Join us on February 7th, 2024, for the final session of this year’s Bahrain WIn Fellowship. Our workshop, “Beyond the Start-Up: Navigating Scalability for Bahraini Women Entrepreneurs,” at 10:00 AM EST (6 PM Manama time), will offer key insights on growing businesses across the MENA region.

Bahrain’s commitment to advancing gender equality has seen remarkable improvements when it comes to women’s business participation, both in the public sector where women hold 54 percent of workforce, and in the private sector where they comprise 35 percent of the workforce. These figures come in light of improved legislations between 2020 and 2022 related to pay equity, entrepreneurship, and pensions; but also amidst efforts aimed at sustaining Bahrain’s liberal business environment, making it rank as the fourth most improved economy in the world as per the ease of doing business report published by the World Bank in 2020. These developments continue to support an environment conducive to innovation, creating along the way an attractive market for investors and offering a culture of mentorship for entrepreneurs in general, and businesswomen in particular.

As Bahraini women entrepreneurs seek expansion beyond their borders, this workshop will delve into effective scaling strategies, network leverage, and investor attraction, featuring wisdom from experienced business leaders. Don’t miss this opportunity to explore the avenues of business scalability in Bahrain and beyond.

Speakers & Moderator

Roaya Al-Saleh
Founder and Owner
Villa Mamas Restaurants & Hospitality

Nawaf Mohamed AlKoheji
Chief Executive Officer
Tenmou

Omar Rifai
Co-founder and Chief Growth Officer
GrubTech

Ameera Mohamed (Moderator)
Senior Associate
Bahrain FinTech Bay

Speakers’ Bio

WIn Fellowship cohorts

Beyond the Start-Up: Navigating scalability for Bahraini women entrepreneurs

Jun 14, 2023

The WIn Fellowship 2023-2024 cohort

Building on the success of its inaugural cohort, the Women Innovators Fellowship (WIn) is expanding to Bahrain and the UAE, in addition to Saudi Arabia, as it continues to empower more women entrepreneurs from the Middle East. The program is thrilled to announce this year’s eighty-six recipients of its 2023 WIn Fellowship. The participants will receive a year-long program of executive education, mentoring, and networking opportunities in collaboration with Georgetown McDonough School of Business and with the support of the United States embassies in the three target countries and PepsiCo.
Beyond the Start-Up: Navigating scalability for Bahraini women entrepreneurs

Feb 24, 2023

2023 WIn Fellowship Roadshow

The WIn Fellowship roadshow is led by the Atlantic Council’s empowerME Initiative in cooperation with Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business with support from US Embassy Riyadh, UPS, and PepsiCo. The WIn Fellowship Roadshow participants, chosen from a highly competitive cohort of more than thirty applicants, receive a fully sponsored trip to the United States for leadership training at Georgetown and meetings with US business and government leaders.
Beyond the Start-Up: Navigating scalability for Bahraini women entrepreneurs

Jun 14, 2023

WIn Fellowship 2023-2024 Bahrain

Meet our 2023-2024 WIn fellows from Bahrain: a group of dynamic women entrepreneurs poised to expand their leadership and executive skills. They are on a mission to scale their startups to new heights, setting new benchmarks for success.

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Sponsors & in-country partner

empowerME

empowerME at the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East is shaping solutions to empower entrepreneurs, women, and youth and building coalitions of public and private partnerships to drive regional economic integration, prosperity, and job creation.

Explore the initiative

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