As manager of the strategic planning unit, Maysoon Sabkar ’95 helps the Economic Development Board in Bahrain to formulate economic strategy and attract investment to the country. Her responsibilities include coordinating the oversight committee for the national labor reform project.
“We are working on projects that will determine the direction of Bahrain’s future,” she says. “These will affect absolutely everyone — women, youth, expatriates working in Bahrain, and others.”
Sabkar has especially enjoyed her role in labor reform, a huge project with far-reaching consequences for the country that will be implemented late next year. She says that she has helped to provide a platform that encourages full participation and addresses all issues, and Sabkar is eager to see the effects of the reform on Bahrain.
“Being a hugely sensitive issue, labor reform in the [Persian] Gulf is often mentioned, but little action has been taken,” she explains. “Bahrain is the first country to brave the storm, and it has been fascinating to see all of the media coverage and regional debate that this has sparked.”
An economics and business graduate who holds a master’s in economic and political development from Columbia University, Sabkar recalls her Lafayette experience as one that gave her insight into what might interest U.S. visitors in Bahrain and allowed her to become a more complete and confident person.
“For me, it was the whole experience: Leaving home, moving to Easton, starting completely afresh, living in a dorm with a roommate, working the late shift at Kirby Hall [of Civil Rights], adapting to the culture, figuring out which parts I wanted to adopt and which parts I wanted to stay away from, having so many classes to choose from, and so many places to visit,” she says. “The list goes on. Lafayette influenced who I was and how I could make decisions about my career. It shaped me as a person.”