Young Saudi entrepreneur honored at Takreem’s 2015 awards

Khaled
AlKhudair receives the Young Entrepreneur award. (Images via
Takreem)

In honour of his efforts as the founder and CEO
of Glowork, young
Saudi Khaled AlKhudair received the Young
Entrepreneur Award from TAKREEM.

The awards initiative saw its sixth edition on
November 14 and played host to aspiring Arabs who have
excelled in their field and inspired others in their quest for
cultural, educational, scientific, environmental, humanitarian,
social and economic excellence.

Launched four years ago Gloworks is “bridging
the gap for women in the workplace”. Through a series of
facilitatory steps, such as offering them consulting services, or
helping them create virtual offices from home, AlKhudair has been
helping women find work.

“We have helped more than 27,000 women so far,”
said AlKhudair. “And we’re looking to expand our work through a new
app and platform, to be revealed later on.”

He added that receiving this award is “an
opportunity that gives me great motivation to continue,” adding
that these kind of initiatives “give us a chance to share our
stories. We don’t have a lot of chances to do that.”

To
be eligible for the Young Entrepreneur Award, the candidate must
have entrepreneurial accomplishments in his innovations or
achievements. A sustainable business model, various funding sources
and a steady growth rate are all required, provided that the
candidate is younger than 35-years-old.


The award
recipients at the TAKREEM 2015 ceremony.

Lebanese-Palestinian Nabil
Habayeb, CEO of General Electric (GE) MENAT,
received the Corporate Leadership Award. Habayeb is known to be a
champion of education, healthcare, empowering of youth capacities
and women leadership.

Dr. Fadlo R. Khuri, who became AUB’s
16th president at the start of September
2015, received the the Scientific and Technological Achievement
Award.

The Cultural Excellence Award went to
Palestinian NGO AlKamandjati,
which promotes musical education. As for the Humanitarian and Civic
Services Award, this went to Jumana Odeh, founder of the
Palestinian
Happy Child Center and recipient of Children’s
Nobel Prize award. Odeh is the first Arab to receive this
award.

A positive image of the Arab
youth

Founded in 2010 by current CEO Ricardo Karam,
Takreem came as a response to the negative impact that global
events have had on the image of Arabs around the world. “It’s good
to be able to reflect a positive image of the Arab world, in a way
vastly different from the stereotypes we are associated
with.”

Speaking at Dubai’s MusicHall, venue of this
year’s event, Karam told Wamda that the talents of the Arab
youth lie at the heart of his initiative.  

“Since the beginning of [Takreem], we have been
seeking to promote change in the Arab youth,” he said. “Our biggest
goal remains bridging the gap between those who are underprivileged
in our society, and those achievers who are far away from all the
[chaos].”

However, the biggest obstacle hindering of Arab
creativity is the “ignorance found in society, and this has been
caused by the Arab regimes. Which need to change and adapt with
times.”

For Karam, education is imperative in overcoming
this problem and unleashing the creativity of the young population.
“We don’t want to teach people just so they can know math and
physics, we want to teach them a way of life. The ministries of
culture and education are key to this, because graduating a
generation qualified to make change is the priority.”