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Excited to be back at my #MBA alma mater Cornell University to give not one but two guest lectures to the Cornell Emerging Markets Institute class led by the indomitable Professor Lourdes Casanova and the Cornell Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise led by #sustainability advocate Professor Mark Milstein. 🌏 Lots of time spent growing and learning in #emergingmarkets, having lived and worked in 🇪🇬Egypt, 🇱🇧Lebanon and the 🇦🇪UAE for one-third of my life. Such a journey from growing up in the New Jersey suburbs. No substitute for real life experience. 👣 Launching Grameen-Jameel, a joint venture between Abdul Latif Jameel and Grameen Foundation to offer #microfinance across the #mena region was one of the most challenging yet rewarding achievements of my career. Reporting to a board, moving HQ from Beirut to Dubai during a war, launching & leading a $50 mm loan guarantee fund, traveling from Yemen to Morocco to witness #poverty firsthand but also all of the hardworking #women supporting their families in search of a better life for their children is universal. 🚺 Starting Mindshift Capital , the first #genderlens #venture fund in Dubai in 2020 during a pandemic has been another challenging yet rewarding part of my career. After starting the first women’s angel investor group WAIN - Women's Angel Investor Network in the region, Mindshift invests globally since the disparate amount of #capital targeting #femalefounders is less than 2% everywhere. Our #theory of change is that by changing the #investor side of the table, where only 2% of founding #partners at VCs are women, we change the other side of the table. To date we have backed 26 women #entrepreneurs in 6 countries solving problems in #sustainability, #womenshealth, #mentalhealth and #disabilitytech. 💪 When I applied to the Cornell Johnson Graduate School of Management 20 years ago, my application essay stated that I wanted to create a fund investing in women-owned businesses in the Middle East. I was gifted with purpose early on, and even though my path wasn’t linear, with lots of ups & downs, I got there. I appreciate more & more that it’s the journey, not the destination. 🙏🏼 👩🏫 My top 3 classes at Cornell were #Entrepreneurship taught by the late David Ben-Daniel, #valuation taught by Zach Shulman and #sustainability taught by Fred Keller . 💒 Oh, and probably the best part of my experience at Cornell - meeting & marrying classmate Armen Vartanian. Together we have two teen sons. 🐲