Samih Toukan

Chairman, Jabbar Internet Group

Toukan founded Arabic portal Maktoob.com which was acquired by Yahoo in 2009. He also co-founded Souq.com, which was snapped up by Amazon for $580m in 2017. The team at Jabbar Internet Group, of which Toukan is the chairman, built both those platforms from the ground up. Last year, Jabbar scored another home run when it exited Instashop – a company that it had invested into back in 2015 – but not before it was sold for $360m to Delivery Hero. A Jordanian national, Toukan has received the Al Hussein Medal for Distinguished Performance of the First Order from Jordan’s King Abdullah II and is a keen supporter of entrepreneurs in the country.