Mrs Layla Al-Dorani,

Mrs Layla Al-Dorani is the Qatari founder of Raw Middle East LLC (RME), an award-winning plant-based food and beverage company in Qatar. She holds a Bachelors in International Management from the American University in Washington DC, and an EMBA from HEC Paris in Entrepreneurship. She is also a certified yoga instructor and Patient Experience professional. Layla is currently working full-time at Sidra Medicine and has previously worked in commercial LNG and investment banking. RME was built from the ground up here in Qatar. What started as an observation in the classroom of the stigma associated with healthy eating, quickly turned into a vision to shift perceptions and eating habits, and later sparked a fully operational business plan. Fast forward 10 years, RME currently employs 75 staff and is in the process of moving to a 1,500 sq meter production facility at Jahiz 2, and is serving countless healthy food and beverage options across Qatar every day. In 2014, at the age of 30, Layla was recognized as Forbes Middle East’s top 200 most Powerful Arab Women, ranking 82 in the region, and 5 out of 7 in Qatar. She has been invited to speak at a number of entrepreneurship conferences, sharing her experiences of starting a manufacturing business in Qatar as a woman, SME owner, and healthy lifestyle advocate. Other awards include: