Hajer Ahmed Al Thehli Appointed to Education and Human Resources Council

Hajer Ahmed Al Thehli, who was the director of the Projects Management & Council Affairs, has been appointed as Secretary-General of Education and Human Resources Council (EHRC) by the Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. She holds a Master of Business Administration – Executive MBA from London Business School, United Kingdom. 

Al Thehli previously served as the Director of Strategic Affairs at the Government Communication Department and the Policy and Research at the Abu Dhabi Media Office. She also worked in government performance management at the Abu Dhabi Executive Council and. 

Al Thehli’s appointment reflects gender diversity in the United Arab Emirates. According to Aurora50, a social enterprise working towards gender parity in GCC boardrooms, UAE’s efforts to improve gender diversity in the boardroom have seen more women holding board positions 

Research shows that more women are holding top positions, especially in the public sector. Experts believe there is a need to offer women more networking opportunities to help them scale their careers and push the private sector to bolster female participation at the boardroom level. 

During a panel discussion in July, Zahra El Zayat, chief commercial officer at evision, said diversity and inclusion of women are crucial parameters. “We rarely see VCs are run by females and this is unfortunate, we receive a lot of pitches related to start-ups but not many women are looking for funding. They are not having the right networking opportunities of knowing the person who knows the right person to connect them for business or funding.” 

Yousef Al Otaiba, the UAE’s ambassador to the US, said there must be more women-only funds, incubators and programmes. “We have to create the right ecosystem and just allow more encouragement, more risk taking and more incentivizing for women to motivate them to enter that space.” 

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And now, Al Thehli’s appointment as Secretary-General of EHRC is commendable, and a step in the right direction.