International Digital Women’s Day: Moroccan Women Make a Name for Themselves

Rabat – Celebrated every April 17 around the world, World Digital Women’s Day is a movement led by JFD, the growth accelerator for women who are changing the world through digital technology.

The ambition of this international mobilization celebrating women in fields of digital tech around the world is to reveal role models who believe that women in the tech and digital sectors must be more visible to inspire others.

Moroccan women have managed to make their way in a field that has long been male-dominated. Coming from several fields such as business, education, and administration, these eight women have shown their prowess in the digital field.

Amal El Fallah Seghrouchni

Amal El Fallah Seghrouchni has just been appointed to the UNESCO World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology (COMEST), a distinction that is added to a long list of achievements.

Seghrouchni holds the position of Executive President of the International Center of Artificial Intelligence of Morocco “AI Movement” at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University.

She is also a professor at Sorbonne University, Sorbonne Paris Nord University, and Paris X – Nanterre University where she also held the position of Chief Integration Officer.

Seghrouchni has managed to distinguish herself and become a member of various groups in UNESCO, as well as an associate editor of the scientific journal “IEEE Transactions on Artificial Intelligence.”

Holder of a PhD in Computer Science from Pierre et Marie Curie University, Seghrouchni often supervises research in the field of Artificial Intelligence at Sorbonne Paris.

With an exemplary professional career and scientific experience, an abundant and diversified scientific output, as well as numerous scientific and academic publications and contributions, she has established herself as one of the biggest faces for Moroccan women in tech.

She is the holder of the 2021 “Woman of the Year” award for the African continent, granted by the Berkeley World Business Analytics Awards.

Lamiae Benmakhlouf

Two years after obtaining a bachelor’s degree in Economics and a DESA in Finance from the Mohammed V University in Rabat in 2000, Lamiae Benmakhlouf joined the emerging Technopark project after a short experience in a family-run business.

She switched from finance to Information and Communication Technology in order to promote entrepreneurship and support start-ups. Benmakhlouf is now Managing Director of the Moroccan Information Technopark Company (MITC), the company managing Casablanca’s technoparks.

Twenty years since joining MITC, Benmakhlouf is increasingly focusing on regionalization.

Alongside the five current sites, the ones in Fez, Oujda, and Tiznit are progressing well. Moreover, her ambition is to support all Moroccan talents.

Benmakhlouf dreams of being able to cover all regions of the Kingdom over the next five years and to intensify start-up acceleration processes.

Committed to the digital field and to Moroccan youth, Benmakhlouf tours Moroccan universities and schools to promote and motivate female entrepreneurs. She is proud of great success stories such as Rekrute.com, M2T, Value Pass, Data Protected, and many others.

Habiba Benjelloun

After a double master’s degree in strategic and operational marketing in Paris, Habiba Benjelloun joined the Coca-Cola France group in 2005, where she occupied the position of Brand Manager.

The young knowledge-hungry woman then went on to gain experience in the marketing departments of major international groups in Paris and then in Casablanca.

It was in Avito in 2017 that she operated as Chief Marketing Officer, where she faced the challenge of developing the brand and the digital performance of the platform, as well as strengthening Avito’s marketplace leadership in Morocco.

The marketing enthusiast founded the DNA (Digital Nomads Agency) Agency in 2020, with a mission to support clients in their digital strategy integrating all the elements necessary for their online growth such as search engine optimization, social media management, and content creation.

Benjelloun is today among the women entrepreneurs who have dared to take up the challenge in the vast world of digital innovation in Morocco.

Maha Gmira

Maha Gmira has just taken the “Women in Science: AI and Futures” Chair, which aims to address the problem of female under-representation in the field of artificial intelligence through various activities aimed at increasing recruitment, retention, and advancement of women in this field.

The position’s objective is to create an ecosystem of excellence in artificial intelligence, and to promote the participation of women researchers in the field through collaboration with international experts and by training Moroccan researchers and innovators.

For Gmira, it is a question of training a new generation of women for the professions of the future.

Gmira has woven this destiny with her love and values. As a graduate engineer from Polytechnique Montreal, Gmira worked in the aerospace field.

She then obtained a master’s degree in industrial engineering, as well as a PhD in artificial intelligence at the University of Montreal, before becoming a professor at the School of Digital Engineering and Artificial Intelligence (EIDIA) and at the Euromed University of Fez.

Boudour Badri

After studying at Toulouse Capitole University, majoring in engineering information systems, Boudour Badri mastered specialties that opened doors for her.

Badri is known as an expert in account management, web strategy, adwords, and community management, among others. She is also a specialist in growth hacking and a customer centric project manager.

Today, she holds the post of Digital Marketing and Transformation Manager at Wafasalaf, a leader in the Moroccan market for consumer credit.

Wafasalaf is a subsidiary of the Attijariwafa Bank group and Credit Agricole Consumer Finance, operating in the personal finance, household equipment, and automotive markets.

She has already spent ten years within the company, through which she has evolved with seriousness and dedication to become a key element in the Wafasalaf institution.

Boudour brilliantly represented Wafasalaf at the “@mbitions trophy” event with the “Open Credit Wafasalaf” project.

Loubna Hajji

A graduate of Paris Dauphine University in telecommunications and new media management, Loubna Hajji is now the Marketing, Innovation, and Digital Director at BMCI Group.

She also holds a certificate in coaching with distinction from the Higher School of Coaching in Paris. For Hajji, digital transformation is directly inspired by the expectations of her customers, shareholders, and collaborators. Based on that view, she has made the digital field her showpiece.

The dematerialization of processes and products has become a major challenge to meet the needs and expectations of customers for her.

Hajji is proud of BMCI’s digital strategy, which has been developed around three main ambitions: to facilitate day-to-day banking, simplify the banking relationship, and support customers from start to finish.

To achieve these ambitions, she has focused on four main pillars: the digitalization of customer experience, selfcare Banking, mobile devices, and Phygital marketing (blending digital and physical experiences).

For Hajji, the new payment solution is the BMCI Biometric Visa card, which tests the use of fingerprint recognition as a security measure. It reinforces her perception of BMCI as an innovative and distinctive bank.

Ghita Slaoui

Graduate of the Telecom Lille – IMT Nord Europe graduate school of engineering, Ghita Slaoui has more than 11 years of experience in cybersecurity consulting and in change management in France and Morocco.

She worked in France at Advens and at DXC Technology before joining Formind AME in Casablanca, where she contributed to the creation and development of the group’s Moroccan entity.

In 2022, she created the LinkedIn page “CybeRecruits” to connect cybersecurity professionals in Africa. This initiative was launched in response to a growing need for qualified cyber security professionals in the region.

In the same year, she built an African women’s ecosystem to promote gender equality in cyber security and raise awareness among younger generations in data security challenges.

She is co-founder and president of the Women For Cyber Africa association, whose main objective is to strengthen the presence of African women in cybersecurity and to promote their participation in strategic decision-making.

Since last year, she has occupied the position of Chief Information Security Officer (ISSM) at Societe Generale Cote d’Ivoire.

The new position has exposed her to the challenges of digital security in the African context of an international group.

In addition, it has given her the opportunity to become familiar with the cybernetic nature of ecosystems and to learn about the specific challenges in Africa, such as the cybersecurity of financial systems, the increasing use of online services and social networks, as well as the risks related to cybercrime and hacking.

She and her team have recently joined TNP Maroc, where she was appointed head of the cybersecurity and data protection division for Africa, a new challenge for Slaoui.

Sanaa Bousbai

A digital enthusiast whose passion is contagious, Sanaa Bousbai already has more than 15 years of experience in digital media, marketing, communication, strategy, and digital transformation.

Bousbai is also a consultant and facilitator with several years of experience in innovation, development, and partnership management in Morocco and the US, mainly within IT companies such as Microsoft.

She has worked and managed the digital, media and e-commerce departments of multinational companies, notably in the food and beauty industries such as Danone and L’Oreal.

Bousbai is also the founder and CEO of Digital Tribe, as well as the co-founder of the Innovation Circle, and Managing Director of EVOS Consulting. She was also the Secretary General of the Moroccan Association of Advertisers (GAM).

Gifted in e-commerce and in the organization of B2B events in digital media and marketing, Bousbai also organizes acculturation and tailor-made training courses on using digital tech for companies.

She is driven by the values of passion and sharing, which allow her to imagine, create, and invest in the projects in which she is involved, particularly in the projects she runs for the community of decision-makers in marketing, digital, and communication, making her a respected and credible specialist.