The Emerging Board Leaders Fellowship

The Fellowship is a board accelerator for Arab and North African leaders who are approaching their first board seat, and over twelve days it builds the governance judgement a director is expected to bring to the table.

4 online programme modules
12 full days, held on separate dates
65 fellows across three cohorts

Diversity Champion HSBC Middle East

Knowledge Partner KPMG

Who the Fellowship is for

You will fit here if you are a senior operator, a founder, or a leader in the public sector or civil society who has the operating experience for a board seat but has not yet built the governance depth or the visible credibility to win one. Four subjects carry particular weight: climate risk, nature, artificial intelligence (AI), and environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues.

Governance and fiduciary fundamentals

You study a director's duties, how a board works in practice, and the fiduciary and risk judgement a seat demands. You finish able to exercise those duties under the pressure of a live meeting.

Board members in session around a round table, a woman in a hijab, a Gulf man in a white thobe, a next-generation leader and a wheelchair user among them, with the Beirut coast and mountains beyond the glass

A Nile-delta wetland at golden hour with flamingos wading among reeds and palms, a modern glass pavilion boardroom set quietly to one side

Climate and ESG fluency

Climate and nature-related financial risk and ESG run through the whole programme. You learn to interrogate a transition plan, to challenge management on the company's exposure to climate and nature, and to hold your own when those subjects reach the board table.

Governing alongside AI

Artificial intelligence now shapes decisions that boards remain accountable for. You learn how to oversee systems that decide at machine speed, what to question in them, where liability sits, and which judgements a board can never hand to a model.

A glowing AI data and neural-network wall filling a dark boardroom, two directors small and peripheral at its edge, the Riyadh skyline faint beyond the glass

An inviting empty boardroom chair beside floor-to-ceiling glass overlooking a modern Cairo cityscape, a marigold dragonfly resting on the chair back

Decision-making under uncertainty

Boards rarely decide with the full picture in front of them. You practise weighing incomplete information, working out which gaps in it can still be closed before the vote, and holding to the long view when short term pressure is heaviest.

fellows to date

cohorts run

Meet the fellows

Sixty-five leaders have come through the Fellowship across three cohorts. Choose a cohort and open any name to read that fellow's biography.

Ali Lari, AIA, PMP, LEED GA, Senior Development Executive and Board Director, Hassan Lari Group
Amr ElSalanekly, Co-Founder and Managing Director, Ezdehar Management
Batool Sharaf, Department Head, Corporate Development, BBK, Board member, Global Payment Services (GPS), Certified Public Accountant
Dr. Wajeeha Hussain Awadh, Group Chief Digital Officer, Al Baraka Group
Ehab Eissa, Country Head of Multinationals, Global Banking, HSBC Bank Egypt
Eman ElRouby, Managing Consultant, Enterprise Strategy
Haneen Hassan, CEO- Lanceley Consulting (Education and Training)
Hayfa Matar, Specialist Partner, Markets and Investor Advisory, Johara Global
Heba Hakky, Principal, Adenia Partners
Hesham Elbosaty, Group Treasurer, EFG Holding
Khalid Machchate, Chairman, K&W Technologies; Senior Policy Advisor, Morocco's Royal Commission for National Development; Forbes 30 Under 30
Majd Fayyad, Demand Side Management Strategy and Policy Lead, Dubai Supreme Council of Energy
Marwa Aleskafi, Director of Workforce, Enterprise and Startup Enablement, Tamkeen (The Labour Fund)
Mohamed El Ghamry, Head of Corporate Banking, National Bank of Fujairah
Nisreen Qatamish, Director General and CEO, King Hussein Cancer Foundation
Samir Yamani, MENA Managing Partner, GCCVest
Yasmin A Farid, Senior banking executive and board member
Yasmine Negm, Independent non-executive director
Youssef Beshay, Senior Manager, Advisory and Capital Markets, African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank)

Dr. Aida Essaid, Former Director General, Taawon (Welfare Association)
Abbas Kazmi, Co-Founding & Managing Partner, SABAH.fund; Co-Founder, Collegiate Capital
Ahmed Behairy, CEO, Everest Minds
Dr. Aisha Bushager, Head of Data Analytics, Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait (BBK)
Amr Dawood, Venture Capital, Endure Capital
Ashraf El Khatib, Chief Investment Officer, Private Equity, Ekuity Holding
Dr. Sh. Fay Al-Khalifa, Director of Quality Assurance and Accreditation and Associate Professor, University of Bahrain
Jennifer Chammas, Regional Managing Director, Head of Sustainable Finance and Transition, Middle East, Corporate and Institutional Banking, HSBC
Khalid Al Bayat, Deputy Chief Executive of Programme Design and Delivery, Tamkeen
Mai El Kinawi, Founder and Corporate Communications Strategist, True North Consulting FZ-LLC
Marwa Al Maskati, Chief Strategy Officer, Bahrain Bourse
Mohamed Jamsheer, First Vice President, Head of Information Technology, Al Baraka Group (ABG)
Nadeem Habib, Director, Head of Financial Institutions, Public Sector and Government-Related Entities, HSBC Egypt
Nicolas Michael El Jamal, General Manager, Find.co
Rana Ghafary, Director of Advocacy and Government Affairs, King Hussein Cancer Foundation
Rasha AlSadhan, Director, Human Resources, AS&H Clifford Chance
Rehab Tammam, Country Head of Global Trade Solutions, Corporate and Institutional Banking, HSBC Bank Egypt
Salah Hamwi, Director, Programs and Operations, CARE
Shaima AlGhailani, Co-founder & Lead Commercial Projects, Innovation Factory for R&D in Science, Engineering & IT
Wahid A. Kamalian, Managing Partner, Amaly Legacy
Waleed Abdelrahman, Chief Executive Officer, Zahran Market
Wessam Maher Anwar Abdou, Chief Information Security Officer, Suez Canal Bank
Mootaz Dinana, Country Manager, FilKhedma (SweepSouth)

HE Sherine ElSharkawy, First Deputy Minister, Ministry of Finance
Nadia Boumeziout, Head of Sustainability & Information Governance, Zurich Insurance
Leena Faraj, Vice President, Corporate Strategy and Support, Bahrain Airport Company
Wadia Ait Hamza, Director of Leadership Programs, Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence
Muneera Albuainain, Director of Postal Offices Administration, Ministry of Transportation and Telecommunications, Bahrain
Maha AlMa’ayta, Director of Policies and International Cooperation, Ministry of Environment
Ingy Agha, Head of Internal Audit, HSBC Egypt
Waleed Ali, Chief Executive Officer, Forma Asset Management
Jasim Alalawi, Senior Business Development Manager, Nazdaher
Saddam Sayyaleh, Regional Development Lead, American Near East Refugee Aid
Mohamed Bassiouny, Vice President, Division Head, Multinationals, Global Banking, HSBC Egypt
Nada AlSaeed, Chief of Strategy, Bahrain Economic Development Board
Nihal Abdelghaffar, Founder & CEO, Accretive Corp Agriculture (atfa)
Malak Al Akiely, Founder & CEO, Golden Wheat for Grain Trading
Hisham Shehabi, COO and Head of MENA, N3XT Sports
Rumaitha Al Busaidi, Business and ICV Development Manager, Hydrom
Myrna Atalla, Board Director, Five One Labs; former Executive Director, Alfanar
Israa Ali, Former Director of Tax Policies, National Bureau for Revenue, Bahrain
Nada ElSehemy, Associate minister of finance for financing affairs and economic authorities and units, Ministry of Finance of Egypt
Ahmed Al Sharaf, Director, Business Sectors, Tamkeen
Rym Tina Al-Ghazal Bach, Editor-in-Chief & Creative Art Director, Ithraeyat Magazine, King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (Ithra)
Mohiy Mourad, Head of Enterprise Non-Financial Risks, HSBC Egypt
Jamila Elmir, Sustainability and Environmental Policy Advisor; Insights and Activation Lead, Wave

Between cohorts, the pathway is open

The self-directed Pathway to the boardroom covers the same ground at your own pace, with the Compass to find your starting module and the openings board to watch while you wait for the next intake.