TiE Dubai backs MENA's next generation of founders with new Board and growth programmes

TiE Dubai has announced its new board for the 2026–2027 term and unveiled a suite of growth programmes aimed at helping founders across the UAE and wider MENA region scale from early traction to sustainable businesses. The new leadership team will prioritise deeper mentorship, strengthened partnerships and targeted programmes including an invite-only TiE Fellows cohort and a reimagined TiE Youth stream. The board comprises Bashar Kilani as President, Shameema Parveen as President-Elect, Prashant (PK) Gulati as President Emeritus, Bianca Gracias as Event Director, Deepak Padmanabhan as Director of Finance, Kushal Shah as Membership Director, Ramit Harisinghani as Director of Marketing, Piero Ricotti as Mentorship Director and Anastasiya Golovatenko as Director of Partnerships & Sponsorship.

“TiE Dubai’s new board brings together experienced leaders with deep sector knowledge, firsthand experience of building businesses and strong relationships across the region’s entrepreneurial ecosystem,” said Bashar Kilani. “Our priorities for this term are to deepen mentorship, strengthen partnerships and build programmes that remain relevant as founders move from early traction to scale. Through TiE Fellows and our renewed youth initiatives, we want entrepreneurs to gain the expertise, investor access and long-term support needed to build enduring companies from this region.”

The TiE Fellows programme will be the term’s flagship initiative. It is described as an exclusive, invite-only programme for full-time founders building scalable regional ventures, targeting execution-driven entrepreneurs beyond the idea stage and including invited alumni from existing TiE programmes. Participants will be matched with TiE Dubai Charter Members for closed-door mentorship, exclusive sessions and tailored support aimed at accelerating growth and investor readiness.

TiE Dubai will also reshape its university-focused effort, renaming TiE U to TiE Youth after eight years of expansion across the Middle East and Africa. The new model intends to strengthen industry-academia partnerships by leveraging more than 70 Charter Members—many serial entrepreneurs—to bring direct industry knowledge into university settings. The chapter reports its youth programming has supported more than 1,000 students across 50+ universities in the GCC and MENA.

Other pillars of the term include a strengthened Mentorship Program and continued emphasis on TiE Women MENA, powered this year by Nokia. TiE Women’s global initiative has reached 11,000+ women founders across 62 countries, delivered thousands of one-to-one mentoring sessions and awarded more than $350,000 in equity-free prize money, while its Open Pitch Night remains a forum for women founders to meet mentors and investors.

• Network scale: 20,000+ members and 3,500+ Charter Members across 65+ chapters in 15 countries.
• Local context: UAE hosts 1.33 million SMEs—nearly 95% of all companies and more than 85% of private-sector jobs.
• Recent activity: since March 2026 TiE Dubai staged events across seven sectors that drew 1,800+ registrations, with over 60% repeat attendees and 40% new participants.
• Partners and ecosystem links: Dubai Internet City, in5, Dubai Business Women’s Council, the US Mission to the UAE, Sheraa, Wamda, Flat6Labs, Astrolabs, Female Fusion Network, and more.
• Charter member employers include Google, Amazon MENA, Boston Consulting Group, Accenture, Citibank, Noon.com, BECO Capital, Chalhoub Group, FIVE Group and Wio Bank.

“TiE has always been built on giving back and creating a community where experienced leaders support the next generation,” said Prashant (PK) Gulati. “This term, we will deepen mentor-founder relationships and connect TiE programmes more closely with national priorities reflected in the National Youth Agenda 2031 and the National Agenda for Entrepreneurship and SMEs. By opening stronger routes to investors and strategic partners, we want every initiative to move founders closer to building resilient businesses that support the UAE’s long-term economic priorities.”

Looking ahead, TiE Dubai intends to measure programme impact by founder progress rather than attendance, strengthen mentor-founder matching and expand investor introductions and regional partnerships. The new board’s emphasis on closed-door mentorship, targeted cohorts and sustained youth engagement aims to translate the chapter’s broad network into concrete growth outcomes for MENA founders.