Randa Ayoubi

Ayoubi was born in Jerusalem and raised in Amman. She holds a BSc in Computer Science an Executive MBA from Harvard Business School.

Ayoubi's inspiration reported came from a desire to amalgamate technology with education. She has spoken on wanting to bring Arabic media to a wider audience as part of an "Arabic Renaissance", stating that "The challenge is to produce more programmes so in the future children in Europe, the US or Asia might grow up watching Arabic shows dubbed in English, rather than the other way round."

In 1994, Ayoubi founded Rubicon, which became Rubicon Group Holding in 2004. She struggled initially to find funding from investors, but nonetheless began her company by training bankers in multi-media skills. After ten years of raising funds, Ayoubi turned to focus on animation and edutainment. Rubicon is now well known for its involvement in Ben & Izzy and the Postman Pat Movie. Ayoubi and Rubicon invested $1 billion in a theme park based on Tareq wa Shireen, on of the group's popular Arabic Cartoons.

Ayoubi is a founding member of the International Women Forum (IWF) Chapter in Jordan and serves on the board of Trustees at the King's Academy and Queen Rania Foundation for Education and Development. She has also served as on the board of trustees of the Royal Commission for Education Reform in Jordan, the Children Museum in Amman.

She has also held the position of Chairwoman of the Red Sea Institute of Cinematic Art in Aqaba and helped to found the Information Technology Association of Jordan.

• YEA Entrepreneur of the Year Award - 2000
• Arabian Business Regional Entrepreneur Award - 2004
• CEO Middle East Awards Businesswoman of the Year Award - 2010
• Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of The Year Award - 2011