ABU DHABI // From the moment an aircraft lands, Louloa Salem Abdulla will be charged with a formidable responsibility.
"We have to do everything to make sure the plane is completely safe to fly," says Ms Abdulla, 24.
She is an aircraft engineer, one of eight Emiratis who will have that challenge starting in January, after four years of an Etihad Airways training programme - and she knows the pressure will be on.
"The maximum time you can have is overnight," says Ms Abdulla, from Abu Dhabi.
"Sometimes you only have 40 minutes to get the plane ready to take off after landing."
Taking part in the programme was a big decision for a couple of reasons: she was afraid of flying, and had taken a completely different subject at university.
Four years ago, Ms Abdulla was in her fourth year at the Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT), six months from graduating with a degree in IT.
"My friends said, 'Why don't you try Etihad?' It was just starting to get famous then," she says.
As she browsed the airline's site, a window popped up.
"I found a programme for Emiratis so I applied in applied management."
Instead, Ms Abdulla was offered a place on a training programme for aircraft engineering, with two years in Australia followed by two years of ground training in the UAE.
At first she was terrified, not least by the thought of having to study maths, a subject she had avoided at school.
"I thought, oh no, I want to pull out," Ms Abdulla says. "They said, just come in for an introduction."
But she decided to go ahead and left HCT before completing her degree. Her mother was horrified.
"She said, are you serious? And I said yes, the programme would not wait for me," she says.
But now her mother's pride has grown as Ms Abdulla and the other Emirati trainees prepare to take control.
"This December I should complete two years and get my licence," she says. "Now my mum is happy. When I know she will be on-board, I tell the other people working on the plane to please take care, make sure it is all good.
"When you get your licence you sign off on aircraft, which means you certify that the plane will go and come back safely. If anything goes wrong, then they know it was you."
Ms Abdulla is working long hours - two days and two nights, 12 hours at a time, followed by four days off.
The job also requires her to squeeze into the aircraft's tightest nooks and crannies. "Some places are very confined. You cannot go in, you must feel what you are doing," she says. "The worst part is feeling the waste tank."
And as much as the burden of responsibility scares her, the thought of being a pioneering Emirati has pushed her forward.
"There are many [Emirati] cabin pilots but none as plane engineers," Ms Abdulla says.
"I will be one of the first Emirati engineers here, and only two of us are girls.
"It is mostly a male environment. They [the men] give us a hard time. They think we are soft.
"Some don't like to work with girls. They think our place is at home or in an office. You just have to show them that you are here to help."
osalem@thenational.ae
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A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
