Nesreen Ghaddar: All alone at the top

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. For most of her academic life, from her years as a student to teaching as a professor, Nesreen Ghaddar, associate provost and Qatar Chair of Energy Studies at the American University of Beirut (AUB), has been the only woman around. [pullquote]”Sometimes people are afraid of your success, especially when you are the only woman”[/pullquote] But Ghaddar has always viewed this as a learning experience. “Sometimes people are afraid of your success, especially when you are the only woman. People don’t know how to respond at the beginning and what to expect, but this changes with time when you prove yourself. You need to always keep your focus on the end goal.”