Areije Al Shakar is Senior Vice President, Development Services at Bahrain Development Bank (BDB) and a member of the Executive Management Team. As an intra-preneur, Areije co-founded the pioneering Rowad Program, a holistic full-cycle entrepreneur support platform focused on creating a regional entrepreneurship eco-system through its partners and network. Areije also helped set up SeedFuel-Rowad, a Bahraini home grown accelerator program that is managed and run out of the Bank. She is currently leading the Investment Management Team of Al Waha Venture Capital Fund of Funds in the BDB’s capacity as Fund Manager.

Areije is also Editor in Chief of Rowad Magazine, which she cofounded, and she represents the BDB on the board of several startup companies.

Before joining BDB, Areije previously worked in banking and advisory roles at BNP Paribas, and Lehman Brothers, contributing to setting up their respective Advisory and Investment Management desks for the wider region. She also worked at Citibank and Investcorp B.S.C.

Areije is frequently invited to share her holistic expertise in the full-entrepreneurship cycle, public policy, and entrepreneurship ecosystems development, in local and regional entrepreneurship and innovation events like the MIT Innovation Forum and in regional publications like Arabian Business. She has also been featured among Bahrain’s Most Influential Women, and Bahrain’s Top Executives by Business in Gulf.