Middle East & North Africa

Cairo, Dubai, Istanbul, Tel Aviv

HBS continues its efforts to build a deep understanding of and expertise in global business practice and innovation around the world, including throughout the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The School opened the MENA Research Center in Istanbul in 2013, followed by offices in Dubai and Cairo. Separately an office was opened in Tel Aviv in 2016 reporting to the Europe Research Center. All play an important role in helping HBS develop and strengthen relationships with business and academic leaders in the Middle East, Turkey, North Africa, and Central Asia. Support for faculty research, student programming, Executive Education, and Harvard Business Publishing are enabled by these HBS locations.

Locations

Dubai Office
Dubai Design District
Building 3, 3rd Floor, Unit 341
Dubai, UAE

Cairo Office
Cairo, Egypt

Middle East and North Africa Research Center Istanbul, Turkey

Tel Aviv Office
Tel Aviv, Israel

News & Highlights

MAY 2023
EVENT

Alumni Event in Egypt

On May 31st, the Center partnered with the HBS Club of Egypt to host an intimate gathering in Cairo featuring Professors Michael Chu, a Senior Lecturer in the General Management Unit, and Alvaro Rodriguez-Arregui, a Senior Lecturer in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit. The Professors focused their discussion on the rationale behind using business as a tool to respond to some of society’s most pressing problems, drawing examples from the cases they have taught in MBA courses. The event was attended by 20 alumni and friends of HBS.

MAY 2023
EVENT

Alumni Event in Turkey

On May 11th, the MENA Research Center hosted an alumni event in Istanbul in collaboration with HBR Türkiye. Professor Prithwiraj (Raj) Choudhury, the Lumry Family Associate Professor at HBS, delivered a keynote presentation on the ‘future of work,’ and led an interactive discussion among alumni and friends of HBS. The conversations provided insights about the future of work, the benefits that come with it, and the management practices needed to best realize this new model of work. Over 50 people attended.

MARCH 2023
MBA ADMISSIONS

MBA Admissions Events in the Middle East & North Africa

On March 14th, MBA Admissions held a virtual event titled “The HBS MBA Experience: Student Perspectives from the Middle East and North Africa” catered to prospective applicants interested in pursuing an MBA at HBS. Yasemin Caglar, Assistant Director for Educational Programs at the Middle East and North Africa Research Center, started by providing an overview of the Center, and then Vai Schierholtz, Director of Marketing and MBA Admissions Board Member, led a panel discussion among five current MBA students about their experiences at HBS. MBA Admissions and the MENA Research Center continued their efforts in the MENA region and co-hosted a series of information sessions about the MBA Program. The sessions were held between April and May in five cities: Istanbul, Beirut, Riyadh, Dubai, and Cairo. The events were designed for prospective applicants to learn more about the MBA Program and life at HBS as well as to get the opportunity to meet with alumni from their cities. Over 300 prospective applicants attended those events.

MARCH 2023
ALUMNI

Alumni Amal Enan’s (MBA 2014) Investment Impact in Egypt

Amal Enan (MBA 2014) has been making a difference in the Egyptian startup scene with her thoughtful and strategic investments. As Executive Director of the Egyptian-American Enterprise Fund, Enan works to promote financial inclusion, job creation, and private sector development in Egypt, with a strong focus on supporting female entrepreneurs. She says, “we need to build sustainable businesses and create a competitive track record for the country, if we’re going to improve opportunities for the next generation.” Learn more about the work she is doing in the MENA region through her alumni story here.

New Research on the Region

October 2023 (Revised October 2023)
Case

Ӧzyeğin Social Investments: A Legacy of Giving

By: Christina R. Wing, Zeshan Gondal and Brittany Logan

2023
Article
JMIR mHealth and uHealth

Digital Health Reimbursement Strategies of 8 European Countries and Israel: Scoping Review and Policy Mapping

By: Robin van Kessel, Divya Srivastava, Ilias Kyriopoulos, Giovanni Monti, David Novillo-Ortiz, Ran Milman, Wojciech Wilhelm Zhang-Czabanowski, Greta Nasi, Ariel Dora Stern, George Wharton and Elias Mossialos

Background: The adoption of digital health care within health systems is determined by various factors, including pricing and reimbursement. The reimbursement landscape for digital health in Europe remains underresearched. Although various emergency reimbursement decisions were made during the COVID-19 pandemic to enable health care delivery through videoconferencing and asynchronous care (eg, digital apps), research so far has primarily focused on the policy innovations that facilitated this outside of Europe. Objective: This study examines the digital health reimbursement strategies in 8 European countries (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom) and Israel. Methods: We mapped available digital health reimbursement strategies using a scoping review and policy mapping framework. We reviewed the literature on the MEDLINE, Embase, Global Health, and Web of Science databases. Supplementary records were identified through Google Scholar and country experts. Results: Our search strategy yielded a total of 1559 records, of which 40 (2.57%) were ultimately included in this study. As of August 2023, digital health solutions are reimbursable to some extent in all studied countries except Poland, although the mechanism of reimbursement differs significantly across countries. At the time of writing, the pricing of digital health solutions was mostly determined through discussions between national or regional committees and the manufacturers of digital health solutions in the absence of value-based assessment mechanisms. Financing digital health solutions outside traditional reimbursement schemes was possible in all studied countries except Poland and typically occurs via health innovation or digital health–specific funding schemes. European countries have value-based pricing frameworks that range from nonexistent to embryonic. Conclusions: Studied countries show divergent approaches to the reimbursement of digital health solutions. These differences may complicate the ability of patients to seek cross-country health care in another country, even if a digital health app is available in both countries. Furthermore, the fragmented environment will present challenges for developers of such solutions, as they look to expand their impact across countries and health systems. An increased emphasis on developing a clear conceptualization of digital health, as well as value-based pricing and reimbursement mechanisms, is needed for the sustainable integration of digital health. This study can therein serve as a basis for further, more detailed research as the field of digital health reimbursement evolves.

September 2023 (Revised October 2023)
Case

Ghassan Nuqul and the Nuqul Group: Preserving a Father's Legacy

By: Christina R. Wing, Lauren Cohen and Alpana Thapar

The Nuqul Group was established in 1952 by Elia Nuqul, a Palestinian refugee who fled his hometown in 1948 with his family to Jordan. He overcame many hardships in his initial years there, but subsequently started a trading business that grew to become one of Jordan’s largest family businesses. Its flagship company, Fine Hygienic Holding (FHH), was a leader in hygienic paper products across the Middle East and North Africa. In March 2023, Ghassan Nuqul, a second-generation family member and chairman of FHH, was at a crossroads. Following his father’s death in 2022, Ghassan and his three siblings decided to split the Group’s assets among themselves so that each branch of the family could forge its own path. They were in discussions to finalize the details of the agreement. What would this mean for the future of the family? Would it make the family stronger, or would it weaken family ties?

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