Inspired by my father, who has spent decades cultivating farms, gardens and orchards across Tunisia I am traveling the world to...
Cultivate Innovation for Impact
Always with the intention and hope that the “harvest” will bring great benefits to the world.
Rym Baouendi
9 to 5
Director, Alumni Innovation & Engagement | Harvard iLab → innovationlabs.harvard.edu
5 to 9
Innovation Consulting → www.ousia.co
Impact Innovation for Youth → www.oboot.co
⬇ Boston, MA
← Montreal ← Tunis ← Istanbul ← Abu Dhabi ← Dubai ← London ← Montreal ← Omaha ← Montreal ← Lyon ← Tunis
CATALYZING INNOVATION
WITH FOCUS ON INCLUSIVITY
Nurturing Orchards ECOSYSTEMS
By building innovation ecosystems that support founder communities and connect them with enabling networks, tools, knowledge and opportunities that can drive growth and impact.
Growing Plants VENTURES
By unlocking support and resources for high-impact ventures , across stages and sectors, through program design and delivery, mentoring, advising and angel investing.
Sowing Seeds POTENTIAL
By curating unique experiences to ignite curiosity and inspire youth, students and ordinary citizens to innovate, helping them uncover new possibilities and realize their potential to impact.
DRIVING IMPACT
THROUGH VALUE-LED SOLUTIONS FOR A
Healthy PLANET
By unlocking innovative models that generate both systemic benefits and market returns. Solutions might focus on preserving biodiversity, reversing environmental degradation, and mitigating climate change.
Thriving PLACES
By driving a sustainable transformation of the built environment and its related industries. Solutions may include innovations in construction, infrastructure, mobility, public spaces, and community services.
Inclusive PROSPERITY
By growing access to opportunities in communities around the world where rapid growth and sizable youth and women participation is occurring. Solutions might be in health, education, financial inclusion, employability, etc.
HARNESSING COLLABORATION
WITH WORLD-CLASS ECOSYSTEMS
Over the years, I studied in various schools, collaborated with leading organizations, joined professional networks, engaged with impact communities, tinkered at labs and creative hubs, and mentored startups at incubators, accelerators, and other innovation programs. The insights and encounters gained along the way helped and continue to shape my work.
SELECTED WORK
INNOVATION ECOSYSTEMS
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The Alumni Launch Lab is an initiative within Harvard Innovation Labs (HIL), an innovation hub that serves all 13 Harvard schools. It focuses on supporting alumni innovators with a specialized acceleration program and a range of engagement opportunities.
I am currently the Director of Alumni Innovation and Engagement at HIL.
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WAVE is a collective action platform accelerating regenerative ocean action by sparking broad engagement, activating sectors and industries and harnessing the full potential of insights and innovation.
I was appointed by HRH Princess Reema Bandar Al-Saud, and the Future Investment Initiative (FII) as WAVE’s inaugural Managing Director. During this foundational phase, together with WAVE’s leadership, “Chiefs”, core team, external experts, and a diverse pool of partners - we crafted a unique impact model, secured robust support, and initiated numerous high-impact collaborations and programs including Project71 and the Uplink Regenerative Blue Economy Challenge. -
The Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship at MIT is a hub focused on fostering entrepreneurship that can drive positive social and economic change, particularly in emerging markets. It was established to support MIT students, alumni, and other innovators who are working on ventures that aim to address global challenges like poverty, healthcare, education, and sustainability.
I served as a Senior Advisor to the Center during the academic year 2022-2023.
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BIAT is Tunisia’s largest bank and BIAT Foundation is its corporate foundation supporting youth education, culture and entrepreneurship.
I was appointed to lead the development of a comprehensive strategy to boost youth entrepreneurship on a national scale in Tunisia and build the entrepreneurship department of the Foundation from the grown-up.
Working closely with the Foundation’s leadership, core team, and external partners, we designed and deployed two flagship capacity-building programs (Bloommasters and SPARK), an entrepreneurship resource portal (Entrepreneurs of Tunisia) and a multi-stakeholder event series. -
Cogite is Tunisia’s first innovation hub and one of the "10 best coworking spaces on Earth” according to Forbes.
Located in Tunis, the space was designed to foster collaboration and innovation among entrepreneurs, startups, and freelancers. It provided flexible workspaces, meeting rooms, and event spaces, along with access to a vibrant community of like-minded professionals. Cogite offered various programs, including workshops, networking events, and mentoring opportunities, with a focus on empowering individuals and businesses in Tunisia’s growing startup ecosystem.
Cogite also played a key role in convening discussions around policy change (StartupAct) in Tunisia in support of entrepreneurs.
Notable start-up successes at Cogite include GoMyCode (EdTech), Expensya (FinTech), and Dabchy (circular fashion marketplace).I co-founded Cogite in 2013.
VENTURE SUPPORT
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Project71, launched in 2024 as a Venture Competition for Ocean Regeneration, was developed by TONOMUS, a leading technology enterprise driving the world's first ecosystem of cognitive technologies at NEOM, in partnership with WAVE. The competition targeted aspiring and established entrepreneurs, early-stage startups, and researchers who were developing solutions to restore marine ecosystems while uplifting communities and unlocking new ocean-based business models that catalyze economic growth. Three winning teams—HydrokinetX, Nucleic Sensing Systems (NS2), and Clearbot—were invited to join the TONOMUS Venture Studio to accelerate their ventures and continued to receive support from WAVE.
I oversaw the development of this partnership while I was the inaugural Managing Director of WAVE.
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The Regenerative Blue Economy Challenge was developed by WEF’s UpLink in partnership with the Ministry of Economy and Planning of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, with support from WAVE and Ocean Action Agenda. The competition sourced over 200 innovative solutions applying the best of science and engineering to tackle a wide range of ocean challenges with a focus on:
Tackling marine pollution
Building ocean resilience
Advancing ocean-based climate solutions
Harnessing ocean knowledge
Leveraging frontier technologies
I oversaw the development of this partnership while I was the inaugural Managing Director of WAVE.
→ uplink.weforum.org/uplink/s/uplink-issue/a00TE000003Hg1EYAS/regenerative-blue-economy-challenge
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BRAIN (Bridging Research and Innovation) is a Pan-African program designed to strengthen the deeptech ecosystem in Africa by providing scientist-entrepreneurs with the resources and opportunities needed to tackle fundamental challenges.
I led the pilot of the BRAIN program as a collaboration between OST and MIT while serving as a Senior Advisor at the MIT Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship. The program was delivered through a unique, multi-stakeholder model that engaged MIT Sloan Executive MBA students, as well as various faculty and centers across MIT. This approach ensured a comprehensive and impactful experience for participants, combining academic rigor, mentorship, and real-world business insights to drive the commercialization of deeptech innovations in Africa.
→ mitsloan.mit.edu/centers-initiatives/cde/unlocking-africas-prosperity-through-deep-tech
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Endeavor Tunisia is part of Endeavor Global, a leading international organization that supports high-impact entrepreneurs around the world. Endeavor Tunisia specifically focuses on identifying and mentoring entrepreneurs who have the potential to scale their businesses while giving back to their local ecosystem and driving significant economic growth in Tunisia and the broader MENA region.
I led the process of establishing the Tunisian chapter of Endeavor in 2017 and served as a founding board member for the following five years.
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Bloommasters, at the time of its launch, was Tunisia’s largest start-up competition developed by BIAT Foundation in collaboration with the MIT Enterprise Forum. Two editions were held in 2017 and 2018 with over 2000 applicants.
I led the design and launch of this competition while leading entrepreneurship programming at BIAt Foundation.
INNOVATION ENGAGEMENT
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100in1day is a creative urban festival in which residents are invited to rethink and transform their city by doing 100 or more urban actions in a single day to improve their living environment and to bring people closer together. The Montreal edition was speardhead by Maison de l’Innovation Sociale (MIS Quebec).
I was appointed by MIS Quebec to design and deliver an ideation programming (Idea Factories) to engage a wide range of citizens and community organizations in this participatory festival of action.
→ www.mis.quebec/en/completed-projects/2019/05/31/100in1day/
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Oboot is a media that “connects the next generation of changemakers wit today’s real-world changemakers over a casual 30-min virtual call.
I co-founded this initiative with my younger son during COVID as a way to introduce him and other young people between the ages of 10 and 15 to positive stories of changemaking and impact.
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CITY//CHANGEMAKER is a platform dedicated to fostering urban innovation in emerging cities across the Mediterranean and Middle East regions. It offers place-based workshops designed to engage non-traditional urban stakeholders in reimagining a more sustainable future for their cities. These workshops focus on developing solutions to a variety of sustainability challenges, including mobility, waste management, heritage preservation, and more.
I co-founded this initiative and co-facilitated two workshops in Tunis and one in Istanbul.
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SPARK is a social innovation program created by the BIAT Foundation to inspire high school students to design solutions for social and environmental challenges within their communities.
I led the development of the SPARK curriculum and managed the launch phase, which included organizing three editions of the SPARK event. Each edition engaged over 800 participants and resulted in the establishment of a wide network of over 30 university clubs dedicated to supporting high school students.
→ www.fondationbiat.org.tn/entrepreneuriat/le-programme-spark/
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The Global Children’s Designathon is a creative event that brings together children from around the world to collaborate on solving real-world problems through design and innovation. The event encourages young participants to use their imagination and critical thinking to design and prototype solutions to challenges, often related to sustainability, social impact, or technology.
I curated multiple editions of the GCD in Tunis and Montreal in collaboration with Designathon Works and local partners.
→ Watch the video recaps of the
