Women on Boards Roundtable

The Arab International Women’s Forum and Pearl Initiative are proud to collaborate with the American University in Cairo School of Business, and the 30% Club MENA on this virtual roundtable on Women on Boards in the MENA, exploring models for transforming women’s board readiness and leadership success in the region.

Moderated by the Pearl Initiative’s Executive Director Ranya Saadawi and with welcome remarks from AIWF Board Member Raghda Kurdi, this event brings together leaders from the private sector, international development organisations, and higher education for a high-level D&I discussion on steps that stakeholders can take to create innovative programmes, partnerships, and initiatives to support women’s readiness and leadership on boards; mainstream a powerful shift in corporate culture towards true gender parity; and encourage state and corporate policy change.

Initiatives that will be explored include Egypt’s Women on Boards Observatory, the ILO’s new AllOnBoard initiative to promote women’s representation on boards as well as other interventions on decent work for women, and the 30% Club MENA. The roundtable also welcomes senior speakers from AIWF Global Partners PepsiCo and PwC, sharing tried and tested private sector strategies and best practices for promoting gender parity on executive boards and in the MENA workforce towards the realisation of SDG 5.

Invitations to attend the sessions have been extended to government policymakers and representatives of labour ministries, think tanks and researcher institutes, business leaders, women’s business councils, D&I leaders, higher education, and NGOs, all steering their companies and institutions towards gender parity and equality on boards and in business leadership, in both the MENA region and internationally.

Roundtable Speakers:
Marie-Estelle Rey, OECD Corporate Governance
Fianna Jurdant, OECD Middle East & Africa Division
Reem Aslan, Decent Work for Women Programme, International Labour Organization
Dr Ghada Howaidy, American University in Cairo School of Business / Women on Boards Observatory
Wael Ismail, PepsiCo
Norma Taki, PwC Middle East
Hisham Farouk, 30% Club MENA