Chris Burke for The National
Chris Burke for The National

Kuwait Energy chief Sara Akbar recalls baptism of fire



Sara Akbar was born in an oilfield, and might have died in one.

In 1991, as the smoke billowing from 700 burning Kuwaiti oil wells obliterated the midday sun, she was the sole woman among hundreds of firefighters dispatched to douse the flames.

Biobox: Sara Hussain Akbar chief executive and director of Kuwait Energy

Last Updated: June 3, 2011

Education: Kuwait University BSc in chemical engineering

Family: Married with three children, two boys and a girl, aged 14, 13 and 7. Husband is retired.

Lives in Kuwait City in an extended family that also includes three brothers and their families.

Personal mantra: "No matter what you do as an individual, nothing beats teamwork."

Personal challenge: Balancing professional and family life.

"The more you went into the fields the darker it became. The darkness was unbelievable and the oil wells looked like flickering candles on the horizon," says Mrs Akbar, recalling those dramatic days long before she reached her current position as the only female chief executive of a Middle East oil and gas company.

During Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, Mrs Akbar, who then worked for the state-owned Kuwait Oil, had volunteered to join a skeleton crew of 50 from a total workforce of 5,000 who would stay at their posts to take care of the emirate's oilfields. Her special duties included preparing daily reports on oilfield activity that were smuggled to the exiled Kuwaiti government and helping stranded expatriate oil workers to leave the country by bundling them up in abayas.

Mrs Akbar and her Kuwait Oil colleagues were not trained to fight fires. They believed it was nevertheless worth risking life and limb to save the source of their country's prosperity as Saddam Hussain's Iraqi troops fled.

Initially the makeshift team of petroleum engineers was denied permission to join the international firefighting squads on grounds of their inexperience. But as patriotic Kuwaitis, they refused to a man - and woman - to take no for an answer.

Afraid of being ridiculed if they failed, the team sneaked out at night to douse their first well. By morning, the flames were out. The team went on to put out many more well fires. The petroleum engineers succeeded in controlling the blazing wells because of their familiarity with Kuwait's oilfields and because they were tightly focused on a common goal.

At the time, Mrs Akbar, the daughter of an Iraqi oil driller, was already a field engineer with 10 years' experience.

"I worked on the oilfields, offshore and onshore, day and night, and the result of this work was that I knew the oilfields very well," she says. "There were 800 wells and I knew every single one like the back of my hand."

But it was the firefighting episode that taught her the importance of teamwork, a lesson that today guides her management of the privately owned Kuwait Energy.

It also taught the future chief executive her own strengths. "I found I was a strong person, tough; I was not afraid," she says.

At Kuwait Energy's headquarters in a suburb of Kuwait City, the staff have gathered for their regular shared Thursday lunch - a corporate tradition instigated by Mrs Akbar and her close colleague Mansour Aboukhamseen, the chairman and managing director. On the menu is traditional Gulf biryani with all the trimmings, brought in from a local restaurant.

This is a popular team-building event, promoting a casual, friendly atmosphere in which the lowliest filing clerk feels at ease chatting with the company's top brass.

One after another, Kuwaiti and expatriate staff, male and female, spontaneously approach the stranger in their midst to say how much the company's family atmosphere makes them look forward to coming to work each morning.

This must be gratifying to Mrs Akbar, who admits she has struggled to balance her career with the demands of raising three children, aged 14, 13 and 7, whose pictures dominate her office decor.

But she is living proof that a profoundly male-dominated industry can sometimes benefit from a quintessentially female touch. By the end of last year, the six-year-old Kuwait Energy was producing 13,400 barrels of oil equivalent (boe) per day from more than 51 million boe of proved and probable reserves, mostly established through the drill bit. Its revenue for the year was US$120 million (Dh440m).

From an initial staff of three - Mrs Akbar, Mr Aboukhamseen and the chief operating officer Mohammed al Howqal - the company's workforce has expanded to more than 400. The founders, all former Kuwait Oil engineers, decided to launch Kuwait Energy following the appointment of a new chairman of the state oil company, with whom they did not feel in tune.

That meant the company's solid start was in no way due to the past associations of its founders with Kuwait Oil. In fact, says Mrs Akbar, people joke that Kuwait Energy operates everywhere except in Kuwait. The company pumps oil and gas from Egypt, Oman, Ukraine, Yemen and Russia.

Kuwait Energy also leads the international consortium that won the rights last year to develop Iraq's Siba gasfield and is a member of the group that submitted the winning bid for the larger Mansuriya in north-east Iraq.

For many Kuwaitis with memories of the scorched earth devastation wrought in their country, venturing into Iraq might have proved too emotionally daunting. But Mrs Akbar is determined to help to repair the relationship between the two oil-producing neighbours.

"We've been paying regular business visits. We understand them, and they understand us," she says. "We need to focus on the future not the past; to focus on building an economic relationship, which we haven't done in the past. People in decision making believe, and I believe, there is a great future for Iraq. In five years' time, Iraq will be a different country completely."

Mrs Akbar is also optimistic about the future of Egypt, which she predicts will be a better location for oil and gas development than in the past. She is encouraged that the interim government has retained many able technocrats, which she believes will enable Egyptians to form "the best government they have ever had".

Yemen, which is Mrs Akbar's favourite foreign Arab country, is another story: "People say it might split into two countries. Parts are independent now. We don't know what is the future. It's not obvious."

But whatever is in store for the Arab world's most impoverished state, its people will still need revenue from oil and gas production, she adds. Mrs Akbar views "the Arab awakening" as unstoppable because of the deep-rooted desire of peoples in the Middle East and North Africa for self-determination.

Unsurprisingly, she believes Arab women have a big role to play in building the region's future.

"For women, the sky is the limit."

Jigra
Director: Vasan Bala
Starring: Alia Bhatt, Vedang Raina, Manoj Pahwa, Harsh Singh
Rated: 3.5/5
Profile box

Founders: Michele Ferrario, Nino Ulsamer and Freddy Lim
Started: established in 2016 and launched in July 2017
Based: Singapore, with offices in the UAE, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Thailand
Sector: FinTech, wealth management
Initial investment: $500,000 in seed round 1 in 2016; $2.2m in seed round 2 in 2017; $5m in series A round in 2018; $12m in series B round in 2019; $16m in series C round in 2020 and $25m in series D round in 2021
Current staff: more than 160 employees
Stage: series D 
Investors: EightRoads Ventures, Square Peg Capital, Sequoia Capital India

Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

Sun jukebox

Rufus Thomas, Bear Cat (The Answer to Hound Dog) (1953)

This rip-off of Leiber/Stoller’s early rock stomper brought a lawsuit against Phillips and necessitated Presley’s premature sale to RCA.

Elvis Presley, Mystery Train (1955)

The B-side of Presley’s final single for Sun bops with a drummer-less groove.

Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two, Folsom Prison Blues (1955)

Originally recorded for Sun, Cash’s signature tune was performed for inmates of the titular prison 13 years later.

Carl Perkins, Blue Suede Shoes (1956)

Within a month of Sun’s February release Elvis had his version out on RCA.

Roy Orbison, Ooby Dooby (1956)

An essential piece of irreverent juvenilia from Orbison.

Jerry Lee Lewis, Great Balls of Fire (1957)

Lee’s trademark anthem is one of the era’s best-remembered – and best-selling – songs.

MATCH INFO

Chelsea 3 (Abraham 11', 17', 74')

Luton Town 1 (Clark 30')

Man of the match Abraham (Chelsea)

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SPEC%20SHEET
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THE SPECS

Engine: 1.5-litre turbocharged four-cylinder

Transmission: Constant Variable (CVT)

Power: 141bhp 

Torque: 250Nm 

Price: Dh64,500

On sale: Now

COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
 
Started: 2020
 
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
 
Based: Dubai, UAE
 
Sector: Entertainment 
 
Number of staff: 210 
 
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
Thank You for Banking with Us

Director: Laila Abbas

Starring: Yasmine Al Massri, Clara Khoury, Kamel El Basha, Ashraf Barhoum

Rating: 4/5

Did you know?

Brunch has been around, is some form or another, for more than a century. The word was first mentioned in print in an 1895 edition of Hunter’s Weekly, after making the rounds among university students in Britain. The article, entitled Brunch: A Plea, argued the case for a later, more sociable weekend meal. “By eliminating the need to get up early on Sunday, brunch would make life brighter for Saturday night carousers. It would promote human happiness in other ways as well,” the piece read. “It is talk-compelling. It puts you in a good temper, it makes you satisfied with yourself and your fellow beings, it sweeps away the worries and cobwebs of the week.” More than 100 years later, author Guy Beringer’s words still ring true, especially in the UAE, where brunches are often used to mark special, sociable occasions.

RESULTS

Lightweight (female)
Sara El Bakkali bt Anisha Kadka
Bantamweight
Mohammed Adil Al Debi bt Moaz Abdelgawad
Welterweight
Amir Boureslan bt Mahmoud Zanouny
Featherweight
Mohammed Al Katheeri bt Abrorbek Madaminbekov
Super featherweight
Ibrahem Bilal bt Emad Arafa
Middleweight
Ahmed Abdolaziz bt Imad Essassi
Bantamweight (female)
Ilham Bourakkadi bt Milena Martinou
Welterweight
Mohamed Mardi bt Noureddine El Agouti
Middleweight
Nabil Ouach bt Ymad Atrous
Welterweight
Nouredine Samir bt Marlon Ribeiro
Super welterweight
Brad Stanton bt Mohamed El Boukhari

Education reform in Abu Dhabi

 

The emirate’s public education system has been in a constant state of change since the New School Model was launched in 2010 by the Abu Dhabi Education Council. The NSM, which is also known as the Abu Dhabi School Model, transformed the public school curriculum by introducing bilingual education starting with students from grades one to five. Under this new curriculum, the children spend half the day learning in Arabic and half in English – being taught maths, science and English language by mostly Western educated, native English speakers. The NSM curriculum also moved away from rote learning and required teachers to develop a “child-centered learning environment” that promoted critical thinking and independent learning. The NSM expanded by one grade each year and by the 2017-2018 academic year, it will have reached the high school level. Major reforms to the high school curriculum were announced in 2015. The two-stream curriculum, which allowed pupils to elect to follow a science or humanities course of study, was eliminated. In its place was a singular curriculum in which stem -- science, technology, engineering and maths – accounted for at least 50 per cent of all subjects. In 2016, Adec announced additional changes, including the introduction of two levels of maths and physics – advanced or general – to pupils in Grade 10, and a new core subject, career guidance, for grades 10 to 12; and a digital technology and innovation course for Grade 9. Next year, the focus will be on launching a new moral education subject to teach pupils from grades 1 to 9 character and morality, civic studies, cultural studies and the individual and the community.

JAPANESE GRAND PRIX INFO

Schedule (All times UAE)
First practice: Friday, 5-6.30am
Second practice: Friday, 9-10.30am
Third practice: Saturday, 7-8am
Qualifying: Saturday, 10-11am
Race: Sunday, 9am-midday 

Race venue: Suzuka International Racing Course
Circuit Length: 5.807km
Number of Laps: 53
Watch live: beIN Sports HD

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COMPANY PROFILE

Company: Bidzi

● Started: 2024

● Founders: Akshay Dosaj and Asif Rashid

● Based: Dubai, UAE

● Industry: M&A

● Funding size: Bootstrapped

● No of employees: Nine

Our family matters legal consultant

Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais

Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6

Developer: Treyarch, Raven Software
Publisher:  Activision
Console: PlayStation 4 & 5, Windows, Xbox One & Series X/S
Rating: 3.5/5

COMPANY%20PROFILE
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'Nope'
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Sarfira

Director: Sudha Kongara Prasad

Starring: Akshay Kumar, Radhika Madan, Paresh Rawal 

Rating: 2/5

Karwaan

Producer: Ronnie Screwvala

Director: Akarsh Khurana

Starring: Irrfan Khan, Dulquer Salmaan, Mithila Palkar

Rating: 4/5

APPLE IPAD MINI (A17 PRO)

Display: 21cm Liquid Retina Display, 2266 x 1488, 326ppi, 500 nits

Chip: Apple A17 Pro, 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine

Storage: 128/256/512GB

Main camera: 12MP wide, f/1.8, digital zoom up to 5x, Smart HDR 4

Front camera: 12MP ultra-wide, f/2.4, Smart HDR 4, full-HD @ 25/30/60fps

Biometrics: Touch ID, Face ID

Colours: Blue, purple, space grey, starlight

In the box: iPad mini, USB-C cable, 20W USB-C power adapter

Price: From Dh2,099

COMPANY PROFILE
Name: ARDH Collective
Based: Dubai
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Sector: Sustainability
Total funding: Self funded
Number of employees: 4
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'My Son'

Director: Christian Carion

Starring: James McAvoy, Claire Foy, Tom Cullen, Gary Lewis

Rating: 2/5

MO
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The biog:

From: Wimbledon, London, UK

Education: Medical doctor

Hobbies: Travelling, meeting new people and cultures 

Favourite animals: All of them 

VEZEETA PROFILE

Date started: 2012

Founder: Amir Barsoum

Based: Dubai, UAE

Sector: HealthTech / MedTech

Size: 300 employees

Funding: $22.6 million (as of September 2018)

Investors: Technology Development Fund, Silicon Badia, Beco Capital, Vostok New Ventures, Endeavour Catalyst, Crescent Enterprises’ CE-Ventures, Saudi Technology Ventures and IFC

COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
Five famous companies founded by teens

There are numerous success stories of teen businesses that were created in college dorm rooms and other modest circumstances. Below are some of the most recognisable names in the industry:

  1. Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg and his friends started Facebook when he was a 19-year-old Harvard undergraduate. 
  2. Dell: When Michael Dell was an undergraduate student at Texas University in 1984, he started upgrading computers for profit. He starting working full-time on his business when he was 19. Eventually, his company became the Dell Computer Corporation and then Dell Inc. 
  3. Subway: Fred DeLuca opened the first Subway restaurant when he was 17. In 1965, Mr DeLuca needed extra money for college, so he decided to open his own business. Peter Buck, a family friend, lent him $1,000 and together, they opened Pete’s Super Submarines. A few years later, the company was rebranded and called Subway. 
  4. Mashable: In 2005, Pete Cashmore created Mashable in Scotland when he was a teenager. The site was then a technology blog. Over the next few decades, Mr Cashmore has turned Mashable into a global media company.
  5. Oculus VR: Palmer Luckey founded Oculus VR in June 2012, when he was 19. In August that year, Oculus launched its Kickstarter campaign and raised more than $1 million in three days. Facebook bought Oculus for $2 billion two years later.
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The specs
Engine: 77.4kW all-wheel-drive dual motor
Power: 320bhp
Torque: 605Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh219,000
On sale: Now
EA Sports FC 25
Buy farm-fresh food

The UAE is stepping up its game when it comes to platforms for local farms to show off and sell their produce.

In Dubai, visit Emirati Farmers Souq at The Pointe every Saturday from 8am to 2pm, which has produce from Al Ammar Farm, Omar Al Katri Farm, Hikarivege Vegetables, Rashed Farms and Al Khaleej Honey Trading, among others. 

In Sharjah, the Aljada residential community will launch a new outdoor farmers’ market every Friday starting this weekend. Manbat will be held from 3pm to 8pm, and will host 30 farmers, local home-grown entrepreneurs and food stalls from the teams behind Badia Farms; Emirates Hydroponics Farms; Modern Organic Farm; Revolution Real; Astraea Farms; and Al Khaleej Food. 

In Abu Dhabi, order farm produce from Food Crowd, an online grocery platform that supplies fresh and organic ingredients directly from farms such as Emirates Bio Farm, TFC, Armela Farms and mother company Al Dahra. 

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