MENA Opportunities

Relics, the biggest ever show of work by Damien Hirst was recently unveiled in the tiny, energy-rich state of Qatar, in the Persian Gulf. As well as the provocative artist’s spot and spin paintings and his signature medicine cabinets, the show boasted the biggest pickled shark he has ever made, weighing in at a gargantuan 76 tons, and his diamond-encrusted skull, a piece that he once boasted was the most expensive artwork ever made by a living artist. The exhibition was staged in Qatar’s capital Doha, in the Al Riwaq exhibition space, a building which had been covered with coloured dots for the occasion. But that is not all: outside an as-yet-unfinished medical centre, Hirst had placed The Miraculous Journey, a series of 14 massive bronze sculptures charting a foetus from conception to birth. The project cost a reported $20m. The sculptures were seen as highly controversial in Qatar, where shop mannequins still sometimes don’t have heads, because of the Muslim unease with anything fi...

Long outshone by start-up founders from places such as Silicon Valley, some entrepreneurs working in the UAE are now being recognized for their influence across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Next Tuesday in New York City, the former US president Bill Clinton is set to host the annual Hult Prize, which awards US$1 million to launch a business conceived by social entrepreneurs that best attempts to solve a global problem. But Mr Clinton will not be judging the finalists. That particular responsibility will be left up to a panel of just five judges, including Muhammad Yunus, the Bangladeshi economist who won a Nobel Peace prize for pioneering microfinance, Sanjay Gupta, an anchor for CNN, as well as Fadi Ghandour, the founder and vice chairman of the Jordan-based logistics company Aramex. Earlier this year, Mr Ghandour announced that he would be launching an investment fund to seed start-ups from MENA. He now splits his time between Jordan and the UAE, where last year...

The UAE has topped two of the three main categories of this year’s Forbes Middle East 200 Most Powerful Arab Women. Sheikha Lubna Al Qasimi, Minister for International Cooperation and Development, won top slot in the list of the most powerful women in government. A total of 26 women from the Emirates featured on the list of 200 drawn from government, family business and executive management. The UAE dominated the family business category with Raja Easa Al Gurg, managing director of UAE-based Easa Saleh Al Gurg Group securing first place. The category also includes Fatima Al Jaber, the chief operating officer of Al Jaber Group and Amna BinHendi, the chief executive of BinHendi Enterprises. It is also in family businesses that women are most likely to rise to prominence, with 43 per cent of all entrants, 85 in total, from family businesses across the region. Overall Egypt accounted for the highest number of entries at 29, followed by Saudi Arabia with 27 and the UAE with 26. Further i...

Minister of Education Prince Khaled Al-Faisal attended the annual ceremony of the Saudi Injaz Entrepreneurs Program 2014 under the slogan “Prepare Saudi youth as leaders of tomorrow in the world of entrepreneurship” at the Jeddah Hilton. The ceremony was held to honor the best supervisors of the program, best business idea, best marketing plan, best product, best young entrepreneurs and best sponsor companies. He also visited the stalls of the Saudi entrepreneurs to encourage them to start small businesses. Prince Khaled Al-Faisal lauded the efforts of the Saudi Injaz Entrepreneurs Program and expressed his joy at the celebration marking the success of the Saudi youth in the labor market. “I am delighted to be with you tonight and hope this program will play the role of constructive bridges and cooperation between human capital, families, schools and the business sector with developing and fulfilling the ambitions of our youth,” he said. He added that the success of the program lay ...

Two young Lebanese were selected last week as part of the MIT Technology Review's 2014 35 Innovators Under 35 list. The magazine honored entrepreneur Ayah Bdeir, 31, and inventor Fadel Adib, 25, for their work with littleBits and the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, respectively. According to Javier Garcia Martinez, the Director of Molecular Nanotechnology Laboratory at Spain’s University of Alicante, who served as one of the competition’s judges, increased access to technology has been the reason behind an increase in regional innovators. “Technology is lowering the bar for young innovators to make an impact, regardless of their location, providing easy access to millions of potential customers, but also to information, education, and financing,” Martinez said in an email. According to the judge, this year’s results are part of an ongoing trend of awardees hailing from the Arab region. This isn’t the first accolade for Bdeir’s littleBits (the entrepreneur i...

You may not have heard of Hills Advertising, but if you are a frequent traveller down Dubai’s Sheikh Zayed Road, then you’ll be more than familiar with the company’s product. Run by founder and chief executive Sami Al-Mufleh, Hills has grown to become by far the largest player in the UAE’s outdoor advertising industry, with what he says is an estimated 65 percent of the market. Despite only launching in 2003, the company has tied up with some of the city’s biggest entities, including the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), Meraas Holding and Dubai World Central. The result? A mixture of locations for static banner advertising that have been hard for Hills’ peer firms to compete with. So it’s not surprising to find that Al-Mufleh, a 44-year-old Jordanian, has so much to say. A 30-minute interview with the man that refers to himself and his workforce as “innovation engineers” ends up going well over the hour mark. And, as he says, the firm is still just getting into its stride. “Duba...

If you’re active in the Lebanese startup ecosystem, then you’ve probably already met the young entrepreneur behind Sociatag, the social integration platform hailing from Beirut. In less than two years, Wassim Hakim and his booth have quickly become staple figures at startup events. With a background as a web developer at digital advertising agencies ClearTag (which has smartly been acquiring startups and is part of digital media umbrella group DNY, and also owns Innovo) and Eastline Marketing, launching a product to bridge the online and offline worlds seemed like the logical next step. Hakim thought up the idea during graduate school, but needed some time to find the right edge, as it is, granted, not the first idea of its kind. But the idea didn’t stop evolving when he eventually launched. What started as a way to allow event attendees to interact with any online platform by simply swiping magnetic cards over physical boxes quickly evolved into a full-fledged social integration pl...

More and more individual and collective initiatives are being launched every day across the Arab region – and the whole world for that matter – to shed light and raise awareness on the current war in Gaza. A significant number of these initiatives come from entrepreneurs who have invested all their abilities and efforts for the cause. This the first in a series about entrepreneurial initiatives attempting to highlight or help the situation in Gaza Two Arab startups, Visualizing Palestine, which produces carefully designed infographics in hopes of changing how the media and public think about Palestine, and The Online Project (TOP), the Middle East's leading social media agency, last month launched a long-term relationship to help publicize the Gaza solidarity movement. In an interview with Wamda last year, VP co-founder Ramzi Jaber told us why he and Joumana al-Jabri focused on infographics when launching their startup, saying that “images are simply more visceral – we’ve been ...

Advertising is everywhere you look. Open a magazine and it’s there in front of you; get into your car and you see huge billboards as you drive along road; turn on the TV and you’re hit with a never-ending stream of commercials. Advertising is often unashamedly brash and in your face. But there’s another type of advertising away from the television, print media, and internet which is somewhat less obvious, perhaps a little more sophisticated, and certainly more targeted: Below the line advertising (BTL). Worth billions of dollars globally, BTL uses a series of methods to engage customers one-one-one, such as promotional gifts, brochures, email campaigns, and so one. One company which has taken the regional BTL market by storm is Traffik360, launched by Lebanese entrepreneur Marcel Khairallah in 2002. Focussing on promotional merchandising, point of sale material,advertising stands, print services, and - recently - brand activations and product launches, Traffik360 works with both loc...

Social media has transformed the way people receive and share information in both personal and business settings. From a corporate governance perspective, this has created risks as well as opportunities that business leaders need to understand if they are to succeed in the digital economy. Most importantly, businesses in the MENA should always ensure that their use of social media is tailored to the specific cultural and demographic characteristics of the region. The adoption of social media by business is not an entirely new phenomenon. A study of more than 2,000 companies conducted by Harvard Business Review in 2010 found that more than two-thirds were already using social media or were planning to do so. These days, a corporate presence on social networks is even more widely expected as these tools embed themselves more deeply in our daily lives. This creates a number of new risks for businesses. These include the speed at which criticism of a company can spread over the web, th...

“I was really fed up from the work environment in Beirut and wanted to leave the region,” said Ibrahim Nehme, Editor-in-Chief of The Outpost magazine. The 28 year-old ‘trep from Lebanon stopped packing his bags once he realized that the Arab Spring created an opportunity in the market for what he calls “quality print products.” It seems that the emergence of a more active generation of Arab youth inspired Nehme. “I felt there’s an opportunity to stay and make something different, making something that would be part of the revolution,” Neheme explains, “that would help us imagine a new Arab place, a media voice that can capture our imagination, provide us with a space to dream, speak up, think freely, be who we are as Arab youth.” Born in Lebanon, Nehme studied business at the American University of Beirut despite developing his love for journalism after writing for Arab Ad during his junior year, eventually joining them as a writer. While he later became involved in other types of ...

For three years now, Stanford University students, gathered in a student initiative called AMENDS, have invited promising actors of change in the Arab World to the Palo Alto campus to learn from each other, connect with global leaders and resources, and share, through TED-style talks, their ideas and experiences with the world. Each year, the group selects 32 delegates from across the MENA and the United States to be hosted at Stanford with the support of a few partners, including OCI, the Moulay Hicham Foundation, as well as Tech Wadi, an organization aiming to build bridges between entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley and the MENA region. The delegates came to share their experience in one of the four categories: Empowerment and Education; Impact Entrepreneurship; Art and Culture; and Peace Building, Social Activism and Human Rights Over the course of two days, participants took part in workshops to prepare them for the TED-like speeches they gave on the final day (watch them here). T...

Ali Nehme, the managing director-digital, at Starcom Mediavest Group, in MENA shares some insights on the Middle east’s digital media market. According to Nehme, the market’s adspend in the region is somewhere between $360 and $420 million. From a geography perspective, Saudi Arabia is the priority for most of the advertisers, yet the UAE remains the spend hub as most of the multinational companies operate locally. While the share of digital in overall spend has grown, it remains low when compared to western markets. Why is that? The MENA region is relatively small when compared to western markets like the US and Europe. Furthermore, the market here started fairly late – about seven years later – in adopting digital, when compared to other markets. That being said, the YoY growth in MENA is faster than any other market. He continues to state that there is a big education gap when it comes to our market, where almost all of the clients need to understand the benefits of digital. To ...

Joseph Safra is the richest banker in the world, according to Forbes. And, incidentally, the name Safra means yellow, or gold, in Arabic. Convenient. Especially since the illustrious family has had their hand in the gold trade since the Ottoman Empire, facilitating trade throughout the Middle East. Notorious for their stable yet clandestine banking operations, the mysterious Safra family continues today as a fortress of banking successes. But the real question on everyone’s mind is this: how has such an illustrious family, at times seeped in scandal, managed to remain so mysterious to the public eye. And what transpired to cause the untimely death of its golden boy, Edmond Safra? The Safra dynasty, as it's known today, was born with banking mogul Joseph Safra’s (b. 1939) great-great grandfather well over a century ago. The Lebanese Jewish family became the most trusted bankers of the Ottoman Empire, most notable for facilitating trade between Alexandria, Aleppo and Istanbul. Wh...

Carlos Slim Helú, a Mexican businessman, CEO of Telmex, Telcel and América Móvil, was born in Mexico City in 1940, January 28. Among six siblings, he is the youngest of his parents Yusef Salim Haddad and Linda Helu. His father Yusef Salim Haddad emigrated from Lebanon and opened a dry goods store in Mexico. His father has always emphasized understanding finance to all his children. Carlos showed special interest in finance from his childhood but he faced hardships after his father death when he was only 13. He spent subsequent 13 years focusing on business and grew his fortune to $40 million. He completed his engineering from the Universidad National Autonoma de Mexico. After few years, he started his business venture Inversora Bursáti, a stoke brokerage. In 1982, when Mexico was in economic crisis, he took over Mexican Affiliates of General Tire, Reynolds and Sanborn’s chain stores and cafeterias and his fortune accelerated with the recovery of country. After some times, he bough...

The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH) has appointment Boecker CEO Michel Bayoud to the national advisory panel of its new membership organisation, the Institute of Food Safety, Integrity and Protection (IFSIP). He joins chair Professor Chris Elliott, from Queen’s University Belfast, and representatives from a diverse cross-section of organisations who are involved in all aspects across the food chain on the advisory board. The advisory board will be receiving input from the Food Standards Agency, Public Health England, Waitrose and Aramark among others. “It is a privilege to be appointed to the Advisory Panel of IFSIP,” said Bayoud. “To contribute to the raising of food safety standards through the promotion of IFSIP members across MENA will make an important contribution to improving the integrity of the global food chain.“This new Institute will provide an international platform for all those involved in food safety from both regulators and practitioners alike, t...

Raja Trad is the CEO of Leo Burnett Group MENA, an  integrated communications network headquartered in Dubai  with offices in Jeddah, Riyadh, Kuwait, Beirut, Amman, Cairo  and Casablanca. Through solid and expansive partnerships with its multinational clients and through the strong growth of its regional and local accounts, Leo Burnett MENA has become  one of the region’s leading agencies. Now a member of the Leo Burnett Worldwide Global  Leadership Council, Trad began his career in advertising in 1978 as an account executive with Young & Rubicam on the P&G account in Beirut and Athens. In 1981, he joined H&C Leo Burnett Beirut as an account director, and in 1984 he was named regional account director on the Philip Morris account. Trad moved to Bahrain in 1987 as subregional managing director for the Bahrain, UAE and Kuwait operations. He also served as regional account director on Philip Morris. In 1991, Trad became the CEO of Leo Burnett Middle E...

GCC companies dominated Forbes' list of top 500 companies in the Arab world, with Saudi Arabia's SABIC in the lead with USD 50 billion in revenues and Saudi Telecom coming in second place. A total of 11 countries are represented in the list with combined revenues of USD 383.67 billion and net profits at USD 71.68 billion as of the end of December 2013, Forbes MENA said. "These figures equate to year-on-year increases of 12% and 16.2%, respectively, while aggregated total assets grew 19% to reach a sizable USD 2.64 trillion," it said in a press release issued on Thursday. Featuring only publicly-listed companies, the Top 500 Companies in the Arab World was based on disclosed financial statements for 2013, collated from stock markets across the region. Criteria considered when producing the list include total revenue, net profits, total assets, and market capitalization. The top 10 included four entries from Saudi Arabia, three from the UAE, two from Qatar and one f...

The tech competition could easily have taken place in Silicon Valley. The winning team designed a 3D printer with the basic tools and materials available. The runners-up developed a smartphone application to help users find the nearest pharmacy and a game that teaches kids about electronic circuits. A few of the projects suggested this wasn’t your usual techie gathering, however. One app offered ways to get through the ruins of a bombed-out city. Another helped users get in touch with refugee organizations. The scene for this juxtaposition between cutting-edge technology and the primeval quest for survival: Syria’s Damascus Technology Garden, which in February hosted its first Startup Weekend since the country descended into civil war three years ago. The event offered a sharp reminder that technology is helping transform a region that many in the West have long dismissed as a social and economic basket case. Across the Middle East, entrepreneurs and their startups are striving to ...

Since the middle of the twentieth century, the Middle East has seen regional hegemons come and go. The 1950s and 1960s were Egypt’s era: Cairo was the Arab World’s capital and the home of its charismatic postcolonial leader, Gamal Abdel Nasser. But Israel’s victory over Egypt, Jordan, and Syria in the 1967 war; Nasser’s death, in 1970; and the spike in oil prices after the 1973 war brought that era to an end. As millions of Egyptians and other Arabs left home for the oil-wealthy Gulf, the gravity of Arab politics went with them. As the Gulf’s fortunes rose, especially in Saudi Arabia, so too did Riyadh’s political clout. Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990, however, and the subsequent U.S.-led war, which was launched from Saudi soil, made clear that oil could buy Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia, a lot of influence, but they still needed American protection. After the Gulf War, in the first half of the 1990s, the Oslo Agreement between the Israelis and th...