Yasmine Rifai

Biography

Professional biography

Yasmine Rifai is a founder, AI and public-sector leader, speaker and author who has spent more than 15 years shaping how governments and enterprises across the Gulf region adopt AI, build digital infrastructure and lead through transformation. As CTO for the Public Sector at Microsoft Kuwait, she led Microsoft’s largest government technology agreement globally and authored Kuwait’s National AI Strategic Framework, which became a reference point within Microsoft and the foundation for the country’s national AI strategy.

She is the author of Unapologetically Alpha, built around her ALPHA Compass framework, and Mindset Decoded. She also hosts a podcast featuring government and industry leaders from across the Gulf region. Her contributions have earned Microsoft’s Platinum Club Award and Be the Change Award, and she has spoken at World Summit AI, Reuters Events, BloombergNEF, DCD Connect and more than a dozen other global conferences. A Lebanese national based in Kuwait, she writes in both English and Arabic.