Habib HaddadTech entrepreneur
Habib is a serial tech entrepreneur, recently founder and CEO of Yamli.com a startup focused on empowering the Arabic language on the web. His also the founder and CEO of YallaStartup an NGO focused on early stage entrepreneurship in the MENA region. Currently he holds the title of CEO of WAMDA community, an initiative by Abraj Capital. In 2009, the World Economic Forum recognized Habib as a Young Global Leader and the Arabian Business named him one of the most influential Arabs under 30. He currently serves on the Global Agenda Council on innovation. During the July of 2006 war he started Relief Lebanon to support relief operations in Lebanon an effort that raised more than $2 Million in individual donations. The grass root effort was featured by the “101 Stories to Tell” initiative by the UNDP in February 2009. Habib also co-founded INLET to leverage the North American expat community to give back to entrepreneurship in the Arab world. Habib is an advisor to several startups and non-profits and often speaks about early stage development and entrepreneurship. He holds a Bachelor of Computer and Communication Engineering from the American University in Beirut and a Masters in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California.
Mike DuckerEntrepreneur in residence Egypt – GEP
Mike Ducker is the Entrepreneur in Residence for the Egyptian Global Entrepreneurship Program which is part of a USAID funded program called the Egyptian Competiveness Project in Egypt. He has been supporting and working for entrepreneurs for 17 years with a focus on market development, new product development, investment strategies and institutional development to support entrepreneurs and innovation. Mike’s previous work includes designing a business plan for a Center of Entrepreneurship Excellence in Pakistan, managing an investment project in Egypt that helped facilitated $6 million dollars’ worth of financing to entrepreneurs and developed a concept papers for innovation centers in Bosnia. Mike has created training courses that showed entrepreneurs how to reach local and export markets in Armenia and Kosovo. He has presented his research work on entrepreneurship and ICT development to USAID, the UN, and the greater development community. Mike was an ICT advisor in Kenya for 2 years.
In 1998 mike helped set and invested into e-learning business in China. Before his work in development Mike worked in the private sector for 9 years including, working as a marketing director for a small entrepreneurial high tech firms in which he was able to land new sales to fortune 500 companies. Mike started his career in accounting/financial management and was part of a management staff that turned around a distribution company from losing hundreds of thousands of dollars to profiting a million dollars. He has created several training courses on entrepreneurship and ICT that he has taught internationally or in the US. He earned his MBA from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, is a former Certified Management Accountant. Mike reached the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro and finished 7 marathons, including the Safaricom Marathon in Kenya which is ranked by Running World Magazine as one of the top endurance marathons.
In 1998 mike helped set and invested into e-learning business in China. Before his work in development Mike worked in the private sector for 9 years including, working as a marketing director for a small entrepreneurial high tech firms in which he was able to land new sales to fortune 500 companies. Mike started his career in accounting/financial management and was part of a management staff that turned around a distribution company from losing hundreds of thousands of dollars to profiting a million dollars. He has created several training courses on entrepreneurship and ICT that he has taught internationally or in the US. He earned his MBA from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, is a former Certified Management Accountant. Mike reached the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro and finished 7 marathons, including the Safaricom Marathon in Kenya which is ranked by Running World Magazine as one of the top endurance marathons.
Nagi SalloumHead of Marketing at N2V
Nagi Salloum is the head of Marketing at N2V. Before that, he worked at Google as the regional marketing manager for Arabia and at P&G as a regional brand manager for Near East. Nagi has also a vast experience in founding and building web startups such as loomni.com, cineklik.com, Ahlein.net, Yoolki.com, and loomn.it. He holds a BE in Electronics Engineering, with emphasis on Robotics Engineering, from the American University of Beirut in Lebanon.
Rami Al-KarmiInvestment Director of N2V Labs
Rami, is a serial entrepreneur who founded his 1st startup at the age of 19. He was one of 13 Jordanians selected to attend the Presidential summit on Entrepreneurship in washington dc on April 2010 , which President Obama announced hosting during his “A New Beginning” speech on June 4, 2009, at Cairo University in Cairo, Egypt to identify how to deepen ties between business leaders, foundations and social entrepreneurs in the United States and Muslim communities around the world.
Rahim FazalEntrepreneur and Public Speaker
Rahim was named one of America’s “Top 30 Entrepreneurs under 30″ by Inc. Magazine in 2008. He was also named one of America’s “Top 25 Internet Marketing Leaders and Innovators” by iMedia in 2009. While still in high school, Rahim co-founded a web-hosting company and negotiated its sale for $1.5 million while taking his Senior Year final exams. He then started a web services platform business and eventually took it public, becoming one of the youngest directors of a publicly traded company in the United States. Rahim completed his MBA at Canada’s top management school, the Richard Ivey School of Business. Because of his achievements, he was the youngest student in the school’s 80 year history accepted without a prerequisite university degree. A frequent and popular speaker, Rahim’s life planning program, “Gettin’ It”, provides alternately hilarious and sobering education to youths on how to truly get what they want out of life.
Saad KhanPartner at CMEA Capital
Saad Khan is a Partner at CMEA Capital where he invests exclusively in bad-asses. That includes all seed and early stage investments in the people behind Blekko, Pixazza, Jobvite, and Evolution Robotics (and some awesome others you’ll hear about). Prior to CMEA, he was a Venture Partner at Garage.com where he helped build Silicon Valley’s first startup incubator (working with companies like Pandora). In addition to his day job, he co-founded the Film Angels (working with actors and producers like Carlos Santana and Barrie Osborne, producer of Lord of The Rings); is an Advisor to Lending Club (peer-to-peer lending platform), SamaSource (micro-work for the next billion), BlackBox (the StartupGenome), and FounderLabs. He has been a guest lecturer at the Stanford Design School and the UC Berkeley Business School. He blogs at SaadWired and has been featured in Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times. You can follow him @saadventures.
Ziad AlyChairman and CEO at ALZWAD for Economic Development Co.
Ziad is currently the Chairman & CEO of ALZWAD for Economic Development Co. a company specialized in providing Telecom and Mobile Services. During these years he has founded and participated in the management of innovative concepts like Club Executive, a fashion retailing chain, L’escapade Café at the Cairo World Trade Center and Protech, an IBM business partner, later became NOKIA agent and member of RAYA holding. Managed a turnaround operation for Aramex Egypt. And finally, as a member of the senior executives team, actively participated in setting and implementing the policies and strategies that lead Vodafone Egypt to become one of the model companies in Egypt and the Middle East. He was also Chief Executive Officer for Post Distribution Company – A wholly owned company by Egyptian National Post Authority – That developed a shop in shop Mobile Retailing Concept in 150 different Post Offices in Egypt.
