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Press Release: February 3, 2015
From the AmCham MENA Council Regional Secretariat at AmCham Egypt

AmCham MENA Council Women in Business Awards Ceremony

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AmCham Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Presidents and Chairmen from Egypt, Bahrain, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine and Abu Dhabi-U.A.E.  

Members of the AmCham MENA Regional Council comprising nine AmChams from across the region gathered in Abu Dhabi on January 30th for the Annual Board Meeting and to recognize the winners of this year's 3rd AmCham MENA Council Women in Business Awards. The ceremony was part of the AmCham Abu Dhabi's 5th Excellence Awards and 15th Annual Charity Gala. The event brought together over 300 top business executives and government officials from the MENA region to recognize the winners of the awards, sponsors and AmCham members.

The MENA Council Women in Business Awards recognizes the notable achievements of Middle Eastern women leaders in the corporate world, entrepreneurs, civil society leaders, whose achievements have set the benchmark for others to follow. This year, a new category was introduced to recognize companies with effective gender diversity programs in place within the MENA region.

The winners of the four awards are:

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Left to Right: Hisham Fahmy, CEO, AmCham Egypt and Regional Coordinator, AmCham MENA; Matthew E. Byrd, Chairman, AmCham Abu Dhabi and Chairman, AmCham MENA; Nadia Al Saeed, CEO, Bank Al Etihad, winner of the Best Woman in the Corporate Sector Award and Hala Barkouki, Chair, Woman in Business Committee, AmCham Egypt and AmCham MENA. 

Best Woman in the Corporate Sector was awarded to Nadia Al Saeed, CEO, Bank Al Etihad (Jordan), for her exceptional efforts to Bank Al Etihad for over 10 years, where she was behind the introduction of mobile banking, the launch of Shorouk, a full offering of banking solutions and for having a strong women representation in top managerial positions; and for her key contributions to Jordan in both public and private sectors.

Throughout her career, Ms. Nadia held different roles; most notably, she served as Minister of Communications and Information Technology from 2004 to 2006, and before that as Economic Advisor to the Minister of Communication and Information Technology.

Due to her accomplishments, Mrs. Al Saeed was selected as one of the most powerful women in Jordan by Jordan Business Magazine for the year 2014, and was also selected as one of the most powerful women in the Middle East for 2014 by Forbes Middle East magazine for the Women in Corporate Sector category.

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Left to Right: Hisham Fahmy, CEO, AmCham Egypt and Regional Coordinator, AmCham MENA; Matthew E. Byrd, Chairman, AmCham Abu Dhabi and Chairman, AmCham MENA; Paola Chakhtoura, Director, AmCham Lebanon, accepting on behalf of Sarah Beydoun, Founder and Creative Director of Sarah's Bag, winner of the Best Woman Entrepreneur Award, and Hala Barkouki, Chair, Woman in Business Committee, AmCham Egypt and AmCham MENA. 

Best Woman Entrepreneur was awarded to Sarah Beydoun, Founder and Creative Director, Sarah's Bag - A Social Entrepreneurship Business (Lebanon), a fashion boutique that re-trains over 200 underprivileged women; prisoners, ex-prisoners and unfortunate ones as designers. They learn beading, embroidery and crocheting to become financially independent and earn their living. Today, Sarah's Bag is one of the most successful social entrepreneurship brands in the region where stylish women from Tokyo to Caracas via Beirut and Paris are sitting up and taking notice.

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Left to Right: Hisham Fahmy, CEO, AmCham Egypt and Regional Coordinator, AmCham MENA; Matthew E. Byrd, Chairman, AmCham Abu Dhabi and Chairman, AmCham MENA; Rania Fahmy, Executive Director, Banati Foundation, winner of the Best Woman in the Non-Profit Sector Award and Hala Barkouki, Chair, Woman in Business Committee, AmCham Egypt and AmCham MENA. 

Best Woman in the Non-Profit Sector was awarded to Rania Fahmy, Executive Director, Banati Foundation (Egypt), for her work with at-risk youths.

The foundation brings together children at risk and children of prisoners whom are prevented from taking to the streets and inspire them to build better lives. The average ratio of caregivers to children is 1:6. Children are provided with a passport to economic empowerment through the workshops offered at Banati. Ms. Fahmy has recently won the '2014 Larissa Award' - part of the African Child policy forum. Banati has also been selected as the '2014 Stars Impact' winner in the category of Protection.

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Left to Right: Hisham Fahmy, CEO, AmCham Egypt and Regional Coordinator, AmCham MENA; Matthew E. Byrd, Chairman, AmCham Abu Dhabi and Chairman, AmCham MENA; Tarek Atta, Managing Director and Maisa Galal, Human Resource Director, accepting the Best Company for A Woman to Work For Award on behalf of General Motors Egypt & North Africa and Hala Barkouki, Chair, Woman in Business Committee, AmCham Egypt and AmCham MENA.  

The new category, Best Company for Women to Work for was awarded to General Motors (Egypt) for their outstanding commitment to developing female potential within their company.

GM - Egypt fosters an inclusive working environment for women. It has developed unique programs designed to support and invest in female talents include: short-term developmental assignments abroad, and an 8-month course for developing our top female talent, focusing on personal leadership, peer-sharing and mentoring. In 2010, the Women Forum was established - sponsoring health, education, and leisure activities. GM - Egypt is equally committed to women blue - collar workers, and has started training female vocational students.

MENA Council Board Meeting:

Earlier on in the day, AmCham Abu Dhabi the current Chair of the MENA Council, hosted Chairman, Presidents, members of the Board and Director of eight AmChams from across the region who met to discuss the plans of the Council during 2015. The meeting was also attended by Mr. Khush Choksy, Director, Middle East Department, U.S. Chamber of Commerce.Members discussed the upcoming Annual Conference scheduled to take place on March 25th in Abu Dhabi under the theme; #ThinkMENAbiz "Spurring Cross-MENA Business Ventures: U.S. Investments and Private Sector Funding". The conference is set to feature as speakers; regional investors, venture capital institutions, angel investor networks, ministers of trade and investment as well as U.S. Ambassadors from across the region.

Discussions also focused on several potential joint programs between AmCham; including cooperation with the U.S.-Arab Bilateral Chamber of Commerce to offer a webinar series focusing on, "Doing Business in the MENA Region", featuring successful business leaders from across the region, where their members in the U.S. would listen to their perspective on the business environment and potential opportunities for U.S. investments.

Tax issues were also discussed as a key topic of concern to the AmCham Abu Dhabi expat community. This issue will be addressed during AmCham Abu Dhabi/MENA Advocacy week in Washington DC, scheduled to take place on April 20th.

Members also shared information on upcoming missions and major events by the different AmChams, including AmCham Tunisia's upcoming 'Entrepreneurship and Investment Conference' scheduled for March 5th and the 'Egypt Economic Development Conference' scheduled for March 13-15.

Mr. Khush Choksy, expressed the commitment of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to support the MENA Council and to advocate for issues of priority to its members.

About the MENA Council of Regional AmChams:

The AmCham MENA Regional Council (MENA Council) was established in 2005, and comprises the AmChams of Abu Dhabi-UAE, Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine and Tunisia. The objective of the Council is to work on promoting greater business opportunities between the US and the Middle East and North Africa region. The Council works on effectively linking the various members, and institutionalizing their ongoing coordination with the US Chamber of Commerce. It also works on promoting free trade agreements between MENA countries and the US and on fostering increased awareness among MENA region manufacturers and producers of export opportunities to the US through those agreements. AmCham Abu Dhabi is the current Chair of the Council, and AmCham Bahrain is the Vice Chair. The Council's Secretariat resides at AmCham Egypt.

About AmCham Abu Dhabi 5th Annual Excellence Awards:

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The 5th Annual AmCham Abu Dhabi Excellence Awards Winners, Nominees, Sponsors, VIPs and AmCham Abu Dhabi Board Members.  

This year's winners of AmCham Abu Dhabi 5th Annual Excellence Awards which recognizes best-in-class American and Emirati individuals and businesses for their achievements in the Abu Dhabi business community are:

Salem Rashid Al Noaimi, CEO & Managing Director of Waha Capital and Partner, SeedStartUp, received the Young Achiever Award. Janice Phillips, General Manager, Olgoonik Global Security, received the Woman in Business Award. Dr. Kassem Alom, Founder and Vice Chairman, Al Noor Hospitals Group, received the Falcon Individual Award. Etihad Airways received the Falcon Organization Award. Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi received the Bridge of Excellence Award.

Sponsors of the event have raised proceeds to mark the 15th year of AmCham Abu Dhabi giving back to the community. Those contributions were given to charities and educational institutions in Abu Dhabi; Emirates Red Crescent, the Make-A-Wish Foundation U.A.E., the American Community School of Abu Dhabi and St. Joseph's School.

Sponsors of the event were Al Noor Hospitals Group; Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi; Etihad Airways; Gulf Diagnostic Center Hospital Plc; Lockheed Martin Global Inc.; AV Concepts; Occidental Petroleum Corporation; Sultan International Holding; Nirvana Travel & Tourism LLC; Tasleeh Entertainment; Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority; dnata travel; Europcar; Gulf Alliance Company - A Perot Company; Jumeirah at Etihad Towers; Oshkosh Corporation; Patchi; Raytheon International Inc.; Sayah Engineering MENA; International New York Times and Gray Mackenzie & Partners.