Wendy Teleki is Head of the Women Entrepreneurship Finance Initiative (We-Fi)
Secretariat. Housed in the World Bank Group, the Secretariat is responsible for
supporting the We-Fi Governing Committee in the allocation and supervision of funding
as well as communications, advocacy, and learning focused on strengthening
opportunities for women entrepreneurs in collaboration with the Governing Committee,
Implementing Partners, and other stakeholders.
Teleki joined We-Fi in May 2019, prior to which she worked with the International
Finance Corporation (IFC), leading numerous activities and initiatives focused on small
and medium enterprise development in emerging markets around the world. This
included several finance, investment and advisory programmes, including IFC’s We-Fi
program and the Global SME Finance Initiative.
Wendy holds an MBA in Finance from the Wharton School of Business and an MA in
International Economics from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International
Studies.
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Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) was formed on 1 January, 1992, by a decree issued by the late
Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum to merge Dubai Electricity Company and Dubai Water Department, which
had been operating independently before then. Both organisations were established by the late Sheikh Rashid
bin Saeed Al Maktoum in 1959. Dubai Government fully supported the Electricity Company and the Water
Department to provide Dubai’s citizens and residents with a continuous and reliable supply of electricity
and water. Since then, DEWA has made considerable achievements, to be ranked as one of the best utilities in
the world. DEWA provides services today to more than 900,000 customers with a happiness rate that reached
95% in 2018.
The UAE, represented by Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA), has maintained its first global
ranking, for the third consecutive year, with scores of 100% in all Getting Electricity indicators in the
World Bank’s Doing Business 2020 report. The report measures the ease of doing business in 190 economies
around the world. DEWA achieved competitive results in global benchmarking, surpassing the private sector
and major European and American utilities in efficiency and reliability. DEWA raised the efficiency of its
energy production by using the latest technologies and adopting technological innovations, surpassing
European and American utilities, by reducing losses from electricity transmission and distribution networks
to 3.3% compared to 6–7% in the US and Europe. DEWA also achieved the lowest customer minutes lost per year
(CML) in the world of 2.39 CML compared to 15 minutes in Europe and was also able to reduce water network
losses to 6.5% in 2018 compared to 15% in North America, which is one of the best results in the world.
