Dubai, UAE – In just three years, The CEO Maker, led by leadership strategist and speaker Lara Khouri, has become a transformative force for executives and high-potential leaders. Now, it’s launching a new leadership program designed to align personal purpose, organizational culture, and business results. The initiative addresses the growing demand for workplaces where meaning, engagement, and performance coexist, a shift accelerated in the post-COVID era.
What Happened
In recent years, employees at all levels — excluding the C-suite, boards, and shareholders — have placed increasing emphasis on working for organizations that foster healthy corporate cultures and provide meaningful work. In contrast, many senior executives and governing bodies remain entrenched in an outdated approach, prioritizing short-term financial results over long-term cultural and purpose-driven goals. The pandemic accelerated this divide, reshaping global expectations of work and challenging leaders to reconcile these opposing priorities.
Co-developed by Lara Khouri and Rajeev Daswani, The CEO Maker challenges the outdated notion that leaders must choose between driving results and building purpose-led, positive workplace environments. Instead, it demonstrates that aligning the two not only benefits employees but also boosts productivity and performance.
Why It Matters
When leaders at all levels — from first-time managers to the C-suite — align their personal purpose with their organization’s mission, they create a deeper emotional connection to the work they do. This connection increases engagement, motivation, and resilience across the board. At the same time, fostering a healthy corporate culture ensures employees feel valued and supported, reducing turnover and improving collaboration.
Together, purpose alignment and positive culture create a multiplier effect — producing results that are sustainable, measurable, and human-centered.
“There is room for humanity in business,” says Khouri. “When leaders understand that purpose and culture are not at odds with performance, they create workplaces where people are more engaged, more productive, and more fulfilled.”
The Bigger Picture
The program incorporates The CEO Maker’s signature methodology, blending coaching-consulting approaches with tools for self-awareness, cultural alignment, and performance strategy. Participants explore their personal purpose energy, assess cultural strengths and gaps within their organizations, and develop actionable plans to unite purpose, culture, and results.
The initiative is already gaining interest from both private sector organizations and public institutions seeking to strengthen leadership pipelines and improve organizational performance. By bridging the gap between human needs and business outcomes, The CEO Maker aims to set a new standard for leadership in the GCC region and beyond.
About Lara Khouri
Lara Khouri is a leadership strategist, speaker, and co-founder of The CEO Maker, a leadership accelerator serving government, semi-government, and private sector organizations. With deep expertise in culture transformation, CX/EX strategy, and internal alignment, she works with senior leaders and high-potential executives to elevate leadership capacity across functions. Her frameworks help clients unlock clarity, scale culture, and create human-first systems that move teams and organizations forward. She is also the creator of The CEO Maker, a methodology designed to support emerging and established executives in redefining how they lead by first aligning with who they are.
For more information, visit ceo-maker.com or connect with Lara Khouri on LinkedIn.
Media Contact
Company Name: The CEO Maker
Contact Person: Lara Khouri
Email: Send Email
Country: United Arab Emirates
Website: https://ceo-maker.com