Muna Al Gurg is an incredibly accomplished woman whose ambition seems to have no bounds – just try to keep count of everything she’s involved in.
She works as the director of retail at Easa Saleh Al Gurg Group LLC, her family’s UAE conglomerate, which is made up of 26 companies, but what she does in her free time is astounding.
She is the chairwoman of Young Arab Leaders UAE, which advocates for education, entrepreneurship and youth development – perhaps slightly more impressive than what we do with our free time.
But that isn’t enough to keep her busy, she is also a founding board member of Hub Dubai, billed on Al-Gurg’s website as a “non-profit collaborative playground for social, environmental and economic development.”
Board positions seem to suit her, as she has an impressive amount in her collection. She is on the board of many non-profit organizations, like Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, Emirates Foundation for Youth Development, and, unsurprisingly, the Easa Saleh Al Gurg Charity Foundation.
With the latter, she doesn’t only work in the UAE (or the Middle East, either). She helps give a primary education to underprivileged children in faraway places like Zanzibar, in Tanzania. She works on several other projects tackling global education issues, which is one of her main interests.
Christina Ioannidis, Chair of GMR's Marketing to Women interviews Muna Easa Al Gurg
A graduate of London Business School, she paid her good fortune forward by started the Muna Al Gurg Scholarship for female students pursuing an MBA. She also helped hopeful scholars closer to home – she collaborates with the American University of Beirut to give scholarships to young Syrian refugees.
"When I see that someone is on that scholarship and it’s going to make a huge difference in impacting the family when these people graduate, it’s really something that I enjoy doing,” she told Philanthropy Age.
We’re not sure how she juggles all of those roles, but this isn’t even a comprehensive list. She’s also a founding board member of Endeavour UAE, which promotes entrepreneurship in emerging markets, and started the Al Gurg’s Women’s Empowerment Forum.
A vocal supporter of women in the workplace, she tweeted this out to her thousands of followers about Emirates Airlines’ announcement that they hired their first royal female pilot, Shekha Mozah Al Maktoum.
Unsurprisingly, she was one of 21 women featured in Emirati Women Achievers, a book that told the stories of some of the country’s most successful women. A brief look at her work history is proof enough: Wonder Woman is definitely an Arab.
I hope that this triggers more Arab parents to allow their daughters to pursue their dreams, encouraging them to be who they truly are. #PT
— Muna AlGurg (@MunaAlGurg) February 7, 2017
