Mediaboss Marketing

As the head of Jordans Nafith Logistics, Nourah Mehyar is used to being one of the few women in an industry dominated by men. She doesnt want others to get used to it, though. Her work to integrate and promote women in Iraqs logistics industry earned her MIGAs first Gender CEO Award, which honors outstanding leaders for their commitment to gender equality in a challenging environment.

Nafiths groundbreaking work in Jordan led to a $5 million equity investment from IFC in 2014 so the company could take its expertise to Iraq, where its systems help manage freight at four major Iraqi ports. Mehyar heads a workforce of about 250 employees in total and says the role has definitely had its challenges.

Most of the time youre sitting in a meeting where you are the only woman and men are the main stakeholders, she says. In the beginning, we only had three women out of 250 employees. Since 2008, weve managed to introduce women in several sectorsIT, finance, and HRbut my biggest accomplishment was to actually introduce women in operations.

Mehyars main goal in Iraq, she says, was to ensure that women were given equal opportunities to apply for jobs.

I have been happily surprised with the number of women that have applied and have the right qualifications, she says. Today, women comprise around 40 percent of our operations team.

Mehyar says bringing women into the logistics sectorand to work in generalrequires constant mentoring of both women and men to help with skills like communication, teamwork, and collaboration.

Introducing women in such industries also needs a culture change from within the organization to ensure sustainability and growth, she adds.

Mehyars hopes to expand Nafith further and take its expertise into other countries, where she will continue to encourage more women to join the sector.

Women are an untapped potential in logistics, and I think they can bring a new perspective to the table, she says. I hope this award will inspire women and girls to make their own life choices and get rid of internal and external limitations.

Published in April 2016

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