Engaging Role Models to Inspire and Empower Young Entrepreneurs in MENA

In collaboration and sponsored by Stanford University in California, Arab Excellence held a to program engaging inspirational role models in order to inspire and inspire young entrepreneurs based in the Silicon Valley.

• Acknowledge and honor global Arab entrepreneurs
• Share Arab entrepreneurs journey to success with aspiring young Arab entrepreneurs on the hope that it will boost their confidence, inspire and motivate them to action
• Showcase by example and realistic actionable steps how to overcome the obstacles that riddle the path to entrepreneurship
• Provide aspiring entrepreneurs with strategic networking opportunity to identify and connect with potential mentors and venture capitalists
• Create a community of inspiring Arab role models that are willing to guide, mentor, and support the next generation of entrepreneurs in MENA

The session commenced with opening remarks by Dr. Touria Boumehdi Tomasi, Professor at the Language Center at Stanford University, followed by a presentation by Hamza Chraibi in which he shared the mission and vision of Arab Excellence, and shared stories of role models that Arab Excellence proudly highlights and engages with on a meaningful level to support and empower the region’s youth.
In his presentation, Dr. Ossama Hassanein shared his entrepreneurial journey and lessons learned, and emphasized the importance of mentorship in guiding and nurturing the journey to successful entrepreneurship. He also highlighted the importance of communication and collaboration among Arab talent in the Middle East and North African and their counterpart around the world.
Dr. Magid Abraham shared his inspiring personal and professional journey. From picking fruit at the farm in his hometown in Lebanon to the successful creation of his company comScore, which currently has a NASDAQ value of over 2 billion dollars. In his presentation, Dr. Abraham discussed the critical importance of failure and the accumulated lessons learned from failure along the path to successful entrepreneurship.
Mr. Omar Tawakol shared fives guiding principles to achieving excellence, from having role models to self-confidence, which encourages to hire smarter people than oneself.
Following the presentations, the students and guests attending from Stanford and various other areas in Silicon Valley had the chance to share their questions, remarks and experiences during a Q&A session.
The program concluded with a networking session over Moroccan dinner during which the students, presenters, potential investors and guests had the chance to exchange thoughts, ideas and contact information.

Outcomes

Following this sessions, several collaborations took place between students, aspiring young entrepreneurs and mentors.

For example, two well established Tech entrepreneurs based in the Silicon Valley- Hatim Chraibi Managing Director at SPIRE Bioventures and Modar Alaoui Founder and CEO at Eyeris – joined the Global Advisory panel at UAE University Science and Innovation park where they have been mentoring the young entrepreneurs to scale up in Silicon Valley.

For more information about the conference and Arab Excellence, please follow the link below to a full interview with Arab Excellence Founder and President, Hamza Chraibi with Radio Arabology in San Francisco
https://soundcloud.com/arabology/arabexcellence