Amel Karboul (Tunisian Arabic: آمال كربول; born 25 April 1973) is a Tunisian author, speaker, politician, philanthropist, and business leader. Karboul was the first woman in history to occupy Tunisia's Minister of Tourism position as the youngest member of the Mehdi Jomaa government from January 2014 to February 2015.
Personal life
Karboul was born in Tunis, the capital of Tunisia. Her father, Mohamed Karboul, was the Secretary of State in the Ministry of the Interior in the Baccouche government and the Tunisian ambassador to West Germany. Karboul was formerly married to German engineer Marcus Gottschalk from 2002 to 2016. She has two daughters, Shedlia and Leyla. Karboul completed a master's degree in Mechanical Engineering in Germany, received a Doctorate in the United Kingdom, and has worked in four continents. She cites her intercultural background and feminist upbringing as major influences on her political beliefs and career. Karboul is fluent in Arabic, French, English and German, and also has knowledge of Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese and Greek.
Biography
In 2014, she was named one of the top ten most influential politicians in Africa. Before venturing into politics, Karboul was a project leader for the Mercedes-Benz brand in South Africa and Germany as well as an executive with the DaimlerChrysler Corporate University in the United States, Germany, and Singapore. She has also worked in leadership roles for global consulting groups such as Neuwaldegg and the Boston Consulting Group.
Karboul was the CEO and founder of the international leadership and change consulting firm Change, Leadership and Partners.
Karboul wrote Coffin Corner, a book published by Midas Management Press in 2015, in which she describes a new leadership culture more suited to the complexities of the 21st century. From May 2015 to October 2017, Karboul served as the Secretary-General of the Maghreb Economic Forum, and a commissioner to the International Commission on Financing Global Education Opportunity.
Currently, Karboul is the CEO of the Education Outcomes Fund, an organisation that aims to transform education worldwide by tying funding to measurable results.
Education and career
Karboul attended the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany, where she earned a master's degree with honors in Mechanical Engineering in 1996. In 2002, she received a systemic coaching certification from the IFW Munich. Karboul would later earn a doctorate in coaching and mentoring from the Oxford Brookes University in the United Kingdom.
Over the span of her career, Karboul has served in leadership roles for a variety of worldwide corporations. She was the project leader for innovation management and supplier relationship for the Mercedes-Benz Brand in South Africa and Germany, where she worked from 1996 until January 2000.
In addition to her work with Mercedes-Benz, she was also an executive for knowledge transfer and leadership development at the DaimlerChrysler Corporate University in USA, Singapore, and Germany until 2001.
In 2001, Karboul became a strategy consultant for the Boston Consulting Group in Germany. She said in an interview, “I was first drawn to consulting—and BCG in particular—because of the diversity of tasks and opportunity to learn. I felt consulting would help make my professional canvas broader by giving me experience across industry sectors and exposing me to diverse skills and approaches.”
From 2002 to 2007, Karboul was first a senior consultant and later elected to be a managing partner of the consulting group Neuwaldegg in Vienna, Austria. Her primary duties with the company were dedicated to technological, sociological, and systemic change through organizational and leadership development.
In 2007, Karboul founded the international leadership and change consulting firm Change, Leadership and Partners. According to the firm's website, the consultancy is devoted to working with leaders and organizations worldwide in order to build a more desirable and sustainable future. The company has offices in Tunis, Cologne, and London.