Young Arab Leaders and Pearl Initiative have successfully organized 'Governance for MSMEs Webinar Series' focused on best practices in corporate governance, accountability, and transparency. Featuring industry experts and prominent regional business leaders, this webinar series shed light on the importance of good governance for improved business practices. Viewers had the opportunity to interact with these experts and asked them questions to gain strategic insights and experiential feedback.

Webinar 1  - Digitalisation for MSMEs: Harnessing Business Potential 

Speaker: YAL Member Heba Sayed - Marketing Manager, IBM Watson Customer Engagement Middle East, Asia, Turkey
Schedule: April 8, 2020 Wednesday 13:00-14:00 GST Watch the webinar

Heba Sayed is the Head of Marketing for IBM Watson Customer Engagement in Middle East & Africa. Heba has a cool job that sits at the intersection of marketing and technology, and is excited about the rising focus on customer centricity in the region. She has been advocating for the use of AI technologies in customer engagement in the region’s most renowned platforms like Arab Luxury Summit, DubaiLynx Festival of Creativity, Mashable Social Media Day, Watson Summit, ArabNet Digital Summit, MICE Luxury Travel summit amongst many others. More

Webinar 2  - Finance First: Small Business Funding in the Gulf Region 

Speaker: YAL Board Member Huda Al Lawati - Partner, Gateway Partners
Schedule: April 14, 2020 Tuesday 15:00-16:00 GST Watch the webinar

As Partner at Gateway Partners Group, Huda Al Lawati is a member of the Investment Committee and leads deal origination, execution and portfolio management in MENA. Prior to Gateway, she was Chief Investment Officer for Savola Group, one of the largest publicly-listed strategic investment holding groups for food and retail businesses in MENA. Prior to Savola, Huda was a Partner and Chief Investment Officer for MENA at the Abraaj Group, where she deployed over $1 billion in equity capital into MBOs, LBOs, venture capital, growth capital and structured equity transactions and arranged over $1.5 billion in acquisition and related financing across a broad range of sectors. More

Webinar 3  - Survivorship Bias: Lessons from Failure and the Paths Beyond 

Speaker: YAL Member Reim El Houni - Founder and CEO, Ti22 Films and dubai ON demand
Schedule: April 19, 2020 Tuesday 15:00-16:00 GST Watch the webinar

Reim El Houni's career includes working with TV stations like the BBC to being an Executive Producer and Head of Events at Dubai One. Reim launched her own production company Ti22 Films in January 2011. Ti22 Films has won 25 New York Festival Award, and a Cannes Corporate Media and TV Award. Reim has served on the Jury of the New York Festival for six years and is a regular panelist at industry events. Reim founded Dubai ON demand in 2014, where the world of branded content and influencer marketing collide. She also supports organizations as a media consultant, speaker, and video strategist. More

Webinar 4  - Women in Entrepeneurship: Getting Down to Business 

Speakers:

• Lucy Chow - Senator, UAE, WBAF and Executive Committee, WBAF Global Woman Leaders Committee
• Mashal Waqar - Co-Founder and CTO, The Tempest

Schedule: April 22, 2020 Tuesday 11:00-12:00 GST Watch the webinar

Lucy Chow is focused on the innovation space, both in terms of supporting founders and as an investor. She is a Director of WAIN (Women’s Angel Investor Network) and a member of the Executive Committee, World Business Angel Investment Forum (WBAF) Start Up Fund. She has a video series targeted at entrepreneurs titled “Down to Business.” Lucy contributes regularly to entrepreneurship, corporate innovation, and investor events and forums as a speaker, moderator and judge. She is also passionate about developing entrepreneurial skills in students. She has been a contributing author for Life on the Move and The Possibilities Project: A Young Person’s Guide to Career Success. More

Mashal Waqar is a media entrepreneur, startup mentor, and a LOTR fanatic. She is levelling the media landscape as Co-Founder and COO of The Tempest, a women’s media company reaching millions of monthly readers. Mashal was honored in 2019 in the Forbes Middle East 30 Under 30 list and Entrepreneur Middle East’s Achieving Women of the Year. She is on the advisory board of NOMAD and a mentor at Sheraa and Startup Weekend by Tech Stars. Mashal previously co-authored a research paper on challenges faced by female entrepreneurs. She has also given two TEDx talks. Mashal graduated with a BS in Computing Security from Rochester Institute of Technology. More

Webinar 5  - Governance and Risk Mitigation for MSMEs: Managing in Times of Uncertainty 

Speaker: YAL Member J.K. Khalil - Senior Vice-President - Saudi and Bahrain GM, Mastercard
Schedule: April 30, 2020 Thursday 15:30-16:30 GST Watch the webinar

J.K. Khalil has over 17 years of banking, strategy consulting and technology experience, having held a number of roles across multinational banks, top tier consulting firms and tech start-ups. In his previous role at Mastercard, he was the Middle East Region Lead for Mastercard Advisors, Mastercard’s data-driven strategy consulting practice that enables and supports banking, merchant and government partners around the world. Prior to Mastercard, J.K. was a senior manager with Booz & Company (now Strategy&). He also held a number of positions at Barclays Bank including strategy and transformation. More

Webinar 6  - Communicating in a Crisis 

Speaker: YAL Member Zainab Al Deen - Regional Manager - Middle East, Project Associates UK
Schedule: May 4, 2020 Monday 11:00-12:00 GST Watch the webinar

Zainab Al Deen works across the International Government, Corporate and Private Client spheres to build and deliver intelligent and innovative communication strategies. After graduating, she spent more than six years working for the European Parliament and the UK House of Commons, liaising with key party figures and senior government officials to devise and deliver communications on the Conservative party’s national and EU policy. Before joining Project Associates, Zainab led the communication team for the real estate arm of a Middle Eastern Sovereign Wealth Fund out of their HQ in Europe and the Americas. More

Webinar 7  - The Investor Perspective: Challenges, Opportunities, and Risks in the Post-COVID World for MSMEs 

Speaker: YAL Member Amine Bentaleb - Senior Portfolio Manager, Kimera Corp
Schedule: May 17, 2020 Sunday 14:00-15:00 GST Watch the webinar

Amine Bentaleb joined Kimera in 2017 as Senior Portfolio Manager. Prior to this, he served as a Portfolio Manager for General Pension and Social Security Authority (GPSSA) in Abu Dhabi. Amine has over 15 years’ experience of managing equities and fixed income portfolios across economic cycles, with a predominant focus on emerging and frontier markets.  Previous public mandates have been ranked top quartile by Bloomberg in 2013, 2014, and 2015. Amine has a long experience in setting up an integrated front to back asset management processes to oversee multi asset portfolios with large institutions, GPSSA among others. More