Sofana Dahlan

Saudi lawyer and legal researcher.

Founder and founding investor in Mustadin Company since September 2020, founder of Sofana Rabih Dahlan Law Firm since 2013, member of the Fee Assessment Committee at the Saudi Bar Association since 2020, and a second-round judge for the Social Entrepreneurship Track of the 12th MIT Enterprise Forum Arab Startup Competition.

She founded Tashkeel International and served as its CEO between 2008 and 2013. She also founded the Saudi National Creativity Initiative and Kayan Spaces, where she served as its CEO between 2011 and 2013.

She has over 18 years of experience, during which she worked as a legal advisor in protecting intellectual property rights and settling disputes through commercial mediation in a number of Arab countries, such as Egypt, Lebanon, and Kuwait. She was a member of:

• Advisory Board of the Faculty of Law at the University of Business and Technology for the period 2021-2023.
• Advisory Group of the Young Global Leaders Forum from 2019 to 2021.
• Executive Committee of Namaa Al-Munawara Foundation between February 2018 and January 2019.
• Board of Directors of the " Lady Khadija bint Khuwaylid Center " between 2014 and 2018.

She also served as Deputy Governor for Entrepreneurship Development at the General Authority for Small and Medium Enterprises (Monsha'at) between 2016 and 2017, and as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's Ambassador for the World Women Entrepreneurs Day (WED) between 2014 and 2016, in addition to being a member of the Sarab Private Investors Network (SPI) Committee between 2013 and 2016.

She served as a regional partner at Unitas Communications from 2011 to 2014, as a Jeddah branch manager at Tamouh from 2014 to 2015, as a lecturer at the College of Business Administration from 2011 to 2012, and as a legal advisor at Al Ghazali Law Firm from 2005 to 2006 in Kuwait.

Dahlan is the first Saudi woman to participate in the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations Fellowship. She was also awarded the 2015 Arab Woman Award, was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2015, and won the Dubai Achievement Award.

She holds an MBA from the American University of Technology in Lebanon in 2004, and another MA in Islamic Studies from Al-Azhar University and Cairo University in Egypt in 2003. She also holds a BA in Law from Cairo University in 2001. She has also completed several executive programs, including the Harvard Executive Program, "Leading for the Future: The Arab Region in a Changing World," from the Harvard Kennedy School in 2009.