This year’s edition excluded leaders of family businesses.

Six Qatar-based names made it to Forbes Middle East’s list of the World’s Most Powerful Businesswomen 2024, with new figures from Doha added to the prestigious ranking, released on Tuesday.

The latest edition featured 104 women from 27 sectors and 28 nationalities, with the banking sector dominating the list with 26 entries. 

The women on the list have been chosen following consideration of their overall leadership impact on the region and their performance last year. This year’s edition excluded leaders of family businesses.

Hana Al Rostamani, Group CEO of the First Abu Dhabi Bank, topped the list for the second consecutive year while ranking 14th in the overall global finance category. 

Leading Qatar’s entries, Lana Khalaf, General Manager of Microsoft Qatar, ranked as the 60th most powerful businesswoman alongside Mirna Arif, Country Manager of Microsoft Egypt.

Khalaf assumed her position as Microsoft Qatar’s general manager in 2018 after joining in 2006 as an academic developer evangelist, according to Forbes.

Her most notable accomplishments include her role during the peak of the Covid-19 outbreak when Qatar utilised Microsoft’s cloud services to support distance work and learning. 

More than 140,000 employees in Doha managed to work remotely and more than 400,000 students and teachers managed to learn online through Microsoft Teams at the time.

Ranked 68 on the list, QNB Capital CEO Mira Al-Attiyah has been recognised for leading “local, regional, and international sovereign and corporate bond and sukuk offerings totalling over $50 billion” within the past five years alone.

Al-Attiyah ranked 49 on the previous Forbes list. The Qatari businesswoman had assumed her position in 2014 after serving as assistant undersecretary for trade affairs at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

Also in the banking sector, Leonie Ruth Lethbridge, COO and Executive General Manager of the Commercial Bank of Qatar, ranked 70 on the list after being absent from last year’s edition.

Lethbridge, an Australian national, joined the Commercial Bank in July 2017 after holding other top positions, including the CEO of ANZ Royal Bank, a joint venture of Australia and New Zealand Banking Group in Cambodia. 

The Commercial Bank of Qatar had reported $45.2 billion in assets and net profit of $827 million in 2023. As of January, the bank’s market value stood at $5.8 billion.

From technology to banking, Sheikha Anwar bint Nawaf Al Thani, CEO of Al Faleh Educational Holding, marked the first educational entry, ranking 74.

“Al Faleh Educational Holding became the first woman-led Qatari public shareholding company and the first Qatari educational institution to list on the stock market,” Forbes reported.

Al Faleh Educational Holding reported a profit of more than $521,200 for the three-month period ending on November 30, 2023. 

The company’s Founder and Chairperson, Sheikha Aisha Bint Faleh Al Thani, ranked 71 on last year’s edition of the Forbes list.

Adding to the diverse mix of Qatar-based rankings, Iyabo Tinubu-Karch, CEO of Sidra Medicine, marked her first entry in the businesswomen list with an 87 ranking. Tinubu-Karch had also ranked 58 on Forbes Middle East’s Top 100 Healthcare Leaders 2023 list.

The businesswoman joined Sidra Medicine in November 2022 after serving as the Qatari entity’s non-executive board member and assuming an advisory role with the management committee. 

Sidra Medicine falls under the umbrella of the Qatar Foundation and specialises in precision medicine while serving as an educational and scientific hub. 

The hospital works closely with key institutions including Weill Cornell Medicine, Qatar University, Hamad Medical Corporation, and Qatar Biobank.

Last year, Sidra Medicine was among five Qatari hospitals ranked in the world’s top 250 academic medical centres, the highest number of hospitals from the region on the global ranking.

The sixth Qatar-based name on the latest Forbes list is Lalla Hanane Drissi, Managing Director of Oracle in Qatar, with a 94 ranking alongside with Reham AlMusa, Vice President of Business Applications, Public Sector and Managing Director in Oracle Saudi Arabia.

Drissi had joined Oracle in 2006 and assumed her current role in December 2022.