Panelists

Fatima is dually qualified in her home country, and has passed the New York Bar. Her professional experience includes progressing to the Senior Associate level at Abu Dhabi Investment Authority as the first and only Emirati female lawyer on the team, before expanding to a Legal Counsel at Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing. Currently, Fatima serves as a Legal Counsel at one of the biggest banks in the country.

Fatima has participated in prestigious programs such as Government Leadership Programme and the Futureneers program under the Ministry of Possibilities. The first was designed to equip people with the skills needed to become future leaders and the latter is a national platform that brings together young Emirati talents to design ideas and solutions aiming to ehnace the UAE’s readiness for the future.

Fatima’s biggest role model and mentor is H.H. Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak, Mother of the Nation, who played a big role in Fatima’s childhood, and who was an active member of her high school, Sheikh Zayed Private Academy. Fatima often says, “Her Highness Mother of the Nation instilled the love of learning within me, and to top it off we share the same name.” Fatima is a lifelong learner – she speaks four languages, including English, French, German, and Arabic.

Fatima’s agility and adaptability made her a role model for people with diverse backgrounds and perspectives. With her acute sense of humor and sharp attention to detail, she uses her online platform and presence to aspire and create a more equal world.

Currently, Mrs. Bender is serving as the Head of Sales MENA, EAST, EMEA region at Jabra GN in Dubai. In her current role, she has established a new distribution channel for the Middle East and Northeast Africa, resolved logistics and supplies issues, and stabilized the region. She leads Business Development, Sales and Marketing for the Region with a sales growth target of 127%. Despite environmental challenges, Mrs. Bender managed the Marketing and Sales Function through a 12 months turn-around period achieving 165% of business growth with her newly born baby on her hand in FY2020 and continued growth of 170% YoY. Additionally, she has established new strategic alliance relationships and business for the region.

Prior to her current role, Mrs. Bender was the Enterprise Marketing Manager META, SOUTH, EMEA region at Jabra GN in Dubai. In this role, she worked closely with sales stakeholders, increased channel sales by 55%, and expanded new business opportunities by 15% through persuasive marketing strategies & activities. She planned and executed 5 new product launches and 3 MEA & Turkey partner conferences overseas with her first-born twin boys who are her inspiration for new creative ideas.

High points of last year for her region was the opening “Worlds First Hybrid Work Experience Center” in Dubai Design District where Office Furniture Brand BENE comes together with leading technology brands like Microsoft, Jabra, Lenovo Jupiter to offer one complete solution for Hybrid working. This led to the opening of same Hybrid Working Experience Centres across EMEA.

Before joining Jabra GN, Mrs. Bender served as the Head of Global Business Development at Smart Homes LLC in Tajikistan/Dubai. She founded an online, retail and wholesale shop, managed product distribution through the start-up period, and grew the business to 500 K AED revenue annually. She acquired vendors and products for distribution and strategized and planned the sales process, forecasting, pricing, key account management, expenses, profitability, market research, marketing/brand strategy.

Mrs. Bender has also worked as a Regional Business Development Manager in Turkey, Russia, Ukraine, CIS countries, and Iran for EnGenius Networks/SENAO in Taiwan/Dubai. She was the biggest sales producer in UAE office and delivered 15% to 20% growth YoY. She identified and qualified long-term and short-term business opportunities within named accounts, developed, implemented, and executed strategic sales plans for assigned territories.

Mrs. Bender has two bachelor’s degrees: International Relations and Business Administration. She has also completed the Leading GN Way 6-month Leadership course and obtained GTDC (Global Technology Distribution Council) Accreditation.

In addition to her professional experience, Mrs. Bender has also volunteered her time to support cancer children and Children’s Cardiology center. She received a Certificate Of Appreciation from Médecins Sans Frontières, Dubai, UAE. She also is a Board member in couple of Tech companies as well as served as the Chairperson of the Board for the Living Legends Community and worked with Counterpart International and the United Nations Development Program in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.