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, the Vice-Chair of the Arab Youth Center, a passionate Chairperson for Special Olympics UAE, and the Youth Climate Champion for COP28.

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, ensuring that all ministries and decision-makers are incorporating youth needs into the policies they create. She has proactively made groundbreaking strides to connect Youth and leadership in the UAE with a proactive National Youth Strategy and a groundbreaking platforms that are all led by the voice of youth and data.

H.E. Shamma is a member of the Education and Human Resources Council of the UAE Cabinet as well as a board member of Emirates Foundation and the International Institute of Tolerance. Additionally, she is a member of the advisory committee of the UAE Pavilion at Expo 2020 and a member of the UAE’s Golden Jubilee Committee, a task force comprised of the nation’s leaders over vital sectors tasked to set a strategic plan for the UAE’s next 50 years.

Her other roles include serving as 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. Shamma worked in Private Equity at ADIC, 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 (the UAE Strategic Affairs Authority).

H.E. Shamma 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 as an alumna. She 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.