In a world where so many M&A activities fail to deliver their promised results, Umayma Abubakar has firsthand knowledge of how to buck the trend, and truly create something new and better through all the change.
Starting in 2017, Abubakar helped lead one of the largest mergers in history, when Mubadala Development Company combined with International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) to form what is today known as Mubadala Investment Company. Maril talks with Abubakar, now Mubadala’s deputy chief communications officer, about the principles and practices that drove them through the merger, and what executives around the world can learn from their success. Over a wide-ranging conversation, they cover the importance of leading with respect and inclusivity; of tapping into the experts you already have in the room; of choosing your language carefully; of providing employees with a clear vision and path forward; and of deeply appreciating the many details and dimensions of the cultures you’re combining to truly get the best of both worlds.
About Umayma Abubakar
Umayma is the Executive Director of Corporate Center at Mubadala Investment Company. She joined Mubadala Development Company in March 2010. Her role oversees the following teams; Corporate Marketing, Media Intelligence, Sponsorships and Community outreach, Branding and Design, Corporate Communications, Group Communication Operations and the Corporate Divisions, as well as Internal Communication & Engagement. Her responsibilities include counseling the senior leadership team on employee engagement levels, overseeing the company‘s culture and engagement initiative and supporting the C-suite with all communication requirements and corporate reputation matters. She is also responsible for integrating Mubadala assets and increasing their engagement levels, as well as Umayma led the change management efforts in collaboration with PMO & Human Capital during the merger between Mubadala Development Company and IPIC in June 2016. Umayma has participated in a number of international and regional conferences sharing case studies on Mubadala’s Employee Engagement model. Umayma also works closely with the Portfolio Strategy team supporting with the organizational restructure.
On behalf of Mubadala, she has been recognized for being amongst the top 25 Innovators across EMEA by Provoke in 2020, 2021 & 2022, and received awards for Company of the Year, a Diamond SABRE in Reputation Management, and In2 SABRE Best in Brand Narratives in 2018. She has also been awarded the Rising Star award by the Holmes Report in 2016, received the Distinction award in Employee Engagement during the Human Assets Expansion Summit – MENA 2014, as well as the Melcrum Internal Communicator of the year Award in 2013, in London.
Umayma is currently a Chair of Page Up Society, a professional association for senior public relations and corporate communications executives who seek to enrich and strengthen their profession, through active contribution of research papers.
About Let Go & Lead
Let Go & Lead is a leadership community created by Maril MacDonald, founder and CEO of Gagen MacDonald. Maril brings together provocateurs, pioneers, thought leaders and those leading the conversation around culture, transformation and change.
Over the course of the past 14 years, Let Go & Lead has existed in many forms, from video interviews to resource guides to its current iteration as a podcast. At its core, it remains a place where people can access a diversity of perspectives on interdisciplinary approaches to leadership. Maril is also working on a book incorporating these insights gathered over the past several years from global leaders and change makers.
Maril has interviewed over 140 leaders — from business to academia and nonprofits to the arts — through the years. In each conversation, from personal anecdotes to ground-breaking scientific analysis, she has probed the lessons learned in leadership. From these conversations, the Let Go & Lead framework has emerged. It is both a personal and organizational resource that aims to serve the individual leader or leadership at scale.
Full episodes are also available on YouTube, Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
About Gagen MacDonald
At Gagen MacDonald, we are dedicated to helping organizations navigate the human struggle of change. We are a people-focused consulting firm and our passion is improving the employee experience — for everyone. For more than 25 years, we have been working with companies to create clarity from chaos by uniting employees across all levels around a single vision so they can achieve results and realize their future.
We have been a pioneer in bringing humanity to strategy execution, leading in areas such as organizational communication, culture, leadership, and employee engagement. Our Vision is to lift all humanity by transforming the companies that transform the world.
