Arabian Cement Company (ACC) (ARCC) announced today the names of the final winners of “Khaleeha Suessi” program.In the presence of Mr. Al Arabi Al Serwi, Governor of Suez, Jose Maria Magrina, ACC Chief Executive Officer and Loay El-Shawarby, Chairperson of Nahdet El Mahrousa revealed the names of the six projects that will be offered seed funding as well as one-year incubation at Nahdet El Mahrousa. The announcement was made in Suez governorate, with senior officials from ACC attending, including Elena Inés Bertolín Pérez, Deputy Manager of Cementos la Unión - the main shareholder of ACC, and Salvador Viguer Roger, Board Member of ACC.“Khaleeha Suessi” was launched in June 2015 to promote positive social impact and employment opportunities by providing entrepreneurs with the tools needed to successfully establish their own social startups. The winning projects vary between environmental friendly industrial/agricultural ventures, cultural/social ventures and educational ventures. To qualify for the incubation phase, there were several criteria that the winning projects had to meet. These criteria included offering an innovative business idea that has the potential to become scalable and sustainable, and have social impact in Suez. “On behalf of the entire ACC team, I’m pleased that the program is moving forward in such a positive way," said Jose Maria Magrina, ACC CEO. "Through our various meetings with the teams we see that they are learning valuable information that they will be able to take with them and use with their startup company. It is one of our main objectives: to be able to train and teach budding entrepreneurs to directly affect and benefit their community and country as a whole.”Over the past four months, the program offered guidance for the applicants to support them in developing comprehensive proposals for their start-up. The final proposals of the applicants were considered by a panel of six experts including Eng. Fernas El Hakim, Governmental Affairs Director at ACC; Angy Samad, Marketing Manager at ACC; Dr. Ahmed Huzayyin, Co-founder of Cleantech Arabia; Dr. Ayman Ismail, Assistant Professor at the American University in Cairo; Tamer Mostafa, Chief Accountant at Nahdet El Mahrousa; and Jackie Kameel, Managing Director of Nahdet El Mahrousa. “At NM, we leverage the ideas and power of social innovators to tackle the pressing challenges in the communities where we operate,” said Loay El-Shawarby, Chairperson of Nahdet El Mahrousa. “We believe Egypt’s young professionals have what it takes to succeed. As such, we offer a platform for building social enterprises, along with a solid support network, to help turn dreams into reality.”At the end of the one-year incubation period, each project will be granted its allocated seed funding, as a means of supporting each team to successfully kickoff their business, using the skills and knowledge offered to them by “Khaleeha Suessi”.
