Setting New Standards

Twenty-nine-year-old entrepreneur Sarah Jbara is the youngest female managing partner in the hospitality industry in the UAE. Running a super club, building an empire, and getting that work-life balance right are all on her agenda for 2018

- Alice Holtham

 When I meet 29-year-old entrepreneur Sarah Jbara, she is passionate, authoritative and warm in equal measures. She’s also exceptionally relaxed for a businesswoman who, as the managing partner of APJ management, is weeks away from opening the most hotly anticipated super club the city has arguably ever seen, Gotha Dubai. But Sarah’s not feeling the pressure. The straight-talking Lebanese entrepreneur, who was born and raised in London, has been in the business since she was 16. “I’ve worked my way up the ranks in this industry for over a decade and now I have my own business; I’m not going to stop.” After moving to Dubai from London in 2013, she became general manager of one of the most exclusive clubs in town, Cavalli. She was just 25 at the time. “Having such a big Lebanese family, I was lucky to understand the culture and fit in a lot quicker to the Dubai mentality – it can be difficult to adjust when you first arrive.” But the transition from the UK to the UAE didn’t come without challenges. “When I first arrived, no one really understood me. I think they saw me as some sort of threat,” explains Sarah of her first role. “It took time for me to break down walls, and change the mentalities of people here that I was serious, and I knew what I was doing”. It was this no-nonsense attitude that allowed Sarah to take a leap of faith in December 2015, with her own company, APJ Management. The same month, she