Common Ground on Opposite Sides of the Globe
By Dana McCafferty, Beyster Institute Staff

The locations are on opposite sides of the globe and the years are decades apart, but Middle Eastern women breaking into the local and global business world today encounter obstacles similar to those faced by U.S. women in the 80s and even now.

After meeting several women from a recent Middle East Entrepreneur Training in the U.S. (MEET U.S.) program presented by the Beyster Institute, Pam Coker, President and CEO of Acucorp,,a San Diego company that hosts MEET U.S. visiting entrepreneurs, recognized her own experiences in the stories she heard. She felt that an exchange between the women in her company and several of the MEET U.S. women would benefit everyone.

A special meeting was arranged with invited guests Alia Banaja and Nadia Rafaat, MEET U.S. participants from Saudi Arabia. They were impressed with the friendly welcome they received from the Acucorp women, including the vice president of market development, business development manager, Latin American territory manager, director of administration, human resources manager and a systems engineer.

Acucorp is a leading provider of application development solutions that solve mission-critical business issues. The company was co-founded in 1980 by Pam Coker as a hardware and software integration firm that became Acucobol, Inc. in 1988 with just six employees. In November 1998, the name was changed to Acucorp, Inc.. Today the company has more than 4,000 customers and one million users, as well as offices in five countries and distributors that serve over 75 countries throughout the world.

Banaja is Chairwoman and founder of 2 the Point, an IT and Communications company based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. She is an IT, management and leadership expert and web designer.

Rafaat is co-owner and regional director of Intellectmedia, a marketing, advertising and PR firm with offices in the UK and Jeddah, Saudia Arabia. She has 20 years of experience in ICT strategies and policies, project management, and administration, and is a published author.

Because of legal restrictions keeping men and women from working together, Banaja was unable to work in her father’s business. Instead, she started her own business to give her two sisters and other Saudi women the opportunity to pursue their business interests. Since starting the business five years ago, the laws have gradually changed. She recently hired a man to teach the women programming. However, in order to own a business a woman must have a male legal representative who speaks for her.

Banaja has been persistent in her effort to be a spokesperson for her own business and Saudi businesswomen in general. She is active in the local chamber of commerce and member of a panel that addresses the problems of women in business. She regularly emails the prince with suggestions to give women more representation. During the exchange at Acucorp, she recounted an email exchange with the prince, governor, that led to progress for women in her country. She heard that there was to be a presentation about Saudi businesswomen to the European Parliament, but a man was doing the presentation.

She asked the prince why a man was presenting the women. “Why not a woman; why not me, a Saudi businesswoman presenting Saudi Arabia’s women the way you want?” she asked.

As a result, she met with the prince and was one of three women who traveled to Europe to give this presentation to the European Parliament.

The women at Acucorp applauded Banaja’s confidence and assertiveness in her efforts to overcome the obstacles faced by Saudi women. They shared their experiences from the trenches of male-dominated business settings, like engineering departments or executive suites where a strong approach is necessary for women to gain respect and be successful at business development in the technical world.

Rafaat shared her experiences in building her career, which began with study in the U.K. before becoming a media business editor, an editor of a women’s magazine, and eventually a partner in her own company. The gradually changing laws have made it possible for the business to expand and include 12 women and three men.

Even though new laws have made it possible for women to become more involved in the business world, Rafaat explained that changing the cultural attitudes regarding women in business is also a challenge that will take time.

“This has to be a gradual change. We’ve come here to understand how to transfer the image we want to other MENA region residents,” she said.

Lori Galván, Acucorp vice president of market development, concluded the meeting with this final question: “If you could change one law in your country, what would it be?”

Banaja and Rafaat agreed that the answer was to “give women rights"- rights that would enable them to use their education and talent and pursue their dreams.

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