Dr. Hayat Sindi and Her Leadership Profile Essay

Abstract

The following document profiles Saudi business leader Dr. Hayat Sindi. Sindi overcame significant challenges to achieve her current status as a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University and co-founder of Diagnostics for All. Sindi represents a great achievement for Saudi scientists in general and Saudi women in particular (Engineer 2005). She was the first female Saudi that the University of Cambridge bestowed a doctorate of biotechnology (Engineer 2005).

What did the individual do?

Dr. Hayat Sindi co-founded Diagnostics for All in 2007 along with George Whitesides, Ph.D., a Woodford L. and Ann A. Flowers University Professor at Harvard University, and Carmichael Roberts Ph.D., General Partner, North Bridge Venture Partners (Diagnostics for All n.d.). Diagnostics for All has a clear global agenda to make health care diagnosis more accessible for people living in impoverished countries, rural environments, or in areas where dependable electricity, potable water, and competent medical professionals may not exist or may exist sporadically (Diagnostics for All n.d.).

Sindi and her team created Diagnostics for All as a non-profit enterprise that combines biotechnology and microfluidics (Diagnostics for All n.d.). The mission of Diagnostics for All is to create and produce “low-cost, easy-to-use, point-of-care diagnostics designed specifically for the 6) percent of the developing world that lives beyond the reach of urban hospitals and medical infrastructures” (Diagnostics for All n.d.).

What challenges did the person overcome (if any)?

Dr. Hayat Sindi overcame significant challenges to achieve her current status. Sindi represents a great achievement for Saudi scientists in general and Saudi women in particular (Engineer 2005). She was the first female Saudi that the University of Cambridge bestowed a doctorate of biotechnology (Engineer 2005). Dr. Sindi was born in Makkah to a lower-middle-class family (Wahab 2005). She was one of eight siblings and showed an interest in science from an early age (Wahab 2005).

She was forced to leave her home and family in Saudi Arabia to pursue her education since scholarships and higher education are not available to women there (Wahab 2005). “If I didn’t need to leave Saudi Arabia to study biotechnology, I wouldn’t have,” Sindi says, “But it was the only option,” (Gorelick 2008). Sindi went on to create a device that joined light and ultrasound to be applied to the field of biotechnology (Wahab 2005).

What did the person achieve?

Sindi received a Ph.D. from Cambridge University. The International School of Medicine gave her the position of senior lecturer. Sindi’s specialization was in Pre-Clinical Education and Public Affairs, under the auspices of the Cambridge Overseas Medical Programme (Diagnostics for All n.d.). After her Ph. D., Sindi went on to become a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University, where she currently works with Diagnostics for All co-founder Professor George Whitesides in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology. Sindi’s interest lies in healthcare for the developing world; her main focus, and the main purpose of Diagnostics for All, is to create, advance and deploy technology to make health care accessible (Diagnostics for All n.d.).

Why do you consider this person a leader?

Some of Sindi’s other accomplishments include the establishment of Sonoptix Technology in Cambridge, England, where she led the creation and implementation of low cost clinical diagnostic measurement technology (Diagnostics for All n.d.).

The Schlumberger Cambridge Research Centre also appointed her as one of its senior research scientists for Biotechnology, as did Exeter University, who appointed her as an Honorary Research Fellow at the School of Biological and Chemical Science (Diagnostics for All n.d.). The British Top Young Researchers at the House of Commons made Sindi one of its distinguished members, and she was also given the Young Professional Award by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Arab Student Organization (Diagnostics for All n.d.).

In her home country, Sindi has also received recognition, and she was granted an audience with King Abdullah Ben Abdul Aziz when she spoke at the National Dialogue Forum in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (Diagnostics for All n.d.). The PopTech Social Innovation organization, a group of high aptitude, high impact young leaders of the future that offers new approaches intended to transform existing social problems and issues, recently named Sindi as one of its Fellows (Diagnostics for All n.d.).

Identify her leadership style

Given the length and breadth of her resume, Dr. Hayat Sindi’s leadership style possesses numerous similarities with the achievement-oriented leadership style popularized by the Path-Goal Theory (Jex 2002). Achievement-oriented leaders model behaviors that are devoted to helping subordinates boost productivity and performance (Jex 2002). Typically this style of leader expects her team to achieve challenging goals and provides the training and developmental opportunities necessary to ensure that her team succeeds in whatever endeavor it undertakes (Jex 2002). In Sindi’s case, achievement-oriented leadership such as Sindi demonstrates extends to Arab and Muslim females as a whole.

Sindi sets an example by which other women emanating from an Arab background may find hope and encouragement to strive for academic achievement. Sindi also provides an example of a leader who has not forgone her religious faith to succeed in the secular scientific world.

Sindi’s magnetism also resembles the fourth and fifth bases of power in French and Raven’s Five Bases of Power Theory (Jex 2002). The fourth power bases concern itself with acquired expertise and are known as Expert Power (Jex 2002). This type of power originates from the perception by subordinates as well as peers that the leader is an expert on “something important to the target of influence” (Jex 2002).

In Sindi’s case, her scientific and academic achievements lend her credence in the field of biotechnology and social medicine and provide her with the legitimizing status of expert. Similarly, Sindi’s strength, her intelligence, her tenacity, and her fearlessness likens Sindi to the fifth base of power in the French and Raven model – referent power (Jex 2002). Referent power stems largely from the force of individual personality and magnetism and exists for the most part because of “interpersonal attraction” (Jex 2002). Sindi’s achievements, coupled with the fact that she has dedicated herself and Diagnostics for All to a humanistic and altruistic social mission endears her to subordinates and peers alike.

Sindi also inspires others through her actions and personal achievements, which furthers strengthens her leadership capabilities in the eyes of subordinates and peers. Sindi sends a clear message to the women of Saudi Arabia, as well as women living in any society that fosters sexism or limits human rights, and that is “be persistent, and never take ‘no’ for an answer. Men and women are equal” (Gorelick 2008). Sindi warns that even though this is the case, even in so-called progressive countries like the United States and Europe, old ideas persist. During her studies at Cambridge, Sindi had to deal with a professor who bluntly informed her that “women cannot be successful in the field of biotechnology” (Gorelick 2008).

Sindi has succeeded in the largely male-dominated field, and now that she has proved her detractors wrong, Sindi’s leadership and social consciousness grow. Sindi prefers to lead other Saudi women by example, and often organizes lectures and talks in Middle Eastern countries, hoping to inspire women to better themselves and their societies (Gorelick 2008). Sindi works toward a specific goal: when universities in Saudi Arabia provide advanced training in the sciences for both genders, education that is on par with that offered at the major educational centers of Europe and the United States (Gorelick 2008).

References

Diagnostics for All. (n.d.). Board of Directors. Web.

Engineer, A. (2005). The Qur’an, women, and modern society. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd.

Gorelick, D. (2008). Saudi Arabian Scientist Works to Empower Women. America.gov. Web.

Jex, S. M. (2002). Organizational psychology: a scientist-practitioner approach. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons.

Wahab, S. (2005). Saudi Woman Pioneer to Pedal for Peace. Arab News, n.p. Web.