Dr. Rola Dashti
Chairperson, Kuwait Economic Society

Dr. Rola Dashti, a PhD in Population Economics from Johns Hopkins University, lectured, conducted and managed research in development and applied economics particularly in regard to the country’s recent quest for modernizing its economic, financial, and social processes. Dr. Dashti is currently heading an international consultancy firm in Kuwait focusing on privatization, and activation of SMEs.  She has held key positions in R&D institutions such as the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (Manager, Economics Department), and worked for major local and international financial and development institutions (Senior Economist at the National Bank of Kuwait and provided consultancy to the World Bank). She also managed all the contracts signed on behalf of the government of Kuwait for the Emergency and Reconstruction Program during the invasion-to-post liberation period (1990/1991).

Dr. Dashti, presently the elected Chairperson of Kuwait Economic Society (first woman to chair the society since its establishment in 1970), is also a member of the executive committee of Young Arab Leaders (Kuwait Chapter), and member of Al-Fatat Club. She has been involved in several volunteering activities since her undergraduate years, where she worked with the International Red Cross in Lebanon to assist refugee families from the south in 1982. She was involved in various activities for the economic empowerment of women in the Republic of Yemen.  Dr. Dashti is a leading activist fighting for gender equity in the State of Kuwait, particularly the women’s suffrage right. Most recently, she lobbied for the May 2005 decree allowing Kuwaiti women to vote and run for parliamentary elections for the first time, and intends to become a candidate in upcoming parliamentarian election in 2007.