It is with great pride that the Board of the Arab International Women’s Forum announces that Haifa Fahoum Al Kaylani, AIWF Founder Chairman, joins Harvard University as a Fellow of the Harvard Advanced Leadership Programme in 2017. Mrs Al Kaylani has been invited to join 45 global leaders selected for an intensive, multi-disciplinary program and yearlong Fellowship at Harvard to solve significant social problems.
Harvard’s Advanced Leadership Initiative, conceived by Professors Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Rakesh Khurana, and Nitin Nohria and launched in 2009, is an exciting new ‘third stage’ in higher education designed to prepare experienced global leaders to take on new challenges in the social sector and carry the impact made in their careers forward towards even greater societal good. ALI Fellows participate in a rigorous core course, field experiences and intensive deep dives on social issues including health, environment, and education.
Supported by Faculty from Harvard’s Schools of Business, Education, Government, Law, Medicine and Public Health, ALI aims to tap into the experiences of a socially conscious generation of leaders, to help ‘redirect and broaden their skills to fill critical leadership gaps in solving major social issues’. The Fellowship culminates in a capstone event where ALI Fellows are invited to present their plan to make a lasting difference in the world. Following the programme year, fellows join the ALI Coalition, a group dedicated to making ongoing social progress and impact across a broad range of sectors and development spheres.
This year’s selected ALI Fellows form the 9th cohort of the programme, and come from diverse sectors and backgrounds with outstanding records of achievement and accomplishment. Mrs Al Kaylani said, “It is indeed a great privilege to have been nominated and subsequently invited to join Harvard as a Fellow of the Advanced Leadership Initiative for this year. Having successfully led AIWF since its inception in London in 2001, I am delighted on a personal level to be taking the time to undertake this important Fellowship and to have this tremendous opportunity to carry forward on a global level the mission I care deeply about and to which I have devoted over three decades of my life – economic development through the empowerment and advancement of Arab women and youth and by advocating job creation, entrepreneurship, education and economic empowerment, not only in the MENA region but internationally.”
To lead AIWF through the exciting year ahead as she undertakes this important Fellowship at Harvard, Haifa Al Kaylani is delighted to share with all AIWF Partners, Members, Friends and Supporters that the Board of the Arab International Women’s Forum has unanimously welcomed Rania Rizk, AIWF Board Member and Senior Vice President & General Counsel AMEA at PepsiCo, as Acting Chairman effective January 2017. Ms Rizk is a distinguished senior executive and passionate advocate for empowerment, and she has been a key contributor to advancing women’s empowerment as part of PepsiCo’s Performance with Purpose initiative in Asia and the Middle East.
Ms Rizk has been the steward of PepsiCo’s partnership with AIWF for several years and a member of AIWF’s Board of Directors since 2013. In her leadership capacity with AIWF, Ms Rizk has been a driving force behind enhancing governance and the adoption of institutional best practices. Commenting on the year ahead, Ms Rizk said, “I am truly humbled and honoured by the confidence placed in me by our esteemed AIWF Chairman and the members of the Board. I look forward to continuing the journey with the AIWF team and the Board in 2017 to deliver a highly impactful program.”
The AIWF Board and Organisation intends to honour Mrs Al Kaylani’s Fellowship by building on the successes of the past decade and a half with a valuable Annual Programme of events and initiatives in 2017, among these, taking forward the highly successful Young Arab Women Leaders initiative which celebrates its 5th Anniversary in 2017. Key AIWF events for 2017 will be announced regularly throughout the year on the AIWF website.
