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‘Tis the season of celebration and inspiration. Starting today, we’re taking your nominations for the Best LinkedIn Company Pages of 2013. Help us celebrate the businesses and organizations that have successfully inspired and engaged you by nominating your favorites this week.

Nominate your pick by commenting on our LinkedIn Company Page or by tweeting to @LinkedInMktg with the hashtag #BestofCP.

If you need to do some homework first, check out the companies you may be interested in on LinkedIn. And if you’re a company, learn more about marketing your business to the LinkedIn community on our LinkedIn Company Pages site.

We’ll share the 10 Best LinkedIn Company Pages of 2013 on this blog on Tuesday, December 10th, so be sure to check back to see who made this year’s list. In the meantime, check out the Best LinkedIn Company Pages of 2012.

A little over a year ago, we opened our first office for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Today, it brings me immense pleasure to announce that LinkedIn is now 10 million members strong in the region.

This is an important milestone for us and we’re very thankful to each one of you — our members, customers, partners, and employees. When we first set foot in this region in 2012, LinkedIn had five million members. We’re thrilled to have doubled our member base to 10 million in just a year. That is more than the current population of the UAE, and almost one-third the population of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Beyond numbers, what my team and I are humbled by is the fact that millions of members have chosen LinkedIn as the platform to build their professional identities and seek opportunities to connect with industry peers and potential customers.

Today, LinkedIn connects professionals across the MENA region, including the UAE, the KSA, Qatar, Egypt, Lebanon, and more. Our members include top-level CXOs, entrepreneurs, academics, engineers, doctors, marketers, and more.

Here’s LinkedIn MENA at a glance:

• Top companies: Saudi Aramco, Emirates, Sonatrach, SABIC, Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd, Etisalat


• Top universities: King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (KSA), American University of Sharjah (UAE), American University of Beirut (Lebanon), University of Karachi (Pakistan), Cairo University (Egypt)


• Top industries: Construction, Information Technology, Oil and Energy


• Top job titles: Owner, Engineer, Manager


• Top skills: Analysis, Leadership, Management, Marketing, Sales

Students remain one of the fastest growing demographics on LinkedIn. They represent the future of the MENA region and are a priority for us at LinkedIn — in part because those between 15-24 years old represent 30% of the population. In the past year, our team has visited numerous universities, met with students, and has worked hard to educate them on the importance of establishing their professional profile before they enter the workforce.

We are grateful for the overwhelming support we’ve received from our members and customers across the region, and are excited about what the future holds. We’re still a young company in MENA and our focus remains on helping all of our members be more productive and successful. The LinkedIn MENA team is fully committed to connecting the region’s professionals with new opportunities, and we look forward to continuing being a part of their success.