Dina Sherif has over twenty years of international and regional experience in integrated sustainable development, corporate sustainability management (including corporate governance, inclusion and diversity, philanthropic activities and environmental risk management), youth civic engagement, strategic philanthropy, program design, impact assessments, social entrepreneurship, youth unemployment, and women’s economic inclusion. Sherif holds a Masters of Public Administration and Management from the Harvard Kennedy School, an MA in Economic Development Studies from the American University in Cairo, and a BA in Political Science and International Relations from the American University in Cairo. She is also a graduate of the non-credit leadership program delivered by THNK School for Creative Leadership in Amsterdam.
Committed to building sustainable, inclusive, and diverse societies through the application of a more ‘conscious’ form of capitalism, she co-founded Ahead of the Curve (ATC) in 2012 to further that goal. ATC is an impact driven business that promotes responsible and sustainable management practices, more inclusive and equitable economies, and the development of socially innovative business models to support both economic growth and social change. ATC is currently the leading social enterprise in the MENA region support impact driven entrepreneurship in addition to creating a movement of impact investing.
Most recently, Sherif was appointed as a Senior Lecturer at MIT’s Sloan School of Management in addition to being the Executive Director of the Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship. Sherif is also a Senior Advisor to Ashoka, providing support to their Global Venture/Fellowship Support arm and helping them re-imagine new ways to identify the world’s leading social innovators.
Sherif formerly held the endowed Willard Brown Chair for International Business at the American University in Cairo (AUC), where was also Founding Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship. During the time she held the Brown Chair, Sherif also taught classes on social entrepreneurship and business ethics making use of experiential and entrepreneurial teaching pedagogies. Prior to the above, Sherif helped establish the John D. Gerhart Center for Philanthropy and Civic Engagement at AUC.
Sherif has been lead author of several publications including the book From Charity to Social Change: Trends in Arab Philanthropy and key reports such as the 2015 UNDP Business Solutions Report and the first of its kind seven country study on trends in responsible business practice in the Arab region.
In acknowledgement of her dedication to creating a new way of doing business, Sherif was given the Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Egypt by the American Chamber of Commerce in 2016; was recognized by the Embassy of India as a “Woman of Substance” in 2016; was chosen as one of ten United Nations Global Compact Sustainable Development Goal Pioneers in 2016; and was most recently named as one of the top fifty most influential women by the Amwal Al Ghad Magazine. Sherif is also an Eisenhower Fellow and was also a fellow at the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School as well as a Research Fellow at the New America Foundation.
Sherif is currently a member of the Special Presidential Advisory Council for Economic Development reporting to the President of Egypt; a Global Advisory Board Member in the Eisenhower Fellowships; a member of the Board of Qalaa Holding and a member of the Board of EducateMe.