Awarded one of the top 50 entrepreneurs females in Egypt in 2022, Ahella El Saban is currently Co-founder/ Vice Executive Chairman of Exits, the first regional investment banking boutique advisory that focuses on Startups and SMEs. Ahella has countless years of experience in tech, marketing, consumer behaviour and startup/ SME investment readiness.

Previously, Ahella founded a Market Research and customised training business -Lumas, that partnered with multiple international, regional and local entities like Google, TikTok, the ILO, Ministry of Investment of Egypt (GAFI), and Nestle, which she helped to disseminate national programs that help youth, entrepreneurs and SME's digitally transform their businesses. Today, Lumas has already reached over 150,000 individuals trained, and 14+ research projects related to consumer online behavioural studies have been completed. Before Lumas, Ahella worked on the SMB marketing team at Google MENA. She was responsible for managing projects that helped businesses in digital transformation and leading tech-based research programs that helped uncover consumer behavioural insights, assisting global brands in transforming their storytelling and advertising strategies to impact growth indicators. During her time, she was also responsible for working with startups and small and medium businesses to help them become digitally ready, build their pathway to investment readiness, and develop tech-related products that helped reach users across the MENA region.

Ahella also has years of academic experience teaching consumer behavioural studies and marketing. She has an MA from Durham University in consumer behaviour and marketing and is currently a PhD researcher on consumer behaviour. She specialises in helping startups and businesses elevate and create sellable stories for their companies to present to potential investors or buyers locally or globally. She has also completed multiple degrees, including the CXO Academy program by Google and INSEAD University. Ahella has been a startup mentor for many years, helping founders grow and become investment-ready. Ahella is also a board member of the Youth Entrepreneurs Network. YEN works to enable young entrepreneurs and business owners in the MENA region in terms of their capacity to build more substantial businesses and grow faster. She volunteers her time to help younger entrepreneurs realise their dreams through connections to the right capacity-building programs and investors.

Ahella is also part of the board of industry for the British University in Egypt to help bridge the connection between industry and education in curriculum building.