Private equity investors should play a key role in driving greater gender diversity in companies across the Middle East, TVM Capital Healthcare’s Founding Partner Hoda Abou-Jamra told the Power Women of Arabia Debate in Dubai on Wednesday.

Speaking on a panel at the conference in Dubai — which was opened by H.E. Sheikh Nahyan Bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Culture, Youth, and Social Development — Abou-Jamra said that diverse boardrooms and management teams better mirror customers and society at large. They therefore tend to produce better results.

A 2014 study by Credit Suisse of 3,000 companies globally found that greater gender diversity in management correlates with better financial performance, superior return on equity and higher stock valuation. Since 2005, companies with more than one woman on the board have returned a compound 3.7 percent a year more than those that have none.

“Private equity is an industry built on the idea that an investment, coupled with an increase in financial and managerial acumen at a company, can add considerable value,” said Abou-Jamra, who is a member of the Dubai Business Women’s Council and has played key roles on several U.S. finance and fundraising committees.

“Private equity investors should use their role in shaping growth companies to drive greater gender diversity because it promotes a better exchange of ideas, and delivers better financial results. We should also look inward at our own human resource investments and consider the value a diverse workforce can add. As the first specialist healthcare private equity firm in the Middle East and North Africa region, we have invested in in two companies that were founded by women. Ninety percent of our current portfolio have at least one woman on their boards.”

Among private equity members of the MENA Private Equity Association, women account for 18 percent of the senior leadership and investment teams. This compares to 11.8 percent in Asia, 11 percent in North America and 9.7 percent in Europe, according to Prequin.

According to Hawkamah Institute for Corporate Governance, the number of women on the boards of publicly listed companies in the six-country Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region decreased from 60 seats – or 1.5 percent of total board seats – in 2008, to only 43 in 2011. This compares to a rise of female participation on boards globally from 9.6 percent of total seats in 2010 to 12.7 percent in 2013.

More infos on the conference: http://www.powerwomen.me/