Anuradha Harish, Executive Director of Strategy & Business Excellence, Dubai Holding Real Estate

It was her love for iconic buildings and architecture that brought Anuradha to the built environment. Having studied architecture, Anuradha soon learned that there is so much more that goes into the real estate realm. “The more deeply involved I got into the industry, I realized that it was a lot more complex than my simplistic view as an architect. And that’s when I moved from being just an architect to hard real estate and development business,” said Anuradha.

Proud Moments

Anuradha has been in the Dubai real estate business for nearly 16 years now, and every project she was a part of the last one was her proudest one. “It is not just about a particular building or technology, right? Real estate is a long development cycle. From the time it is conceived to the time it gets completed, it takes years together. So you end up taking the small wins as they come and the happy faces of the customers,” said Anuradha. She is involved in multiple roles and a large part around digitization that real estate journey.

Barriers in Female Leadership

Shedding light on the female representation on the overall real estate value chain – from strategy to investment to actual sales, Anuradha says that women are fairly-represented. “While I do feel there are a good number of women entering the industry and succeeding, it will be nice to see more women representation in the upstream of this chain,” added Anuradha.

Advice

“My advice is not to stereotype ourselves based on gender. And don’t mix your career aspirations with these gender stereotypes. If we are willing to work hard and people are willing to see the value that you can bring, then there is no glass ceiling. So work hard with dedication and passion and be good at what you do. Success will automatically follow.”