For the third consecutive year, the Atlantic Council hosted Abu Dhabi Finance Week’s Women in Finance programming. The event opened with remarks from Khalid Azim, Director of the MENA Futures Lab, who set the tone for this year’s conference by highlighting the pivotal role of innovation as an economic and financial equalizer.

In a world recalibrating its values, balance is emerging as the true measure of progress. This opening keynote reflected on how inclusion, integrity and shared leadership can strengthen institutions and inspire sustainable growth across economies. When diversity is embraced with intent, the future of finance becomes wiser, fairer and more enduring.

MENA Futures Lab’s Associate Director, Nour Dabboussi, introduced ADFW Women in Finance’s Inaugural Awardee, H.E.Raja El Mazrouei, CEO of Etihad Credit Insurance. This recognition celebrated H.E.El Mazrouei’s career achievements and contirbutions to the MENA region’s finance world.

This conversation highlighted H.E. Al Mazrouei’s remarkable career in finance, her unwavering dedication around advancing women’s economic participation, and the ways her leadership of Etihad Credit Insurance has facilitated the growth of the UAE’s non-oil exports.

Artificial intelligence isn’t replacing investors: it’s redefining them. This conversation explored how AI is sharpening foresight, unlocking new forms of creativity, and enabling smarter, more inclusive investment decisions in businesses across the MENA region.

This session emphasized how strategic initiatives can drive human capital development by equipping entrepreneurs with the skills, networks, and resources to turn ideas into impactful ventures, underpinning the region’s commitment to policies that incentivize sustainable growth creating conditions.

Strategies may set direction, but people drive progress. This session explored the role of corporate governance management in transforming talent into an engine for innovation, fostering cultures of trust, adaptability, and purpose that enable financial institutions to stay competitive in a rapidly evolving global economy.

Sustainability is now smart economics, and the MENA region is proving it. This panel highlighted how investors and institutions are coupling climate change awareness with responsible investment through green finance, blended capital, and innovative financial tools that power the transition to a low-carbon economy.

When women and girls gain access to financial education and investment opportunities, entire economies benefit. This session examined how financial inclusion amplifies women’s ability to support their families, invest in businesses, and participate fully in economic life, generating multiplier effects that advance both social and national development.

Women at the forefront of banking, digital assets, investment, and property are not standing still, they’re setting the pace and shifting the centre of influence. This session spotlighted the female leaders actively reshaping financial innovation across global markets.