Press Release
Middle Eastern and North African Business Leaders in San Diego for UCSD-U.S. State Dept. Entrepreneur Training Program
Local companies to host one-on-one exchanges with participants
May 7 , 2007
Over twenty prominent business leaders and entrepreneurs from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA region) are in San Diego for the Middle East Entrepreneur Training in the U.S. (MEET U.S.) program, an intensive three-week training and networking program which concludes May 25. MEET U.S. is funded by the U.S. Department of State Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) and presented by the Beyster Institute at the Rady School of Management, University of California, San Diego.
MEET U.S. targets entrepreneurs, senior executives and younger managers in growth companies from 16 MENA region countries and territories to participate in advanced business training and networking activities. The program features interactive sessions led by university faculty and business leaders, as well as networking opportunities and site visits to area companies. In the third week of the program, participants are matched up with companies in their respective fields for two-day exchanges.
Participants hail from Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, the Palestinian Territories and Yemen. This is the twelfth MEET U.S. program presented by the Beyster Institute in San Diego, and the third program to focus specifically on the business services sector. Within the region, the Institute presents additional entrepreneurship training programs and events especially for the region’s women entrepreneurs.
“There was an immense sharing of knowledge with everyone I met during the program,” said a business analyst from Bahrain who completed a MEET U.S. program in March. “It’s good to have the program based in San Diego. It gives you a sense of the entrepreneurial environment. A lot of the people I met even outside of the program were entrepreneurs—that’s the culture here.”
“When I started my business, we had no relationship with the U.S. We worked mostly in the Middle East and Europe,” says a Libyan entrepreneur who also recently completed the MEET U.S. program. “Through this training and the company exchange, now I’ve been able to get to know the culture and the systems in the U.S.” He signed an agreement with his exchange host company to become their value-added reseller a few days after completing the program. “Without coming here, this wouldn’t have happened.”
MEPI is a presidential initiative created in 2003 to support economic, political and educational reform efforts in the Middle East. More information is available at www.mepi.state.gov.
The Beyster Institute at the Rady School of Management, University of California, San Diego focuses on training, education and consulting to advance employee ownership and entrepreneurship. The Institute actively assists individual companies in creating or enhancing employee ownership and participation programs, and is extensively involved in promoting entrepreneurship and regional economic development worldwide. The Beyster Institute serves as the key center for entrepreneurial thought and activity at the Rady School and is the only such university-based center to integrate both employee ownership and entrepreneurship. Visit www.beysterinstitute.ucsd.edu for more information.
|
