Thought Leadership

Tamakkan was established in 2009 by Sana Bagersh to support small businesses through knowledge-sharing free-to-attend workshops and events on entrepreneurship, leadership and innovation. Tamakkan has over the years focused on empowering women and youth, supporting small businesses, and promoting principled leadership, which Bagersh believes are all foundational stones to driving positive change.

Tamakkan events have been held at public venues, universities and online. They have featured a diverse raft of speakers who have shared their experiences and knowledge. Tamakkan’s partners have included Boston University, the US Embassy Abu Dhabi, AmCham Abu Dhabi, Sorbonne University, New York University, Zayed University, Franklin Covey, Wharton, Virgin Unite Mentors, New York Film Academy, Mubadala GE Capital, Harvard Business Review, MIT, Sky News and others.

With a multi-cultural background that spans three continents, and an early career as a journalist, Sana integrates a bridge-building commitment to her endeavors. To support Tamakkan’s learning-focused trajectory, she formed Tempo magazine in 2009 (Feelyourtempo.com) as a platform to support social impact focused small businesses, ‘to celebrate everyday people doing extraordinary things,’ and to promote cultural understanding.

Her professional journey includes marketing head for Thuraya Satellite Communications Company for eight years, where she led international campaigns, across 110 countries. Through her work, which also included overseeing CSR programming, she developed a deep appreciation for the power of technology to transform communities.

Sana believes that it is only through fostering collaboration with like-minded institutional partners and the collective potential of people at grass-roots level, that we can build a more human-centred and sustainable world.