PIONEERING PROGRESS

Shaikha Khaled Al Bahar, Deputy Group CEO of the National Bank of Kuwait Group, has spent her career rising through the ranks of Kuwait’s biggest banking group. Away from the bottom line, she’s focused on making her stamp on her country’s social growth.

- CLAUDINE COLETTI

In November 2022, when Shaikha Khaled Al Bahar, Deputy Group CEO of the National Bank of Kuwait Group (NBK), took to the stage at the Arab Bankers Association’s annual event to accept the “Distinguished Services to Arab Banking Award 2022,” she wanted to take a different approach in her acceptance speech. As the first woman to ever win the award, Al Bahar wanted to stress the realities of her journey rather than focusing on the highs alone. “These accounts make it seem like a career in our field is a smooth upward trajectory, but here I was at the pinnacle of my career. I built from the ground up with a unique opportunity to show what it takes,” she remembers. “I chose to have a different approach where I shared my personal experience. The truth is I had to double the work to prove myself.”

Al Bahar has been with NBK for over 35 years— more than half the time the bank has existed, having first been established in 1952. In that time, the bank has grown to become the biggest in Kuwait, recording profits of over $1.7 billion from a net operating income of $3.3 billion in 2022, up from over $1.2 billion profits from a net operating income of $2.9 billion in 2021. The bank offers alternative investments through its NBK Capital subsidiary, which it founded in 2005, and offers both traditional services and Shari’ah-compliant financial services through its major shareholding in Kuwait’s Islamic Boubyan Bank, which was established in 2004. As of November 2022, NBK Capital had executed over $91 billion worth of investment banking mandates since inception. The expansive banking group had $18.6 billion in funds under management as of December 31, 2022, and a market cap of nearly $27 billion as of January 23, 2023.