Nika Gilauri was Prime Minister of Georgia from 2009 to 2012. He also served as Minister for Energy (2004–2007) and Minister for Finance (2007–2009).

Nika's tenure in government was marked by dramatic economic recovery and growth that countries only dream of, whereby his team enacted a series of bold and radical anti-corruption and growth hack tactics.  The results were monumental:

Georgia’s GDP rose from -9.0% when Mr Gilauri was appointed to +8.1% when his term came to an end in 2012. Georgia’s budgetary deficit also decreased under his leadership dropping from 9% in 2009 to 3% in 2012.  Mr Gilauri also guided reforms in the energy sector, fiscal policy, healthcare, customs, education and other spheres of economic development, and contributed to efforts to improve Georgia’s overall business environment. His greatest achievement as Minister of Energy was to transform Georgia from being a country of semi-permanent blackouts into a net exporter of electricity to all its neighbors.

After his retirement from government, Gilauri established Reformatics, an advisory firm which has worked with more than 20 governments around the world focusing on reform and economic diversification, including Kazakhstan and Saudi Arabia.  Reformatics partners with several organizations such as McKinsey & Co., The World Bank Group (WBG), The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), The Asian Development Bank, and The Swedish International Development Agency.

Nika has written a book entitled "Practical Economics" (Palgrave Macmillan 2017) which reveals his formulas for government reform and economic recovery, including how to fight corruption, reform tax systems, create a competitive education and healthcare system, and streamline procurement.

The entire book "Practical Economics" has been available for free:

https://www.google.com/books/edition/Practical_Economics/v3IzDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=practical%20economics&pg=PR2&printsec=frontcover&bsq=practical%20economics

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Thanks to Ollie Guillou for tech support and editing with patience :)  He can be reached at: ollie.podcastproduction@gmail.com

About the host: Imad Shawa is the founder & CEO of Mlabbas, a print-on-demand apparel & accessories business.  Prior to that he worked in corporate banking at Arab Bank in London, and as an underwriter at Hartford Insurance in New York.  Imad is a Chevening Scholar with an MA in Near East Studies and Islamic Law from the University of London, SOAS. He also holds a BSc in Finance and International Business from New York University's Stern Business School.  His interests are politics, technology, economic reform, human rights and graphic design.

Meet the young Gaza-raised US-based Palestinian activist, hip-hop artist, influencer, entrepreneur: Marwan AbdelHamid AKA Saint Levant

Host Imad Shawa and Marwan talk about Palestinian rights, Israel's ethnic Apartheid, anti-semitism, right of return, Gaza resilience, lobbying in America, connecting diasporas, Tik Tok and making music.  The interview was recorded from a March 18th 2021 ClubHouse room entitled "Does Palestine have a branding problem?" 

Here's the episode breakdown of topics: 

00:00 to 00:48  Sample from "Jerusalem Freestyle" written & performed by Marwan

00:49 to 03:48  Imad's introduction 

03:49 to 17:07  Activism for Palestine, echo chambers and narratives

17:08 to 26:00  The smear of Anti-Semitism to silence Palestinian human rights activists

26:01 to 36:11  Knowledge is power, so is economics, connectivity and the need to understand the oppressor 

36:12 to 38:33  Jewish supremacy and the right of return 

38:34 to 43:50  Resilient Gaza: Israel's scapegoat  

43:51 to 01:04:27  Lobbying in America, and leveraging the Diaspora

01:04:28 to 01:12:30  Grow Home, connecting people and solving problems in Palestine and other diasporas 

01:12:31 to 01:19:00  Tik Tok and Hip Hop: new tools of influence

You can catch Marwan Abdelhamid as Saint Levant on TikTok, Instagram, Spotify and YouTube. 

This episode is sponsored by Mlabbas.com, the leading print-on-demand apparel & accessories provider in the Middle East.

About the Host:  Imad Shawa is the founder of Mlabbas, a print-on-demand apparel & accessories business in Amman.  Imad is a Chevening Scholar with an MA in Near East Studies and Islamic Law from the University of London, SOAS. He also holds a BSc in Finance and International Business from NYU. He is a left-leaning politics buff who is obsessed with social justice issues such as Palestinian rights, and Arab women's rights to pass on their citizenship across the Arab world. 

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A bright spot in America's bloated healthcare system.  CEO and co-founder Faris Ghawi sat with Imad Shawa back in January at Mlabbas studios on Rainbow street in Amman to explain the quiet revolution that's taking place in Medicare cost cutting and beyond. 

Faris is heading up a wildly successful American health care company called Vitalyze Health, which makes a fortune by transforming healthcare delivery to senior patients, not by charging their clients, but by sharing the savings their value-based care achieves.

Medical costs for most of the 60 million American seniors are paid for by Medicare, a government program.  To alleviate some of that burden, the government has been offering private healthcare providers and ACOs like Vytalize a financial incentive to improve outcomes and lower costs.

So Faris and his team have taken on that challenge with incredible results.  Vytalize Health is projected to be a billion dollar player in healthcare very soon.

And what’s equally exciting is this alignment of goals & incentives potentially revolutionizing not only healthcare, but also other critical human endeavors as well.

You can reach Faris at faris.ghawi@vytalizehealth.com 

This episode is sponsored by Mlabbas.com, the leading print-on-demand apparel & accessories provider in the Middle East.

About the Host:  Imad Shawa is the founder & CEO of Mlabbas, a  print-on-demand apparel & accessories business.  Prior to that he worked in corporate banking at Arab Bank in London, and as an underwriter at Hartford Insurance in New York.  Imad is a Chevening Scholar with an MA in Near East Studies and Islamic Law from the University of London, SOAS. He also holds a BSc in Finance and International Business from New York University's Stern Business School.  His interests are politics, technology and graphic design.

Follow Howdy Arabia:

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Ghassan Halazon is the CEO & founder of Emerge Commerce, a diversified, rapidly growing acquirer and operator of niche e-commerce brands across North America,  with a market cap of $135 million after only a month of listing on the Toronto exchange (TSXV: ECOM). 

Ghassan speaks to Imad Shawa about the mantra and approach of EMerge, the profile of target acquisitions, employee equity, and the mental toll of being an entrepreneur and CEO. 

Ghassan Halazon is a Jordanian-Canadian technology and e-commerce entrepreneur, born and raised in Amman, Jordan. He attended McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, and holds an MBA from Georgetown University.  Halazon worked with Citigroup as an investment banker in New York before founding TeamBuy, Canada's first group buying marketplace, in 2009. 

Follow Ghassan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ghassan-halazon/  

This episode is sponsored by Mlabbas.com, the leading print-on-demand apparel & accessories provider in the Middle East. 

About the Host:  Imad Shawa is the founder & CEO of Mlabbas, a  print-on-demand apparel & accessories business.  Prior to that he worked in corporate banking at Arab Bank in London, and as an underwriter at Hartford Insurance in New York.  Imad is a Chevening Scholar with an MA in Near East Studies and Islamic Law from the University of London, SOAS. He also holds a BSc in Finance and International Business from New York University's Stern Business School.  His interests are politics, technology and graphic design.  

Follow Howdy Arabia:  

Twitter: https://twitter.com/howdyarabia​

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/howdyarabia

​Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/howdyarabia

​Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/49119733/admin/

The absence of political party maturity and political freedom is an ailment that infects most of the Arab world.  In Jordan virtually no one is a serious member of any political party, and the vast majority of elections and voting is based on tribal relationships rather than policy.  Enter the "Maan List" in 2016. 

Kais Khalil Zayadin is a young lawyer who jumped into politics and became an elected member of Jordan's parliament since 2016.  But the platform he and his colleague Khaled Ramadan ran on was brazenly secular and liberal.  So it was a shock to most (except Kais) that they won 2 seats amongst a sea of conservative & religious MPs.  

Kais discusses his platform's tenets: Equality, Social Justice, Civil State Democracy, Citizenship and Rule of Law.  These headers sound generic, but for Jordanian politics if you act on these values in a literal sense, you're ahead of the pack and in a league of your own. 

Why are Jordan and its Arab league nations politically underdeveloped? How has this weakness effected policy making and reforms across all sectors?  And is there a path forward?

Follow Kais on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/kais.zayadin

Follow Maan Political Platform:

https://www.facebook.com/MaanList/

Grim but not too grim. Small, but not out.  If you have any vested interest in Jordan you'll want to hear this casual & candid discussion about the economic landscape in Jordan, between host Imad Shawa & guest Fawaz Ghanem.

Jordan is a poor post colonial nation with little natural resources to speak of, and a workforce by-in-large either in the informal economy or the public sector.  Despite its public health and education sectors in long-term decline, the country remains stable politically, in contrast to most of its Arab peers.  Thanks to the stabilizing efforts of both the internal affairs apparatus, and robust foreign relations.

Ad hoc successes of entrepreneurial ventures and startups have placed Jordan on the business map in the region. However most real value has been leveraged through accessing foreign markets.

Fawaz Ghanem walks us through the reasons behind Jordan's current economic situation, which is not all doom & gloom.

Fawaz has over 20 years of investment banking experience between the US and the Middle East, including IPO’s, Bond Issuances, M&A transactions, Privatizations, Restructurings and Private Placements.  His investment banking career started at UBS in New York, and and in 2007 Mr. Ghanem founded Ithmar Invest which became a leading regional private investment banking firm.

Imad and Fawaz both earned degrees from NYU's Stern School of Business.  And they both happen to have attended one of Tony Robbins Unleash the Power Within events.

Please follow the Howdy Arabia podcast on Twitter & Instagram & Youtube @HowdyArabia

Online network gaming can be considered a winner in the Covid era.  And perhaps the most well positioned player in the Arab world is Jawaker.  Co-founder and CEO Mohamad Haj Hasan talks about the culture inside his company and what his time in the US (at MIT and Stanford) taught him about organization mindset.   We also discuss what tech companies do with data and their different approaches to revenue channels. 

Mohamad sat with Imad Shawa in Amman for over 2 hours.  This condensed version of the talk is brought to you by Mlabbas.  Get your custom printed shirts and accessories from www.mlabbas.com and have it delivered anywhere in the world. 

Howdy Arabia is on Twitter & Instagram & Youtube @HowdyArabia

Today Sachir Ajlouni gives an intense food addiction program for obese people, and the waiting list is in the hundreds. But just a few years ago he was lost and powerless against his own food addiction. For 32 years he was fighting the wrong thing, and resorted to every trick humanly possible to get thin.  His stories are both hilarious and horrific.

Based between Tampa, Florida and Amman, Jordan, Sachir has moved his course online due to Covid, and is able to take on more people. Just e-mail his team at hello@aglonrecovery.com

Sachir sat with Imad Shawa in Amman in September for a 3 hour interview.  This is the condensed version, courtesy of our sponsor Mlabbas. Get your custom printed shirts and accessories from www.Mlabbas.com and have it delivered anywhere in the world.

Howdy Arabia is on Twitter & Instagram & Youtube @HowdyArabia