Najla Al Midfa

H.E. Najla Al Midfa serves as Vice Chairwoman and Managing Director of the Emirates Growth Fund, a Dh1 billion ($272.3 million) growth equity platform backed by Emirates Development Bank that was launched in May 2025. EGF targets UAE-headquartered SMEs with strong growth potential, typically generating AED 10 million or more in annual revenue, and invests between AED 10 and 50 million per company through active minority investments, ensuring founders retain operational control.

Under her leadership as the founding CEO of Sheraa, the government-supported entity launched in 2016, the center cultivated a portfolio of more than 450 startups that went on to collectively raise over US$290 million in investment, generating more than $274 million in revenue, and creating over 2,000 jobs. As Vice Chairperson of Sharjah Entrepreneurship Centre (Sheraa) and Vice Chairperson and Managing Director of Emirates Growth Fund (EGF), she straddles two worlds of entrepreneurship: one focused on planting seeds in fresh soil, the other on scaling forests already deeply rooted.

Career History

• Vice Chairperson and Managing Director, Emirates Growth Fund (2025–present)
• Chief Executive Officer and Vice Chairperson, Sharjah Entrepreneurship Center (Sheraa) (2016–present)
• Founder, Khayarat, a platform empowering young Emiratis to make informed career choices
• Senior Manager, Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development, where she led a team of business counselors through the due diligence process
• Senior Associate, McKinsey and Company's New York office, serving clients across the financial institutions sector
• Key roles within PricewaterhouseCoopers and Shell

Najla holds an MBA from Stanford University and is a fellow of the Aspen Institute's Middle East Leadership Initiative and an Eisenhower Global Fellow. She serves on the boards of publicly-listed companies like Dana Gas and Arab United Bank, in addition to institutions like the Emirates Development Bank, Sharjah Research, Technology and Innovation Park, Friends of Cancer Patients, and the Sharjah Education Academy. In 2023, she was honored with the Arabian Business Arab Woman Award for Entrepreneurship, and her inclusion in Forbes' list of the most powerful businesswomen in 2024 serves as a testament to her influence and leadership.

What Najla Al Midfa could bring to her role at Emirates Growth Fund: Drawing from her dual expertise in ecosystem-building at Sheraa and deep experience in venture capital and SME financing at Khalifa Fund and McKinsey, Al Midfa brings a unique ability to bridge early-stage entrepreneurship with scale-stage growth capital. Her track record of deploying patient capital with strategic support—combined with her government relations experience and cross-sector board positions at major UAE institutions—positions her to unlock the AED 1 billion fund's potential while advancing the nation's economic diversification goals. Her proven capacity to orchestrate complex stakeholder networks and her emphasis on founder empowerment align perfectly with EGF's mission to identify and scale the next generation of national champions without diluting entrepreneurial control.