“The Hacker Way“

Entrepreneur Workshop Series, organized by Young Arab Leaders in strategic partnership with Mohammed Bin Rashid Est. for SME Development (Dubai SME) under its educational arm Dubai Entrepreneurship Academy & the Hamdan Innovation Incubator, held its 6th out of 10 sessions last January 11, 2017 at the Conference Center of Dubai SME. This entrepreneur-focused series presents unique topics to the startup community with regional mentors & speakers aimed at educating & providing entrepreneurs with tools to launch or scale their businesses.

Key Points of Discussion:

• • How to foster a high-impact company culture?
  • What keeps us up at night?

 

About the Speaker

Shant Oknayan is the Head of e-Commerce, Retail, Online Services & Media at Facebook in the Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan, where he leads efforts to enable businesses in the region to scale growth and engage with consumers on Facebook. Shant has over 15 years of experience in leading strategy & business development, with subject-matter expertise in digital and investment strategies for governments and corporations, having most recently headed up Google’s market development for small & medium businesses in the Middle East and North Africa. Shant’s understanding of the start-up space saw him co-found GlamBox, the first and leading beauty e-commerce company in the MENA region with venture backing from STC, MBC and others, and nominated a “Most Promising Start-up in the UAE” by Forbes Middle East in 2015 and 2016. Shant was also Google’s Head of Strategy & Operations in the Middle East and North Africa, and prior to that spent 8 years as a management consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton and Strategy&, leading business technology and digital strategy projects for governments, large organizations, and investment firms both in the Middle East and Europe. Nominated a “Top 50 SME Executive” in 2013 by Start-Up Arabian Business, Shant holds an MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Management and a Masters with honors in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Imperial College London.