July 14, 2025, on the occasion of the traditional civil promotion of the Legion of Honor, Neïla Benzina was named knight by presidential decree published in Official Journal of the French Republic dated July 13, 2025. This distinction honors an exceptional journey, at the intersection of technology, education and citizen engagement, between Tunisia and France, between the Maghreb and Europe.
Born in Tunisia, a graduate of the National Telecommunications Institute (today Telecom Sudparis), Neïla Benzina is part of her career in the digital transformation professions. She begins as a consultant in France for groups like LVMH, Renault or Saint-Gobain, before taking the head of the Africa and Middle East of Business & Decision, where she pilots more than 480 data in data. His departure comes as a result of the company’s acquisition by Orange Business Services.
But it is especially through her entrepreneurial commitment that she imposes herself as an essential figure in innovation in Africa. In 2019, she founded Wimbee (or Wimbeetech), a consulting firm in AI, data and digital transformation, based in Tunis, with ramifications in Paris, Madrid and Warsaw. In the same spirit of impact, she launches the Holberton School Tunisia, a inclusive computer school, based on Peer Learning, which forms young talents from all horizons for programming. Through Campusna, its Edtech B2B platform, it promotes continuing education in the technological sector, especially through the Tekouin solution.
A woman of networks and influence, Neïla Benzina also held strategic functions within several institutions: president of French Tech Tunis, vice-president of TACT and of Network Entreprendre Tunisie, member of the National Strategic Council of Digital in Tunisia. In 2024, it was appointed representative of minority shareholders on the board of directors of Attijari Bank Tunisia, and has since been sits in this capacity in the governance of the bank.
This official French recognition crosses a commitment of more than two decades, praised several times by other distinctions: knight of the National Order of Tunisian Merit in 2015, selection by Young Africa Among the 50 most influential women on the continent in 2017, and more recently, in April 2025, inclusion in the prestigious “Forbes France 50 over 50” list, which celebrates inspiring women over 50.
In a message published shortly after the announcement of her decoration, Neïla Benzina expressed her emotion, recalling that she also received her “” In the name of all women who work in the shadows, who dare to transform their dreams into concrete realities, and who refuse to choose between ambition and impact »». A statement to the image of its route: without artificial bursts, but with constancy, lucidity and ambition.
His name thus joins that of some other Franco-Tunisian women who have marked their time by their audacity and their determination. It is no coincidence that she is also the granddaughter of Tawhida Ben Cheikhfirst woman doctor in North Africa. The heritage of this pioneer seems to be prolonged naturally in the fights of her descendant, invested in artificial intelligence, the transmission of knowledge and the construction of bridges between generations and continents.
The Legion of Honor is not an end here, but a milestone. Neïla Benzina continues to trace a path for African innovators and elsewhere, where technology becomes a lever for emancipation and social justice.
Neïla Driss
