IN SHORT

KOC’s first female field engineer, key figure in the region’s oil and gas industry, and officially elected member of the Supreme Council in Kuwait’s Ministry of Planning and Development, Sara Akbar went after her dreams and succeeded, never letting fear get in her way. “Every person, every human being has fear inside of them—fear of the future, of things going wrong,” she says. “The difference between a coward and a hero is the ability to control that fear. If you allow the fear to control you, it turns you into a coward; if you learn to control you fears, you become a hero.”