Iman Abuzeid

Iman Abuzeid was born to Sudanese parents in Saudi Arabia, where her father worked as an ear, nose, and throat surgeon. Following in the footsteps of many family members, she studied medicine, attending University College London in England. After completing her medical degrees, however, she skipped her residency. Instead, influenced by her entrepreneurial grandfathers, Abuzeid moved to the United States at age 24 to work in health care consulting.

“I wanted to build and create things that would have an impact on a large scale,” she told Forbes. “Not just one-on-one with patients.”

Abuzeid went on to earn an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. In 2017, after noticing a disconnect between understaffed medical centers and nurses struggling to find work, a concern raised by family members, she cofounded Incredible Health with Rome Portlock. The company uses AI to address health care workforce shortages by matching hospitals with nurses. Today, around 1.5 million U.S. nurses and 1,500 hospitals use Incredible Health, helping the company reach a $1.65 billion valuation. This places Abuzeid among a small group of female CEOs of color leading billion-dollar companies. For her impact and success, she was named to the TIME100 Next list in 2024.

“Moving to a new country is just as much work and effort as starting a new company,” she told the San Francisco Chronicle in 2026. “The United States is, for me, the best country in the world. If you’re willing to work hard, have skills and willing to move to the right places, the world is your oyster, and we have an entire system here that drives that success.”

Published June 2026