The Arab Business Angels Network founded by young Arab Businessmen in the Clinton Global Initiation last year; has elected Abdul-Aziz Abdulla Al Ghurair- the MD and CEO of Mashreqbank; as its Chairman.

Sameer Al Ansari, CEO of Dubai International Capital, the seed investing company that started ABAN and was one of the early angel investors, welcomed Al Ghurair into the chairman role. “We express our gratitude to Abdul-Aziz Al Ghurair, a renowned entrepreneur, for agreeing to lead ABAN. His experience and success will add great value to our initiatives toward building private investor networks throughout the Arab world.”.

As ABAN works through its excitement, CEO Lisa LaBonte exclaimed, “We are thrilled to have the opportunity to learn from and be inspired by his example.”

ABAN’s vision is to create an active angel investor community in the MENA region and empower Arab entrepreneurship by facilitating capital flow into high-potential ventures. The network is set for official launch on September 7. LaBonte presented YAL as key for ABAN, knowing that these industry leaders are conversant of the imperative of business growth in the region. Some of them will also be angel investors.

One such initiative is the Arab Business Challenge. The competition aims to find the region’s leading young entrepreneurs from the MENA region. Since its launch at the beginning of this year, ABAN has seen over 1,000 submissions from 15 countries. From the 20 teams that have made it to the semi-finals, five finalists were picked on Monday. The two winning teams will have to beat the competition to win an investment capital of up to $2 million from Dubai International Capital, with the names being announced at the launch of ABAN next month in September.