Rudayna Abdo

Rudayna Abdo is the founder and CEO of Thaki. She took a side-step from her career in urban planning to create Thaki in 2015.

Rudayna brings to Thaki her lived experience as a daughter of Palestinian refugees, herself displaced from Lebanon in the civil war. She sees beyond the ‘numbers’ of refugees, to inspire the imaginations and attainment of marginalized children.

Rudayna has inspired leaders at 75+ partner organizations to support Thaki’s mission: from global banks and consultancies (to donate lightly-used laptops), to ed-tech companies (to give Thaki content for free), to grass-roots nonprofits (to set up Thaki computer labs and teacher training). Rudayna lives by, and spreads, strong sustainability/circular economy principles: Thaki reduces e-waste and is piloting clean energy provision for schools and students.

Rudayna’s previous professional life was in urban planning. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a masters from McGill University.