Leaders

A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor”, a quote by Franklin D. Roosevelt is a reminder that life and career come with various challenging opportunities, but those events are what create compassionate, resilient, and dynamic leaders. An inspiration for many and a motivator for all her team members, Basma Abdel Hack, Chief Financial Officer, 360VUZ is one such skilled sailor of the finance industry who is growing with her experiences and successfully sailing through all her challenges. Basma has been leading an illustrious professional journey parallelly taking forward her passion for learning. At the very beginning of her career, considering her exceptional knowledge base, she was given the opportunity to work at KPMG as an auditor.

This has been a significant lifechanging opportunity for her as it gave her access to a wide range of industries including banking sectors, retail companies, manufacturing companies as well as NGOs. Basma’s success as a finance leader is inevitably visible in the roles that she played in various leading organizations like KPMG, Quantum Group, Berytech Fund, and now 360VUZ. Her experience with Quantum Group has allowed her to prepare stand-alone and consolidated financial statements of its 24 companies and look over multiple challenging roles as the Senior Financial Analyst. Though she was not exposed to huge consolidations in her previous roles, it was her hard work & persistence that backed up her skills & enthusiasm for learning and made her prosperously deliver profitable outcomes. Soon, her perseverance was noticed by a Venture Capital firm called Berytech Fund which hired her as the Financial Controller of the organization. This opportunity gave her the unmatched experience of meeting, communicating, knowing, and growing with leading entrepreneurs across industries.

Every bit of Basma’s professional journey has been a milestone and her way of taking forward every experience as learning to lead another organization is commendable. At 360VUZ, she is progressively overseeing the operations of the finance department including fundraising, supplier and customer relationships, treasury management and successfully leading the startup into funding rounds. Below is an excerpt of the Women Entrepreneur’s exclusive interview with her.

How have your learning experiences been? What have been your ways to keep yourself aligned with the industry evolutions?

I graduated from one of the most important universities in the Middle East, with a degree in business administration and an emphasis in finance. I started my journey in auditing even though I did not want to stay in audit, but I also knew how this sector would open numerous doors for me. And it sure did. Though it was probably the most demanding job of my career, I have gained a lot of valuable experiences through this role. Almost every job that I got afterward had something to do with the fact that I was at KPMG. During my years in Quantum Group, I got my diploma in International Financial Reporting and also a minor in psychology, as I was intrigued by the human mind and how it works. As an intersection between finance and psychology, it was a great experience.

This is one of the best things that I have invested in myself which did not necessarily monetize in a professional sense, but it added to my intellect. When I moved to Berytech, since I was working with a venture capital firm, I started pursuing the CFA designation. This was one of the most important educational steps that I took as a finance professional. I am a constant learner; no amount of education is ever enough for me. Every time I take a step forward in my career, I feel the need to deserve the title that I am taking. Therefore, in every part of my career, I find something that I need to work on and keep learning in parallel.

What constitutes your role as the CFO of 360VUZ? What are your current focus areas?

CFO at a startup is more hands-on than it would be at other companies. So, when I joined 360VUZ, I started handling all the processes that needed to be done in the company from a financial point of view. I managed the treasury of the company with the highest efficiency. This is a startup where cash is very important to hold on to, at the same time make payments, and also have a good relationship with the suppliers. So, treasury is still to this day a very critical issue. I also worked on the business model of the company which helped us to finalize our series B funding. I manage investor relationships as well. Communicating and meeting financial requirements from the current as well as potential investors, fall under my role as the CFO of the company. In short, I work with everything that has a number from A-Z in the company as well as its internal processes and optimization plans.

Throw light on some of the most critical challenges you face in your current role.

The challenges that we face are in common with the challenges that usually every startup faces in its initial years. Since everything is fast-paced, we need to reach the market and the potential stakeholders at a rapid speed. It is a challenging task to be able to successfully pitch ideas that best suit the company’s vision and also motivate the team to head for the bigger picture. However, we do that by working through the nights & weekends and giving our 100 percent in communicating our capability of being the next success story to the investors.

“I am a constant learner; no amount of  education is ever enough for me. Every time I take a step forward in my career, I feel the need to deserve the title that I am taking”

What has been the most important turning point in your career?

Moving to Dubai to join 360VUZ has been the biggest milestone. It has been challenging yet exciting so far. Though moving to Dubai was a difficult decision but I am glad that I did and got the opportunity to work with various work cultures & nationalities and head global teams. This opportunity eventually turned out to be a major life-changing event in my professional career. 

What has been the driving force behind your success as a business leader?

My work involves meeting a lot of people throughout the day and I make sure to take in their energy and complement mine so we can create a proper decision together. Being the finance head, while taking decisions I consider every aspect that could go wrong and make sure to develop the steps to mitigate them in advance. I am in a very senior position in the company and my role demands re-checking every decision before it is implemented. So, I always make sure that all risks are assessed. Nobody is taught to live in a pessimistic world, but I believe it is better to be cautious than to regret it later, without compromising the efficiency of decision-making.

“Being the finance head, while taking decisions I consider every aspect that could go wrong and make sure to develop the steps to mitigate them in advance”

What would your advice be to young women who aspire to become business leaders in the future?

As aspiring leaders, you must be clear about your goals at the beginning of your career. You can start by setting a general goal and then smaller goals and identify the things that are needed to achieve them. During the process, make sure to do your best, surround yourself with smart people, and put in the maximum hard work. It is extremely crucial to work on yourself and constantly try to evolve to be ready to make a good career move. When you secure A leadership position, you must start learning the ways to manage people and motivate them to work seamlessly for a common vision.

Having a bachelor’s degree in Business administration with an emphasis on finance and a minor in psychology, Basma holds over 13 years of diversifying experience in the finance industry working in different environments and leading teams at various levels.