Malak El Baba, Visa Egypt’s Country Manager Shares Her Journey At the Women Econ Empowerment Event

”Malak El Baba, Visa’s Country manager for Egypt recently spoke at the US Department POWER event on July 28, 2021. Here are some extracts from her speech.”

Let me start by introducing myself. My name is Malak El Baba, Lebanese by birth and Egyptian at heart, and a proud mother of an Egyptian young man. I moved to Egypt 10 years back to marry the love of my life and to join Visa. So all of a sudden my whole life changed: work, family, marital status, community, and culture, 

Going back to my roots, I have always lived in Beirut- to be a member of the “war generation” or what they call us. I can still remember the endless days spent in the basement of our building with our neighbors escaping the flying bombs around us, the looks in my mother’s eyes when she is handling three young kids while my dad is stuck somewhere during the airstrikes not knowing if he still alive – yet still giving us the comfort that everything is ok- while in reality, it’s not. I can still remember the night chats between my parents on whether we should leave the country and flee to a safer place. My dad used to say if we all leave who will remain? 

Those moments of resilience, determination, power all shaped me into whom I am today. It taught me never to give up, to fight for success regardless of the circumstances, to stand up again after failures, to never accept no as an answer, to break boundaries, and to challenge. When I start to grow up realize the amount of hidden worry and fear that my parents were hiding from us all the way; I realized that I need to make them proud and that I need to continue their path.

I started working at a very early age. Summer internships as a waitress, hotel receptionist, language teacher for illiterate elderlies, and finally a well-rounded internship at my father’s Factory where I learned how to be passionate about what you do; and that growing a business and being an entrepreneur in a fast-moving environment requires taking risks, excellent leadership skills, and raw determination. 

I won the “President’s Award” at my school and then graduated from Lebanese American University with high distinction with a diploma in International Affairs. Everyone thought I would be the “diplomat” of the family, but destiny played its role. By coincidence, a recruitment agency to which my sister and I applied shifted our CVs, and I had several banks calling me for interviews.

I started with a local bank as PA for the Chairman, a person whom I am forever grateful to have taught me all the secret recipes of success. 

He taught me the basics of being a great female leader:

• Being Empathetic: Being empathetic is not a personal trait only but also a soft skill that is needed in one’s career development. Empathy is an important leadership quality because it offers employees and customers alike the opportunity to be and feel heard. 
• Being Persuasive: Passion is incredibly compelling and can help move the needle toward success, both personally and professionally. 
• Being resilient: Being natural multi-taskers as women, and able to be resilient through these tasks and making the impossible, seem possible – naturally – is very inspiring. 
• Being Motivated by Challenge: he taught me how to be a creative problem solver and that the desire to overcome a challenge makes a great leader. 
• Being able to think Big: challenge assumptions and inspire teams- and more importantly lead by example.
• Being a good listener and communicator: Listen and digest the information before reacting and communicating openly with high emotional intelligence is a valuable way to build trust with your networks. 

The career shift

From there I got promoted continuously to lead the marketing team in few years. And then life changed when I moved to Egypt to join a great organization that enables and empowers women, everywhere! 

After 9 years between various regional marketing roles at Visa, I decided to break my fear and leave my comfort zone a year back. I made a “reset” for my career.

The support I got from my surrounding system was immense- which happens to be mainly dominated by men.

The challenge was to prove myself “internally” and “externally”: a Lebanese female marketer now leading the business. I had to work hard, very hard to gain and earn their trust and partnership.

I have to admit, It’s not always easy. As women, which are not necessarily always seen as the natural leaders in our part of the world, there are some personal efforts we need to do to be included: 

• If you’re waiting for someone to recognize the value you bring, you may well be waiting forever. Recognize your worth. If you want to work on a project, speak up.
• If you want to lead a team, say so. You don’t need to have a leadership title to be considered a leader in your office. Whatever your position, find a leadership role you can excel in–whether it’s heading up a key initiative, solving problems, and resolving conflict
• Let your voice be heard
• No one will appreciate your contributions until you appreciate them yourself. Work to become known as someone who can be counted on.
• remain calm, confident, and check your ego at the door. And always keep your support network close to get you through the rough days.

Visa 

A big part of my success goes back to my organization. I am fortunate to work at a company that is choosing to challenge, whose mission is meaningful, who has diversity and inclusion as part of its DNA, and whose values align with my own. I am inspired by the work we do every day at Visa to benefit individuals, businesses and economies because, in the end, we believe that economies that include everyone, uplift everyone, everywhere. And at the heart of this are women. 

All over the world, women are gaining financial power and shifting cultural dynamics. Visa is committed to fostering an environment that enables all women to thrive and challenge the status quo. That commitment comes to life in many ways, both inside and outside the workplace.

External Initiatives 

Investing in Women, Everywhere. Visa prioritizes women-owned businesses, a segment that is frequently underserved and cannot access savings, insurance, and/or credit products.

• Visa Foundation Grant to Women’s World Banking. Through an up to $20M partnership with Women’s World Banking, the Visa Foundation aims to enable 1.5 million women, entrepreneurs, to grow their incomes and increase their household assets. The program is also working to create access to financial services for another 10 million women by 2022.

• Visa Everywhere Initiative. The “Visa Everywhere Initiative (VEI): Women’s Global Edition” program spotlights the collective ability of women to effect change through their business ventures by providing them a platform to create connections and attract investment. The VEI: Women’s Global Edition recruited female entrepreneurs from around the world to solve challenges related to both payments and social issues. This competition tasked them to solve these separate challenges for a chance to win $100,000. More than 1,000 women-founded or co-founded businesses from 107 countries applied to the VEI: Women’s Global Edition and the winners were chosen in Paris, in connection with the start of the FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019. Visa is now replicating the VEI at a regional level, to continue to build a strong network of women entrepreneurs.

Empowering Women, Everywhere. While financial support for women is key, so is mentorship. When women work together, all women will rise.

• She’s Next. Visa is proud to support “She’s Next,” Empowered by Visa and the Female Founder Collective – a network of businesses led by women, supporting women. Through She’s Next we help build awareness of women entrepreneurs and invest in women across the socioeconomic spectrum around the globe to provide them with tools to build their businesses. We are very proud to have brought this home to MENA last year and look forward to creating a local version of it soon in Egypt. 

• Money is Changing. Visa has launched a campaign to help women learn from one another and make the financial decisions that work for them. Women today approach finances in a way that’s completely different from past generations. College, career, marriage, and mortgage aren’t necessarily the milestones to meet anymore. The old rules no longer apply, and that means knowing who to talk to for advice isn’t always clear-cut, either. Women are changing the money power dynamics at a rapid pace. However, outdated ideas of how women should deal with money prevail (e.g. feelings of shame, guilt, taboo, and secrets) hinder their ability to fully realize their financial power. Visa is helping to empower women to share their experience on handling everything from getting friends to pay them back, to negotiating a raise, to starting a business. Because sometimes it’s best to learn from experience—even if it’s someone else’s.

Inspiring Women, Everywhere. Visa believes in inequality on the playing field and the boardroom and strives to support and champion women in all facets of life.

• Visa is proud to be a global sponsor of the FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019™. Visa has also partnered with the U.S. Soccer Federation to sponsor the U.S. Women’s National Team, which includes athletes who have worked hard to reach the highest level of their profession. These incredible champions inspire the next generation of women athletes and Visa is proud to help promote them in their journey.

• In December 2018, Visa announced partnerships with the Union of European Football Associations’ (UEFA) Women’s Football Competitions and the Confederation of African Football (CAF) Total Africa Cup of Nations tournament.

Internal Initiatives

• Pledge to Equality. In August 2016, Visa signed the Equal Pay Pledge to affirm our company’s commitment to close the gender wage gap. At all Visa locations across the globe, for every $1 earned by men, our female employees doing the same work earn 99.9 cents. We are taking significant steps to close the gender wage gap from the inside out. Visa sponsors a “Ready to Return Program” for job candidates that have been away from the workforce for one or more years due to childcare, eldercare, or family care reasons, the majority of whom are women.

• Visa Women’s Network (VWN). Besides my role as CM, I also proudly head the VWN at a MENA level. We continue to invest in Visa Women’s Network (VWN) that facilitates the professional growth of female employees by offering networking and career development opportunities. VWN has developed a vibrant and diverse community of women, gathering them monthly for webinars and panel discussions with local organizations.

• Executive Edge. Executive Edge is our flagship global leadership program designed for women leaders at Visa. The program components include self-assessment and strengths discovery, leadership coaching, in-person leadership content delivered by external academic partners, exposure to senior leaders, as well as action learning where participants work together to solve critical business issues facing Visa.

With this incredible culture of D&I in place, Visa won a lot of Corporate Awards & Accolades

• Anita Borg Top 25 Companies for Women Technologists
• Bloomberg 2018 Gender-Equality Index (GEI) Company
• Bloomberg Top Companies for Women
• Diversity Best Practices 2018 Inclusion Index
• Forbes #10 America’s Best Employers for Diversity 2019
• Women’s Choice Award 2018 Best Places to Work For Women, Multicultural Women, and Millennials
• Working Mother Best Companies in India for Women to Work

#ChoosetoChallenge was the theme of this year’s International Women’s Day. Imagine if each of us in small and big ways, individually or through our organizations, challenged the norms that have left so many women excluded? I am challenging our community all the time, that we women, cant go unnoticed. I will speak up whenever I have the chance and make those less aware, more aware. I will continue to celebrate the achievements of women on every scale, from the home office to the Oval Office.