Rabat – As Morocco makes incremental steps towards gender equality, the relentless engagement and inspirational success of many female role models will be essential to lifting the voice and confidence of young Moroccan women who want to shake the yoke of patriarchy and find success in professions of their own choosing.
Kenza Margaoui, a successful lawyer with big ambitions regarding female leadership, is one such voice, with her own professional success being an example to emulate or be inspired by for aspirant female leaders.
Because she firmly believes that: women in high positions do make a change, Margaoui is determined to work toward cultivating among young Moroccans, especially women, a sense of purpose and the confidence to engage with social issues and lead.
She is the General Counsel of the OCP Group, which she described in an interview last year with a Moroccan newspaper as “one of the first Moroccan and African companies to register in this approach in a sustainable way.”
In the interview, Margaoui urged other Moroccan companies to follow the example of the OCP Group´s diversity approach, saying: “It is established that diversity leads to increased innovation and creativity and contributes to better attractiveness and retention of talent.”
She was elected in 2022 as one of Morocco’s 50 inspiring women by the newspaper Challenge.
Alongside her work with the OCP Group, Margaoui is also engaged in the law field. She was involved in the founding of the Moroccan Circle of Legal Departments that function as a network that works in collaboration with different Moroccan universities and offers legal training. Margaoui is also part of the Women in Law circle that runs under the “Lean in Morocco” chapter association.
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Margaoui graduated with a DEA in English and North American business law and a Master in business law from the University of Paris I Pantheon-Sorbonne. In addition, she also achieved a Master of Laws from University of Texas at Austin. She is now a member of the Paris and New York bars.
Before becoming Senior Counsel at the OCP Group in 2012, Margaoui led the AJAM-Clifford Chance-Program, which hands merit grants to law students in France. From 2011-2012 she held the position of the President of the Association of Business Lawyers of Morocco in Paris.
While acknowledging the progress Morocco has made on a wide-range of fronts, including the protection of women’s rights and the promotion of female empowerment, Margaoui believes there is still a long way to go. “We are fortunate to live today in a context in which a lot of initiatives have emerged and are emerging, although the road is still long,” she said.
