ds07jun15.jpg

More focused and more prepared:' Local businesswomen gain insights in America

By James Farha, Special to The Daily Star, June 15, 2007

BEIRUT: "I used to walk fast, but now I run," said Marie-Joe Raidy, creative director at Raidy Printing in Gemmayzeh, speaking about her month-long participation in the second Women Leaders Mentoring Partnership. "Before I went, I was like a balloon that had deflated slightly. Now I have recharged myself with positivism and drive."

The program, which ran from April 29-May 27, gathered 32 successful women from countries as varied as Hungary, China, Palestine and Argentina, and sent them to the US to spend a month being mentored by female business leaders there. The partnership was organized by Vital Voices Global Partnership and sponsored by the US State Department and Fortune magazine.

Three women were selected from Lebanon: Huda Saba, who left her media career in 2005 to start Odasa, a boutique shoemaker in Beirut's Qantari district where she sells her own designs; Afaf Zeidan, manager of the customer service department at Credit Card Services (CSC) in Hamra, which provides call-center services and card management for Lebanese banks such as Byblos Bank; and Raidy.

"My perspective changed while I was in America," added Raidy. "Sharing a passion with people who were different from me was very enlightening. I don't need to see another me."