Playing it smart

When she worked as a business development manager in the IT industry, Nermeen Mahmoud managed a team of men in Saudi Arabia without ever going to the Kingdom. Because women are not allowed to work in Saudi Arabia, Mahmoud would travel from Dubai to Bahrain twice a month to meet up with her team.

“I never really needed to go there,” says the Cairo native, who now works as Business Development Manager for Dubai Logistics City (DLC), as she nibbles at a blueberry muffin at Costa Café in The Greens.

Mahmoud studied telecommunications in Egypt, and started her career fixing computers before moving into the marketing and, eventually, the business development side of IT. “I’ve always loved anything related to microwaves, radiofrequency, waves in general,” she says. “I just love those things that you don’t see, but they affect your life.”

And now, she loves logistics. “It’s almost the same concept as telecommunications. It’s something you don’t see that much, but it affects your life tremendously.” When DLC consultants hired Mahmoud in the last quarter of 2004, she and Project Director Roland Zibell worked alone for fivemonths to set up the entire business, choosing everything from the telephone system to computer programs. “It was so exciting at that time, because we were developing everything from scratch, including the rules and regulations for DLC,” she says.

Mahmoud says she has become emotionally attached to the project. “It’s my baby. I am so passionate about it.”

“It hurts you big time when something goes wrong, because you need your baby to have a healthy environment and grow up healthy.”

As for being a woman in the logistics industry, Mahmoud has no complaints. “Oh come on,” she says. “I don’t think the industry is male dominated, maybe in the top positions, but that’s just because they don’t know how smart we are.”

But it’s hard to imagine anyone doubting Mahmoud’s intelligence. In fact that’s the first thing her close friend and colleague Christa Soltau, Managing Director, Dubai World Central Airport, mentions when she walks by our table during her lunch break. “Nermeen is so smart, she’ll take my job,” she says.

Nermeen Mahmoud, Business Development
Manager, Dubai Logistics City, chats with Kathryn
Semcow at Costa Café in The Greens, Dubai