Shamma Al Mazrui

Her Excellency Shamma bint Suhail Faris Al Mazrui was appointed as the UAE’s Minister of State for Youth Affairs in February 2016 at the age of 22, making her the world’s youngest cabinet minister at the time of her appointment. H.E. Shamma is also the Chair of the Emirates Youth Council and the Vice-Chair of the Arab Youth Center. She serves as the Chairperson for Special Olympics UAE.

Her work focuses on ensuring the voice of Youth is strategically positioned to lead Youth into the future in all facets of UAE government and life, guaranteeing that all ministries and decision-makers are incorporating youth needs into the policies they create. She has proactively made strides to connect Youth and leadership in the UAE with a proactive National Youth Strategy, a strategy that is led by the voice of youth and data.

H.E. Al Mazrui is a member of the Education and Human Resources Council of the UAE Cabinet, and board member of Emirates Foundation. Additionally, she is a member of the advisory committee of the UAE Pavilion at Expo 2020, as well as a board member of the international Institute of Tolerance.

Her other roles include being the Vice Chair of the Community and Legacy Committee of the UAE Special Olympics World Games (2019), a member of the Higher National Council of the Year of Tolerance (2019), a member of the Higher National Council of the Year of Zayed (2018), a member of the Higher National Council of the Year of Giving (2017) and a member of the Fourth Industrial Revolution Committee (2017).

Previously, H.E. Al Mazrui worked in Private Equity at one of Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth funds. She also worked as a public policy analyst at the UAE Mission to the United Nations, as a Ministry Policy Analyst with the Prime Minister’s Office, as a Research Analyst at the UAE Embassy in DC, and as an Education Policy Researcher at Tamkeen (UAE Strategic Affairs Authority).

H.E. Al Mazrui obtained her Masters of Public Policy with Distinction from the University of Oxford in 2015. She was the first UAE Rhodes Scholar and ranked within the top of her class. In 2018, she was listed in CNBC’s ‘7 Female Activists Under 23 Who Are Changing The World’, and was awarded the NYU Making a Difference Award where completed her Bachelors of Arts in Economics with a concentration in Finance at New York Abu Dhabi in 2014, ranking within the top 5% of the inaugural class. She has completed coursework at the research center for leadership on multi-sector partnerships at NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, at NYU Stern School of Business and at Yale University.