Najla al Awadhi

About Najla al Awadhi

Her Excellency Najla Al Awadhi is a former Member of Parliament of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and a distinguished media leader in the Middle East. She is one of the first women in the history of the UAE to become an MP and also held the distinction as the youngest parliamentarian in the UAE.

During her four-year parliament term she served on the Education, Youth, Media and Culture Committee; as well as the Parliamentary Steering Committee established to develop a scheme to modernize the Parliament’s practices and overall effectiveness. She also previously served on the Foreign Affairs, Planning, Petroleum, Mineral Wealth, Agriculture and Fishery Committees.

Her Excellency Najla Al Awadhi is also the first woman from a Gulf Cooperation Country (GCC) to hold a chief executive post in a state run media organization. With a particular focus on television, she served as the Chief Executive Officer of Channels at Dubai Media Incorporated (DMI). DMI is a Dubai Government media group which comprises a number of print, radio and TV channels including: Dubai Channel, Sama Dubai Channel, Dubai One Channel, Dubai Sports Channel, Dubai Racing Channel, Noor Dubai Channel, Noor Radio & TV, Al Bayan newspaper, Emarat Al Youm newspaper, Emirates Business 24|7, and Masar Printing Press. Her Excellency also previously served as the General Manger of Dubai One TV.

Since 2007 she has been a regular columnist for local newspapers in the UAE. Her articles cover a range of socio economic topics, including women’s rights, democracy, social justice, cultural perspectives, and education challenges throughout the Middle East.

Her Excellency Najla Al Awadhi is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders and also a Member of the Global Agenda Councils of the World Economic Forum. In addition, Her Excellency was acting chairperson for the regional board of Young Arab Leaders (YAL). Previously, she was also a Board Member with YAL’s UAE Chapter and headed its Education initiative that sought to provide higher education opportunities to talented UAE nationals. Her Excellency also sits on the Advisory Board of the University of Southern California’s Center on Public Diplomacy, and is a Board Member of Dubai Women’s Establishment.

As part of Her Excellency’s passion to contribute to progressive Arab human development strategies and specifically capacity building for Arab women, she established Najla Al Awadhi Consulting in 2010. Her Excellency Najla Al Awadhi graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of New Hampshire with a BA in History, and she is currently also completing her graduate studies at Harvard University.