Alfanar’s Myrna Atalla Featured Alongside Acumen’s Jacqueline Novogratz on The Impact Room Podcast

Alfanar's Executive Director, Myrna Atalla, appeared with Acumen’s Founder and Executive Director Jacqueline Novogratz on The Impact Room, hosted by Alfanar Trustee Maysa Jalbout.

Together they discussed opportunities for philanthropy to support mission-driven businesses and the emergence of a new generation of entrepreneurs focused on impact and climate-related issues. 

Listen from 32:10 onward to hear a rich discussion that explores how the social enterprise ecosystem has grown over the past two decades, the ingredients required for success, and how impact investing is changing the game. 

Topics also discussed are the upcoming launch of Alfanar's US$50m regional impact investment fund and a $5m pooled fund to provide operating grants and zero-interest loans to organisations driving women's economic empowerment in the MENA region. 

Maysa Jalbout is an Alfanar Trustee and a leader in international development and philanthropy. Her previous roles include founding CEO of the Abdulla Al Ghurair Foundation for Education, a $1bn philanthropic initiative based in Dubai, and founding CEO of the Queen Rania Foundation. Maysa is a visiting scholar at MIT and ASU, and a non-resident Fellow at the Brookings Institution.

Find her on Twitter @MaysaJalbout. 

Jacqueline Novogratz founded Acumen in 2001. Under Jacqueline’s leadership, Acumen has invested $135 million to build 136 social enterprises across Africa, Latin America, South Asia and the United States. These social driven companies have leveraged an additional $746 million and brought basic services like affordable education, health care, clean water, energy and sanitation to more than 308 million people.  

Find her on Twitter: @jnovogratz