On May 16, King’s Academy celebrated the graduation of the second cohort of its students to complete an entrepreneurship program organized under the Tawfiq Fakhouri Chair for Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Leadership.

The Tawfiq Fakhouri Chair was established at King’s Academy in 2021 by sTF5 Care, a foundation that works with grassroots organizations to deliver evidence-based health and education solutions to Jordanian and Palestinian communities.

The program offered by the Tawfiq Fakhouri Chair includes the entrepreneurship course and the Entrepreneurs Club — a student-led club established to enable students to act on their entrepreneurial ideas and create hands-on impact.

The semester-long entrepreneurship program concluded with a “shark tank”-like competition at which 11 students divided into four teams presented their business ideas to a panel of five distinguished leaders from the world of commerce.

At the competition, which was attended by parents, faculty and staff, and external judges, Head of School Penny Townsend described entrepreneurship and the entrepreneurial spirit as “essential to the King’s Academy curriculum and community” and encouraged the students to “continue to aim high in serving your school and your country.”

Next, Deputy Chairman and sTF5 Care Advisory Board Member Maram Samara Fakhouri who spoke of her family’s pride in establishing the Entrepreneurship Chair in memory of her late father-in-law, the Jordanian banker and entrepreneur Tawfiq Fakhouri. She said the program intends to encourage “forward thinking” and to “empower youth to become change makers who transcend limitations and come up with business solutions to real world problems.”

The program strives to create mentors who will mentor the next generation and honor the memory of Tawfiq Fakhouri who was “not just a mentor, but also a beacon of hope to all who knew him,” said Fakhouri. “He was a visionary, a risk-taker, and a dedicated leader who believed in the power of optimism and innovation.”

Then came the final pitch competition in which students were able to demonstrate the knowledge and skills that they have acquired through the program. King’s welcomed five accomplished judges from the worlds of industry, business and finance: CEO of Oasis 500 Luma Fawaz, Vice President, Digital Health Investments and Partnerships at Hikma Pharmaceuticals Lana Ghanem, Owner at Nuqul Group Elia G. Nuqul, Chief Commissioner of Petra Development and Tourism Authority and former Minister of Youth H.E. Dr. Fares Braizat, and Partner at Propeller Venture Capital Manaf Asfour. The far-ranging expertise of the panelists brought the competitors face to face with an imposing group who were candid in their criticism and generous in their advice.

Four teams competed for the distinction of first place. The Jet and Journey team presented an app they designed for travelers, a source that consolidated reliable information about flights, hotels, historic sites, restaurants and ground travel. The Flexipal team touted their exercise app, a tool that would be of particular use to desk-bound people and those recovering from injury. The Dalal team, which brought a live chicken to the platform as a visual aid, pitched a business that would raise and harvest insects to create inexpensive, protein rich feed for chicken farmers. Finally, the Plantkin group put forth a design for a system that puts otherwise unusable grey water to use in restaurants as a means of water conservation. Each of the proposed businesses provided a valuable public service, a testament to the ethics and the spirit at the heart of the program.

Each team was given a few minutes to “pitch” their business plan to the judges; that is, they explained their company’s mission, identified their needs for start-up capital, and provided a prediction of when the company would achieve profitability. Following each presentation, each judge asked pointed questions. With a cash award and a highly desirable mentorships on the line for the winning team, the pressure was real for the students. The judges evaluated each proposal’s attractiveness as an investment vehicle, and they were forthright and frank in their responses. Each judge offered advice about how each business model could be improved, making the experience an invaluable teaching moment.

After deliberations, the judges awarded first place to the Flexipal team, second place to the Dalal team, and third place to the Jet and Journey team.

Most importantly, the program offered students the opportunity to foster an entrepreneurial frame of mind within a creative, supportive space that encourages them to learn, iterate, fail and grow; to accept failure and learn from it; to learn to be problem solvers and critical thinkers; and to navigate challenges and implement solutions in the face of uncertainty and risk — skills crucial for the success of future endeavors.

Pitching Teams

Team 1: Levi Schiffer ’25 and Asad Kedairy ’25
Business Name: Jet and Journey

Team 2: Jood Adayleh ’25 and Hussam AbuArrah ’25
Business Name: Flexipal

Team 3: Noor Elian ’25; Jana Zabalawi ’25, Nemer Khader ’25 and Maria Jarun ’25
Business Idea: Dalal

Team 4: Yousef Tafish ’25, Layla Abdelmalek ’26 and Gyuyeon Kim ’25
Business Idea: Plantkin