Women Of Influence 2025: MENA Impact's Nadine Zidani

After building a career in consulting and strategy at EY and Emirates Group, Nadine Zidani founded MENA Impact in the UAE with the aim of helping organizations, entrepreneurs, and ecosystem builders lead on sustainability and social innovation. In her role as CEO of the certified B-Corp startup, Zidani believes that impact must drive strategy, not emerge as a byproduct of business—a point that she doubles down on her podcast, Impact Talk. For Zidani, being mission-driven was key to her decision to make what she says was an uncalculated leap into entrepreneurship, though she also credits it with helping her to find her feet.

“The most important decision I’ve made in my professional journey was to stay fully aligned with my values, even when it wasn’t easy, even when it meant walking away from opportunities,” she says. “From the beginning, I chose to build MENA Impact as a mission-driven business, not a traditional consultancy. That means saying no to partnerships that don’t reflect our ethos, refusing to greenwash, and making sure everything we do—from who we work with to how we operate—reflects the change we want to see in the region. It’s not always the most easy path, but for me, it’s the only one that makes sense.”

Here, Zidani also points out that being a woman has afforded her unique advantages in the domain she operates in. “Women have played a deeply transformative role in the sustainability field,” she says. “Many are naturally drawn to this space—not because it’s soft, but because it’s systemic. It requires empathy, longterm thinking, holding space for complexity, and finding ways to balance often conflicting needs. These are qualities that women often embody, and in sustainability, they become powerful tools for change.”

Lessons Learned: Q&A With Nadine Zidani

Looking back on your journey, if there is one piece of advice you’d give yourself before you embarked on your career, what would that be? Additionally, if you could go back in time and tell yourself something that you should avoid or simply not do, what would that be? 

If I could give one piece of advice to my younger self, it would be this: you don’t have to choose between doing good and doing well. For years, I believed there was a trade-off—that I could either build a career with a strong paycheck and prestige, or work for a mission I believed in. And so I followed the “safe” path: good companies, solid roles, impressive CV. But inside, I felt disconnected. The impact I wanted to make—the kind of work that feels deeply aligned with who I am—just wasn’t there.

If I could go back and tell myself something to avoid, it would be this: stop dimming your light. I spent too many years waiting for others to recognize my potential, to tell me I was good enough, smart enough, ready enough. And I was all those things—I just didn’t believe it yet. I would tell that younger version of me: be your own cheerleader. Don’t wait for permission. You’re already capable. Speak up, take space, trust your instincts, and let your voice be heard—even if it shakes.

Because truthfully, the only thing that held me back for so long wasn’t a system or a person—it was my own self-doubt. And once I stopped waiting for external validation, everything changed.

Pictured in the lead image is Nadine Zidani, founder and CEO of MENA Impact. Courtesy of MENA Impact.

Nadine Zidani was one of Inc. Arabia's Women of Influence 2025, a showcase of 30 women rewriting the rules of business in the MENA region. For the full list, please click here.