As a celebration of women business leaders across the Middle East and Africa, Mastercard has partnered with Entrepreneur Middle East to present the 3rd edition of Women SME Leaders Awards.
The awards will recognize and further empower women-owned and run SMEs across the Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa. They will highlight the individuals and enterprises that are shaping the future of this dynamic region and will culminate in a hybrid (physical and virtual) awards ceremony on 30th of May, 2024 at 11:00 (Dubai time).
Nominations are now open, so we are inviting all women SME leaders across all walks of life (a small enterprise in trading that has a turnover of less than AED50 million and employs between 6 to 50 people) - individuals and Organizations - to take part.
There are no costs associated with attending or nominating for this virtual event.
Good luck to you all and let’s celebrate women SME leaders together!
Rim Guirari, Mustard & Linen Interior Designer
Meher Mirchandani, Managing director, Palmon Group FZCO
Kim Thompson, Founder & Managing director, Raw Coffee company
Marcela Sancho Montoya, Founder, House of Pops
Masindi Netshakhuma, Renof Productions
Latifa Bin Haider, baytuki
Noora AlAskar, Founder, Nutribox Your Pocket Nutritionist
Marloes Knippenberg, CEO, Kerten Hospitality
Marang Mbaakanyi, Founder & CEO, Drones for Africa
Susy Massetti, Founder & CEO, Maria Massetti WLL
ROAYA SALEH, Founder, Villa Mamas Restaurant
Youmna Khoury, Founder, Youmi Beauty
Sarah Curtis and Zainab Imichi Alhassan Alli, Founders, POP Communications
Jana Krimpe, Best Solutions
Anastasia Kopijevski, Founder & CEO, Skaya Art Agency
Dina Mattar, Founder & CEO, Dverse
Jennifer Obiorah, TeamUpcyclers
Karima Anbar, Intisar Foundation, CEO
BEATRICE JEMIMAH WANJIKU KINITI, JOBENVIC ENTERPRISES LTD
Wada Kealotswe, Founder & Director, Aiko Creations t/a Eco Zera
Shilpa Mahtani, Founder & COO, BnB ME
Mona Alami, Co-founder, Ecofertil
This award category is to recognize the woman SME leader in the creative industry including design, art, architecture, culture, music Judges will consider the projects completed in the last 3 years, those in pipeline and other achievements. Any specific initiatives related to sustainability and environment should also be mentioned.
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. 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 and e-commerce sector. The winner for this category should show outstanding leadership skills, healthy business 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 is to recognize a woman SME leader in healthcare who has made a positive business impact in the region.
This award category is to recognize a woman SME leader in the technology sector who has made a positive contribution to the industry in the region. This includes running a tech business or creating 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 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, advertising, marketing, branding and PR & communications industries.
This award category is to recognize a visionary woman SME leader, either an entrepreneur – who has launched a successful business within the past 12 months in any sector – or a corporate executive who has significantly impacted the women-run and owned SME ecosystem in the region. The winner for this category should have the following superior characteristics (but not limited to):
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 charitable work, help needy people, creating job opportunities, or providing a framework for a better education and healthcare.
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 started 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 Ajmal, is the Executive Vice President of Market Development, Mastercard EEMEA. In this role, she leads the P&L across multiple business verticals including merchants, telcos, governments, fintech’s, digital players across 80 markets. In addition, she also heads the strategy, pricing, analytics and M&A function for the region. Prior to this role she led the North America product & innovation organization, based out of the US, creating sustainable, competitive differentiation for Mastercard and its customers by delivering digitally integrated consumer experiences across consumer and commercial products.
Prior to joining Mastercard she was the CEO for Standard Chartered Consumer Bank Malaysia. She was also responsible for retail banking strategy for Indonesia, Malaysia & Taiwan in a global role based out of Singapore. Prior to Standard Chartered, Amnah worked at Citigroup in UAE, Egypt, UK and Poland. She held a number of leadership positions at Citigroup including Asset Business Head for Poland responsible for full range of consumer asset products, innovation and distribution including credit cards, co brands, personal loans and mortgages.
She was honored to be listed in Forbes Middle East’s 100 most powerful businesswomen 2024; Arabian Business’ 50 Inspiring Women Leaders 2024; the top 100 women in fintech for 2021 by IBM & Fintech magazine; the top 25 women leaders in financial technology by the Financial Technology Report US for 2019 & 2020 and the top 100 women in Fintech, across the globe, for 2019 by Lattice80. She also holds the honor of being in America’s top 10 women in Fintech by the Fintech Magazine for 2020.
She is passionate about social empowerment for women and gender equity. She holds a master’s degree from London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE).
She founded Women Choice, an international organization that offers networking opportunities and training to high-level female professionals with the aim of addressing the gender gap in the private sector, and promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion. Launched in 2018 in New York, the company has since expanded into the Middle East.
Previously, Nezha established the award-winning Mayshad Foundation, an international NGO that develops social impact projects for women and youth in underprivileged communities. She also set up Mayshad Group, a consultancy firm for corporate and institutional clients in African, Middle Eastern, and US markets.
Nezha started her career leading a mission for the United Nations and the World Food Programme (WFP) across five countries. She is the author of Be A Leader: Be Who You Want to Be and Moroccan Sahara: Land of Inspiration. In addition, she co-authored Women: Secrets of Moroccan Sahara with Emmanuel Dierkx de Casterlé.
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.
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.
