As a celebration of women business leaders across the Middle East and Africa, Mastercard has partnered with Entrepreneur Middle East to present the first ever Women SME Leaders Awards 2022.
The awards will recognize and further empower women-owned and run SMEs across the region. They will highlight the individuals and enterprises that are shaping the future of this dynamic region and will culminate in a virtual awards ceremony on 29th of March 2022.
Nominations are now open, so we are inviting all women SME leaders across all walks of life (a small enterprise in trading has a turnover of less than AED50 million and employs between 6 to 50 people) - individuals and organizaitons - to take part.
There are no costs for attending or nominating at this event.
Good luck to you all and let’s celebrate women SMEs together!
Siddhi Joshi, CEO, Emovers LLC
Erika Doyle, founder and Managing Director, Drink Dry
Helen Chen, co-founder and CEO, Nomad Homes
Judit Toth, founder and CEO, Vivere Hospitality
Oluwadamilola Soyombo, founder and CEO, Skooqs Creative
Shayda Sharfaei, Head of Professional Services, Bridge Medical GPO
Maryam Fouladirad, CEO, Fundii
Menna Farouk, journalist, Thomson Reuters Foundation
Nadine Abdelghafar, founder, Art D’Égypte
Hadil Al Khatib, founder, The Broth Lab
Jennifer Mansour, founder, Little Melly
Wafa Alobaidat, founder and CEO, Playbook
Gehad Hamdy, founder and Managing Director, Speak Up
Sheila Mallowah, founder and Principal Consultant, Zoel Capital
Salama Mohamed, founder, Peacefull
Maz Hakim, founder, Espand
Abimbola Ogundere, CEO, Learning As I Teach Foundation
Carole Kinoti, founder, Carole Kinoti Brands
Sophie Smith, founder and CEO, Nabta Health
Jennifer Sault, founder and Managing Director, Thrift for Good
This award category is to recognize the woman SME leader in the design industry, spanning design, fashion, architecture and arts. Judges will consider the projects completed in the last 3 years, those in pipeline and other achievements. Initiatives related to sustainability and environment should also be mentioned.
This award category is to recognize a woman SME leader that has made a notable impact within the logistic and transport sector.
This award category is to recognize a woman SME leader in the food and beverage sector who had made a considerable impact in that industry in MEA.This category also includes foodtech food production, cloud kitchens, delivery solutions and aggregator businesses.
This award category is to celebrate a woman SME leader in the retail sector. The winner for this category should show outstanding leadership skills, healthy busines growth and – for those with teams - creating a diversified working environment.
This award category is to recognize a woman SME leader in the education sector.
This award category if to recognize a women SME leader in the real estate or property development sector in the MEA region. This impact could include development of properties or running a successful real estate business.
This award category is to recognize a woman SME leader in healthcare who has made a positive business impact in the MEA region.
This award category is to recognize a woman SME leader in hospitality that has made significant contribution in the hospitality, and the entertainment sector.
This award category is to recognize a woman SME leader in the technology sector who has made a positive contribution to the industry in MEA – This includes running a tech business, or creating a digital products and solutions.
This award category is to recognize a woman SME leader who has made a positive impact in the professional services sector. This includes finance, insurance, banking, law, management consultancy and other relevant fields.
This award category is to recognize a woman SME leader in the field of investment and venture capital who has a successful track record of profitable investments either in commodities, stock, securities or is leading a venture capitalist firm.
This award category is to recognize and highlight a woman SME leader in the fashion and beauty sector.
This award category is to recognize a woman SME leader in the media industry.
This award category is to recognize a woman SME leader who has launched a successful business within the past 12 months in any sector. The solution that this entrepreneur offers should have a positive impact on society as well as having a financial health. The winner for this category should have the following superior characteristics (but not limited to):
This award category is to honor a woman SME leader in arts and culture who has made a significant positive impact on the arts and culture scene within the region.
This award category is to recognize woman SME leader below the age of 30 who through her talents has achieved significant milestones whether in her career, in the society and the people around her.
This award is to honor a woman SME leader who has made a substantial positive impact on society through charitarian work, help needy people, creating job opportunities, or providing a framework for a better education and healthcare.
This award category is to recognize a woman visionary –either from the private or public sector– that has led initiatives which has significantly impacted the women-run and owned SME ecosystem in the region. This individual has seen potential in the market and has met the needs before others.
This could include creating new solutions, leading an organization that has benefited the players in the SME sector, or has created policies and procedures that has boosted the growth of the SME sector.
This award will go to a woman that has made an outstanding contribution to creating an inclusive working environment and equal opportunities for women in the workplace in the past three decades and has helped women to break the glass ceiling. This is also referred to as the Lifetime Achievement Award.
This award category is to recognize a company business led or founded by a woman and run exclusively from her place of residence and has been operating for more than two years. The winner of this category should show a significant growth in terms of revenue and the value created.
This award category is to recognize a mother who has starter a small business or is part of a small size business. The winner for this category should show significant positive impact of their role on the business and its growth.
Amnah has lived and worked in 12 countries across Middle East & Africa, Europe, Asia Pacific and North America. She has held several leadership roles with Citigroup in the UK, Hungary and Poland. She then worked at Standard Chartered in Singapore and Malaysia in global retail banking strategy and consumer banking head roles. She joined Mastercard in 2015 and lead the product and innovation organization in North America and now heads market development for EEMEA.
She was honored to be listed as the top 100 women in Fintech, across the globe, for 2019 by Lattice80 and recognized as the top 25 women leaders in financial technology by the Financial Technology Report US for 2019 & 2020. She was recently recognized as the top 100 women in fintech for 2021 by IBM & Fintech magazine.She also holds the honor of being in America’s top 10 women in Fintech by the Fintech Magazine for 2020.
She holds a master’s degree from London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE).
Tamara Pupic is the Managing Editor of Entrepreneur Middle East magazine, a division of Dubai-based BNC Publishing officially licensed by the US-based publication Entrepreneur, where she focuses on editorial content development and cultivating fresh ideas that continue to promote the Entrepreneur Middle East brand both regionally and globally. She holds a bachelor's law degree and a master’s degree in international law and economics (M.I.L.E.) from the World Trade Institute in Bern (Switzerland).
In 2020, Tamara launched a series of interviews with women leaders entitled "Against All Odds” within the Entrepreneur Middle East Live series, featuring the only Indian woman on Forbes' list of the World’s Self-Made Women Billionaires Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Oscar nominated and BAFTA award-winning filmmaker Farah Nabulsi, Intisar Foundation founder Her Highness Sheikha Intisar AlSabah, co-founder of Thrive Global Agapi Stassinopoulos, the first Arab woman to climb Mount Everest Suzanne Al Houby, social media influencer and TV host Joelle Mardinian, among many others.
As a founding partner and Chairperson, Mona Zulficar overseas the performance and business development of Zulficar and Partners Law Firm, a leading law firm in Egypt. A practicing attorney for more than thirty-five years, she is a specialist in major restructuring, project finance and M&A transactions and has been consistently ranked by international legal directories as the leading and eminent Egyptian lawyer in banking, finance and M & A. she participates in drafting new laws and developing existing laws related to economic legislation; Zulficar is an active advocate for human rights and women, both locally and internationally, and is campaigning for a new family law, to modernize the legal environment in Egypt, to keep pace with the social changes related to the situation of women, and to provide an open, liberal vision for the future.
She has also been the non-executive chairperson of EFG Hermes Holding, SAE since April 2008, as an independent expert board member. Accordingly, she chairs the Board of Directors, and the Audit and Risk Committees of the leading investment bank in Egypt and the Arab World, providing financial and investment banking services, and having footprint in 11 countries across four continents with access to emerging and frontier markets.
With a commitment to community activism, she has been an advocate for human rights and women’s rights in Egypt and internationally since 1985. She has led several successful campaigns resulting in major legal reforms, including the “New Marriage Contract”, the Equal Right to Divorce Law “Khul”, the Family Courts Law, equality in granting Egyptian nationality between the father and the mother under the Nationality Law, the NGO Law and she is currently working on the Equal Opportunity and Non-Discrimination Law.
She founded and chairs Al Tadamun Microfinance Foundation, focused on economic empowerment of poor women and ranked as one of the best 100 MFI’s by CGAP. She has also been elected Chairperson of the first Egyptian Microfinance Federation since 2015; she also chairs the Women’s Health Improvement Association in Cairo, as well as the EFG Hermes Foundation for Social Development. She has been elected an expert member and Deputy Chairperson of the UN Human Rights Council Advisory Committee from 2008 till September 2013, Chairperson of the World Bank’s External Gender Consultative Group from 2000 to 2006 and served as a member of the National Council for Human Rights in Egypt from 2004 until June 2012. Currently she has been reappointed to the Council as of September 2013.
Nejoud has worked for 10-years at JPMorgan Chase Bank in the corporate investment banking space. She has vast experience in building client relationships and portfolios across finance, industry, and the public sector, managing corporate sales portfolio for large corporates in Saudi Arabia, played vital roles in logistics, office management, human resource development, and event management, as well as business management and core banking services.
In early 2018 Nejoud joined the Small & Medium Size Enterprises General Authority (SMEA/ Monshaat) as International Strategic Partnership Director.
Mastercard will be the chair of the judging committee. Shortlisted companies will be vetted by the Entrepreneur team and then passed onto the judging committee. Each judge will independently evaluate the shortlisted candidates and the scores will be shared with all the other judges. The winners will be decided by a vote; in case of a draw, Mastercard will choose the winner.
Notes:
Each judge will receive a scoring sheet for each of the shortlisted nominees. Each of the categories has different sets of criteria and the judges need to score each item from 1-10 and choose the winner.
The suggested winners by each of the judges will be sent to Mastercard.
Mastercard has the final say on the winners and can veto nominees.
