AllWorld Network Convenes Summit of Entrepreneurs to Accelerate Economic Growth in the Middle East and Africa

AllWorld Network Convenes Summit of Entrepreneurs to Accelerate Economic
Growth in the Middle East and Africa
Event Brings Together 25 Saudi, South African and US Fast Growth Entrepreneurs
with business, government and media leaders. Collectively, these 25
entrepreneurs have created 12,000 jobs.

NEW YORK, Nov. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- AllWorld Network, the creator of the Saudi
100 and South Africa 100 lists of fast growth companies, kicked off the
convening of its first summit to accelerating growth entrepreneurship in the
Middle East and Africa. Co-hosted by the United Nations Office for
Partnerships and the Business Council for International Understanding, the
event brings business, government and media leaders together with twenty-five
fast growth entrepreneurs, winners of the Saudi Fast Growth 100 and the US
Inner City 100, and applicants to the South Africa Fast Growth 100 --
collectively, these 25 entrepreneurs have created 12,000 jobs.

AllWorld seeks to identify all of the emerging world's top growth
entrepreneurs in the next three years and to accelerate their growth by giving
them the visibility and networking opportunities that all high-potential
companies require to grow to full scale.

AllWorld Chairman Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School
commented "The Saudi Fast Growth 100 and South Africa Fast Growth 100
companies, led by dynamic men and women, represent the leading edge of a new
approach to competitiveness." Companies that make a 100 ranking have to be
private businesses growing at least 40% a year, for five or more years.

The entrepreneurs are spending four days in the US to share ideas, meet with
leaders to advance growth entrepreneurship as a global priority, sharpen their
growth strategies with Porter and other world renowned professors at Harvard,
and participate in an intensive 24-hour leadership session designed for them
by the Pinnacle Training Institute. Joining the entrepreneurs are the
Founding Partners of the Saudi 100, the Saudi Arabian General Investment
Authority, the National Commercial Bank (the largest bank in the Middle East),
AlWatan newspaper, Siraj Capital and Sukoon International.

"We are at the twilight of one economic era and the dawn of another," said
Anne Habiby, co-founder of AllWorld Network. "The old model of economic
development has reached its limit and micro-enterprise does not have the scale
to power countries forward. The next model of economic development is growth
entrepreneurship, which can create a new wave of prosperity."

"As these companies grow, the upside is immeasurable," said Deirdre M. Coyle,
Jr., co-founder of AllWorld Network. "They create a much needed tax base,
they hire and advance employees at a rapid rate, they influence their
governments to improve the business environment and transparency, and they
create hope for the future. They are both economic growth drivers and agents
of positive change in regions that can benefit the most from both."

"For a fast-growth CEO, selection to the AllWorld lists brings global
visibility," said Peter Tichansky, President of the Business Council for
International Understanding. "They deserve it. These entrepreneurs are
building the next great companies. We want to support them."

"A robust private sector that delivers economic growth, employment and wealth
creation is essential for reducing global poverty and making progress toward
achieving the Millennium Development Goals," said Amir Dossal, Executive
Director of the United Nations Office for Partnerships. "The United Nations
Office for Partnerships is pleased to be part of this leadership initiative to
engage some of world's most dynamic emerging entrepreneurs to discuss how to
unlock the growth potential of the Middle East and Africa."

Joining AllWorld Network in this effort are global partners: the United
Nations Office for Partnerships, The World Bank Institute, Endeavor SA, the
Harvard University Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative, the Business
Council for International Understanding, the Center for Strategic
Competitiveness at IIT-Stuart School of Business, and the leadership training
institute Pinnacle, Ltd.

About AllWorld Network
A decade ago, the co-founders of AllWorld Network -- Coyle and Habiby --
joined forces with Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter and Inc.
magazine to create the US Inner City 100 list, looking for competitive
entrepreneurs where no one thought they existed -- in America's economically
distressed inner cities. In that first year, only 120 companies entered the
competition. But by 2008, there were 8,000 companies vying to be on the Inner
City 100 list. Companies have to be privately held and each one competes for
a spot based on its sales growth over the past five years. The Inner City 100
became an American phenomenon and its own engine of growth. In 2001 the UK's
then-Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, asked the team to create a UK
Inner City 100 with the Financial Times in 2001.

In 2007, Coyle and Habiby established AllWorld Network to take this model
global. They began in Saudi Arabia at the invitation of the Saudi Arabian
General Investment Authority. The inaugural Saudi Fast Growth 100 winners
were announced at the 2009 Global Competitiveness Forum in Riyadh. The
average growth rate of the first Saudi 100 over five years was a blistering
40% per year. Even more impressive, the winning companies created 28,000 jobs
since they were founded, and over 70% of the CEOs have founded other
companies, of which an impressive 90% are still in business. Building on the
Saudi 100, AllWorld launched the South Africa Fast Growth 100 in August 2009
with local partner Endeavor South Africa, and in 2010 will launch the Arabia
500 and the Africa 500.

CONTACT: Deirdre M Coyle, Jr
617-504-4547 or dcoylejr@nexteconomics.com

SOURCE AllWorld Network

Deirdre M Coyle, Jr, +1-617-504-4547, dcoylejr@nexteconomics.com