Tag: Young Global Leaders

Yamli’s Habib Haddad On World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders 2009 List

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World Economic ForumThe World Economic Forum has announced the Young Global Leaders (YGL) 2009. The honour, bestowed each year by the Forum, recognizes and acknowledges between 200 and 300 outstanding young leaders from around the world for their professional accomplishments, commitment to society and potential to contribute to shaping the future of the world.

The Forum has nominated Young Global Leaders from 71 countries, including business leaders, as well as leaders from government, academia, non-profit organizations, media and society. The new class represents all regions: East Asia (54), Europe (58), the Middle East and North Africa (12), North America (45), South Asia (24), sub-Saharan Africa (20) and Latin America (17). For a list of YGLs honoured in 2009, click here.

Habib HaddadOn this list we find one of our very own: Habib Haddad, co-founder of Yamli. Habib is behind the original idea behind Yamli, and today drives Yamli’s vision of empowering the Arabic language and users on the web. His responsibilities span from product strategy and design to business development.

Habib often speaks about early stage development and entrepreneurship, and has spoken at venues such as the Harvard Business School, Boston College and the American University of Beirut. He currently sits on the advisory board of Meedan, a non-profit startup that aims to enable cross-cultural dialogs online.

Commenting on the nomination, Habib said: “I am honored to be selected as a Young Global Leader and I am eager to engage with the YGL community. I have always been passionate about entrepreneurship and hope that along with fellow YGLs, we will be able to help foster entrepreneurship activities in the Middle East and North Africa. I am also excited to continue to promote the Arabic web, which I believe has a bright future lying ahead.”

Drawn from a pool of almost 5,000 candidates, the Young Global Leaders 2009 were chosen by a selection committee, chaired by H.M. Queen Rania Al Abdullah of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, comprising 31 eminent international media leaders. 

The 2009 honourees will become part of the broader Forum of Young Global Leaders that currently comprises 480 outstanding individuals. The YGLs convene at biannual summits, as well as Forum events and meetings throughout the year, and collaborate on initiatives to tackle some of the key challenges of our generation.

Big congratulations to Habib Haddad for this honour; it’s very well deserved.

Social Entrepreneur of the Year Competition 2009 – Middle East & North Africa

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Schwab Foundation for Social EntrepreneurshipThe Schwab Foundation is running a competition, looking for the Social Entrepreneurs of the Year 2009 from the different regions of the world.

The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship is a not-for-profit, independent and neutral organization, founded in 1998, with the purpose to advance social entrepreneurship and to foster social entrepreneurs as an important catalyst for societal innovation and progress.

The most important criteria to be considered a finalist are:

  • An innovative product or service
  • An idea that has been sustained through a successful infrastructure
  • The implemented idea has a direct social impact
  • You were able to reach beyond the initial context
  • Your idea is applicable to other situations, regions and countries

The winners will be included in the Schwab Foundation network of social entrepreneurs. This includes access to a peer network of social entrepreneurs, special benefits such as pro-bono consulting services and scholarships to executive education courses at world-class institutions such as Harvard Business School, Stanford University and INSEAD.

The winners will also be invited to one regional meeting of the World Economic Forum.

Excellent finalists or winners under 40 will also be nominated to the Young Global Leaders network of the World Economic Forum. Worldclass social entrepreneurs will be invited to join the global social entrepreneur community, which includes the possibility to be invited to the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos and to contribute to the Global Agenda Councils of the Forum.

For more information on the competition and the detailed criteria to join, you can check out the competition site.

The deadline for submissions from the Middle East and North Africa is February 16th 2009, and you can apply online here.