Meet Our Team
Farkhonda Rahimi
President
Farkhonda is a British-Afghan who has over 10 years of experience in different sectors in the United Kingdom. She has been working for more than five years for the promotion of Afghan indigenous products like hand-made carpets, saffron and garments in Britain and European Union. She is an entrepreneur and has set-up her own flooring business in London through which she continues to promote Afghan carpets and designs. In her free time she has been volunteering for integration of refugees and immigrants from different countries in the UK. She has studied Business and Accounting from College of Northwest London.
Kamila Sidiqi
Founder and Director
Kamila Sidiqi is a prominent economic activist who has worked in leadership roles in various sectors in Afghanistan. She is the CEO and Founder of Kaweyan Group of Companies and has launched a number of path-breaking services in Afghanistan, such as the first women owned business consultancy firm (Kaweyan Business Development Services), the first women owned dried fruit export import company (Naweyan Nawed Ltd.), the first women owned cab services (Kaweyan Cabs), Afghanistan’s first Pink Taxi Service, and Afghanistan’s only women-owned petroleum company (Kaweyan Petroleum). From June 2017 to March 2019 she worked for the promotion of Afghan trade and commerce as the Deputy Minister for Commerce at the Ministry of Industry and Commerce. From 2014-2017 she was the Deputy Chief of Staff for Admin and Finance in the Administrative Office of the President. For the past several years, she has been actively engaged in promoting gender issues, private sector development, transparency and anti-corruption in Afghanistan. Prior to joining the government, Kamila was a successful entrepreneur and was one the first businesswomen of Afghanistan. During her work in the private sector, she made groundbreaking achievements in various fields and received recognition across the globe for her endeavors in male dominated sectors. She is currently working to promote leadership and entrepreneurship skills among Afghan men and women as a business consultant and advisor.
In February 2017, Kamila represented Afghanistan as a key speaker in the AFPAK Partnership Summit: Workable Solutions in a New Era which was held in Mali. In 2015, Kamila was a keynote speaker at The Economist Magazine’s World in 2016 event in Hong Kong and Singapore. The year 2014 saw Kamila as a speaker at the Power of Empowered Women Event organized by the United Nations in Geneva. She was a speaker at Regional Policy Dialogue on Central Asia's Regional Challenges organized in Turkey by the Hollings Center and has represented Afghanistan's women entrepreneurs in several B2B conferences organized in India, Tajikistan. She was also a founding member of the Steering Committee of the South Asia Women Entrepreneurs Symposium (SAWES). She is one of the core founders of Leading Entrepreneurs of Afghanistan for Development (LEAD) which was established in 2013-14 and grew to become the Afghanistan Women’s Chambers of Commerce and Industries.
The Dressmaker of Khair Khana - a book chronicling the life and achievements of Kamila - has received international acclaim and was a New York Times Best Seller in 2012. It was a part of the Common Reading Program at University of Florida for the class of 2016.
Kamila has been recognized as a Peace Hero in Afghanistan in 2014 by Modern Organization for Education and Development. She was also part of The International Alliance of Women World of Difference awardees in 2014.
Yasmeen Alekozai
Programs Manager
Yasmeen is a program management, business development and strategic planning specialist with over ten years’ experience in the region, specifically in the fields of business development, communication, project design, implementation, total quality management and monitoring and evaluation. She has worked for projects funded by leading international donors such as USAID (and its sub projects), UN Women, GIZ, French Embassy etc. She has considerable exposure in fund raising, project operations and implementation, evaluation and reporting requirements of international donor agencies. Through her work in project management, both for the government and private sectors, she has gained significant insights into program financial management, quality management, budgeting, forecasting and human resource management. She worked as Project Management Advisor at the Administrative Office of the President (AOP) in Afghanistan and successfully managed a large portfolio of reform and capacity building projects in the AOP. She worked for key projects from inception and project designing to fund-raising, implementation and project close-out, working closely with various stakeholders simultaneously. She has also spearheaded research and survey projects as Programs Advisor with the Ministry of Industry and Commerce in Afghanistan.
Ruxandra Boros
Consultant
An independent consultant, Ruxandra’s work encompasses gender and finance research, needs assessment, project design and implementation in OECD and over 65 developing countries. She lived and worked in Afghanistan between 2003-2006 and contributed consulting services and training in 2013-2014.
Ruxandra has excellent knowledge of key concepts, frameworks, approaches and evidence of what works to achieve gender empowerment and women’s equality measures. She has recognized expertise on: all aspects related to gender equity and finance; designing and implementing sustainable business training, and gender-sensitive value chains.
Her clients include the European Union, UN agencies; international and regional development banks, as well as bilateral development agencies; private sector and not-for-profit organizations.
Ruxandra brings to her work a deep commitment to support the health of the planet and the social and economic empowerment of youth and adults, especially women; an understanding of intercultural dimensions gained through field experience on four continents; and her multilingual skills. She contributes voluntary work to NGOs in France and Romania. Ruxandra is a lecturer on sustainable business and green finance in various business schools and a keynote speaker at international conferences.
Mir Saeed Saeedy
Consultant
Mir Saeed Saeedy is a law school graduate from Kabul University. After graduating in 2011, moved to France to pursue further education, and obtained two Master’s degrees in International and European law and International Economic Law. In 2014 he returned to Afghanistan and joined the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan as a Legal Manager, focusing on laying the legal foundations for the establishment of Agricultural Development Bank of Afghanistan (ADBA) supported by the World Bank. In 2015 he joined the Max Planck Foundation for International Peace and Rule of Law as a legal consultant. Later, in 2016, he joined the Afghanistan Ministry of Commerce and Industries as an Advisor to the Directorate of Legal Affairs and was swiftly promoted to an Advisor to the Minister then a Director of Internal Audit and, finally, as Director-General for International Trade.
Henaa Salehi
Consultant
Henaa Salehi is a commercial lawyer, policy maker, educator, and advocate for women's rights and youth empowerment. She started her career as a commercial lawyer in 2015 and practiced law for 5 years with some of the top national & international law firms in Afghanistan. She subsequently joined the Afghan government in 2019 as a Legal Expert for the Office of Chief Legal Advisor to the President, which later evolved into the Legal Unit of the President. At the same time, she also served as the Acting Director for the Directorate of Regional and International Commitment’s Coordination at the Legal Unit of the President. She was then appointed as the Director of Procurement Policy and Legal Directorate, at the National Procurement Authority (NPA) of Afghanistan.
Henaa has a bachelor's in law from Kabul University. She is also a Fulbright Scholar and is currently pursuing her Master's in International Business & Trade Law at Fordham University, New York City. Apart from pursuing a full-time legal profession, she has been an advocate for women and youth rights for 10 years, mainly focusing on gender equality and education.
Baraimal Jerian
Consultant
Baraimal Jeryan is a business and trade analyst, a proud civil servant with a great career record, and an effective member of the development community. Baraimal has worked in the Ministry of Commerce for more than 10 years. He has also worked in Afghanistan's Mission to WTO in Geneva and has served as the Director of Trade Analysis in the Ministry of Commerce, where he was leading the team of Afghanistan's Commercial Attachés in different countries of the world. He developed weekly trade policy updates for the cabinet and formulated policy recommendations and solutions for enhancing Afghanistan's trade portfolio. He has also worked with USAID's ACEBA project where he was directly supporting export businesses to increase their export portfolios.