Taking the people-centric approach as a leader

Hanan Abdulkarim, Human Resources Director, SAP Middle East North.

Over the years, women have increased their participation in the workplace to become significant players in the success of the IT industry. This accelerated change has allowed women to confidently speak up about their career aspirations positively. Organisations that have allowed rapid adaptation to best practices in recruitment, development, and retention of women have been the catalysts of this paradigm shift.

Gender equality is an important part of SAP’s mission to help the world run better and to improve people’s lives. Operating in an industry often cited for its lack of diversity, SAP Women Forward has been working to counter this trend and to be a tech company that is willing to lead by example.

 Most challenging

With the ever-changing market dynamics, among the biggest challenges are businesses changes in strategies, structures, and the need to implement rapid decisions. These changes require HR to translate these business decisions into people strategies and meaningful experiences, while also focusing on transparency and objectivity.

Most engaging

Working in HR allows me a chance to create meaningful and long-lasting relationships with colleagues across the globe. This offers me new learning ventures and ability to solve together complex challenges which can impact positively how we run as an organization. SAP, as a global organisation with employees from 150+ nationalities, is driving diversity and inclusion, so our employees can feel free to be their authentic selves for our company to perform at its best.


Hanan Abdulkarim, Human Resources Director, SAP Middle East North

Abdulkarim is the HR Director for SAP Middle East North, which covers Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, Syria, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Critical to her role is to positively influence their business long-term thinking and to help shape the internal customer value proposition, beyond the traditional transactional HR role.