Episode 39: Tara Dawood (Dawood Global Foundation), Karachi, Pakistan

YPO member Tara Dawood is a graduate of Cornell University, Oxford University, Harvard Law School and a member of the New York Bar. In 2002, Dawood relocated to Pakistan to revamp a venture capital company named Pakistan Venture Capital Ltd and eventually started her own asset management company, Dawood Capital Management Ltd, now 786 Investments Ltd.

Even though she is extremely successful in the business world, her heart and passion lie with building charitable programs dedicated to educating young girls and promoting the advancement of women in business. In 2008, in direct response to the assassination of Pakistan’s first female Prime Minister Benazir Bhutoo, Dawood launched LADIESFUND®, a nonprofit that trains and promotes female entrepreneurs with the aim of placing more women into the workforce and facilitating business deals between women entrepreneurs.

Today, LADIESFUND® has more than 12,000 members and more than 140 local and international partners aligned with helping women achieve financial security.

In 2013, LADIESFUND® launched its spin off Educate a Girl, an initiative with the mission to educate 1,000 girls in a 1,000 cities between the ages of 18 to 24 to become journalists in order to give women a bigger voice in media. But this incredible program has since evolved into a much bigger movement. In this episode, Dawood shares how Sharia law applies to investment and capital management and how anyone can help inspire a girl to learn.

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