Souad Al Hosani, the founder of Nexus Business Services, is hot property as a speaker on the UAE conference circuit. Last December, she sat on a panel at the SME Congress and Expo in Abu Dhabi discussing how to succeed in a male business environment. Then in January, she spoke at the Abu Dhabi International Business Women's Group. And in March she delivered a presentation on International Women's Day about her journey as an entrepreneur. There have been many other invitations in between — and not just in the UAE.
“We receive millions of invitations a day to go and speak to conferences abroad,” she says, with a touch of exaggeration to make her point. “Before, I never used to say no, but now I’ve started saying no. It’s taken me five years but I’ve started prioritising.”
Ms Al Hosani is an engaging speaker, delivering her thoughts at a hundred miles an hour and cracking jokes. Dressed in an abaya, she wears a trademark flourish of bright red lipstick.
Her audiences walk away impressed by her energy and youth — she is 25 but has gathered a wealth of experience in her short career. She jokes that by the time she is 30 she will be ready to retire.
That is unlikely as the businesswoman is gearing up to expand her enterprise, both geographically and in terms of the services provided. Nexus assists foreign individuals and companies setting up in the UAE by helping them to secure licences and visas and providing government liaison services.
Ms Hosani realised there was a demand for assistance from foreign businesses who wanted to establish a presence in Abu Dhabi when she interned at the British Embassy in 2009. Her firm expanded naturally as the organisations she helped — including the technology giants IBM and Xerox — started asking for other services such as obtaining visas for staff and relocation.
She also managed, at the age of 18, to talk herself onto the board of directors of the American Chamber of Commerce in Abu Dhabi. That position, which she continues to hold, has been invaluable, she says.
“Being on the board, learning from other people, looking at all these different committees and meeting people from diplomats to business people and [being exposed] to different ideas that early gives you the opportunity to do a lot,” she explains.
As a consummate networker, she is also an associated member of the British and Canadian business groups of Abu Dhabi and the Abu Dhabi Business Women’s Council.
Two years after her business launched in 2009, she also enjoyed a stint at Mubadala Development, the Abu Dhabi investment company, but quit in June last year to focus her efforts on Nexus.
Since then, business has flourished, prompting her appreciation for priorities. “I touched the pause button and then I said I have to take things easy,” she recalls. “Going too quickly is not healthy.”
Her next goal is to establish a holding company, gathering together a number of new subsidiaries. These include a recruitment agency, a trading company, IT consultancy and an oil and gas consultancy. She also wants to move into Qatar and Saudi Arabia this year, and set up in Dubai next year to profit from new businesses setting up in advance of Expo 2020.
“The stock markets went higher, rents went higher, people are starting to move here now,” she says. “There will be a lot of changes.”
She says she has noticed an increase in enquiries from abroad since Dubai won the bid to host Expo 2020 and the development in Qatar as it prepares for the World Cup in 2022.
Morphing into a holding company has been challenging as under UAE law a holding company must have a at least two partners, and Ms Al Hosani is understandably being cautious about who to link up with.
“I have interviewed a lot of partners,” she says. “But this is my baby, and I don’t really want to share. I feel very protective.”
She will also need the new partner to be able to inject some capital because, like many small business owners, securing funding is not easy.
Diversification is important because if the Department of Economic Development, for example, changed its rules on foreign companies needing a local partner, her business as it is would flounder.
Looking ahead, she is also taking her personal circumstances into account.
“People ask when I will get married and I tell them that Nexus is my baby,” she says. But at the same time “you don’t want years to pass and then realise you are too old to be a mother.”
In the meantime, she is happy to spend time with her family — she has 12 brothers and sisters — and travel.
“The more you see people abroad and the more people you meet, you realise [the different way in which] people are very successful.”
lgutcher@thenational.ae
Follow us on Twitter @Ind_Insights
The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
On sale: Now
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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How to help
Send “thenational” to the following numbers or call the hotline on: 0502955999
2289 – Dh10
2252 – Dh 50
6025 – Dh20
6027 – Dh 100
6026 – Dh 200
The biog
Name: Abeer Al Bah
Born: 1972
Husband: Emirati lawyer Salem Bin Sahoo, since 1992
Children: Soud, born 1993, lawyer; Obaid, born 1994, deceased; four other boys and one girl, three months old
Education: BA in Elementary Education, worked for five years in a Dubai school
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
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CONFIRMED%20LINE-UP
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FIXTURES
Thursday
Dibba v Al Dhafra, Fujairah Stadium (5pm)
Al Wahda v Hatta, Al Nahyan Stadium (8pm)
Friday
Al Nasr v Ajman, Zabeel Stadium (5pm)
Al Jazria v Al Wasl, Mohammed Bin Zayed Stadium (8pm)
Saturday
Emirates v Al Ain, Emirates Club Stadium (5pm)
Sharjah v Shabab Al Ahli Dubai, Sharjah Stadium (8pm)
ESSENTIALS
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.
The hotels
Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.
The tours
A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages.
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Lexus LX700h specs
Engine: 3.4-litre twin-turbo V6 plus supplementary electric motor
Power: 464hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 790Nm from 2,000-3,600rpm
Transmission: 10-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 11.7L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh590,000
UK-EU trade at a glance
EU fishing vessels guaranteed access to UK waters for 12 years
Co-operation on security initiatives and procurement of defence products
Youth experience scheme to work, study or volunteer in UK and EU countries
Smoother border management with use of e-gates
Cutting red tape on import and export of food
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
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
The%20Little%20Mermaid%20
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RESULT
Aston Villa 1
Samatta (41')
Manchester City 2
Aguero (20')
Rodri (30')
Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The five new places of worship
Church of South Indian Parish
St Andrew's Church Mussaffah branch
St Andrew's Church Al Ain branch
St John's Baptist Church, Ruwais
Church of the Virgin Mary and St Paul the Apostle, Ruwais
Abu Dhabi GP schedule
Friday: First practice - 1pm; Second practice - 5pm
Saturday: Final practice - 2pm; Qualifying - 5pm
Sunday: Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix (55 laps) - 5.10pm
VEZEETA PROFILE
Date started: 2012
Founder: Amir Barsoum
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: HealthTech / MedTech
Size: 300 employees
Funding: $22.6 million (as of September 2018)
Investors: Technology Development Fund, Silicon Badia, Beco Capital, Vostok New Ventures, Endeavour Catalyst, Crescent Enterprises’ CE-Ventures, Saudi Technology Ventures and IFC
CONFIRMED%20LINE-UP
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Final round
25 under - Antoine Rozner (FRA)
23 - Francesco Laporta (ITA), Mike Lorenzo-Vera (FRA), Andy Sullivan (ENG), Matt Wallace (ENG)
21 - Grant Forrest (SCO)
20 - Ross Fisher (ENG)
19 - Steven Brown (ENG), Joakim Lagergren (SWE), Niklas Lemke (SWE), Marc Warren (SCO), Bernd Wiesberger (AUT)
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