Ala'a Kolkaila

Ala’a Kolkaila is an economist and sustainability expert with more than 10 years of experience working for the Egyptian government, international organizations as well as philanthropies and non for profits. Throughout her career she led strategic sustainability missions and contributed to the design and implementation of national and regional programs to promote environmental sustainability, women empowerment, technology-enablement, financial inclusion, green and blue circular economy. Currently, Ala’a is a visiting fellow at MIT Sloan School of Management.

From 2019 to 2022, Ala’a served as the Advisor to H.E Minister of International Cooperation of Egypt and former Minister of Tourism providing strategic support on several sustainability thematic areas.  Ala’a has overseen the World Economic Forum cooperation programs and designed digital transformation programs to digitalize tourism activities and improve the entrepreneurship ecosystem.

In 2017, Ala’a was a Young African Professional Fellow at the United Nations Economic of Africa where she developed the Blue Economy in North Africa research program and successfully influenced member states to endorse it as part of the bureaus work. She also designed intergovernmental capacity development plans for member states to endorse SDG14 and design subsiding programs into their national strategies for 2030.

Previously, Ala’a has successfully served with different governmental bureaus in Egypt. Amongst the main successful policies and milestones on her career path was working with partners at the National Telecom Regulatory Authority in Egypt in 2016, to promote mobile money policies. In 2017, Ala’a has also led the technical team to abridge digital solutions across government bureaus at the Ministry of Planning, for example automating the agriculture data base and delivering the farmers card bringing 6 million farmers to be financial included.

Ala’a has also consulted for Jameel Poverty Action Lab in 2016 and interned at OECD in 2012.
In 2020, Ala’a has graduated from University of Washington, USA grad program Global Business program. In 2013, Ala’a has earned her MA in Economics from Universität Phillips Marburg, Germany. In 202, Ala’a has joined MIT School of Management as a visiting fellow.