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Hi, I'm MM

Mariana Missakian16409 by Waleed Shah by

Hi, I'm MM

Growing up, I used to watch The Oprah Show, and I would say to myself, “One day, I will sit on that yellow chair to share my extraordinary story.” I must have been 10 years old.

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When Oprah announced the end of her talk show, I wasn’t discouraged. I wasn’t sad or disappointed. I was sure (I am sure) I would somehow, one day, be sitting on that yellow chair.

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Oprah would ask me: “What do you want to be remembered for?

And I would say: “My story.”

 

Oprah I can’t wait to meet you and tell you all about that little girl and the voices she has been unmuting and the stories she has been uncovering.

I am a former #bosslady in stilettos. I spent my 20’s and 30’s travelling the world, working for Fortune 500 companies, making great things happen. Now, in my 40’s I make people happen. As a best-selling author, TEDx speaker, and a doctoral candidate researching mothers in leadership, I initiate conversations that matter on women, on leadership and on identity and I provide safe spaces and stages for women and young leaders to trust their voice and believe in their story.

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Originally Armenian, I was born in Lebanon and moved to Dubai at age 18. Over the next 15 years, I excelled in highly competitive, fast-growing industries, working with IBM, Intel, and McKinsey to develop product, market, and customer strategies to drive organizational change. By age 28, I was leading the communications strategy for a $240 million M&A and managed the corporate communications for a $34 billion IPO.

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However, becoming a mother proved to be my biggest challenge yet because suddenly, I was asked to justify why I deserved the role I had been doing and doing so well for the past 15 years. This led me on a journey to reassess my identity stripped from job and title. In 2018, I began documenting her journey to define who I am regardless of what I do. 

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I hold two master's degrees; an MBA from the University of Roehampton UK, and an MPhil from UCAM in Diversity and Inclusion in Leadership. My MBA thesis, explored the influence of female leadership in promoting career advancement for women, particularly in Dubai. My MPhil dissertation expanded on this work, examining the impact of Diversity and Inclusion policies on career advancement opportunities for women and especially mothers in tech in Dubai. 

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In 2021, I published my first book, That Suburbia Lady, a satirical memoir exploring the authenticity of choices, voices, and dreams. The book was added to the Mohammed Bin Rashid Library catalog in 2022. In 2023, I was a featured rising local author at the Emirates Literature Festival and delivered my TEDx talk on the seasonality of life, the power of personal stories, and how they shape our identities.

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In 2023 I started my doctoral research to identify how companies can attract, recruit, retain, and support mothers to leadership roles. And since then, I have been on a mission to change the leadership narrative, to include mothers in the leadership conversation because #womenleadwhenmotherslead. 

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I spend my days initiating conversations that matter on mothers, leadership and on inclusion, and in 2024 I started The UNMUTE Project to provide safe spaces and stages for mothers to trust their voices and share their stories. UNMUTE is a movement to amplify the narratives that often go unheard, and initiate conversations that spark change one story at a time, because no voice is too small and no story is too ordinary. 

 

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