Fireside Chat: Women's Access to Finance: Bridging the Lebanese and European Perspectives

Access to finance remains a critical factor in enabling women to establish businesses, scale their operations, create jobs, and participate fully in economic development. Despite progress in entrepreneurship and financial inclusion, women entrepreneurs continue to encounter challenges in accessing credit, investment, and the financial resources needed to grow their businesses. 

This fireside chat will explore women's access to finance through complementary Lebanese and European perspectives, bringing together expertise in gender-responsive economic policy and international economic development with an academic perspective on business, finance, and economic systems. 

The discussion will examine the structural and practical barriers that affect women's access to financial resources, the role of financial institutions and investors, and the opportunities for creating more inclusive financing ecosystems. 

Speakers: 

• Dr. Roma Youness – Senior Expert in Trade Policy, Gender Integration, and Sustainable Economic Development 

• Professor Luis Maldonado – Finance professor, IE University, Spain 

Themes: 

• Understanding the barriers 

• Comparing Lebanon and Europe 

• Rethinking the financing ecosystem 

• From access to opportunity 

Luis Maldonado is a financial sector economist with more than 25 years of experience. He has been a professor at IE University since 2013 and is a consultant on Digital Financial Services and Sustainability for the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the World Bank, among other institutions. He is also a senior advisor at Beka Finance and has served on the boards of several regulated companies. He has held senior roles in both the public and private sectors, including advisor to Spain's Vice-President and Minister of Economy, CSO and executive committee member at Bankia (now CaixaBank), Director of Strategic Consulting for the Financial Sector at PwC Spain, Managing Director of the PwC–IE Business School Financial Sector, and senior advisor at Everis (now NTT Data).