Deemah Al-Yahya

Deemah Al-Yahya is the executive manager of Misk Innovation, which is part of Misk Foundation. Specializing in digital transformation, digital economy, and literacy skills, Al-Yahya serves to develop an innovative ecosystem that enables Saudi talent to thrive through the development of entrepreneurial and tech businesses and communities.

On Saturday, the Misk Foundation celebrated the completion of the second edition of Saudi Codes at an event in Riyadh. 1,025,971 participants ranging from ages eight through 65, 53 percent of which consisted of women, completed courses in the MakeCode, JavaScript, and Python programming languages.

The courses were available in 192 provinces, cities and villages across Saudi Arabia, as well as to Arabic-speaking participants in 139 countries worldwide.

Saudi Codes is a partnership between Misk, the Saudi

Ministry of Education, the Saudi Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and Saudi Telecom Co. It is an educational initiative designed to teach people computer programming in an accessible and relevant way.

Speaking at the event, Al-Yahya welcomed the collaboration between different sectors, saying: “This partnership has brought new skills and opportunities to a wider array of people than ever before.”

Al-Yahya obtained her bachelor’s degree from King

Saud University, after which she obtained her master’s degree from INSEAD. Currently, Al-Yahya is pursuing her Ph.D. at Harvard Business School.