Saudi Arabia's First Female CFO

LS: Do your daughters know what they want to do when they grow up?

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SAK: Not yet, but when I see my daughters now, we always talk about this. Of course, being a working mother has its pros and it has its cons. You can't have everything. You can't be a complete working mother and put 100 percent in your work and you can't be a mother at home and a wife, and give all to your home. But what happens is, this equilibrium that I'm trying to reach, has given my daughters a kind of confidence in women. They see their mother capable of interacting, capable or reaching a certain level, and they see that as somebody that they would like to be. Of course, I would like them to surpass me, to do better than I did and I always see myself as paving the way for my daughters, paving the way for my students, for them to have a better tomorrow, for them to have a better future, for them to participate more and more.

What's really amazing to me is we see companies now springing out in Saudi Arabia, opting for women. More and more companies want women to head different sectors of the company. So they see women as a large potential, which hasn't been utilized, and I think in the future more and more women will participate. We see them more maybe in middle-management level, but I think the future will hold that more and more Saudi women will hold larger positions, higher positions, in companies and I see that as the future for us.

LS: I think you're paving the way for a lot of people.

SAK: I hope so.