Roxana Jaffer
Founder, Sovereign Hotels ltd.
United Arab Emirates
Roxana Jaffer is a prominent humanitarian and a successful entrepreneur in the Hospitality Industry.
Her professional commitment as CEO of Sovereign Hotels with a responsibility of Holiday Inn Dubai is remarkable. Her vision and commitment allowed the organisation to being recognised as a responsible business, decorated 4 years running with “CSR Arabia Award 2016, 2017, 2018 & 2019’ out of 13 Arab countries, as well as ‘Eco-Friendly Hotel of the Year 2018 for Dubai’ & Best Workplace & HR Practices Winner by Gulf Sustainability & CSR Awards.
Born in Kenya, educated in London as a Certified Accountant (ACCA), returning to formal study as a mature student, attained an MBA with a Merit in Leadership with University of Liverpool (UK) earning her dissertation titled “Servant Leadership: A must for the 21st Century Global Leader” a special merit, continued as a scholar of the Harvard Business School for Executive Education, Roxana is an example of life-long learning. Simultaneously she founded an NGO: abc “Advent for Building Human Capital” that operates in India, Pakistan & UAE with a core mandate to help development of adults to communicate in English to a globally recognized standard, and enable them to take up employment in the hospitality industry. A special curriculum developed under an accredited British School of English, “English for Hospitality Professionals’ is accorded to unemployed youth so they can attain an ideal level of employment instead of spending several years bettering themselves when being employed Currently abc’s impact rate is around 80% of the 700 of the graduates, working with national and international hospitality companies in GCC as well as their home countries.
Roxana has several decorations & Credits to her name: Best Woman in Hospitality UAE Award – By Women Leaders in UAE (H.H.Sheikh Mohammed bin Sultan Al Nahyan) and recognized as an Indian – ‘Super 100 Women Achievers From India in the Middle East & Africa’”, with an article on her titled: ‘Pioneering the fusion of social responsibility with business strategy’ to name a couple.
Roxana epitomises the best in human endeavour – fun, laughter, hard work, creativity, caring for others, leading with a social conscience and above all, striving to make the world a better place.