Leaders & Partners

The Leadership Board

Seera Group

Seera is the most knowledgeable, accomplished and diverse provider of travel services in the Middle East and North Africa region. A balanced portfolio of brands across six verticals within the travel and tourism industry positions Seera as a significant contributor to the growth of the domestic, inbound and outbound tourism economies of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and a best-in-class business partner in unlocking the opportunities in the region. Providing technology powered travel services for consumers, businesses, government partners and religious pilgrims, Seera provides the opportunity to travel in the Kingdom, across the region, and beyond, like never before.

Partners

Our partners help boost a graduate’s career profile by leading them into discovering different facets of the profession, building practical and technical experiences, market intelligence, knowledge-sharing trips, training and networking extensively within the organizational framework. Here’s what they had to say about Jadarah 2018:

 

Benjamin Ampen

Managing Director, MENA

Bilal Kabbani

Industry Head, Travel

Antoine Medawar

Senior Vice President & Managing Director, MEA

Hisham Elaraby

Regional Director, MENA

Partners

Mentors - 2019

Our mentors are the prodigious force behind helping graduates jumpstart their career in a direction best suited to their skills. The mentors of the Jadarah Talent Accelerator Programme guide, support, and train graduates and early professionals in becoming the new wave of digital entrepreneurs and tech professionals.

Muzzammil Ahussain

Executive VP of Consumer Travel Business Unit

Seera Group

Ronnie Varghese

Head of Products

Seera Group

Mohamed Abdalla

Director of Strategy

Seera Group

Louise Blake

VP of Data

Seera Group

Nathalie Viranyi

Head of Communications

Seera Group

Christian Kemsies

Product Owner of Cross-Products

Seera Group

Mohammed Qanati

Head of Brand

Seera Group

Qais Amori

Head of Technology

Seera Group

Jennifer Rhima

Head of Partnerships for the Consumer Travel Unit

Seera Group

Rob Arrow

Commercial Director

Seera Group

Thaer Abbas

Software Development Manager

Seera Group

Speakers - 2019

On a weekly basis, the Jadarah Talent Accelerator Programme invites influential speakers who’ll share their knowledge, expertise, and insights. Our goal is to inspire and empower graduates with adequate learning tools as well as steering prospects in the current job market of emerging innovative technology companies.

Abdullah Al-Dawood

CEO

Seera Group

Abdulla Elyas

Co-Founder and Chief Privacy Officer

Careem

Abdulrahman Tarabzouni

CEO & MD

STV

Alper Celen

Founding Partner

ENHANCE

Elena Agaragimova

Manager Careers & Alumni Department

University of Manchester Middle East Centre

Mazen Al-Jubeir

Active investor

SMEs and growth companies in KSA and USA

Nabil Alnoor Borhanu

President & Managing Member

Graphene Ventures LLC

About us

A 5-month unique graduate programme aligned with Saudi Vision 2030, designed for the aspiring young Arab digital explorers, entrepreneurs & tech-savvy talent of the region, with an opportunity to be exposed to global tech-giants.

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Managing Director MENA, Twitter

“Twitter will provide training on the platform and digital media aspects of the business through 1:1 mentoring. Candidates will also have an opportunity for potential career opportunities in the company”

Industry Head, Travel at Google

“Core to Google’s mission is making sure people have access to digital skills because we believe new skills lead to new opportunities. We are very excited to see what great things Jadarah candidates will do when given the right tools and skills”, said Bilal Kabbani, Head of travel sector, Google Middle East and North Africa.”

Vice President, Middle East & North of Africa, Amadeus.

“We will work at the heart of the travel technology industry. Candidates will be challenged and inspired through training, networking and knowledge-sharing under the leadership of the best tech and business minds.”

Vice President, Middle East & North of Africa, Amadeus.

“We will work at the heart of the travel technology industry. Candidates will be challenged and inspired through training, networking and knowledge-sharing under the leadership of the best tech and business minds.”

Muzzammil Ahussain is the Executive Vice President of Seera Group’s Consumer Travel Business Unit, spearheading the growth and development of Almosafer, Saudi Arabia’s Digital-based Omni-channel travel brand, and tajawal, one of the UAE’s top OTAs. An internationally-recognised management consultant and operations executive, he leverages his vast experience in scaling and optimising operations to enable sustainable growth and cater to the MENA region’s evolving travel needs through seamless, technology-driven Omni-channel experiences. As a former Senior Manager at Accenture Strategy, Muzzammil has led projects for a range of international clients. He holds an MBA with Distinction from INSEAD Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of California, Irvine.

Ronnie spent his early years winning national spelling bees and earning honours as a debate champion. But, his career has been spent making people’s lives better through technology. He has been a tech/management consultant at Workbrain (Infor), AT Kearney, and Axsium Group serving clients in North America, Australia, and Europe. In 2011, he raised angel investment and founded his first tech startup Veritasq. Veritasq went on to be acquired by a competitor in 2013. In 2013, Ronnie co-founded and assumed the role of CEO at Polyform Labs. Polyform Labs was acquired in 2014 by Arlene Dickinson’s (Dragon’s Den) firm and Ronnie was appointed as Sr. Director of Technology & PMO. After taking a year off to be a full-time dad, Ronnie now serves the consumer travel Omnichannel team at Seera/Almosafer/Tajawal. In and out of work, Ronnie is devoted to lifelong learning. He also gives back by mentoring and teaching life skills to individuals overcoming life challenges. He holds a Computer Engineering degree from UofT and an MBA from the Rotman School of Management.

Experienced Strategy Director with a demonstrated history of working in the leisure, travel and tourism industry. Worked on setting up and enhancing several travel entities such as Online Travel Agents, Destination Management Company (DMC) and Religious Tourism (Hajj and Umrah). Mohamed has experience in managing projects in several public and private Saudi organizations. At Seera Group, he is responsible for setting up and implementing several new ventures within Seera Group, supporting growth strategy of several business units (e.g., Consumer Travel, Hajj and Umrah), leading, managing and implementing a variety of strategic business projects (e.g., holidays, World Cup etc.) and supporting the building of relationships with various partners to support Seera group growth (e.g., tourism boards, tour operators, travel agents, commercial partners etc.). He holds a BS in Management from the University of Warwick, and a Master of Business Administration from Manchester Business School in the United Kingdom.

Louise is originally from London, but is based in Dubai. She has enjoyed an extensive career in data over the past 15 years, across government, agency, big corporates and startups.Her mission has always been the same, the use of data to enlighten and enable. In her current role as VP Data, Louise provides all Seera Business Units with data insights and analytics for effective decision making in terms of product, marketing and revenue management.

Nathalie Viranyi is the Head of Communications at Seera Group. In her current role, she manages the internal and external communications strategies, brand reputation and media efforts for the group, and all business units. She is also the team lead for the consumer travel content team and responsible for all visual, editorial and video content across products and marketing for Seera’s flagship consumer brand Almosafer and its UAE OTA tajawal. Nathalie has 10 years of digital and communications experience in the Middle East market, with previous stints at a leading Saudi PR agency, as well as multiple start-ups in the eCommerce realm. When she is not busy editing something or the other, Nathalie spends time with her 3-year old twins, or dining her way through the vast landscape of Dubai culinary options, because obviously; food is life.

Christian is the product owner for payments and cross-products at Seera’s consumer travel unit and with that responsible for overarching projects that support the group’s flagship consumer brand Almosafer, as well as its UAE-based OTA tajawal. From the implementation of new state-of-the-art payment methods to tech projects that benefit the end-consumer in terms of loyalty and outreach (such as the integration of WhatsApp), Christian is all about making processes seamless and customer-centricity core to the business. Previous to his position at Seera Group, Christian was leading the technology teams at large global FMCG brands including tesa and NIVEA in Germany. In his spare time, Christian is a Weber master grill chef, an avid amateur golfer and obsessed with his newly found home, the Arabian desert.

Mohamed Qanati is the Head of Brand at Seera Group’s consumer travel unit. In his role, he is leading the strategy development and implementation of large-scale marketing campaigns and is responsible for the consistent development of Seera’s flagship consumer brand Almosafer and its UAE-based OTA tajawal. Mohamed has more than 5 years of experience in brand management, with 5 years at Procter and Gamble and 3 years at the UAE’s largest online marketplace Souq.com, which is now part of Amazon. In his free time, Mohamed is a dedicated father and husband, a foodie that likes to explore cuisines from all over the world, and his passion for travel is only fuelled by his drive to make Seera’s travel brands household names in the GCC and beyond.

Qais is our Senior Director of Digital Delivery at Seera group, part of the IT team, he is leading the software development and solution architecture teams building amazing products for our customers of our flagship brands like Almosafer. He has 12+ years’ experience in building strong technology teams and product delivery, in both startups and established business environments. His passion is driven from building large scale products, and building amazing teams, cultures and work environment, with state of the art technologies and frameworks.He was previously involved in building large scale products in the region like “dawriplus the largest online platform to watch the Saudi Professional League” and “jawwytv the leading Saudi OTT platform”. He is an expert in solution design, software and cloud architecture and he is Java Engineer in his core.

Jennifer Rhima is the Head of Partnerships for the Consumer Travel Unit at Seera Group. She has a Masters from Hult International Business School and a Bachelor’s degree from Texas Tech University. Some of Jennifer’s previous experience includes working for fast-growing technology startups in the Middle East; Souqalmal and STEP, where she helped them scale. Jennifer is a curious American traveler with a deep passion for travel, tech, and startups — and discovering new places around the world.

Rob Arrow graduated from University with a Major in International Politics and Defense Studies, and a BA in Tourism – just as a passion. His initial path was to join the Diplomatic Core in the UK but his passion and hunger for travel was greater so set about seeing some of the world. Seventeen years later, Rob is in the GCC working at Seera Group on a number of projects from DMC creation, Academy, Product & Destination Development, Al Ula & Winter at Tantora Festival and Brand Development. His approach is one of openness and treating everyone as an individual to help develop themselves to be the best at what they can be, whilst never forgetting that passion is the key to a happy work / life balance.

Thaer Abbas is a Software Development Manager at Seera Group. With more than 7 years of web development experience, his current role comprises of hands-on coding, mentoring and support of team members, management of business expectations in delivery, and helping business stakeholders build the best solutions for customers. Having worked with multiple startups, his focus is on MVPs (minimum viable products), it’s fascinating for him to see how an idea can become a real product that people can use and benefit from.

As the CEO of Seera, Abdullah Bin Nasser Al-Dawood is entrusted with designing and implementing the company’s transformation programme to become a leading travel and tourism company with a strong portfolio of trusted brands, cutting-edge technologies and excellent customer service. Abdullah is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Saudi Entertainment Projects Company, an owned subsidiary of the Public Investment Fund. He is also the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Alraedah Finance Company, as well as a member of the Board of Directors of the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul), Rou’a Al Madinah, an owned subsidiary of the Public Investment Fund, and several other Boards including Careem. Abdullah has over 11 years of experience in investment banking, where he held several executive positions, including Vice President of Investment Banking at Deutsche Bank in the Middle East and North Africa. Abdullah holds a master’s degree in Political Science and International Relations from Georgetown University in the United States as well as a master’s degree in Business Administration with honours from the same university. He holds a first class honours bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from King Saud University.
Abdulla Elyas is a software programmer and entrepreneur who has founded several technology-based companies. He is best known as one of the co-founders of Careem, the largest ride-sharing app in the Middle East. Elyas joined Careem after the company acquired his app Enwani, a cloud-based app for storing and sharing precise geographic coordinates. In 2014, Elyas was brought on as a co-founder and CPO at the company. Under his direction, the company has expanded into Saudi Arabia, where it has become especially popular among Saudi women, who were just recently given the right to drive. The company is the fastest growing technology company in the Middle East, with consistent 30% growth month over month.
Abdulrahman Tarabzouni is the CEO & MD of STV, the largest technology venture capital fund in the Middle East. He is a member of a number of boards, executive, and investment committees. Founding Chairman of the Saudi VC & PE Association.Previously, held executive leadership roles at Google’s headquarters in California. Prior to Google, he co-founded a number of technology ventures in the US and managed different tech consulting, banking, and design engagements at Oracle, Morgan Stanley, and Blueprint.
Alper Celen is the founder of ENHANCE, a venture builder specializing in online vertical marketplaces that improve lifestyles in the Middle East and Africa. ENHANCE wholly owns JOIGIFTS.com, the leading online gifting platform in the Middle East. Alper was also the founder of online food ordering service FOODONCLICK.com in Saudi Arabia (acquired by DeliveryHero in 2015).
Elena Agaragimova is a global talent development advisor focusing on talent & program development and leadership training. She has worked in various organization and institutions in the US and the UAE, as well as delivered sessions on personal and professional development internationally. She is an experienced career coach and she currently leads the Careers and Alumni Department at the University of Manchester Middle East Centre, where she works with executive MBA students and alumni to help them reach their personal and professional goals. She has a column in Forbes Middle East and she is also a Tedx speaker.
Mazen Al-Jubeir is an active investor in SMEs and growth companies in Saudi Arabia and the United States. He also serves on the Boards of Directors of several prominent government organizations, public corporations, private companies, and social enterprises. He earned his M.B.A. with highest distinction from Harvard Business School, where he was designated a George F. Baker Scholar, and his A.B. with honors in economics from Harvard College, where he received the John Harvard and Harvard College Scholarships for academic distinction.
For over fifteen years, Nabil has been a serial entrepreneur, guest speaker, and judge in startup events across Silicon Valley and the Middle East. He successfully built three different companies in telecom, sports, and media from the ground up, and grew them into the $100M range in less than five years. Known for his bold decisions, Nabil moved from the Middle East to Silicon Valley where he started Graphene Ventures to help fellow entrepreneurs fulfill their mission and true potential. His blend of experience as an entrepreneur, corporate executive, and investor, makes him an ideal partner for Graphene’s portfolio companies.