Program Director Merissa Khurma Discusses Takeaways from Riyada Year One

Host Alex Farley sits down with Middle East Program Director Merissa Khurma on her reflections from hosting the first year of the Riyada Podcast. Year one featured over 40 interviews with various entrepreneurs, analysts, and officials.  In this episode, Khurma discusses her main observations on challenges facing entrepreneurs, including difficulty accessing capital, finding skillsets, and facing the fear of failure. She also discusses the significant barriers to women to become entrepreneurs, and highlights the need for companies to hire more women and advance them into leadership roles. 

On this episode:

5:00 — Three takeaways from year one
8:35 — Entrepreneurial mindsets
11:40 — Countries leading enabling environment
18:48 — Growing workforce skills
26:26 — New developments in the market
31:22 — Making workplaces for inclusive women
34:08 — Why is this important now?