The Insead business school has created the Soraya Salti Social Impact Scholarship Fund in honour of the late Jordanian businesswoman.
The €50,000 (Dh198,770) fund will provide up to two scholarships worth €4,000 each year to young woman entrepreneurs from the Middle East, South Asia and Africa through the Insead Social Entrepreneurship Programme (Isep).
Soraya Salti, 44, and her sister Jumana, 37, died last month.
Soraya spearheaded Injaz Al Arab, an education initiative that promoted entrepreneurship across the Arab world, while Jumana was a director at PricewaterhouseCoopers and based in the UAE since 2008.
The fund was instituted by the Insead alumnus Waleed AlBanawi, the founder and chairman of JISR Partners, to pay tribute to his partner Soraya and her contributions to social entrepreneurship.
“The fund will blaze a trail for social entrepreneurs and continue Soraya’s vision, work and the passion she brought to driving change, specifically through her work at Injaz Al Arab,” said Mr AlBanawi. “We expect that the initiative will create future role models in social entrepreneurship from the Arab World who will build upon the legacy of Soraya and who will strive to make a difference with their lives and the communities they serve the way she did.”
Recipients of the scholarship will become a part of Isep’s network of global social entrepreneurs and participate in meetings, events and networking opportunities. They will also benefit from Insead’s research, especially work related to the role of women in leadership and entrepreneurship.
The fund will be structured to be drawn down as scholarships are awarded. It will be open to contributions to increase its duration and expand its scope.
“Candidates must demonstrate rich moral fibre, courage and a commitment to excellence and authenticity – all qualities that Soraya perfectly embodied,” said Hans Wahl, the director of Insead’s Social Entrepreneurship Initiative. “We are extremely grateful for the transformational role she has played across the region building social value and for Waleed’s vision of furthering her legacy.”
Insead is an international business school with an Abu Dhabi campus.
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