Ambar Amleh is Co-Founder and the Chief Operating Officer for Palestine’s early-stage startup investment fund, Ibtikar, a fund that she championed and helped design, structure and fundraise. Ibtikar fills a critical funding gap faced by Palestinian entrepreneurs between seed and VC, and is currently the only active VC in Palestine.

For the past eight years, Ambar has been directly involved in supporting Palestinian entrepreneurs. As the program manager for Palestine for a New Beginning (PNB), a Palestinian non-profit company focused on entrepreneurial development, Ambar grew PNB from an idea and a loose and small board leadership to an established Palestinian institution. Through PNB, Ambar organized the yearly Celebration of Innovation, a Palestine-wide competition of entrepreneurs, and the follow-up support to these entrepreneurs; as well as Global Entrepreneurship Week in Palestine.

Ambar is a member of the 23^rd class of Kauffman Fellows, and was named as one of the “50 Most Influential Women in the Arab World” by CEO Middle East Magazine and “20 Women VCs of MENA” by MENAbytes.

Ambar has an international MBA from the Thunderbird School of Global Management and a Marketing degree from Arizona State University.