Читать книгу Digital Government Excellence - Siim Sikkut - Страница 14

Her Excellency Dr. Aisha Bint Buti Bin Bishr has been the vice chairman of Emaar Development Board since December 2020. She was the founding Director General of the Smart Dubai Department, UAE between 2015 and 2020, the government entity entrusted with Dubai's citywide smart digital transformation.

During that time, Aisha was a member of various boards, including the Dubai Future Council for Blockchain as its chairperson, World Happiness Council, World Economic Forum's Global Future Council, and many more.

Prior to her Smart Dubai role, Aisha served as the Assistant Director General of Dubai Executive Office and Assistant Undersecretary of the UAE Ministry of Labour. Throughout her twenty-seven-year experience in ICT development, Aisha committed herself to humanizing digital transformation, from developing technologies to transforming human experiences.

She is considered among the world's most acclaimed digital transformation and smart cities thought leaders. Forbes Middle East ranked her among the Middle East's top ten most powerful businesswomen in 2020. She has received numerous accolades and awards, especially for her leadership as the first woman to lead the transformation of a smart city globally.

Aisha stands out in this book, because she is the only one among the twenty people featured here who was a digital government leader on a city level. There are also many other great city digital leaders, of course, but Aisha has been the most exceptional of those I have encountered.

One reason is to simply take a look at what Dubai has achieved on the smart city front during her time. These have not just been flashy showcase works, but systemic change and at breakneck speed.

Aisha really has been at the helm there, (re)defining in the process globally what a smart city is and should be about—the widespread application of digital tools in government for real advancement of peoples' lives in a city. She managed all this with zero initial budget, the context of top-down governance, and as a strong woman in a classically very male environment.

In addition to all that leadership courage and acumen, she is also the most caring leader you can imagine. It manifests even in the slightest of encounters with her, including in this chapter.

—SIIM