Najoua has more than eight years of experience in the venture philanthropy and nonprofit field, and she earned an MBA from Al Akhawayn University with concentrations in Finance and Business at the Bottom of the Pyramid. She recently wrote a research-backed paper about underprivileged women’s entrepreneurship that was commissioned by the European Union. Before this, she served as program manager for the Drosos Foundation, a Switzerland-based venture philanthropy, where she reviewed funding proposals and was involved in carrying out design, monitoring, evaluation, and learning to support programmatic and financial decisions. She also led the development of the Enactus Morocco program, inspiring and monitoring teams to develop and run entrepreneurial projects that improve the lives and standards of living of people in need. She is dedicated to inspiring new entrepreneurial approaches to solve global poverty issues, as well as conducting research on impacts measurements. She is persuasive and recognized for her ability to train, lead, and be part of effective teams. Her skills build on her eagerness for new learning, a genuine compassion for vulnerable children and people, and a belief that anything is possible if we can actively imagine it into existence.
Host Organization: Affinis Labs
Role at Host Organization: Najoua will apply her skill set to managing entrepreneurship projects primarily in the Middle East and North Africa region, including startup hackathons, prize competitions, and the supervision of the Minbar online entrepreneurship platform.