Sima Kamil is one of Pakistan’s topmost bankers. She was appointed as the President and Chief Executive Officer of United Bank Limited in 2017. Kamil is the first female Pakistani banker to lead a major bank, in Pakistan’s 70-year history.
Sima finished her higher education from Karachi Grammar School and proceeded abroad for further education. She has an undergraduate degree in business from Kingston University.
Kamil is the first female Pakistani banker to lead a major bank, in Pakistan’s 70-year history.
After acquiring her MBA from City University, she won a place to study development economics at Oxford, however, her family could not afford it. Instead, she returned to Pakistan to work for American Express in Karachi.
Sometime later, she landed a job at ANZ Grindlays Bank, which required her to move to Lahore. After struggling at home to move cities for her career, Sima broke Pakistani cultural stereotypes and continued her journey to a new city alone.
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She says that she has never faced outright sexism in her career on account of not being capable of dealing with tasks, however, people took a lot of time to get accustomed to her – a woman – working with higher responsibilities at increasingly senior levels.
Her mentor Rafiuddin Zakir Mahmood, CEO of Habib Bank Limited until 2012, encourage her progress and gave her increasing responsibilities while working at Habib Bank Limited.
Kamil lists Margaret Atwood and Graham Greene as authors she enjoys and was a keen student of literature and history during her school life. Ms. Kamil is also on the board of Pakistan Banks’ Association and Notre Dame Institute of Education and Chairman-Board of Governors at Karachi Grammar School.