Leila Laouti (BIP 2005, Algeria) with Nobel Prize awardee Muhammed Yunus

Leila Laouti (BIP 2005, Algeria) has joined the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa. She will be focusing on ways to empower poor women through loans or assistance, helping them to establish a stable source of revenue.

Leila attended the Global Microcredit Summit held in Halifax, Canada, November 12-15, 2006. She found the event an excellent experience as she was able to make contacts with many of the financial institutions involved in microfinance lending and to meet recent Nobel Prize winner Muhammed Yunus.

Nidhal Hadiji Kefi (BIP 2004, from Tunisia) now serves as Chief Financial Officer for a diverse group of small and medium-sized enterprises representing a variety of industries, from international maritime transport companies SCT (Sudcargos Tunisie) and MCTC (La Méditerranéenne pour le Commerce le Transport et la Consignation) to insurance brokerages CCA (Cabinet Chiboub d'Assurances) and MARE (La Méditerranéenne pour l'Assurance et la Réassurance) to information technology specialist NetConcept.

Nidhal's duties include establishing financial reporting systems as well as procedures for all company activities; modernizing information systems to provide more customer-oriented support while adhering to internal and budget control requirements; improving human resources management; setting up a training plan that matches company vision; and portfolio management including making decisions about new investments.

Reem Al Hajiri (BIP 2005, Kuwait) was happy to have been chosen, together with a number of other BIP alumnae, to attend the 2006 Middle East and North Africa Businesswomen's Summit, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State's Middle East Partnership Initiative with support from the government of the United Arab Emirates. She describes the conference, held in Abu Dhabi at the end of October, as having been a great opportunity to meet other businesswomen from the region and learn from their experiences. The summit, which involved a total of 250 businesswomen from 17 countries, saw the launch of the U.S.-Middle East Partnership for Breast Cancer Awareness and Research as well as that of new country hubs in Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, the West Bank/Gaza, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates to support a regional network for businesswomen.

Pakisa Abdulrahman (BIP 2005, Bahrain), Product Innovation Specialist for Data & VAS Services at MTC-Vodaphone, is proud to announce that her company was awarded four major honors during CommsMEA magazine's first annual industry awards ceremony this fall. MTC was named "Best Middle East Mobile Operator of the Year," having expanded from a Kuwait-based operation with 600,000 customers in 2003 to become a major conglomerate serving 23 million customers in 20 countries today.

The company was also awarded "Best Telecomm Deal" for its acquisition of Celtel International in 2005, and "Best New Non-Voice Service" for its Jordanian subsidiary Fastlink's BLOG! Service, which allows users to set up their own blogs and publish using Web, MMS, and SMS. Finally, Celtel International founder and chair Dr. Mohamed Ibrahim was honored with the "Lifetime Achievement Award."

Niveen Nassif (BIP 2005, Egypt) tries on traditional Bahraini costume during her visit to Bahrain

Niveen Nassif (BIP 2005, Egypt) visited Bahrain to attend information technology training, then spent some time with fellow alumnae Pakisa Abdulrahman and Lamia Hasan (BIP 2005, Bahrain). They took her to historic sites, restaurants, souks, and on an adventure drive in a Hummer. Pakisa extends "an open invitation to whoever reads this article to come for a visit to this lovely island, and a promise from me to make sure that his/her trip won't be forgotten!"