As part of its commitment to empowering women across the Kingdom to fulfill their potential, PepsiCo has further developed its partnership with The Atlantic Council by launching the Saudi Women Innovators Fellowship (WIn) program in partnership with the U.S. embassy and Georgetown University.
The program is set to continue the journey of empowering Saudi women entrepreneurs to build scalable businesses. A progressive conversation around the topic of ‘The rising female workforce in Saudi Arabia and its impact on the private sector’, took place in the form of a panel discussion featuring a lineup of leading industry professionals to highlight their efforts in empowering the Saudi female workforce, within their respective organizations.
With the labor force participation rate for Saudi women rising, the session explored the vast transformation of the Saudi labor market and the opportunities these changes present, most notably for women in the private sector.
PepsiCo was represented by Vice President of Corporate Affairs, Wael Ismail, alongside industry experts and thought leaders Dena Elkhatib, General Counsel; Riyadh Air; and Hattan Ahmed, Entrepreneurship Director at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST).
The discussion saw an opportunity to showcase the wide range of initiatives, programs, and partnerships launched to provide women greater access to the Saudi private sector and labor market and showcase PepsiCo’s work championing female empowerment and entrepreneurship.
The event reiterated the importance of innovative offerings such as Tamakani, the platform launched by PepsiCo in 2019 to shape an equal, inclusive, and thriving society. It is dedicated to supporting and inspiring generations of women in the Kingdom.
The program delivers mentoring and networking opportunities with leading U.S. and MENA experts and business executives. It offers access to a tailored executive education program by Georgetown University and workshops with leading experts. It also provides a fully sponsored trip to the U.S. for the top five performing participants.
The top five WIn Fellows of 2022 are Sumayah Alzamil, Co-founder and CEO at Nugttah; Dr. Rawan Al-Kharboosh, Founder and CEO of AtPoint; Renad Aljefri, CEO of Ad Astra; Meyce Alauddin, Founder and CEO of The Giveaway Co.; and Sara Bin Ladin, Chief Technology Officer at Quantum Platform.
Programs such as Tamakani have been instrumental in promoting greater diversity and inclusion in Saudi Arabia. With figures showing an increase of more than 38% in female entrepreneurs, companies such as PepsiCo have played an integral role in guiding and nurturing the future generation of Saudi female leaders.
The rising female workforce in Saudi Arabia and its impact on the private sector underscores the need for even more productive partnerships and initiatives to empower more female leaders and changemakers.
Through Tamakani, PepsiCo aims to empower one million Saudi women by 2030. In keeping with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 objectives, the platform was built on three main pillars: “Amplifying Voices”, “Facilitating Mentorship”, and “Fostering Entrepreneurship”.
Since its inception, PepsiCo’s Tamakani initiative has proudly empowered more than one hundred thousand Saudi women.
