Laure Sleiman: A news worthy woman

For this month’s special report on women in the workforce, Executive chose to profile a selection of seven successful, upper managerial level, Lebanese working women. Read more profiles as they’re published here, or pick up March’s issue at newsstands in Lebanon. When Laure Sleiman was first appointed as director of the National News Agency (NNA) in 2008, the official news agency under the Ministry of Information, a criticism she heard was that “this job needs a man.” Eight years into the post, handling the broadcasting of many delicate political news items in a timely and efficient manner, Sleiman says: “I proved them wrong. I showed them that what this position needs is determination and hard work, regardless of gender.” Within days of graduating from the Lebanese University’s faculty of media and documentation in 1992, Sleiman had landed a post at Voice of Lebanon as a news broadcaster and correspondent after having