Profile

Lubna Qassim is an international lawyer, geoeconomic strategist and former senior multilateral diplomat whose career spans government, business and international institutions. She advises governments, boards and senior leaders on complex decisions at the intersection of law, investment, geopolitics and public policy, bringing together legal judgment, commercial understanding and diplomatic experience.

Appointed Minister Plenipotentiary, First Degree, by Presidential Decree in 2018, she served in senior legal and diplomatic roles at the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including as Senior Legal Counsel to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations and International Organizations in Geneva, and Senior Adviser in International Law. Her diplomatic service included periods as Chargé d’Affaires. She led the UAE’s successful campaigns for election to the UN Human Rights Council and for the Presidency of the World Meteorological Organization.

Before her diplomatic assignments, she held senior corporate leadership responsibilities at Emirates NBD, one of the Middle East’s largest banking groups. From 2013 to 2018, she served as Senior Executive Vice President, Group Chief General Counsel and Group Company Secretary, becoming the bank’s first female C-suite executive. She led approximately 300 professionals across legal affairs, corporate governance, regulatory matters and transformation.

Earlier, as Director of Economic Legislation at the UAE Ministry of Economy, she led the development of fourteen major economic laws, contributing to the country’s first comprehensive economic legislative reforms in more than two decades. In 2009, she advised the World Bank on public sector reform across the Gulf Cooperation Council.

She began her legal career at Clifford Chance in London and Dubai. In 2000, she became the first Emirati to work at the UK House of Lords, serving as a Research Associate and authoring a policy paper on United Nations Security Council reform.

She is a Distinguished Fellow at UCLA’s Center for Middle East Development and speaks six languages. She also serves on boards and advisory bodies across the United States, the Middle East and Europe. Her governance work reflects a longstanding commitment to institutional effectiveness, sound decision-making and the role of boards in shaping strategy, accountability and long-term value. Her career brings a distinctive perspective to the decisions that shape institutions, investment and international relations.