Alia Ballout is the Founder of Beît Ballout, Singapore's first olive oil brand and processing facility. Born in Singapore, raised in Oman, and shaped by a Lebanese heritage that runs through generations of journalists, writers, and revolutionaries — a grand-aunt, Leila Baalbaki, who was the first female feminist in the Middle East and revolted against religious leaders in Lebanon, a grandfather who owned a newspaper firm and served as political advisor to Saddam Hussein, an uncle who was a founding member of Al Jazeera and became head speaker at the BBC, and a mother who left Singapore because she refused to follow the rat race, joined the airlines, was selected for the royal flight with the Sultan of Oman, and went on to build the first day spa in the country.

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Growing up in an international school with eighty nationalities where nobody saw race or colour, then moving to Singapore and being categorised into a box she never asked for, Alia pursued a Juris Doctorat SMU, trialled for the national women's football team, joined the opening team of the Mondrian Hotel, and endured law firms that told her to be quiet, stop standing out, and that her personality essentially sucks — before being read an eleven-point list with not one thing about her work, looking at the partner and the HR lady, and saying two words: I quit.

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