Nationality Emirati | Name Bodour Sultan | |
Occupation Chairperson of the Sharjah Investment and Development Authority (Shurooq) Profiles | ||
Sheikha Bodour bint Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi is the Chairperson of the Sharjah Investment and Development Authority (Shurooq) and Founder and CEO of the Kalimat Group [1]. She is a member of the ruling family of Sharjah, the third largest of the seven UAE emirates, and daughter of His Highness Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Muhammad Al-Qasimi, Member of the UAE Supreme Council and Ruler of Sharjah. In 2014 she was ranked at number 34 by Forbes in its list of 200 Most Powerful Arab Women in Family Business.
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Early life and education
Born in Sharjah, Sheikha Bodour is the daughter of His Highness Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Member of the UAE Supreme Council and Ruler of Sharjah, and Her Highness Sheikha Jawaher bint Mohammed Al Qasimi. She attained a BA (Hons) from the University of Cambridge, an MSc in Medical Anthropology from University College London, and completed publishing courses from Yale and Columbia
Career and awards
Since 2002 Sheikha Bodour has been Vice President of the Sharjah Ladies Club [2], an entity of the Government of Sharjah, and President of the Sharjah Baby Friendly Campaign. In 2007, she founded Kalimat, the first publishing house dedicated to the production of Arabic titles for children. She is an advocate for greater technology integration in the Arabic classroom and led Kalimat Group’s expansion to include a second imprint, Horouf Educational Publishing. The imprint pioneera a technology-enabled approach to Arabic learning and has partnered with Samsung to deliver integrated technology classroom solutions. In 2009 she was appointed Chairperson of Shurooq, the Government of Sharjah’s Investment and Development Authority.
Sheikha Bodour is Patron and Founder of the Emirates Publishers Association (EPA), which in 2012 gained full membership of the International Publishers Association (IPA). In 2014 she became the first Arab woman to be elected to serve on the Executive Committee of IPA. She is also founder and Patron of the UAE Board on Books for Young People (UAEBBY), the national section of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY).
Sheikha Bodour is also the Head of Knowledge without Borders organizing committee, an initiative launched by the Ruler of Sharjah with the aim of establishing a library in every house in the Emirate.
For her contribution to Arab literature, Sheikha Bodour was named ‘Personality of the Year’’ at the 2013 Emirates Airline Festival of Literature, as well as ‘Personality of the Year’ at the Sharjah Award for Educational Excellence 2013. In 2014 she received the Arab Woman Award in the ‘Education’ category. She also received the first Tourism Personality of the Year accolade in 2013, an award instituted by the Sharjah Commerce and Tourism Development Authority (SCTDA), that was presented to her during the Sharjah Tourism Excellence Awards 2013.
Under her leadership, Kalimat received the Bologna Best Children’s Publisher of the Year Prize – BOP – Asia 2016, and the Bologna Ragazzi Award - “New Horizons” category - for its book ‘Lisanak Hisanak’ (‘Tongue Twisters’) 2016.