Arabian Business’ 100 most influential: Rola Abu Manneh

CEO of Standard Chartered UAE, Abu Manneh is the first Emirati woman to head a bank in the UAE and has been responsible for transforming the UAE business.

May 3, 2023

9 mins

Corporate & investment bankingDiversity & inclusion

This article originally appeared on ArabianBusiness.com: Revealed: 100 most influential Arabs 2023 on ArabianBusiness. The article content has been revised to fit SC.com editorial guidelines.

As the CEO of Standard Chartered UAE, Abu Manneh is the first Emirati woman to head a bank in the UAE and has been responsible for transforming the UAE business into one of the biggest five markets globally for the Standard Chartered Group. She is also a member of the board of directors of the Dubai International Chamber, whose mission is to represent, support, and protect the interests of the business community in Dubai.  Additionally, in January 2023, Abu Manneh added a new role to her career trajectory as the director on the board of Standard Chartered Bank (Pakistan) Limited.

Backed by a wealth of experience

Prior to her role at Standard Chartered, Abu Manneh was the Head of Corporate & Investment Banking for Abu Dhabi at First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB). In this role, her responsibility was to maintain relationships between FAB and its client base, including government, government-related entities, elite customer groups, family corporations, local corporations, multinational corporations, and commercial banking services. Prior to this, Abu Manneh served as general manager of FAB’s Wholesale Banking Group, which comprised of Project Finance Syndications, Financial Institutions Group and Global Transaction Banking. A proud UAE national, Abu Manneh completed her studies at the University of London – Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, and has a Bachelor’s of Science in Mathematics & Operational Research.

Championing female empowerment

Over the years, she has championed the cause of women empowerment and female entrepreneurship through different initiatives and is committed to supporting the wider community by providing university students with mentorship programmes, in collaboration with leading partners, which aim to prepare participants with the necessary skills to succeed in their chosen professions.  Abu Manneh is a member of the Global Council for Sustainable Development Goal 5, Gender Equality (‘SDG5’) and the NYUAD Vice Chancellor’s Leadership Council.

Standard Chartered UAE financial performance

Under her helm, Standard Chartered UAE delivered a resilient and strong performance throughout 2022. Despite the volatility and uncertainty, the UAE franchise achieved a 15.2 per cent growth in income and a 41 per cent growth in operating profit, the highest in the last 8 years. The Bank’s operations in the UAE also recorded 16 per cent Return on Tangible Equity (RoTE) with Standard Chartered participating in all key landmark transactions across the country.

The need for climate adaptation

To investigate the need to climate adaptation, in January 2023, Standard Chartered announced the launch of its research report titled ‘The Adaptation Economy’. The report revealed that a $2.7 billion adaptation investment to withstand projected climate damage could contribute more than $27bn to the country’s gross domestic product by 2030. Featuring 10 markets, including the UAE, India, China, and Pakistan, the report reveals that the lack of action could cost billions in climate damages and lost GDP growth this decade.

The study revealed that without a minimum investment of $29.9bn, the markets that are included in the study would face projected damages and lost GDP growth of over $272bn. Examples of climate adaptation projects include the creation of coastal barrier protection solutions for areas vulnerable to flooding, the development of drought-resistant crops and early-warning systems against pending natural disasters.

As per Standard Chartered’s official press release, Abu Manneh said: “The UAE is at the forefront of fighting climate change with a solid commitment to achieve its Net Zero target by 2050; therefore, setting an example not only on a regional level, but on the international level as well. Adaptation is a shared necessity, and as our research highlights, a lack of action would probably create a shared societal burden of exponentially increasing costs.” She further added that the financial sector has a crucial role to play in directing capital towards adaptation and creating the proof points to demonstrate that investing in adaptation can be a commercially viable attractive proposition for the private sector and would reflect positively on the overall economic growth.

Driving a culture of diversity and inclusion

Driving commerce and prosperity through a culture of inclusion, Standard Chartered has three key methods toward tackling the issue of diversity, namely: great place to work, great place to bank, and support for their communities. At the heart of the bank’s business purpose, being here for good, supplier diversity refers to a supply chain that integrates businesses owned by diverse individuals or groups, including those owned by minorities, micro and small businesses, and women, as well as the non-diverse corporations whose D&I profiles are aligned to their Supplier Diversity principles. The core ambition is to foster mutually beneficial relationships with suppliers that reflect the diverse cultures and communities we live and work in.

Supporting financial inclusion and education

Aligned with the Bank’s Purpose to drive prosperity through its unique diversity, Standard Chartered launched, back in 2014, Women in Tech – a programme designed to support female-led entrepreneurial teams with business management training, mentoring and seed funding.
The programme aims to improve the lives of people and their communities by lifting participation and unleashing the full potential of women and micro businesses. In the UAE, Standard Chartered has accelerated four cohorts, comprising of dozens of start-ups, who collectively raised over USD 5 million from various venture capitalists to expand their businesses.

This year, Women in Tech will be launching its fifth cohort in May 2023 with the objective of further empowering UAE-focused women led businesses and providing them with relevant guidance and mentorship through accelerator programs, in addition to equity-free grants to fund their ventures.