Senator Neila Tazi has been a Senator in the Moroccan House of Counselors since 2015, where she was the first woman Vice-President of the Senate from 2016 to 2018, and the first to chair plenary sessions. She was born in Washington DC where her father was an Executive Director at the World Bank in the late 1960s, giving her a life-long connection to the World Bank. She is the Chair of the Moroccan Chapter of the Parliamentary Network (PN) and frequently plays an active role in PN global and regional activities. Ms. Tazi was elected as President of the Federation of Cultural and Creative Industries in February 2019. In 1998 she founded the Essaouira Gnaoua and World Music Festival.