Buthaina Al-Ansari

Dr Buthaina Hassan Faraj Al-Ansari is a trainer, consultant, academic, businesswoman and expert in strategic planning, human development and corporate governance. Her career has reached beyond Qatar while remaining grounded in diligence, cooperation and respect for the identity of her society.

At Ooredoo, she supervised the pioneering Al-Giwana initiative in 2011–2012. Earlier recognition included a Businesswomen’s Forum award in 2006 and a 2009 businesswomen’s award for a project developing Qatarisation policy in the financial sector. In 2019, she won a Most Influential People in the Islamic World award in Malaysia after competing with thirteen women from different fields.

She grew up in a peaceful family that valued education, culture, generosity and a strong sense of national responsibility. Her father called her ‘Her Excellency the Minister’, while her mother called her ‘the Doctor’, and she grew into both forms of expectation. Her father, a businessman, made the family home a cultural salon every Friday after the evening prayer, when her uncles gathered for intellectual discussion. Those varied conversations built an unusually broad cultural foundation. Her mother further encouraged her academic and literary interests through magazines, books and constant reading.

An early view of media work came through Al Saqr magazine, founded by her uncle, businessman Mohammed Kadhim Al-Ansari, with His Excellency Saad Al-Rumaihi, Chair of the Qatar Press Centre. Journalists and media figures gathered at the family home, widening her awareness and prompting her to write her first words about Qatar at eight. From then on, writing, broadcasting and the microphone remained sources of fascination.

She understood early that ability required both opportunity and encouragement. Joining the Businesswomen’s Forum gave her an important opening, and Aisha Al Fardan offered support that removed obstacles, accelerated her development and enabled participation in international forums.

After secondary school, she considered a dentistry scholarship in Irbid, Jordan, and biomedical study at Qatar University. An engagement to her cousin changed the choice, and her father advised her to remain in Qatar. She completed a bachelor’s degree in biomedical sciences, gaining habits of accuracy, patience and respect for time even though the discipline did not reflect her deepest interests.

She began work immediately as a teaching assistant in Qatar University’s College of Science. Dr Khaled Al-Ali, Head of Biological and Medical Sciences, and her direct supervisor, Dr Adel Makiya, recognised her potential and helped her reconcile professional duties with further study through flexible scheduling and practical guidance.

An advertisement noticed by her husband led her to the MBA programme at Qatar University and into the fields she had long wanted to explore: business, investment, human development and strategic planning. Moving from medical terminology to economics in English required constant use of a dictionary. Her thesis on Qatar’s stock market, with particular attention to family businesses, won the approval of her supervisors and opened new professional possibilities.

Combining work, family and the master’s degree was exhausting. Support came from Dr Sheikha Al-Misnad, then President of Qatar University, who followed the concerns of a cohort drawn from different disciplines, and from Dr Mohammed Al-Najdawi, Dean of the College of Business and Economics, whom she regarded as a spiritual father.

The degree gave her space to build a professional identity. She taught macroeconomics to women undergraduates, managed the business administration office and redesigned aspects of its approach to prospective master’s students. A further academic role in Qatar University’s College of Business and Economics extended that experience.

Her transition into industry coincided with Qatar’s economic expansion. In 2004, she joined the work of establishing Masraf Al Rayan, contributing from the selection of its logo and furnishings to broader organisational details. The role allowed her to apply academic knowledge of human resources, investment and financial markets in practice.

The move from university life into banking brought a steep learning curve, but she adapted successfully and contributed in particular to the strategy for increasing Qatari participation in the financial sector.

A later opportunity at Qatar Telecom, Qtel, moved her from finance into telecommunications. The unfamiliar sector, scale of responsibility and pace of change created a new test after the progress she had made in banking.

Qtel reshaped her approach through work with varied nationalities and business areas during a period of corporate transformation. Among those involved were Dr Nasser Marafih, Sheikh Saud bin Nasser Al Thani, then Chief Executive Officer, the late Waleed Al-Sayed, then Head of Operations, and Sheikh Abdullah bin Mohammed Al Thani, then Chair of the Board.

Across twelve years with the company, she moved through strategic planning and human resources, contributed to strategy and financial results and built a recognised professional record. Resistance to change was a recurring challenge, but leadership support enabled her to continue proposing solutions and working with international expertise.

Eventually, she resigned from an organisation she regarded as a second home and declined other government positions so that she could reconsider her priorities and complete the doctorate she had already begun. Three months before defending her thesis, her husband—her constant supporter—became ill. She completed the project while he was in recovery, turning a period of personal strain into a decisive academic milestone.

The doctorate became a point of departure into digital transformation, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity. Courses and workshops helped her follow changes in Qatar and internationally, investigate less crowded fields and explore new approaches to financing educational institutions.

Writing became another means of documenting experience. Her books included Qatari Women, Economic Indicators, Lawyers’ Guide, Stronger than the Blockade in 2018, The Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on the National Economy in 2020, The Power of the State: Economic Indicators for the State of Qatar in 2021, The Countdown to Hosting the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 and Orientalism Discussion in 2023. She also published articles on strategic planning, human development and economic affairs, and contributed lectures and the ‘They Are Leaders and Writers’ initiative through the Qatari Forum for Authors.

Recognition included being ranked sixty-seventh among the 100 most powerful and influential Arab women in the Middle East by Arabian Business in 2011, Qatar University’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 2015, an award in Malaysia as one of the most influential people in the Islamic world in 2019 and selection by Insight Success in 2020 among ten influential entrepreneurs advancing women through education and enterprise. She went on to serve as the first Qatari woman to sit as an independent director of Investment Holding, listed on the Qatar Stock Exchange, and as an adviser to the Chair of Just Real Estate Holding, while continuing to provide strategic and economic consultancy and professional training.