Emirati Woman’s Entrepreneurial Path Unfolds Like a Symphony
For entrepreneur and Founder and Executive Director of Centre for Musical Arts, Tala Badri, the road to living her professional dreams has not been an easy one.
Her journey to business success was paved by following her passion.
Tala was granted a scholarship by the government of Dubai. After graduating with a degree in music from Royal Holloway, University of London she came back to her home only to find that Dubai was not ready for a female, Emirati, music teacher. She could not find a job teaching music anywhere. So she went back to school and got a second degree, this time in management. Her life from there, although successful and included stints at Barclays Bank in London and Dubai, was not fulfilling.
After the birth of her daughter, she rekindled her passion for music and became more determined than ever to pursue her dream of career that included music. She had been giving music lessons in her spare time at her parent’s house and sat on the board for the Dubai Drama Group. Upon raising funds for a community theatre, she was offered a proper space to teach music and began doing just that. In 2006, after being granted a small business loan, she opened the Centre for Musical Arts in the Mall of the Emirates. In 2010, she was recognized at the SME Advisor Stars of Business Award taking as the Admirable Woman Entrepreneur and Emirati Entrepreneur of the Year!
Through her non-profit Tala Badri is able to offer high quality, yet affordable music instruction to the people of the UAE and she gets to witness first hand the transformational power of music work in their lives, just as it did in hers.
Sources: SME Advisor Middle East, TED Conference.