Omar Allam inspires future DC entrepreneurs

On March 11, Durham College’s (DC) entrepreneurial training partnership program FastStartDC, held a presentation with award-winning entrepreneur, management consultant and former diplomat Omar Allam, Founder and CEO of Allam Advisory Group (AAG). The theme of his presentation was ‘Turning Your Vision into Reality.’

The DC community had the opportunity to tap into Omar’s vast experience and hard-won insight he gained from 20 years of leading and guiding international business and consulting engagements across the public, private and social sectors. His worldwide leadership extends to the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific.

Students and staff had the opportunity to listen an engage with him in a question and answer-style fireside chat as he touched on many topics including:

• Knowing when to take a risk and leap into entrepreneurship.
• Global citizenship and international business.
• The importance of fostering a great corporate culture.
• The importance of a shared culture, and the building of trusting relationships in business, both with clients and partners.
• Work-life balance is different for everyone but family comes first.
• What AAG is all about and how he created the company.

After his presentation Allam kindly volunteered his time, meeting one-on-one with a number of FastStartDC’s students offering them strategic mentorship advice and guidance for their businesses. He has supported many young entrepreneurs over the years and one of the simple but vital messages he left the future entrepreneurs with, was the importance of being surrounded by a good team of people with the same goals.