Thuraya Ismail
Thuraya Ismail is a Saudi entrepreneur, youth advocate, orator, and human and social development expert. She is an Eisenhower Fellow and the first Arab to win the Leading Practitioner Honor award from the European Union Society for Prevention Research (EUSPR).
Early Life
Ismail was born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and is the daughter of Ahmad K. Ismail, a Saudi physician of Syrian origin. The third of five siblings, she studied at Najd schools in Riyadh before heading to Lebanon to study political science at the American University of Beirut (AUB), from which she graduated in 2001.
During her college years, Ismail was a student leader on campus, heavily involved in cultural activities while promoting dialogue among different ethnicities, religious groups, and political currents within the student body at AUB.
Although Beirut was a highly politicized society at the time, Ismail insisted on being independent, never joining a political party in her life.
Education
Weeks after the attacks on New York City on 11 September 2001, Ismail arrived in the UK to obtain her master’s degree from the London School of Economics (LSE), specializing in International Affairs.
While studying in London, she watched the Arab World shifting towards recapitalization and fundamentalism, especially among the younger generation. Ismail decided to help improve the conditions of young people in the Arab World, returning to Riyadh to work with UNDP.
Mentor Arabia
She then moved back to Beirut in April 2011, launching her career in youth development and empowerment, through Mentor Arabia, a pioneer regional NGO dedicated to empowering children and young people. Founded in 2006 in Dubai, Mentor Arabia is headquartered in Beirut and its board chairman is HRH Prince Turki Bin Talal Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud. It is also a branch of Mentor International, founded in 1994 in Switzerland and headed by Her Majesty Queen Silvia of Sweden.
Ismail was appointed Executive Director of Mentor Arabia and embarked on expanding the organization’s outreach, doubling its presence to twelve countries while significantly expanding its network of partners and experts. Meanwhile she raised over $6 million USD, which helped improve the lives of 1.5 million young people across the Arab World.
Ismail leveraged art in various activation initiatives such as the regional “Short Film and Music Youth Awareness Competition” and the “Youth Social Entrepreneurs Award,” reaching over three million users. These initiatives were designed to encourage young entrepreneurs in the social and humanitarian field to expand their horizons and gain valuable mentoring from top experts.
Ismail was also responsible for significantly increasing the number of operating programs for youth, including integrating international life-skills programs in schools around the Arab World. She also moderated conferences across the region, including the 2019 Rise Up Summit at the American University of Cairo (AUC), where she spoke on youth awareness in the digital film era.
Ismail also engineered a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Mentor Arabia and her alma mater, the American University of Beirut, launching the Youth Mentoring Platform with the Faculty of Health Sciences, an event attended by Queen Silvia of Sweden, the Founding President of Mentor International.
Awards and Membership
Thuraya Ismail was selected as one of the Top 25 Women Leaders across the globe to join the “Eisenhower Fellowship” and become part of its network advocating for world peace and prosperity.
She is the first Arab to win the Leading Practitioner Honor award from the European Union Society for Prevention Research, and Board Member of Takreem Award honoring Arab accomplishments and bringing Arab achievers to the forefront of the global stage. She also serves as an Advisory Board Member of Egypt Entrepreneurs Award and Head of the Short Films Jury for the Beirut International Women Film Festival. Additionally, she is a jury member in the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) and UN Migration (IOM)’s Plural+ Youth Video Festival, an international festival empowering youth as agents of social change; as well as the ambassador of Art D’ Egypte to Saudi Arabia and Lebanon promoting cultural development through art.
Personal Life
Thuraya Ismail is married to Lebanese entrepreneur Mohammad al-Ansari since October 2008 and has three children, the oldest of whom, Sherif, was born in 2010.
References
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