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Rabat – Kenza Margaoui has quite an admirable list of accomplishments by any standards. Currently, she sits as an Executive Vice President and General Counsel specializing in corporate law, mergers and acquisitions, and commercial law at the OCP Group, the world’s largest phosphate mining company and a global leader on sustainable agricultural development.
Margaoui was also previously awarded the 2003-2004 Foreign Judge Fellowship at the University of Texas’ Institute of Transnational Law in the US after earning an LL.M from the university in the same year. She subsequently worked at a number of US law firms, including Reed Smith LLP, Simmons & Simmons, and Shearman & Sterling, before returning to Morocco to work for the OCP Group.
With a list of accomplishments as spectacular as this, to hear Margaoui speak about her journey as a woman in the corporate world was truly an awe-inspiring experience.
On Tuesday this week, Margaoui joined several other women in speaking at a global online event hosted by the Berkley Global Society, an international organization of lawyers with a presence in 110 countries. The topic of the conversation was “What are the tools to foster Women Leadership?” The panelists included women of color around the world who are at the top in their respective fields, and focused on the development of women’s professional careers — particularly in Africa.
In her speech, Margaoui broke down her vision to promote female leadership into three main necessary factors. The first tool, she explained, is for a woman to “believe in herself.” She remarked that “Women usually want to make sure they are completely able to do a task,” before undertaking it. For Margaoui, this mindset undermines a woman’s ability to advance in the competitive global business world. She instead implored women to try, fail, and learn from their mistakes.
Her second point was the importance of mentorship in advancing women’s work in business. She emphasized the need for investing and boosting female social networks to both “mentor and accompany women” as they climb the complex socio-professional ladder in their careers. By establishing a relationship with women who are already accomplished in their respective fields, other women can have a resource to discuss common problems that women encounter when trying to advance their careers. She also points out that developing this relationship was beneficial to the growth of “both mentor and mentee.”
Finally, Margaoui highlighted the “environment” within which women were working and developing their careers. She pointed out that women would need to be in environments that are conducive to their growth if they wished to be successful in fields that are traditionally dominated by men.
Margaoui also had important advice in the management of “imposter syndrome,” a psychological symptom shared by many women as they advance into traditionally male-dominated leadership positions. A lot of women question whether they are truly qualified for the positions they find themselves in, and it is a topic that someone as accomplished as Margaoui could surely, heavily relate to — and discuss.
As she ended her speech, Margaoui reverted back to her earlier point about the importance of finding a successful female mentor. She insisted on the irreplaceable significance of the need to create and foster “exchanges” with women that have had similar experiences. For women with great professional expectations, networking with other women – who have accomplished or wish to accomplish similar goals – is key, she reiterated throughout her speech.
Margaoui concluded by imploring women in the audience to be more “vocal” in their ambitions and to “be confident, be leaders, be who you want to be. To the men, Margaoui simply said, “help them.” She also relayed an old saying: “If you want something said ask a man, if you want something done ask a woman.” If anything, however, Margaoui and the rest of the incredible women who spoke at Tuesday’s conference showed that, given the right opportunity, women are clearly capable of accomplishing both.
