Sofana Dahlan is an accomplished Saudi lawyer and social entrepreneur. She holds the prized distinction of being the first female lawyer to be permitted to practice law in Saudi Arabia and has served as a legal consultant in different parts of the Arab world including Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, and Kuwait.

Dahlan practices in areas such as corporate and commercial law, intellectual property, arbitration, mediation, litigation and mergers and acquisitions with a special focus on creative industries. She is an effective negotiator and has achieved notable success in helping her clients resolve their conflicts and reach settlements through mediation.

Currently, Dahlan is involved with the Saudi Bar Association as the first female to serve on the Fee Assessment Committee. She has regularly engaged and sat on the board of various entities, such as Khadija Bint Khuwailid Centre and Namaa Almunawara, to advise on corporate governance matters, crises and special situations.

Her time in the private sector has also been dedicated to setting up many social enterprises that focus on developing the creative industries in the region. She is the founder of Tashkeil – a Saudi-based social enterprise that incubates, accelerates and promotes creative entrepreneurs. She is also the founder of Kayanspace – a membership-based environment for creative professionals, entrepreneurs and freelancers along with the Saudi National Creative Initiative (SNCI) - a collaborative creative knowledge transfer platform.

Dahlan has also served in the public sector as the Vice Governor for Entrepreneurship Advancement at the Small and Medium Enterprises Authority of Saudi Arabia from 2016 to 2017, making her the first Saudi female senior economic policymaker.
Dahlan is an avid advocate of cultural, heritage and socially oriented issues. She has spoken at public platforms such as TEDx, BOLDtalks Women, World Economic Forum, MITEF Enterprise Forum and Estoril Conferences and has penned numerous articles on topics such as women’s rights, social values, and interreligious dialogue.

She has completed an undergraduate degree in Law (LLB) from Cairo University and a postgraduate degree in Islamic Law from the Higher Institute of Islamic Studies in Egypt along with an MBA from the American University of Technology.

Dahlan participated in the Harvard Executive program Leading for the Future: The Arab Region in a Changing World in 2011 and has obtained executive degrees in Global Leadership and Public Policy from Harvard University in 2015, Art of Successful Negotiations from Harvard University (Law School) in 2017, Transformational Leadership from the University of Oxford in 2018 and Public Leadership from Apolitical Academy in 2021.