra just lately, was the CEO of Chassis Brakes Worldwide.
57 | Regional Director For Africa, World Well being Group | Botswana
Dr Matshidiso Moeti
In 2015, at age 50, Moeti made historical past as the primary girl to be appointed as WHO Regional Director for Africa. Moeti was reelected for a second, five-year time period that started in 2020, and she or he promised to work on accelerating regional efforts in the direction of reaching common well being protection. The Botswana-native joined WHO’s Africa Regional Workplace in 1999 and has held a wide range of roles, together with deputy regional director.
65 | Cofounder, Wiphold | South Africa
Louisa Mojela
Mojela is among the architects of Wiphold, South Africa’s first women-owned and women-focused funding platform. Mojela and her cofounders began the fund in 1994 with 500,000 rand in seed cash; at present, the portfolio is valued at greater than 2 billion rand. In 2021, Mojela obtained an honorary doctorate from Stellenbosch College for empowering girls in Africa. Mojela additionally just lately diversified her enterprise pursuits: in 2018, she based Bophelo BioScience & Wellness, a medical hashish startup in Lesotho.
55 | Founder, 30% Membership | U.Ok.
Helena Morrissey
Baroness Morrissey is understood for founding the 30% Membership, a marketing campaign for extra gender-balanced boards, and is chair of the funding business’s Range Challenge. The mom of 9 was CEO of Newton Funding Administration, a £50 billion funding fund, for 15 years earlier than being named Baroness Morrissey and appointed to the Home of Lords in 2020.
52 | CEO, Chanel | U.Ok.
Leena Nair
Nair, a British-Indian enterprise govt and CEO of Chanel, took the reins on the 112-year-old style home based by Coco Chanel in early 2022, turning into the primary feminine, first Asian and youngest ever to carry the position. The transfer was extensively praised and out of doors observers even urged her appointment might sign the top of an “colonialist strategy” to style. Prior, Nair labored at Unilever, the place she was first Asian, first feminine and youngest HR chief.
56 | Double bassist and creative director and professor | U.Ok.
Chi-chi Nwanoku
Of Nigerian and Irish descent, Nwanoku is the founding father of the Chineke! Orchestra, the primary skilled and junior orchestra in Europe made up of a majority of Black, Asian and ethnically numerous musicians. Nwanoku, who’s a double bassist and music professor on the Royal Academy of Music in London, launched the orchestra in her mid-50s after observing that regardless of three many years in classical music, she was nonetheless the one individual of coloration on stage.
66 | Director-general, World Commerce Group | Nigeria
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
Okonjo-Iweala, a world financial skilled, is the primary girl and first African Director-Common of the WTO, a commerce regulation physique. Beforehand, Dr. Okonjo-Iweala twice served as Nigeria’s Finance Minister and briefly acted as Overseas Minister–the primary girl to carry each positions. She has additionally been the Board Chair of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, since 2016. She can also be the founding father of Nigeria’s first-ever indigenous opinion-research group, NOI-Polls.
70 | Physicist-Mathematician | Bulgaria
Ana Proykova
A computational physicist, Proykova is a analysis professor on the College of Sofia and head of the Excessive Efficiency Computing Lab on the Sofia Tech Park. Her work is very cited and she or he has labored with high international universities. She is a champion for girls in STEM, co-founding the Bulgarian Middle for Ladies in Expertise, chairing the European Bodily Society’s equal alternative committee and serving as president of the Bulgarian Affiliation of College Ladies.
71 | Founding member, Kenya Ladies’s Finance Belief | Kenya
Jennifer Riria
Riria is the founding member of KWFT Microfinance Financial institution and has served on the board since 1991. She can also be group CEO of Echo Community Africa, previously Kenya Ladies Holding, which is a woman-led and women-serving growth establishment. Riria has led KWFT for greater than three many years, and turned it from an unprofitable NGO to Kenya’s largest microfinance financial institution. KWFT has served greater than 3 million girls and disbursed greater than $3 billion.
69 | Chef | Spain
Carme Ruscalleda i Serra
The famend self-taught chef opened her first restaurant, Sant Pau, in 1988 along with her husband in Catalonia. The restaurant received three Michelin stars however closed its doorways in late 2018. With six Michelin stars in complete, she is the primary Catalan chef to have achieved three stars. Ruscalleda has opened different eating places, together with Sant Pau in Tokyo in 2004 and Moments in Barcelona’s Mandarin Oriental Resort in 2009, and has revealed a number of cookbooks.
59 | Secretary Common, FIFA | Senegal
Fatma Samoura
Samoura is a trailblazer within the sports activities world: In June 2016, on the age of 53, she grew to become the primary African and girl to carry the place of FIFA secretary common. Since her appointment, the variety of girls employed by the group has elevated, together with in senior administration positions. In 2021, she joined the board of administrators of The World FoodBanking Community, a global nonprofit group working in the direction of a hunger-free future in additional than 40 international locations.
60 | CEO, Keltic | Eire
Elaine Sullivan
Sullivan has greater than 25 years of expertise within the pharmaceutical business, most just lately cofounding Keltic Pharma Therapeutics. She additionally cofounded Carrick Therapeutics, the place she previously served as CEO and oversaw the corporate’s $95 million Collection A spherical of funding in 2016. In 2018, Sullivan received the EY Rising Entrepreneur of the 12 months Award. She has held VP roles in analysis and growth administration groups at each AstraZeneca and Eli Lilly and Firm.
61 | President, Tanzania | Tanzania
Samia Suluhu Hassan
Suluhu Hassan is the sixth and present president of Tanzania, and the primary girl to carry the place. She took over when former President John Magufuli died in March 2021. Suluhu Hassan, the previous VP, started her political profession in 2000, when she was elected as a particular seat member to the Zanzibar Home of Representatives and was appointed as a authorities minister by President Amani Karume. She was the one high-ranking girl minister within the cupboard.
57 | President-CEO, Copan | Italy
Stefania Triva
Triva is the CEO of Italy-based Copan, which makes assortment and transport gadgets for diagnostic exams, genomics and forensics. Since taking up as CEO in 2014 at age 50, she has helped develop the family-owned agency—one of many world’s largest producers of particular flocked swabs for Covid-19 PCR exams and different ailments—into a world participant with practically $250 million in revenues in 2020.
66 | Inventive Director, Versace | Italy
Donatella Versace
After Gianni Versace was murdered in 1997, his youthful sister Donatella stepped in to run his eponymous style home. Through the years, she’s masterminded plenty of high-profile moments, together with J.Lo’s plunging jungle costume for the 2000 Grammy Awards. In 2018, when she was 63, she executed the most important deal of her life: promoting the model to Michael Kors for $2.1 billion. Versace stays the artistic director and public face of the corporate.
53 | Govt Vice President of the European Fee | Denmark
Margrethe Vestager
Vestager spent 20 years within the Danish authorities earlier than touchdown a job holding the world’s greatest tech corporations to account. Since being named EU Commissioner for Competitors Coverage in 2014, after which being appointed govt vice-president in 2019 with accountability for a “Europe match for the Digital Age,” she has taken actions towards Apple, Amazon, Fb and others. In 2018, Vestager fined Google a document penalty of €4.34 billion for abusing its market dominance.
57 | Cofounder, TomTom | France
Corinne Vigreux
As one of many cofounders of the €1 billion market cap GPS and mapping firm TomTom, Vigreux is among the most outstanding feminine founders in Europe. She’s utilizing her place to assist girls observe her lead. In 2018, she opened Codam, a tuition-free coding school in Amsterdam, the location of TomTom’s headquarters. “There’s a societal significance to show digital expertise to everybody, particularly as automation will disrupt each job within the subsequent decade,” she said just lately.
64 | Founder-President, Fildas-Catena | Romania
Anca Vlad
Described as essentially the most highly effective girl in Romanian enterprise, Vlad is the founding father of the pharmaceutical group Fildas-Catena, the strongest participant on the home pharmaceutical distribution market. She topped Forbes Romania’s most influential girls listing in 2017. Final 12 months she was elected to the Govt Committee of the European Household Enterprise Federation, primarily based in Brussels.
63 | President, EU Fee | Germany
Ursula von der Leyen
In 2019, von der Leyen grew to become the primary feminine president of the European Fee, the chief department of the European Union. On this position, she is liable for laws affecting practically 750 million Europeans. Previous to her appointment, she served within the German cupboard, serving most just lately as Minister of Protection. She has been praised for the quiet success of the EU’s pandemic response. Since taking workplace, she has vocally criticized Poland and Hungary for his or her anti-LGBTQ insurance policies.
71 | Chair, Farmak | Ukraine
Filya Zhebrovska
One of many richest and most profitable businesswomen in Ukraine, Zhebrovska has helped develop pharmaceutical firm Farmak into one of many largest pharma exporters in Ukraine. She served as the corporate’s CEO from 1995 till 2007, and has been the chairwoman of its board for the previous 14 years. Zhebrovska additionally holds 100 Ukrainian patents.
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Forbes 50 Over 50 2021
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