A senior adviser with Barclays Bank, Soha Nashaat has never allowed obstacles or doubt to block her path. As a pioneer in computer software, as an executive, and in the kitchen she is certainly a driving force — even if her days behind the wheel are over, Gillian Duncan writes
Soha Nashaat was working as a deputy office manager for Merill Lynch in Argentina when she called one of her bankers in to discuss his work.
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The conversation did not go well.
After she pointed out some things he needed to focus on, the banker told Ms Nashaat to stop bothering him and go back to the kitchen "where she belonged".
"It's better not to print what I said," says Ms Nashaat, now a senior adviser at Barclays Wealth in Dubai.
Many would have harboured a grudge against the banker for the rest of their days. Yet he went on to become a good friend. He was one of several people who sobbed when she left the Buenos Aires office.
There is no doubt Ms Nashaat's hard work and drive helped to win over many chauvinistic colleagues. But when you meet her you cannot help but think her charm and quick wit played a part too.
"People naturally gravitate toward her," says Steve Fedor, the chief operating officer of Barclays Wealth, for Middle East and North Africa, who adds she is "generous to a fault with the courage of a lion".
Ms Nashaat, who is half Syrian, half Egyptian and grew up in Kuwait, began her career as a product manager at Merrill Lynch in New York in 1991 and quickly rose through the ranks, with positions in Argentina - which she accepted before knowing what the role was - and London, which she initially resisted.
It was while she was working in London running the Middle East office, and juggling several other responsibilities, that she was headhunted by Barclays Wealth to set up its Middle East operation.
She was the chief executive of the Middle East region for Barclays Wealth for five years before stepping down to a senior adviser role in August to give her more time to pursue her dream of setting up her own businesses.
All she will reveal about the ventures - plural - is that they involve e-commerce in the retail, travel and property sectors.
"Whenever there has been a pivotal change movement in my life I have said 'OK, I'm just going to do it,'" Ms Nashaat says. "I don't want to say impulsive, because impulsive would be absolutely the wrong word here … studied enthusiasm. I think that's what it is."
She put this quality to good use when developing software to select funds back in New York.
"You have to remember this was the early 1990s, when computing was still relatively new and people were telling her she was wasting her time," Mr Fedor says.
"Computing was not her area of expertise so she actually had to learn it as she developed the software. It didn't matter though as she kept at it - nights and weekends when she had spare time - and actually created a tool that ended up on every advisers' desktop in the international network."
Yet for all her fearlessness and independence, there is one thing rather surprising about Ms Nashaat: she does not drive.
She learnt when she was living in Los Angeles and even drove across the US when she was relocating to New York.
But two incidents in quick succession persuaded her to hang up her keys for good. The first occurred on the night she arrived in New York: the roof of her convertible was slashed while she dined at a restaurant.
"I fixed it and then a few weeks later I was going to pick up a friend," she says. "He came down from his apartment, opened the door to get into the car and a taxi came and took off the door. And that was the last time I drove. I pulled the car to the side, fixed it, sold it and I said 'that's it. I am never driving again.'"
About the time she moved to Argentina, Ms Nashaat made a conscious decision she would not have children because of her job pressures and busy travel schedule. She has questioned the decision "more than a few times" - but never regretted it.
"I realised this is really a choice. I'm making a choice because I have to be mobile for what I am doing and so therefore I am going to make this choice and I don't think that I want to have children because I would like to pursue this," Ms Nashaat says.
This does not mean she thinks other women cannot have a healthy work-life balance, only that businesses need to recognise what is expected of them and create an environment in which they can excel.
"We are very happy, me and Javier [her husband]," she says.
"We have a fantastic life. [With] the four pugs and the seven cats, we have 11 kids."
She describes her animals as the "centre of her existence". She was always a "cat person" until about three years ago when her husband, whom she met on holiday in the Maldives, surprised her with a puppy.
"He walked into the house with this little thing which was tiny, a handful. I looked at him and said 'what on earth is this rat? Get him out of the house.'
"My husband looked really crestfallen and he's like 'OK, I'll take him back to the breeder.' And then I looked at this little thing and I said 'you know what, give me 24 hours and let me see how I feel about him.' That was it. I never looked back," she says.
Aside from her husband and animals, her other great love in life would come as no surprise to her chauvinistic colleague all those years ago at Merrill Lynch.
"We have an outdoor kitchen and an indoor kitchen," she says. "There's always someone cooking something, whether it's a bowl of pasta or something much more elaborate. We are always inventing dishes.
"I actually like the kitchen, but it doesn't take away from the fact that I can be a very capable executive."
gduncan@thenational.ae
THREE
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The%20specs
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TV: World Cup Qualifier 2018 matches will be aired on on OSN Sports HD Cricket channel
MATCH INFO
Bangla Tigers 108-5 (10 ovs)
Ingram 37, Rossouw 26, Pretorius 2-10
Deccan Gladiators 109-4 (9.5 ovs)
Watson 41, Devcich 27, Wiese 2-15
Gladiators win by six wickets
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
The%20Genius%20of%20Their%20Age
%3Cp%3EAuthor%3A%20S%20Frederick%20Starr%3Cbr%3EPublisher%3A%20Oxford%20University%20Press%3Cbr%3EPages%3A%20290%3Cbr%3EAvailable%3A%20January%2024%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
What can you do?
Document everything immediately; including dates, times, locations and witnesses
Seek professional advice from a legal expert
You can report an incident to HR or an immediate supervisor
You can use the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation’s dedicated hotline
In criminal cases, you can contact the police for additional support
Various Artists
Habibi Funk: An Eclectic Selection Of Music From The Arab World (Habibi Funk)
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Yemen's Bahais and the charges they often face
The Baha'i faith was made known in Yemen in the 19th century, first introduced by an Iranian man named Ali Muhammad Al Shirazi, considered the Herald of the Baha'i faith in 1844.
The Baha'i faith has had a growing number of followers in recent years despite persecution in Yemen and Iran.
Today, some 2,000 Baha'is reside in Yemen, according to Insaf.
"The 24 defendants represented by the House of Justice, which has intelligence outfits from the uS and the UK working to carry out an espionage scheme in Yemen under the guise of religion.. aimed to impant and found the Bahai sect on Yemeni soil by bringing foreign Bahais from abroad and homing them in Yemen," the charge sheet said.
Baha'Ullah, the founder of the Bahai faith, was exiled by the Ottoman Empire in 1868 from Iran to what is now Israel. Now, the Bahai faith's highest governing body, known as the Universal House of Justice, is based in the Israeli city of Haifa, which the Bahais turn towards during prayer.
The Houthis cite this as collective "evidence" of Bahai "links" to Israel - which the Houthis consider their enemy.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
The studios taking part (so far)
- Punch
- Vogue Fitness
- Sweat
- Bodytree Studio
- The Hot House
- The Room
- Inspire Sports (Ladies Only)
- Cryo
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
Pathaan
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The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
%E2%80%98FSO%20Safer%E2%80%99%20-%20a%20ticking%20bomb
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