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.

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 subsequently practised with Clifford Chance in London and Dubai before returning to public service in the UAE.

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 most significant legislative reforms in more than two decades. In 2009, she advised the World Bank on public sector reform across the GCC.

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

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

She is a Distinguished Fellow at UCLA’s Center for Middle East Development and serves on boards and advisory bodies across the United States, the Middle East and Europe. She speaks six languages. Her work brings together legal judgment, commercial understanding and diplomatic experience to help leaders navigate complex institutional and international challenges.