Mubadala Energy’s Salma Al Hajeri Shares Her Success Story, Insights with Top 50 Women Forum
By Nada El-Margoushy
In an exclusive interview with Top 50 Women Forum, on the sidelines of EGYPS 2023, UAE’s Salma Al Hajeri, Regional Vice President of Mubadala Energy, answers some questions and shares her success story in a selfless attempt to inspire young girls everywhere and bestow her knowledge and experience on the upcoming generation.
What attracted you to this particular field, especially since not many Arab women are interested in joining the energy domain, and how did you start?
I’ll be frank and completely transparent with you, we come from an oil and gas country, and because these recent technologies and diversification of the economy weren’t introduced back then, my options were kind of limited. This sector was dominating the gulf region, so it was only natural for me to take the practical route and join the industry, and I was lucky enough to go in blindly and I wasn’t aware of all the challenges, or else I might have gotten scared.
As to how I began, it’s actually a funny story; I graduated from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, expecting to have an IT or computer-related career. However, when I first joined “Adnoc”, the national oil company, I was told I’ll be working in reservoir engineering, which is more or less petroleum.
Honestly, I had doubts as I didn’t have much experience in that area, and I was the first female employee in the company to have an engineering background, which meant no female role models to draw inspiration from, but my managers said they are going to coach me and give me all the resources I need to do my job. And yes, normally I would be pressured, but since I loved math and science and problem-solving, in addition to taking the lead throughout different stages of my life, I decided to take it as a new challenge, which gave me the motivation I needed to get to where I am today.
Which obstacles stood in your way before assuming this high-level position, and how did you overcome them?
Well, let me give you a brief background about my upbringing. I was raised in a very small town called Sweihan, located literally in the middle of the desert, 70 km northwest of Abu Dhabi, Al Ain Region. During my early years, I lived in this small secluded town and went to its school.
At that time, in the late 70s – early 80s, my father was not quite convinced of moving to the city. People were not yet adjusted to the new lifestyle and it was very hard to change their minds.
The first time I told my family I wanted to join the field was not easy, especially since I had to leave my family behind and move to the city full-time.
However, my father’s mindset was still ahead of his time, as he showered me with his constant support until I became the first girl in my town to join and graduate from a university at a time when women’s education was limited to high school. Moreover, as a kid, my dad used to drive me to school and everywhere, and through his support, I was also the first girl to get a driving license.
Even as an adult and as a woman in this male-dominated sector, I still go through a lot of obstacles. Nevertheless, my approach is always to look on the bright side, do your best to prove yourself, don’t hesitate to ask for help either from your managers or older colleagues, learn to work alone and in a team, be patient, and never stop learning. Self-learning is a major key to success, as it builds confidence, real-life experience, personal growth, and the ability to improve on your own instead of just waiting for everybody to feed you the information and tell you what to do all the time.
How do you plan to approach the upcoming generations and encourage them to join the field, especially young girls? And what piece of advice can you offer them?
My message to this young generation is to not be intimidated to join the industry, as it’s not only lucrative and high profile, but it’s also fulfilling and important, especially now with all these global movements to promote clean energy, digitization, and sustainability.
We can’t transform the entire oil and gas industry overnight, in the end, all sectors must work together to come up with a holistic solution.
I also believe we must take part in finding effective solutions for climate change and other global crises, and the energy sector is in deep need of fresh minds, energy, and new perspectives.
Moreover, if you’re like me and love to take risks and gain knowledge, this is the place for you and it’s where you’ll be able to grow and prove yourselves in this mixed-portfolio sector. The industry is a huge spectrum with endless job possibilities and is not limited to certain people, so take the leap and be part of the solution!
What are Mubadala Energy’s future plans? And how would you expand your company in Egypt?
Okay, let’s back up several years, so you can see the whole picture. Mubadala Energy entered Egypt in 2018 when the company acquired 10% of Egypt’s Zohr giant gas field offshore Egypt, the most high-profile and strategic project in the country and the biggest gas field in the Mediterranean region. The Egyptian government often describes it as a game-changer in the field.
After that, we acquired 20% of the Noor block and another 27% of block 4 in the Red Sea. So, in conclusion, we have several projects in different locations in Egypt but we are always on the hunt to further expand our business in the country.
As for my personal plans, I was recently appointed Regional Vice President of the company a few months ago. My job is to monitor Mubadala’s business in Egypt and I intend to do my best to grow the company’s business here. We can already tell Egypt has become a hub that attracts major oil and gas companies worldwide.
And we can see the role the state plays, under the supervision of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and the support of Minister of Petroleum Tarek El-Molla to bring all countries together for the greater good, and we definitely want to be part of that journey.
In 2023, our theme is to grow, and for that reason, we have our own booth in the EGYPS 2023’s exhibition to highlight our ambitions to take this route, God’s willing.
And on that note, we ended our interview with the inspiring Salma Al Hageri.
On our part at the Top 50 Women Forum, we wish Salma further success and the best of luck.
