Dina H. Sherif

Dina H. Sherif has over twenty years of international and regional experience in integrated sustainable development, corporate sustainability management (including corporate governance, inclusion and diversity, philanthropic activities, and environmental risk management), youth civic engagement, strategic philanthropy, program design, impact assessments, social entrepreneurship, youth unemployment, and women’s economic inclusion. Dina holds a Masters of Public Administration and Management from the Harvard Kennedy School, an MA in Economic Development Studies from the American University in Cairo, and a BA in Political Science and International Relations from the American University in Cairo.

Dina is particularly interested in the role of the private sector in sustainable development. To that end, she has been an avid supporter of social entrepreneurship as a pathway to solving some of the MENA region’s most pressing challenges. She did this through her own social enterprise, Ahead of the Curve, which was founded in 2012. Dina is also a Senior Advisor to Ashoka, providing support to their Global Venture/Fellowship Support arm and helping them reimagine new ways to identify the world’s leading social innovators.

Dina formerly held the endowed Willard Brown Chair for International Business at the American University in Cairo (AUC), where was also Founding Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship. During the time she held the Brown Chair, Dina also taught classes on social entrepreneurship and business ethics making use of experiential and entrepreneurial teaching pedagogies. Prior to the above, Dina helped establish the John D. Gerhart Center for Philanthropy and Civic Engagement at AUC.

Dina has been a lead author of several publications including the book From Charity to Social Change: Trends in Arab Philanthropy and key reports such as the 2015 UNDP Business Solutions Report and the first of its kind 7 country study on trends in responsible business practice in the Arab region.