Lina Khaled Almaeena is Shoura Council member, businesswoman and philanthropist. She was born in Jeddah. She holds a BA in communications from George Mason University in Virginia and a master’s in psychology from the American University in London.

Almaeena began her career as a writer and a journalist. She participated in writing programs for Saudi radio and wrote for Almadinah newspaper.

The Shoura member, an avid sports lover, has been trying to encourage Saudi women’s involvement in the sports sector since her return to the Kingdom in 2000.

She founded Jeddah United, Saudi Arabia’s first private female basketball club, in 2003 and has since established a private company to run sports events and expand the sports scene in Saudi Arabia.

In 2004, she was selected to address the French Senate on International Women’s Day.

Almaeena is a member of the Young Saudi Business Committee and Sports Investment Committee in the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Kingdom Young Business Women Council.

She was 71st on a list of the 200 Most Powerful Women in the Middle East by Forbes Magazine in 2014. She also won the entrepreneurship award at the Women Leaders Forum in 2010 and is one of the few Saudi women to have climbed Mount Everest.

Almaeena was appointed as a Shoura member in 2016 by King Salman, charged with advising the Cabinet on legislation.

She is a supporter of women entering football stadiums and being more involved with sports.

Earlier, she said: “It’s not simply about the empowerment of women in sports from an athletic point of view. I’m also looking at it from an economic perspective.”

“It’s a golden age for Saudis and, as women, we’ve come a long way. We’re living in an era of historical change, and we’re making up for lost time.”