Khalid Alkhudair
Khalid Alkhudair is Khalid Waleed Khalid Mohammed Alkhudair (Khalid W Alkhudair), born on April 1, 1983 in Baghdad, Iraq to a Saudi father and mother with Iraqi origin. he is best known for his championship of women empowerment initiatives in the Middle East and his CSR efforts through a social enterprise he started called Glowork. He has thus helped create thousands of jobs for Saudi women and created an innovation breakthrough to change cultural norms throughout the Kingdom to accept #women2work. He is widely known for advocating for womens right and placing women in new sectors and industries which after a struggle has been successful and several laws in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have changed in the favour of females
Biography
His childhood years were spent in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. He spent his education split between Canada, the UK and Saudi Arabia, he often rotated schools due to his parents practicing medicine in different countries.
He graduated from Saint Mary's University in 2007 and headed back to his home country of Saudi Arabia in Khobar where he started his career at KPMG as a marketing supervisor. He quickly excelled in his career and within three years he became the Country Marketing & Communications Manager for KPMG.
He left KPMG for a year to join Deutsche Gulf Finance, and assist them in establishing their brand and corporate identity as the first mortgage bank in the Kingdom. Alkhudair led DGF to three key financial awards but his love for his previous company shifted him back to KPMG and he was appointed the Chief Operating Officer - Markets for KPMG in Saudi, Jordan and Kuwait. Throughout his time at KPMG, he managed to lead his department to over 25 key awards in the fields of Corporate Social Responsibility and Working Environment, including Best Saudi Company to work for (5 years in a row) and the King Khalid Award for Responsible Competitiveness for two years in a row.
Alkhudair holds several advisory roles with the following:
- Steering Committee Member at the Ministry of Labor in Saudi Arabia
- Advisory board member at the CMO Council
- Chartered Marketer at the Chartered Institute of Marketing
- Riyadh hub curator for the global shapers at the World Economic Forum
- Steering Committee Member at the World Economic Forum for Global Talent Mobility
- Country officer for Alwane (part of Women campaign international)
- Speaker at the London Speakers Institute
- Mentor at the Founders Institute (Silicon Valley)
- Stanford University Amends Fellow
Glowork
Alkhudair created a website dedicated to empowering women and giving them an equal chance in the workplace, Glowork. The website has created over 11000 vacancies for Saudi women in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and has received international recognition from politicians, celebrities and executives. It is the first website in the Kingdom and GCC that is endorsed by a minister. This accomplishment led Alkhudair to represent Saudi Arabia at the world economic forum in Jordan as a Global Shaper where he was on a panel that included Her Royal Highness Queen Rania of Jordan on the topic of job creation in the Arab world.
Glowork in early 2012 also established a very innovative solution that are in line with the Saudi government aspirations. The labor laws in the Kingdom require that all companies have segregated offices and separate buildings for males and females, and this discouraged companies in hiring women. Glowork in partnership with an international IT solutions company, established a system where a full monitoring system can be placed at the homes of potential female employees. The system CREATES thousands of job opportunities for women throughout the Kingdom in the fields of customer service, sales, research and digital marketing. It also allows opportunities for special needs and those with disabilities. Award Recognition from the ILO , United Nations and World Bank for innovative solutions for job creation
in December 2012, Glowork signed a private public partnership with the Ministry of labor to create an extremely sustainable solution for employers, government and job seekers. Alkhudair was appointed as the curator for the Riyadh hub at the World Economic Forum and was awarded the Excellence in Entrepreneurship award under the patronage of Her Majesty Queen Rania at the Global Thinkers Forum. Alkhudair has established himself as an accomplished writer and speaker on women employment issues and social entrepreneurship
He has spoken of his desire to expand the current scope of operations to the rest of the region after securing a database of over 1.2 million Saudi women registered as unemployed and succeeding in opening new sectors and industries for Saudi women to work in. He is an ACTIVE writer on women employment issues and his influence has undoubtly been one of the main reasons that women are now allowed to work in new sectors where they werent allowed to work in before.
Accomplishments
- Voted the Best Head of Marketing in the Middle East
- Won the award for Young Alumni of the year from St Mary's University
- Entrepreneur of the week by WAMDA
- Excellence in Entrepreneurship at the Global Thinkers Forum
- Representing Saudi Arabia as a Young Global Shaper at the world Economic Forum