Mirna Arif becomes first woman in the Middle East to head Egypt’s Microsoft

  • Date: 23-Mar-2021
  • Source: Egypt Independent
  • Sector:Technology
  • Country:Middle East
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Mirna Arif becomes first woman in the Middle East to head Egypt’s Microsoft

Mirna Arif has achieved new ground by becoming the first woman in Egypt to head Microsoft Egypt.

Long career

Arif began her career 19 years ago, first working with multinational organizations through public sectors in the Middle East, Africa and Europe, where she gradually climbed her way up to become the General Manager of Microsoft Egypt.

Upon graduating from the Faculty of Computer Science at the American University in Cairo (AUC) in 2002, Arif caught the interest of several leading international companies in several fields.

From 2002 to 2014, Arif then spent the first 12 years of her career at global oil services company Schlumberger. She held several leadership positions there, including as Marketing Director and the official of strategies for the software and marine sectors for the company in London.

Government positions and heavy assignments

Arif has also been tasked with several heavy positions, such as working as assistant to the Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources in 2015.

She would later become Regional Director for Digital Transformation at GE Oil & Gas in July 2017, where she took charge of promoting digital transformation strategies for oil and gas customers in North Africa and Turkey.

One year to win Microsoft's trust

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