Women Of Influence 2025: GMG's Razan Akrouk
The Chief People and Sustainability Officer at GMG has been named one of Inc. Arabia’s Women of Influence 2025, which showcases 30 women rewriting the rules of business in the MENA region.
As the Chief People and Sustainability Officer at GMG, Razan Akrouk leads the UAE-based wellbeing company’s people, brand, culture, and sustainability functions, aligning them under a single strategy to drive business performance, operational agility, and long-term value. At GMG, which has a portfolio of international and homegrown brands across sports, everyday goods, health, beauty, home, properties, and logistics, Akrouk has made use of her background in brand and marketing to rewire how the business thinks about company culture.
“I believed that if marketing drives global business success, it should have a place in shaping how we engage and grow our people,” she explains. “I realized that if we want to build organizations that are truly future-ready, we can’t treat these areas in silos. People strategy has to connect to brand. Culture has to be a business enabler. Sustainability has to be embedded in decision-making. That decision led us to rethink how we hire, how we retain, and how we show up internally. It allowed us to create a single, clear narrative—one where our external brand promise matches the lived employee experience. It was a bold move, but one that’s fundamentally changed how we build culture with intention.”
GMG has also provided Akrouk with a platform to see how diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) can drive tangible results. “Diverse leadership brings agility, resilience, and innovation, and more businesses are recognizing that this isn’t just good ethics—it’s good economics,” she says. “At GMG, we’ve moved DE&I from aspiration to action. Our DE&I committee is driving a multi-year agenda focused on structural change. That includes EmpowHer Circles, our mentorship and career navigation platform, active in the UAE, Singapore, KSA, India, and Malaysia. These circles provide peer learning, growth pathways, and safe spaces to explore leadership—creating a culture of shared growth. And we’re seeing the results. We’ve achieved near gender pay parity at senior levels, and we’re embedding inclusion into every business function, not just within human resources.”
Lessons Learned: Q&A With Razan Akrouk
Looking back on your journey, if there is one piece of advice you’d give yourself before you embarked on your career, what would that be? Additionally, if you could go back in time and tell yourself something that you should avoid or simply not do, what would that be?
If I could speak to my younger self, one piece of advice would be not to underestimate the power of thinking differently, especially when others don't yet see what you do. Early in your career, it's easy to second-guess yourself, to assume that the "conventional" way is always the right way. But many of the meaningful shifts I've led came from leaning into a different point of view.
For anyone following a similar path, know that your journey doesn't have to look like anyone else's. Trust your instincts, especially when they feel unfamiliar. Build your own blueprint, one that reflects your values, your vision, and your voice. You don’t need to follow a conventional roadmap to create a meaningful impact. Sometimes, your difference is your edge.
Pictured in the lead image is Razan Akrouk, the Chief People and Sustainability Officer at GMG. Courtesy of GMG.
Razan Akrouk was one of Inc. Arabia's Women of Influence 2025, a showcase of 30 women rewriting the rules of business in the MENA region. For the full list, please click here.
