Interview
Ms Dana Bayyat  - CEO, Jordan Garments, Accessories & Textiles Exporter’s Association (JGATE)

The Jordan Garments, Accessories & Textiles Exporter’s Association (JGATE) is a non-profit, private sector initiative with a mission of encouraging networking, investment, professional development, product & manufacturing development, strategic alliances, export and advocacy in the Jordan textile and garment industry. JGATE facilitates collaboration between buyers, manufacturers and suppliers by providing a forum that generates leads, builds domestic cooperation and forms global export alliances. A key component in realizing effective networking and collaboration is cooperation amongst local producers, supporting industries, and international garment and buying associations. JGATE supplies the links that develop these critical relationships between stakeholders through the coordination of buying missions, trade shows and delegations, and supporting these efforts with maximum and relevant publicity.

Ms Dana Bayyat is the CEO of JGATE. She started her job carrier as a trainee in a legal firm in 1999 after her graduation from the Law school. Standing to the challenge of proving herself at a young age, Ms Bayyat, in two years passed the Lawyers Bar Exam and was officially registered as a Lawyer. She began her carrier in Law by working with previous firm but now as an official lawyer, and succeeded to prove herself in the courts and to get big client list.

In 2004, Ms Bayyat joined JGATE as an Advocacy Coordinator. In 2005, she was promoted to be an Officer and she started working with the garment sector which is the first industrial sector in Jordan. She was working with the sector closely by minimize regulatory, legal and trade restrains by lobbying for policies development and promotion necessary reforms, and was presenting the sector in the National strategy Committee and in the MOL Golden List Committee, and such other committees related to the sector.

In 2006, she joined the business field by being an Executive Director to a Garment factory in Sahab, and that was the big challenge again as a young entrepreneur, a female managing more than 1000 employees. She was the youngest Manager in the sector.

Believing in hard work and diligence to prove that women can do equally better what usually people consider it as a “man’s job", Ms Bayyat got elected as a Director Member to represent the sector in JGATE Board. She also represented textile industry of Jordan in the committee that solves the foreign workers problems in the sector.

In 2008, she rejoined JGATE as a CEO.

In a talk with Face2Face team, Ms Dana Bayyat provides a closer picture of Jordanian textile and garment industry.