A refusal to settle for middling good is the golden thread that runs through the life, both personal and professional, of Kamillia AlMarashi FCCA.
‘I don’t like to be just adequate at anything,’ confesses the senior principal for portfolio management at Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD), the principal investing arm of the Government of Dubai. Not content with being the first Emirati woman to gain the ACCA qualification, AlMarashi then put all her effort into the chartered financial analyst (CFA) programme to acquire the investment skills she now deploys daily to measurable effect.
‘I live and breathe finance’
Her career trajectory would be the envy of many finance professionals, let alone a woman in a traditionally male industry, yet she came within a whisker of becoming an engineer instead. ‘I considered following in my father’s footsteps,’ she says, ‘but after my GCSE business studies introduced me to accounting, I was hooked.’ Now, she is inspiring others, especially women, to pursue a career in finance.
Her own experience has offered plenty of opportunity for personal and professional growth. ‘If I compare myself to the girl who walked through ICD’s doors 13 years ago, I’m not the same person. I am more confident, resilient, and I trust myself implicitly to tackle any work-related challenges with excellence and grace.’
CV
2022
Head of portfolio management, Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD)
2010
Joined Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD) as associate; promoted multiple times to her current role
2006
Assistant audit manager, EY, Dubai
2000
Accounts payable administrator for Spain and Portugal, Polaroid UK
Broad portfolio
After a period in mergers and acquisitions, she moved to portfolio management, where she thrived. Established in 2006, ICD manages a broad portfolio of assets, locally and internationally, across a wide spectrum of sectors that support Dubai’s dynamic economy. ICD’s reported annual revenue at year-end 2022 was AED267.4bn (US$72.81bn), with net profit of AED36.1bn (US$9.83bn).
The fund’s portfolio contains a cross-section of Dubai’s most recognised and significant companies, including Emirates Airlines, Emirates National Oil Company, Emirates National Bank of Dubai, Emirates Global Aluminium and Dubai Aerospace Enterprise, to name just a few.
‘Part of my role is to problem-solve – a colleague actually calls me “the fixer”’
Day to day
‘Being a part of a team that makes investment decisions for the principal investment arm of the Government of Dubai has been a challenging and enriching experience,’ she says. Her day-to-day responsibilities centre on design and implementation of asset-level and portfolio investment strategy and asset management of portfolio companies.
‘I also sit on the board of ALEC Engineering & Contracting, which works on landmark projects in the UAE and abroad,’ she adds. These include SeaWorld Abu Dhabi and One Za’abeel in Dubai, a mixed development of two towers connected by a cantilever, which once completed will qualify to challenge the Guinness World Record for longest cantilevered building.
‘Because I look after the Dubai portfolio of assets, both private equity and strategic assets, I get involved with all our portfolio companies here, and I love the interactions with them,’ says AlMarashi, who is the go-to person for any issues or shareholder matters. ‘Part of my role is to problem-solve, and I enjoy that. One of my colleagues actually calls me “the fixer”,’ she adds.
The audit experience she gained from four years in practice at EY Dubai has been valuable. She is now chair of the audit committee at one ICD portfolio company, and an audit committee member at a number of others. During her EY stint, she reached what was then the highest position held within the firm by an Emirati woman.
Over the 13 years that have since passed, much has changed. She says that the Dubai ruler HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid’s championing of women’s contribution towards society has brought real progress. ‘Within ICD there has been a steady increase in female representation,’ adds AlMarashi, who is herself on the board of an ICD portfolio company.
‘I spent my own time and effort to achieve the CFA charter’
Determined to excel
She has not achieved what she has without a great deal of hard work. She believes in taking the initiative and developing her skills and experience. ’Professional development is key,’ she says. While her ACCA qualification has given her a solid foundation on which to build her finance career, she chose to complement it with the CFA Institute’s charter, an achievement of which she is justifiably proud.
‘It was something I did of my own accord and spent my own time and effort to achieve,’ she says. ‘Juggling a senior position and having to study around 500 hours per level meant dedicating most of my weekends and evenings to it.’
That determination to excel extends beyond the world of finance and investment. AlMarashi speaks Arabic, English, Swahili and Spanish (which she has recently been practising during trips to South America), while pursuing her favourite recreational pastime of solo travel. ‘As soon as I have free time, I’m off discovering the world,’ she says.
Travelling widely has, she thinks, changed her for the better. ‘When you travel and interact with people from different countries, it teaches you to be more open-minded, and I’ve also become a bit more outgoing.’
‘It’s my mission to visit more than 100 countries’
Mission-driven
Even during downtime, however, while planning future trips and solo travelling, her determination to be more than just adequate is clear.
After encountering a fellow Emirati who has visited around 130 countries, she says she now feels like she can’t go back to the countries she’s visited before but must visit new places. ‘It’s my mission, over the next decade or so, to visit more than 100 countries myself,’ she says.
It’s not the only personal or professional target on her mission list. ‘I’d like to sit on more boards and continue to contribute to the Dubai government’s goals and ambitions,’ she says. ‘I live and breathe finance.’
