AllWorld Network and Arcapita Launch GCC Fast Growth 100 to Support Regional Development and Cooperation

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, June 11, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Anne Habiby, co-founder of AllWorld Network and Atif Abdulmalik, the CEO of Arcapita launched the GCC Fast Growth 100 (GCC100), as a pioneering and prominent program to find and rank the fastest growing private companies of the GCC, the companies creating the next jobs and industries.   With the immediate need to create more private employment in the region, the annual GCC100 has been initiated by the AllWorld Network, with the support of Arcapita, to celebrate and support successful entrepreneurs forging new industries.  These entrepreneurs become part of a network of growth entrepreneurs in the region and globally, facilitating knowledge exchange and cross-border investments.

Attending the announcement was Omar Bahlaiwa, the Secretary General for the Council of Saudi Chambers, and the Chief Operating Officer of the Tadawul, John Von Stein. Also present in large numbers were winners from AllWorld's Saudi 100 ranking, companies growing at an average of 40% a year and who are early applicants to the GCC100 and Arabia500.  Noted journalist Jamal Khashoggi moderated the event and there was discussion of the importance of the GCC100 entrepreneurial companies in the current political and economic landscape of the region.

The first GCC100 will be announced regionally and globally in October 2011 at an event to take place in Bahrain.  The GCC100 winners will also be eligible for the Arabia 500 – a MENA wide ranking of companies, which will be announced in November 2011 at a three-day Arabia500 Summit in Jordan.

The GCC Fast Growth 100 is a program of AllWorld Network with Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter and partner Arcapita, a leading international investment firm headquartered in Bahrain.   AllWorld was co-founded by Deirdre Coyle, Anne Habiby and Professor Michael Porter. Porter was described by the Times of London as the world's "most influential management guru" and is widely regarded at the foremost authority on company and country competitiveness.   "The GCC 100 companies, led by dynamic men and women, represent the leading edge of a new approach to the region's competitiveness," says Porter.    

Arcapita, with offices in Bahrain, the United States, London and Singapore, has built a business sourcing and managing investments in private equity, infrastructure, real estate and venture capital around the world, and currently has over $7 billion in funds under management. "Whether we're reviewing new investment opportunities or assessing strategic growth plans within the portfolio, we achieve success by being able to recognize relative strengths, and the variable that eclipses all others is that of management," said Atif Abdulmalik, CEO of Arcapita. "Without strong leadership, corporate culture, and above all, lively entrepreneurial spirit, even the strongest product offering will wither. To transform the hydrocarbon economies of the GCC into the dynamic economies that will offer growth and opportunity to a diverse population, we must foster an environment to encourage and celebrate entrepreneurship. We are very pleased to be working with AllWorld to achieve this goal, and look forward to meeting the people who are already changing the landscape in the GCC."

Habiby, also a Fellow of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government stated, "The GCC100 will establish the first definitive record of the fastest growing, most dynamic entrepreneurs in the region. These are the entrepreneurs investing in their own markets and building new high-growth companies and energized teams.  Nothing says more about the economic opportunity of the future then to see young companies succeeding.  We invite all companies to apply at www.AllWorldLive.com."

The GCC100 application process is open to all private, non-listed companies of the GCC region who have been rapidly growing.  The GCC100 ranks companies, which must be at least three years old, according to their revenue growth, not their size.  It is a ranking of the most dynamic, not the largest companies.  Younger companies can qualify as Start Ups to Watch.  Entrepreneurs from any industry are invited to apply at www.AllWorldLive.com, and there is no cost to apply.  With a ranking on the list, emerging companies will gain visibility, a global network of growth entrepreneurs and investors, and an invitation to the AllWorld Summit at Harvard University.

Coyle and Habiby co-wrote the 2010 Harvard Business review article – The High-Intensity Entrepreneur.  For more on AllWorld Network visit www.allworldlive.com.

SOURCE AllWorld Network