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Where ambition meets partnership in corporate finance

How a pioneering finance director is building on family legacy with the support of a trusted adviser

As Finance Director of international logistics company Globe Group and its investments arm, Aghareed Abdul-Jawad is a significant figure in corporate finance in the Gulf. 

In 2025, her status was recognised with the Power List Middle East Women in Finance Award. “Finance is what I breathe, what I enjoy,” says Abdul-Jawad. “To be recognised as a Saudi woman in that field means a lot.”

Abdul-Jawad is also the first woman to have been elected to the board of the Eastern Province Chamber of Commerce and is Chairwoman of the Board of Globe Group subsidiary Tamkean Real Estate. She works alongside her father and brothers in the company that has expanded from the business originally founded by her late grandfather in 1976. “I could see, growing up, that our family dynamic was one of energetic people, working all the time. I’d hear about these different deals. I really wanted to be involved in that,” she says. “My father is a huge advocate of women working and never made me feel any different to my brothers.”

Finance is what I breathe, what I enjoy. To be recognised as a Saudi woman in that field means a lot

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Aghareed Abdul-jawad, Finance Director Globe Group

Education also shaped her ambitions. “I went to one of the top schools in the Eastern Province in Saudi, where critical thinking was encouraged, so I had grown up with that mentality.”

After graduating in Finance from Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University in 2014, Abdul-Jawad gained experience outside the family business, in wealth management. “That made me focus on another aspect of finance,” she says. “How to deal with people.”

Abdul-Jawad soon moved into the fold of her family’s logistics business, in the investment division, and then became Procurement Director. “Procurement is probably the most hated department in all companies, because they say no to everything,” laughs Abdul-Jawad. “Over time, I earned respect when [colleagues] saw the results. My system was more defined; expenses were controlled and the revenues showed more profits.” Today, as Finance Director, she says, she has well and truly won her team’s trust and respect. “Now it’s just, ‘She's in charge of the money’.”

My father is a huge advocate of women working and never made me feel any different to my brothers

Among Abdul-Jawad’s supporters is her family’s lawyer since 2017, Ella Leonard.

A specialist investment fund lawyer at London-based firm Fladgate, Leonard has experience of living and working in the Gulf, and has a strong professional relationship with Abdul-Jawad, built on mutual trust and appreciation.

“Aghareed is the pivot point, the point of instruction, and everyone recognises that,” says Leonard. “Her instructions are very clear; you always know where she wants to get to.” Abdul-Jawad explains that they understand one another’s working styles. “If I contact Ella about something, I know that she's going to get back to me, I know that she's working on it, that she’s got this.”

Aghareed’s achievements are entirely her own, but I’m standing behind her to help when she needs it

—

Ella Leonard, Partner Fladgate

Leonard has embedded herself in the Abdul-Jawad family’s ways of working and objectives.

“If you talk to your client as regularly as you can, you can be ahead of the curve,” she says. “So I can head things off at the pass, or I can make suggestions and be proactive, because I know what the capabilities of the rest of the firm are.”

Her interest and experience of legal work in the region has also been to the benefit of her professional partnership with Abdul-Jawad. “I loved my time in the Middle East, and I go back and forth to the Gulf fairly regularly,” says Leonard. “There are some subtleties that I notice that somebody who hadn't had that experience of living in the Gulf might not.”

Work occasionally brings the two together in London, too. “In the limited time that we have together in person, we enjoy one another's company,” says Leonard.  “When Aghareed is in the UK, we sometimes attend meetings together, and it is just fantastic to be with a really successful young woman, supporting her. Her achievements are entirely her own, but I’m standing behind her, to help when she needs it.”

“I have always felt Ella was there, and not just as my lawyer,” says Abdul-Jawad. “Knowing that she's going to be with me, that she’s going to be on my side and push for me, that gives me the support I need.”

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