Forbes Middle East has unveiled the sixth edition of its annual Under 30 list, highlighting the region’s young innovators under 30 who are making an impact across industries. This year’s list has expanded to include, for the first time, 120 participants, who were evenly divided into 4 categories of 30 participants each.
This year’s roster showcases 145 individuals from 22 different nationalities, with Egyptians leading the list, comprising 44 outstanding achievers. These trailblazers represent diverse sectors, including science and technology, entertainment, commerce, finance, and social impact.
Dalia Hassan
Hassan created Bloom, the first three-dimensional printed prosthetic leg design made from recyclable bottle caps and materials for war victims. She is currently experimenting with the design clinically before the production phase begins. Hassan manages innovative capacity-building programs in the Middle East and Southeast Africa in collaboration with Siemens Healthineers Middle East and Africa’s Innovation Think Tank. She also created Little Innovators, an innovation infrastructure at Children’s Cancer Hospital 57357 in Egypt, enabling children to develop and implement creative healthcare solutions and turn them into startups.
Basant Hamida
The Egyptian sprinter won a gold medal in the women’s 200m at the FBK Athletics Championships in the Netherlands in 2023, setting a new record of 22.41 seconds. Bassant also won gold medals in the 100m and 200m at the 2022 Mediterranean Games, becoming the first Egyptian to win gold in the 100m. In 2022, she was appointed an ambassador for the United Nations Global Initiative (Generation Unlimited) in its Egyptian version (Shabab Balad).
Hana Gouda
Gouda started playing table tennis at the age of four. In 2022, at 14, she became the youngest player to win a continental title after winning the African Table Tennis Cup in the women’s singles event. In September 2023, she qualified for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games after winning the 2023 African Women’s Singles Table Tennis Championships. She was ranked second in the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) ranking for singles under 17 and 31st for women’s singles in October 2023.
Mayar Sherif
Mayar ranked 31st in the WTA Singles World Rankings in June 2023, the highest ranking achieved by an Egyptian tennis player since former Egyptian champion Ismail El Shafei, who ranked 34th in the world in 1975. Born in Egypt and of Spanish descent, Mayar is the first Egyptian player to play in a Grand Slam tournament and the first to win the Hologic WTA Tour. In 2023, she won her sixth WTA 125 title; during her professional career, she won 16 singles and 7 doubles titles.
Sara Samir
The Egyptian weightlifter won a bronze medal at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at 69kg, becoming the first Arab athlete to win an Olympic weightlifting medal. She also won gold at the Women’s 76-kilogram World Weightlifting Championships in 2022 and 2023 in Colombia and Saudi Arabia, respectively. She won her third continental title in the adult competition in May 2023 after winning the African Weightlifting Championships. She currently ranks third in the 2023 IWF senior ranking for 81kg.
Mennat Allah Zaghloul
Three partners joined to establish Intelaq to provide accelerator programs and advisory services to startups. In January 2023, it launched programs for pre-seed startups, graduating two cohorts yearly. The duration of each program ranges from 4 to 6 months, with the possibility of an investment of up to $50,000 per startup. The firm has provided advisory services to companies, including Rabbit in Egypt, Kaasim in Saudi Arabia and Ninjacart in India.
Joud Ben Halim
At 17, Ben Halim founded her jewellery brand with her mother, Rana El Azm, in 2011. It currently has 3 stores in Egypt and plans to open another. The brand allows shipping worldwide through its website. Her designs have attracted celebrities such as Kendall Jenner, Vanessa Hudgens, Chrissy Teigen and Adriana Lima.
Hadeer Shalaby
Shalaby co-founded Freeziana as an online platform for buying and selling handmade products. It has trained more than 200,000 women in collaboration with 30 international and governmental agencies and 150 local partners such as CARE Egypt, UN Women, UNDP and Oxfam. The platform also received investments and grants worth $1.4 million. Shalaby founded subsidiaries, including Green Fashion, which recycled 600 tons of textile factory waste, 83,700 pieces of old clothing, and Crafty platform for remote learning of crafts and creative industries.
Youmna Jaafar
JAFFAR helps governments and policymakers use digital tools to develop economies and improve the lives of the poor and marginalised. In her current role at the IMF, she is creating a value-added tax database, which will be released in an IMF handbook. It also contributes to analyses to determine ways to provide fiscal support to the agricultural sector. Jaafar also worked as a sustainability executive for MBC Group and managed a project supporting Zero Hunger and Food for Children with the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) by launching the Feed Their Dreams campaign.
