Built for Ambition: Reflections on Building a Business in the UAE

I was honoured to be featured in Khaleej Times this week, alongside a group of hugely inspiring women who shared their stories of building businesses in the UAE. We were founders and leaders from very different worlds, from a viral chocolate brand to fintech, wellness to life sciences, brought together by one shared experience. We had each chosen to build something in the UAE.

I moved to the UAE two years ago to drive our growth and expansion across the GCC. In that time I have still found myself answering a question from international talent considering the same move. Can women really build a business in the UAE? Do women even work there?

My answer is always the same. Yes. And some of the most impressive leaders and entrepreneurs I have ever met are women based right here.

A Culture of Ambition

What the UAE offers is rare. There is a culture of ambition that runs through everything, in the pace of conversations and the expectation that ideas should turn into something real. Hard work and vision genuinely pay off, which is not true in every market. That culture is not an accident. It is backed by deliberate policy. Equal pay for equal work is written into the Labour Law, and the Gender Balance Council asked the private sector to fill 30 per cent of leadership roles with women by 2025.

For anyone weighing up a move, the combination is what stands out. Ambition is encouraged, and the rules are designed to reward it.

Networking as a Way of Life

The second thing that struck me was how people connect. Networking here is not a chore to be scheduled and survived. It is simply how business works. Competitors introduce you to people who can help. Communities form around shared goals rather than narrow self-interest. A single conversation tends to lead to three more, and the value builds over time. For a business like ours, which runs on relationships and trust, that culture is a gift. It rewards the way we already prefer to work.

Women Who Build Together

The part I find most striking is how women support one another. I have worked in several markets over my career, and the solidarity I see here is rare. Women come together and back each other in practical ways, sharing contacts, advice and the honest version of how things really work.

The numbers reflect it. Women own around one in ten private companies in the UAE, and more than 44,000 trade licences were granted to women between 2018 and 2022. The structures are catching up too. Since January 2025 every private joint-stock company has had to reserve a board seat for a woman, building on an earlier rule for listed companies that helped lift female board representation by 200 per cent in three years.

So when people ask whether women work here, the honest answer is that women are increasingly the ones building and leading.

Growth Through Uncertain Times

The past couple of years have not been simple for any business, anywhere. Markets have been volatile and the wider mood has often been cautious. Through all of it, we have continued to grow.

That says a great deal about the region. The UAE has kept investing in its future while others paused, and women now hold more than a million private-sector jobs across the country. As a result, the calibre of senior talent choosing to base itself here keeps rising.

From where I sit in executive search, that is the clearest signal of all. Leaders go where the opportunity is, and more of them are choosing the Gulf.

Why It Matters

It was a privilege to be featured alongside so many brilliant founders and leaders, each building something different and each backing the others to do the same. None of us got here alone.

One line from the feature has stayed with me. The UAE took a chance on all of us, in different ways. That is true of every founder in the piece, and it is true of Hanson Search.

That kind of welcome creates something you do not find easily. It builds loyalty, and an energy that is hard to replicate anywhere else. People who feel backed tend to back the place in return.

So when international talent asks me whether a woman can really build something here, I no longer just say yes. I tell them this is one of the best places I have found to build anything at all.

Whether you are hiring top talent or considering your next career move, our team would be delighted to support you.

Alice Weightman is CEO and Head of MENA for Hanson Search.

Hanson Search Group is a global talent consultancy providing executive search, recruitment and leadership advisory services. Built on more than twenty years of trusted relationships, we operate as a connected global platform of specialist practices with expert consultants embedded in key markets.