Manama: The Bahrain Award for Entrepreneurship, the first of its kind in Bahrain, officially announced its esteemed panel of judges comprising some of the region’s most innovative business minds.
The Award will see all applicant businesses assessed by the diverse group of judges with the final category winners being announced on the date of the official ceremony for the Bahrain Award for Entrepreneurship in March 2015.
The diverse panel of dynamic judges is set to include: HRH Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud: A businessman and entrepreneur, representing KBW investments, founder of KBW Holding and KBW Consultancy, technology enthusiast and supporter of entrepreneurial activity in the Middle East.
Talal Al Zain: CEO of PineBridge Investments Middle East, member of PineBridge’s Global Executive Committee and former founding Board Member of Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company.
Ahmed Nassef: An entrepreneur, expert in emerging markets, former General Manager of Maktoob, former Vice President of Yahoo! Middle East and Africa and currently the founder/CEO of Vyu a dynamic entertainment guide.
Badr Jafar: Managing Director of the Crescent Group, and member of several boards including the Abraaj Group. Jafar launched the Pearl Initiative in collaboration with the United Nations Office for Partnerships to jointly promote corporate governance, accountability, transparency, and good corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices within the Middle East.
Habib Haddad: CEO of Wamda, an entrepreneurship ecosystem in the MENA region that invests in promising startups and Founder of Yamli Arabic search engine. Habib is a recognized Young Global Leader in the World Economic Forum, Founder of the nonprofit Yalla Startup and named top innovator under 35 by the MIT Technology review.
Nina Curley: Managing Director of Flat6Labs Abu Dhabi designed to support early stage companies, and former Editor-in-Chief of Wamda, the largest entrepreneurship site in the Middle East covering 14 markets. Nina also launched Wamda for Women, a founding member of WAIN and written for global publications.
Rama Chakaki: Founder of Baraka Ventures, a social business that invests in other social businesses enabled through technology. She also serves on the board of TechWadi and PACES, and is a founding member of Arab Women in Computing and the first regional Women Angel investment Network – WAIN.
Rosemary Tan: Creative Director of Palam Mesra Sdn. Bhd. a property development company in Malaysia. Tan’s projects have been recognized globally for innovation and sustainable building. She was previously the Global Chairman of Entrepreneurs’ Organisation (EO).
Tony Bury: A serial entrepreneur and philanthropist with numerous successful exits under his belt. Bury launched 3sixty Capital, an investment holding company that seeks maximum ripple effect impact over and above strong and sustainable commercial returns. He founded the Mowgli Foundation in 2008 to empower entrepreneurs through mentorship.
Hala Fadhel: Chair of the MIT Enterprise Forum of the pan-Arab region and founder of Beirut’s Coworking+961 space. Fadel is also an Angel investor in start-up companies in the Middle East and Europe as a Partner in Leap Ventures.
The judging procedure is held in two rounds. During the first round, the Technical Committee will filter 4 finalists per category and will interview the 20 semi-finalists individually. The second judging round, will see the judges evaluating the entries independently to determine the 5 finalists. The Technical Committee will then calculate cumulative scores and ranks to determine the Award Winners for each category. Final announcement, trophy and award presentation will occur in March 2015 at the official awards ceremony.
The Bahrain award for Entrepreneurship has been launched with the partnership of Tamkeen, EDB, BDB, and Knowledge advisors BCCI, UNIDO, EY Bahrain and the Ministry of Industry and Commerce.