How Princess Reema used business thinking to open doors for Saudi women

Executive overview

Princess Reema bint Bandar al-Saoud was denied a job despite being born into Saudi royalty. That rejection became the engine for two decades of work expanding economic and social opportunity for women.

She moved from running a luxury retailer to leading female inclusion at the Ministry of Sports to serving as Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States. Her method: take steps, not leaps — find the thread and make it a rope.

Privilege married to conscience creates an obligation to give others what you have.

Turning "no" into a business case

• Returned to Saudi Arabia after growing up in the US, expecting to work in museum curation — was told women couldn't be employed.
• Recognized that her own rejection as a royal illustrated the scale of the problem for all women.
• Opened mixed-gender retail floors by partnering with the Ministry of Labour to draft new regulations rather than fighting existing ones.
• Framed female hiring as a commercial argument: women sell to women more effectively.

Building inclusion from inside government

• Hired at the Ministry of Sports with a female inclusion mandate — no office, no staff space, no women's bathroom.
• Claimed a bathroom by leaving hygiene products inside it; the "no women" sign was never replaced.
• Put PE in girls' schools for the first time in Saudi history.
• Enabled women to run, cycle, and compete internationally.
• Trained four female Olympic wildcard athletes in her home gym — acting before anyone could say no, creating precedent.
• Drafted regulations open-endedly so the next generation (mostly under 25) could expand them beyond what her team could imagine.

Shifting from challenger to diplomat

• In private enterprise: reached ~300–400 women per year through her social enterprise.
• At the Ministry of Sports: mandate covered 11 million women nationwide.
• As ambassador, her words represent a nation — requiring more measured public communication than her earlier role as internal challenger.
• Parallels the founder-to-public-company shift: moving from "I" to "us" changes the constraints entirely.

Progress and what remains

• 40% of Saudi SMEs are now women-owned — not true five years ago.
• Women now serve in the military, hold deputy and vice-minister roles, can drive, travel independently, hold their own passports, and are recognised as head of household.
• Her remaining frustration: women still treated as a separate "other" bracket rather than included by default alongside entrepreneurs, doctors, and leaders.
• The bigger obstacle now is internal limiting belief, not external prohibition.

On persevering through obstacles

• Early instinct: be a brick — firm, solid, unyielding. Found it costly and largely ineffective.
• Revised approach: be fluid — flow through obstacles, find the peaceful path, bring people along.
• Fear of change is usually fear of the unfamiliar; closing the conversational distance dissolves it faster than confrontation.
• Read the room: identify which thread, if held, can become a rope — then take steps, not leaps.