Podcasts about najla al midfa

Rania Saadi speaks with H.E. Mohamed Al Musharrkh, CEO of Invest in Sharjah, H.E. Najla Al Midfa, CEO of Sheraa, and Andreas Sajgaschew, Chief Executive Office of Algatec Energy Systems Inc on the sidelines of the Sharjah Russia Business Roundtable about the business environment in the emirate and what makes Sharjah an ideal hub for foreign investment and trade. Listen to #Pulse95Radio in the UAE by tuning in on your radio (95.00 FM) or online on our website: www.pulse95radio.com ************************ Follow us on Social. www.facebook.com/pulse95radio www.twitter.com/pulse95radio www.instagram.com/pulse95radio www.youtube.com/pulse95radio

Najla Ahmed Al-Midfa, Vice-Chairwoman of Young Arab Leaders, is the Chief Executive Officer of the Sharjah Entrepreneurship Center (Sheraa), a government-supported entity launched in January 2016, with a mandate to build the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Sharjah, and support entrepreneurs as they build and grow innovative startups that will contribute positively to the region’s economy. To date, Sheraa has built a portfolio of over 100 startups, which have raised over $50m in investment, created over 600 jobs, and generated over $35m in cumulative revenue. Sheraa also hosts the annual Sharjah Entrepreneurship Festival (SharjahEF), a gathering of over 3000 entrepreneurs, investors, mentors, and ecosystem supporters.In her previous role as Senior Manager at Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development, Najla led a team of business counselors through the due diligence process of selecting ventures for financing. She also set up and operated the Northern Emirate branch of Khalifa Fund, covering Ajman, Dubai, and Sharjah.Najla holds an MBA from Stanford University. Prior to joining Khalifa Fund, Najla was a senior associate at McKinsey and Company’s New York office, primarily serving clients across the financial institutions sector. Her experience also includes roles within PricewaterhouseCoopers and Shell.Najla is also founder of Khayarat, a platform that empowers young, high-potential Emiratis to make informed career choices, and enables them to succeed in the private sector. With a community of over one thousand young Emiratis, and over 100 placements in leading international private sector companies, the platform is influencing the next generation of Emiratis to raise their ambitions and fulfill their potential.Najla is a board member of United Arab Bank, where she chairs the Board Audit Committee, and a board member of Endeavor UAE. She is also a fellow of the Aspen Institute’s Middle East Leadership Initiative. In 2019, she was selected to be an Eisenhower Global Fellow.Enjoy the show!Show Notes:01:30 - Najla’s beginnings and travels.02:45 - Describing her first job at PWC.05:45 - The genesis of Sheraa, born from an idea.07:45 - Continuous cohort improvement at Sheraa.08:45 - Her entrepreneurial venture with Khayarat.12:30 - The bridge for Emirati graduates and the private sector.14:15 - Her McKinsey story and what happened at her first interview.17:00 - Endeavor’s UAE Chapter and supporting scale-ups of the region.19:00 - Sheraa’s iterations, from seed to grants20:30 - Access Sharjah program and thematic competitions21:30 - On disbursing over$700k, Equity-free, non-dilutive grant funding22:45 - Different tracks with multiple corporate partnerships for startups.24:00 - Three ways you can support entrepreneurs as an entity25:00 - On being the only female board member of a bank26:30 - Being a part of the Aspen Institute, beyond reflection it inspires leaders to act.27:30 - The regional focus of Middle East Leadership Initiative of the Aspen Institute29:00 - The network effect of the Aspen Institute, the Resnick Action Forum31:15 - How she manages her time with so many initiatives and organizations on her team // the importance of building a team you can trust33:15 - “The first step on your entrepreneurial journey”37:00 - Entrepreneurship is inter-disciplinary and Sheraa is democratizing access to entrepreneurship.38:15 - On the false narratives around entrepreneurship.40:45 - The COVID-19 solidarity fund.41:45 - Revealing Sheraa’s yet to-be-announced initiative!43:30 - The move of Sheraa’s HQ to SRTIP (Sharjah Research Technology and Innovation Park)44:00 - What is Young Arab Leaders, in the Vice-Chairwoman’s words45:15 - Supporting young Arabs to become the next generation of leaders45:45 - Disheartened entrepreneurs, remember as all previous crises, it will eventually pass.47:30 - “With every crisis comes new opportunities” and how 3Dinova, a Sheraa supported startup, pivoted during pandemic.49:45 - “Don’t die with your music still in you”51:15 - Rarely gifting business books, but instead of novels and stories that will resonate with the recipient.55:45 - The UAE itself is an incubator for dreams, whether those are dreams and hopes of individuals, or organizations or even nations.57:30 - The COVID19 situation and remembering that life is short and we are all interdependent. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The #UbuntuLoveChallenge is an exciting new movement from Sharjah to the world, built on the core Ubuntu philosophy of “I am because we are”, with a mission to triumph love over fear. In the wake of this worldwide crisis, they are inviting people to reclaim the fear and chaos they feel and channel pain into powerful acts of love. As part of the challenge, Najla Al Midfa, CEO of Sheraa, announced the $1 Million Dollar Startup Solidarity Fund, in honor of the #ubuntulovechallenge. Hear more about the challenge and its founders, Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi and Mamadou Kwidjim Toure, founder of the Africa 2.0 Foundation. Find out how you can be part of the Ubuntu Love Challenge at https://www.ubuntulovechallenge.org/ Listen to #Pulse95Radio in the UAE by tuning in on your radio (95.00 FM) or online on our website: www.pulse95radio.com ******** Follow us on Social. www.facebook.com/pulse95radio www.twitter.com/pulse95radio www.instagram.com/pulse95radio

We had a chance to catch up with Saeed Alnofeli, Programs manager at Sheraa at the Sharjah Entrepreneurship festival 2019. Saeed told us about how Sheraa is actively involved in supporting the startup ecosystem from idea stage all the way to series funding stage. With 7000+ community members, and more than 72 graduated startups, Sheraa aims to cultivate the pipeline of future change makers by fostering a culture of experimentation and critical thought. Sheraa also engages with others in the entrepreneurship community to build a strong and globally-connected ecosystem, and position Sharjah as a vibrant startup hub. (Vision of Najla Al Midfa, CEO of Sheraa) From Joi gifts to ProTenders to Yalla pickup, Sheraa has supported several tech and tech-enabled startups that disrupt traditional industries and in total Sheraa startups have raised more than 50 million USD! Find out about Sheraa here: https://sheraa.ae/ Connect with Saeed here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saeed-alnofeli-38b2a231/ You can also watch this episode on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/5peAMMyESB8 Follow us on Social or use #StartupHustleME to connect: https://www.facebook.com/startuphustleme https://www.instagram.com/startuphust... https://www.twitter.com/startuphustleme www.linkedin.com/company/startup-hustle-middle-east/ Email us on: startup.hustle.me@gmail.com  Visit our Car rental startup: https://ejarcar.com Get in touch with Yellow here: https://welcometoyellow.com/ If you have the Anchor app, you can also leave us a voice note to be featured in an upcoming episode. Connect with us #StartupHustleME

CEO of Sheraa, Najla Al Midfa, joins the Morning Majlis to unpack the finding’s of their first impact report from 2016-2018. Learn how Sheraa is encouraging equality in entrepreneurship and showcasing home grown Emirati and resident talent to the world. Listen to #Pulse95Radio in the UAE by tuning in on your radio (95.00 FM) or online on our website: www.pulse95radio.com ************************ Follow us on Social. www.facebook.com/pulse95radio www.twitter.com/pulse95radio www.instagram.com/pulse95radio

Reshma Saujani committed her first act of bravery at the age of 33 when she ran for political office in New York. She lost – badly. Instead of being defeated by it, she was set free… she discovered her bravery muscle and started to exercise it more. For example, she set up an NGO about coding when she knew nothing about start-ups – or coding. Girls Who Code is a US non-profit organization working to close the gender gap in technology and change the image of what a programmer looks like. Reshma’s TED talk, "Teach girls, bravery not perfection," has more than four million views and sparked a national conversation about how we’re raising our girls. This led her to write her 3rd book "Brave, Not Perfect" During our chat we discussed society’s impact on girls and what we could do differently. I asked Reshma for practical tools on how we ourselves could be braver. In fact, this was a great follow-on to the last When Women Win episode with Najla Al Midfa, which explored resilience: how can you build resilience unless you’re allowed to fail? And finally, we talked about coding and how it cultivates bravery in girls and gives them permission to be less than perfect. To find out more about Reshma and purchase her book, head over to reshmasaujani.com While you're here, please remember to subscribe to the podcast and do take a minute to rate or review it. Thank you.

Today’s show is about cultivating resilience. But before we get into Najla’s own path of navigating social norms and obstacles, we talk about her unusual job.  Najla is the CEO of Sheraa, a government entity that has been tasked to turn a cultural city into a bustling entrepreneurship hub. We discussed why Sharjah has chosen this strategy and what the critical elements are to create a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem. Culture plays a huge role here, at a micro and macro level, as does the word “failure”. We talked about the different needs that entrepreneurs have at various stages of their journey, and how that translates into programs at Sheraa (by the way, these are all free of charge). Finally, Najla shared her story of how she got onto the board of a bank, an entertaining and eye-opening mix of head, heart and hustle. Prior to joining Sheraa, Najla had worked at the Khalifa Fund and McKinsey and Company’s New York office, primarily serving clients across the financial institutions sector. Her experience also includes roles within PwC and Shell. Najla is a board member of United Arab Bank, where she also chairs the Board Audit Committee and is a member of the Board Risk Committee. She is Vice-Chairperson of Young Arab Leaders and a fellow of the Aspen Institute’s Middle East Leadership Initiative. Najla holds an MBA from Stanford University. To find out more about Najla and to get in touch, follow her on Twitter and at Sheraa. While you're here, please remember to subscribe, rate & review the show! You can find me on Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Sharjah Entrepreneurship Center or Sheraa has been central to cultivating start-ups and businesses across the UAE, and now, they have just opened their second hub at the University of Sharjah. Najla Al-Midfa, CEO of Sheraa, introduces us to their newest entrepreneurial launchpad. Listen to #Pulse95Radio in the UAE by tuning in on your radio or online on our website: www.pulse95radio.com ************************ Follow us on Social. www.facebook.com/pulse95radio www.twitter.com/pulse95radio www.instagram.com/pulse95radio