april 14, 2018

emerging markets summit

as global markets shift, so should the way you do business

MIDDLE EAST - Government Policy & SoCial IMPACT
"The evolution of WOMEN's POLICES in the middle east"

MENA's achievements in many areas of women's well-being compare favorably with those of other regions on indicators such as female education, fertility, and life expectancy. However, less than one-third of women participated in the labor force, the lowest among all regions. For the longest time, there has been social and economic barriers that limited women's access to economic opportunities, and this created a missed opportunity for the development of the MENA region as per capital income could have grown substantially more had women had greater access to economic opportunity. Join seasoned experts and activists as they discuss gender inequality issues from a social, economic, and political lens.

LINA KHALIFEH

Founder, SheFighter

  • Lina is the founder of SheFighter based in Amman- Jordan. SheFighter Studio is the 1st Self-Defense Studio designed to empower women both mentally and physiologically through Self-Defense Techniques. Founded in 2010, She created a combination of taekwondo, judo and kung fu and has trained more than 12,000 women.
  • Lina has more than 17 years of experience in practicing Martial Arts like Taekwondo, Kick-Boxing, Kung Fu and Boxing. As well, the founder holds the black belt in Taekwondo 3DAN, and has represented Jordan in many competitions and championships (National and International). Lina got also certified as a trainer in Canada and North America.
  • In 2014, she won the "Woman in Business Global Award" organized by the UN in Geneva, and even American president Barack Obama praised her as a role-model and a "leader of social change", in his speech for the Emerging Global Entrepreneurship event.
  • A Social Entrepreneur with a good cause, She is looking to change the world to a better place, starting with women.

SARAH AL-SHAWWAF

Vice President, Albright Stonebridge Group - MENA Practice

  • Sarah Al-Shawwaf is a Vice President with ASG's Middle East and North Africa practice, where she draws on her experience working at the intersection of technology, consulting, and the law to advise clients with interest in the region on government relations, market entry and expansion, and partner development.
  • Ms. Al-Shawwaf joined ASG after overseeing legal affairs and business development at Incentive Technology Group, a technology consulting company. Prior to that, she was Co-Founder and Principal of Paper Crown Consulting, LLC, a legal strategic advisory firm that provided legal and business counsel to clients seeking to enter foreign markets, with a focus on the Middle East.
  • Previously, Ms. Al-Shawwaf was a Legal Consultant for the World Bank, where she drafted and negotiated grant agreements in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Iran, Iraq, Yemen, and Tunisia. She also advised governments and functioned as the operational counsel on World Bank lending operations in the MENA region. In 2008, Ms. Al-Shawwaf joined Dewey and LeBoeuf as an Associate where she advised governments on issues related to international dispute resolution and public international law. She also counseled Arabic-speaking clients on litigation and corporate matters.
  • Ms. Al-Shawwaf is currently an Adjunct Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center and a regional board member of UNICEF. She holds a J.D. from Georgetown University and a B.A., cum laude, also from Georgetown University. She is a native Arabic speaker and is proficient in Spanish.
  • She is based in Washington, DC.

DR. ALANOUD AL-SHAREKH

Consulting Partner, Ibtkar Strategic Consultancy

  • Dr Al-Sharekh is a consulting partner at Ibtkar Strategic Consultancy and serves as an advisor to a number of local and international governmental bodies and NGOs, offering her insights on various cultural and sociopolitical issues in the region. She conducts research on socio-political, cultural and security issues in the Arabian Gulf, and is a board member of several academic and non-governmental organisations, as well as directing the Abolish153 campaign to end honour killing legislation in Kuwait and the GCC, and the 'Friends who Care' project for young girls (under 21) at risk within Kuwait's social care system.
  • She has been Consultant Researcher on gender and citizenship at the Supreme Council for Development and Planning in Kuwait, Senior Fellow at the International Institute of Strategic Studies, Senior Political Analyst at the Kuwait National Security Bureau and a gender politics consultant for UNIFEM, Freedom House and the UNDP on academic and social outreach projects in Kuwait and the GCC.
  • She holds a BA from King's College, London and a Master's and PhD from the SOAS, University of London. Her teaching posts include Kuwait University, Gulf University of Science and Technology, the Arab Open University, visiting lecturer at Uppsala University, Sweden, and Fulbright Scholar on Women and Islam at Whittier College, USA. She has published several books and articles on gender and kinship policies in the GCC, including The Gulf Family, and Popular and Political Cultures of the GCC, examining the persistent importance of family and tribe in modern Gulf politics and society. Her work won the Arab Prize for best publication in a foreign journal for 2013-2014, and the Voices of Success Kuwait Award in 2012

PROFESSOR ALESSANDRA GONZALEZ

Senior Research Associate, Social Sciences Division, Economics

  • Dr Alessandra Gonzalez is an economic sociologist with specializations in gender, organizations, and development. Her research centers on the role of culture on gender inequality, particularly measured by economic outcomes (such as labor force participation, occupational segregation, executive leadership) in organizations. She is specialized in gender inequality in the Middle East, with case studies of women in executive positions in international firms, parliament, and the judiciary.
  • She received her Ph.D. and M.A. degrees in Sociology from Baylor University and received a B.A. in Sociology and Policy Studies from Rice University.

JULIE MORTON

Associate Dean Of Career Services And Corporate Relations

  • Morton oversees corporate relations strategy and outreach, and engages with firms which seek to interact with the intellectual life of the school. Morton leads career services activities for students in the Full-Time MBA, Evening MBA, Weekend MBA, and Executive MBA Programs, as well as for alumni. This includes career management programming and corporate recruiting relationships with firms which seek to source talent from Chicago Booth.
  • Morton joined Chicago Booth in 2000. Immediately before coming to Booth, she worked in retained executive search. She was also a financial services and strategy consultant at what was then Bankers Trust (now Deutsche Bank) in New York. She spent several years doing strategy and turnaround consulting in central Slovakia and in Jakarta, Indonesia, and she worked for the CFO of Young and Rubicam in New York, in an internal strategy, finance, and operations consulting group.
  • Morton received her MBA from the Tuck School at Dartmouth College. Prior to attending Tuck, she served as the director of Admissions at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. She has an undergraduate degree in international studies from the Johns Hopkins University.