INVESTORS THAT ATTEND TECHNE

Dr. Nicolas Rouhana is currently the General Manager of IM Capital & IM Ventures, $60M programs funded under USAID MENA & Lebanon Investment Initiatives, providing Matching Capital, Equity Guarantee and Technical Assistance to businesses and investors in Lebanon. Between 2002 & 2015, he was the Executive Director of Berytech, a leading Technology Business Innovation & Incubation Center in Lebanon. He is currently also Vice-President of Internet Society-Lebanon Chapter, board member of Berytech and several Lebanese technology companies, and is the current Chairman of Speed@BDD the first seed accelerator in Lebanon. 

Nicolas has a Telecommunications Engineering degree from Saint-Joseph University in Beirut, a PhD in Networking Systems from Université Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris, and an EDP graduate from INSEAD, France.

Lauren Maillian is the Founder and CEO of LMB Group, strategic marketing, and brand advisory company; was a Founding Partner at Gen Y Capital Partners, an early-stage venture firm focused on investments in mobile and consumer-facing technology-enabled companies, and is the author of the instant bestselling business memoir, The Path Redefined: Getting To the Top On Your Own Terms. Lauren’s passion for innovation-through-entrepreneurship and her unique ability to story-tell brought her talents as an expert onto television as the Master Marketer and co-star of the startup focused docu-series, Quit Your Day Job, on Oxygen (NBCU).

At age 19, Lauren cofounded a boutique winery that quickly became an internationally recognized award-winning wine brand, making her the youngest self-made winery owner in the country. She served as the Chief Operating Officer of the company from inception through the brand’s acquisition in 2011.

As a change agent, connector, influencer, and media spokesperson, Lauren has demonstrated her ability to create messaging that resonates with brands, millennials, and women. Lauren has worked with brands such as J.P. Morgan Chase, DeVry, Cover Girl, Bumble and Bumble, and Secret Deodorant to humanize their brands and better tell their stories to more authentically connect with the consumer. 

Her multi-dimensional expertise has catapulted Lauren into a new type of marketer who has global influence as both a brand strategist and ambassador. 

Lauren’s experience is both vast and distinctive given the roles and responsibilities she’s had ranging from entrepreneur, investor, advisor, talent, client-focused strategist, and brand marketing thought leader.

Lauren’s global market leadership leverages media, culture, strategy and technology to grow brands. Lauren is an innovative marketer, who is passionate about deeply understanding people and products to create an emotional connection through storytelling.

She is driven by the belief that there is always an impactful solution to every problem. She develops marketing initiatives with a concentration on the creation and implementation of dynamic yet strategic plans that are rooted in authenticity to build brand identity, influence and notoriety.

She is a detail-oriented strategist with a deep understanding of business operations, management, and formation across various industries. Having traveled the world to more than 40 countries, Lauren has a global perspective and a fresh forward-looking approach to content creation that is sensitive to the cultural nuances faced in global media and the highly-engaged digital consumer landscape.

Maillian has sustained and deepened her influence internationally through speaking engagements to address topics that include marketing, branding, business development, venture capital, women’s leadership, innovation, and technology. 

She has spoken at prestigious institutions including Harvard University, Columbia University, Cornell University; Fortune 500 companies such as Google, Shell, Dell, Ernst, and Young (EY), Prudential, Ogilvy, Weber Shandwick, L’Oréal and Bloomberg; and at industry-leading conferences and events such as Social Media Week, ColorComm and AdWeek.

She has invested in several startups and serves on the advisory board of Digital Undivided, a social enterprise that increases the active participation of minority women in the digital space; CoSign, a technology company that allows you to monetize your social media and shareable content; LIQS, a brand of pre-mixed single-serve cocktail shots; Levo League, a career content community for Gen-Y women; and Pipeline Angels.

Lauren’s work has been featured in national media outlets including Forbes, American Express OPEN Forum, Interactive ONE, Sirius XM Radio, 1010 WIN’s, HuffPost LIVE, AOL Build, Inc. Magazine, Mashable, UPTOWN Magazine, Jet Magazine, CNBC’s Nightly Business Report, MSNBC, FOX 5, CBS New York, Business Insider, Fast Company, and Black Enterprise. In 2011 she was recognized at The White House by the Kauffman Foundation as an Empact100 Award honoree which lists the top 100 entrepreneurs under 30 and in 2013, Essence Magazine named Lauren a “Shot Caller” to watch in business. 

In 2014, the New York Urban League’s Young Professionals awarded Lauren the honor of Philanthropist of the Year for her charitable involvement and dedication to giving back, in 2015 Kia Motors and UPTOWN Magazine awarded Lauren for being Inspirationally Crafted for her leadership and fearless entrepreneurial journey and in 2015, Smart CEO Magazine named Lauren as a Smart CEO Brava Award Winner. 

In 2016, Walker’s Legacy named Lauren to their WL50Power List that honors women making strides in the business and philanthropic community.

Lauren is involved in various philanthropic organizations that affect youth, poverty, education, and the arts. She serves on the Advisory Board of The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Multicultural Audience Development Initiative (MADI) Committee, as Vice-Chair of The Apollo Theater Foundation Young Patrons Steering Committee, New York Urban League’s Development Committee, is a founding member of the Young Entrepreneur Council, and a Lifetime Member of the Children’s Aid Society. Lauren has a Bachelor of Science, Magna Cum Laude, in International Trade and Marketing from the Fashion Institute of Technology. She currently resides in New York City with her two children, Jayden and Chloe.

Honorary President of the DeInvesteerdersClub, Treasurer of BAN Nederland and Senior Investment Manager at Hivos Impact Investments. Global Ringmaster, Get In The Ring

Keith is a Scotsman who made the move to The Netherlands where he works with inspiring people to create gains for people and planet through profit. From this lowland base he travels widely, to service partners and clients in Europe, Asia and Africa. He’s been known to wear a top hat and tails, but is far more to be seen in his ubiquitous blue blazer.

Shehab Eldin brings in 20 years of experience as an international Speaker, Entrepreneur, Investor, Executive leadership transformation advisor. He is a leading Consultant and Facilitator focusing on Strategy, Conflict Resolution, Negotiation and decision making across sectors. He is the founder of RESOLVE consulting LLC. and a cofounder of AL-SHEHAB Co., AGRICYCLE for agricultural waste energy and AL-SONBOLAH for textile industries. He is a co-founder and a former board member of Nahdet El-Mahrousa and the Founding Curator of the Global Shapers Community- Cairo Hub. He is currently an adjunct faculty at the American University in Cairo, School of Business.

Graduated mechanical engineering at AAST Egypt then further aerospace studies along with management courses in City University London.

Worked as a teaching assistant in engineering subjects then later as an engineer in Schlumberger.

Started two companies, one in renewable energy and other in F&B.

Have been investing for 8 years in various sectors like F&B, manufacturing, Automotive Services, Consumer services, real estate, online platform.

My passion goes for impact investing and innovation, through enabling extraordinary education to my community and utilizing all the resources.

Chief Executive Officer at Nahdet Misr Publishing House and Founder of EdVentures, Dalia Ibrahim has more than 25 years of professional experience in publishing, digital solutions, education and entrepreneurship. Graduated with honors in Business Administration (1993) from the American University in Cairo, she solidified her educational experience with a Masters of Public Administration (1999) and an Executive MBA (2014) both from the American University in Cairo. 

She started her career in 1994 as a Publishing Executive at Nahdet Misr Publishing House. It wasn’t long before she realized the importance of introducing new integrated services and solutions that further support education and learning in Egypt and the Arab world. In 1998, she established Nahdet Misr for Digital Solutions, which offers various digital educational solutions. In the same year, she established Nahdet Misr Advertising, which specializes in animation, virtual reality and augmented reality production. The company is considered the first and only company in Egypt and the Middle East to produce dome theatre movies. Dalia Ibrahim has also succeeded in establishing Nahdet Misr Periodicals in 2004, which publishes the Arabic versions of the world’s most acclaimed entertainment magazines such as; Disney and National Geographic across Egypt and the Middle East. In 2009, she contributed in establishing Nahdet Misr Trading and Distribution; which supplies and distributes all kinds of stationery, and educational supplies.

Driven by a sense of commitment to the society, Dalia volunteers to serve as a mentor or a judge to start-up projects of young entrepreneurs, which triggered her to later initiate the establishment of EdVentures in 2017. EdVentures is considered MENA’s first corporate venture capital specializing in education, culture and innovative learning solutions. 

Mr. El Akhdar founded LimeVest Partners, an Egypt-focused private equity manager, in 2017. He is the Managing Partner and a member of the investment committee. He is responsible for deal sourcing, investment evaluation, origination, operational oversight of portfolio companies, and exit strategies with a focus on the overall firm management and strategy.

Mr. El Akhdar was previously a Partner with BPE Partners (formerly Beltone Private Equity) since 2008 where he led the firm’s team building efforts and was responsible for fundraising, deal sourcing and origination, operational oversight of portfolio companies, and exit strategies. He led BPE Partners’ investments in Madinet Nasr Housing and Development, Total Egypt, PGESCo, and Pickalbatros. Mr. El Akhdar is a board member of the Housing and Development Bank (2020-Current), Taamir Investment Holding Company (2021-Current), NSA Diagnostics (2020-Current), and Dar Al Teb for Medical Services (2018-Currrent). He also held board memberships of BPE Partners (2008-2016), Madinet Nasr Housing and Development (Ticker: MNHD.CA) (2008-2016), Total Egypt (2013-2016), Pickalbatros Holding and Arabiya for Investments (2009-2012), Metalart (2008-2016), and Arabiya for Investments (Ticker: AIND.CA) (2015-2016).

Prior to joining BPE Partners, Mr. El Akhdar was at American Capital Strategies, one of the largest US publicly-traded alternative asset managers. He started his career as a management consultant with Abt Associates.

Mr. El Akhdar is a member of the Global Private Equity Association’s Frontier Market Council and the Egyptian Private Equity Association.

Mr. El Akhdar received his MSc in Finance from the George Washington University School of Business and his BA in Accounting and Economics from the American University in Cairo.

Over the last 20+ years, Mohamed played many roles in the entrepreneurial ecosystem; he built and sold startups, mentored hundreds, judged competitions, angel invested in startups, worked for a venture capital, provided training to angel investors, incubators and accelerators and wrote a bestselling book about entrepreneurship (رائد الأعمال Inside Out).

He works as Managing Partner at his firm خضر وبزنس. Also, he produces written, video and podcast content under the same name. 

Mohamed is an Engineer who had some career shifts to software development, sales, marketing, operations, training and management. In professional education he holds an MBA degree and is finishing the DBA.

MARCEL BRUNO DRIDJE is a British Citizen currently leading these Initiatives:

Sophia Business Angels President / EBAN Board Member / Mentor at The Camp Aix en Provence France / Mentor at the ISA BICC Cork Ireland/ Executive Coach / Business Angels trainer / International Business Dev and GTM Strategist.

A seasoned European Sales Executive, Marcel has substantial field experience helping IT and Telecom start-ups in the US and EMEA. Marcel has a broad range of experience in all aspects of sales, marketing, communication and management with direct experience with Fortune 500 enterprises (IBM, Nortel, Lucent, Cisco, EMC, ALU) and start-ups (Quantum, Andrew Networks, Pluris, Corvis, Ascend and Airespace). During the course of his career he has held VP roles most notably as VP EMEA Corvis (first all optical router) where he grew the team and business to an outstanding success. Of French-Algerian and British origin, Marcel launched his career after completing a BSC in Electronics and Computer Science from Portsmouth Polytechnic UK. He walked away from his first position with IBM UK as an Applications Engineer greatly relieved to embark on a career in sales...his forte and passion.

Bi-Lingual in French and English with a working knowledge of Spanish, Italian, German and Arabic.

Three major highlights from his career include helping Airespace to be the #2 WLAN in EMEA market share and positioned Cisco to be #1 WLAN vendor worldwide. He has helped start promoting Cisco VCE alliance (VMware, EMC, Cisco) and the BMC OEM relationship to Kick Start their first SP IaaS Cloud offering on a worldwide basis .He also pioneered the French ISP Internet business while leading Ascend’s insertion into FT/Orange first ISP business to include ISDNET, OLEANE and Internetway back in 1995-1999.

Marcel most recently left CISCO Systems in 2013 after 30 years in IT and Telecom Sales to start his new venture as a Business Angel to help start-ups with seed money, VC connections and International Business development & GTM Strategy. Ivas Systems ,FAVEEO ,Digitalarti ,OnePulse,Mpearl,Netwookie and Cyberflowanalytics ( Just acquired by Webroot Inc) are some of his star ventures. Currently focusing on the new AI investments projects.

A self-proclaimed Serial Entrepreneur & Intrapreneur, Marcel loves new Challenges in sharing his 30 years IT & Telecom experience with IT VC firms and new High-tech Start Ups Ready to expand their Sales & Mktg success across EMEA, USA and APAC.

Currently he is giving Master Classes for both Junior and Senior BA associations across EMEA, including the ‘Investment Readiness’ workshops for start-ups going through their Incubators & Accelerators scale up programs.

Min-Sung is a Managing Partner at Digital Health Ventures (DHV), a specialized Venture Capital fund based in Berlin. Min-Sung’s international investment experience ranges from early-stage, to late-stage. Min-Sung is passionate about opportunities in Digital Health and is both enthusiastic about the immense value creation potential through digital technologies as well as the resulting positive impact on society.

Since 2013, Min-Sung invested in successful Digital Health companies such as mySugr, NeuroNation, Mimi, Medbelle, hi.health and Amwell (IPO 2020). Before joining DHV as Managing Partner, Min-Sung was responsible for the Berlin office of Samsung Catalyst Fund and helped in creating AllianzX (USD 1.0 bn assets under management). Min-Sung studied Management and Business at Witten/Herdecke, Harvard, St. Gallen, and in Seoul.

Tarek El-Kady is a leading entrepreneur and angel investor in his native Alexandria, Egypt. Born and raised in Alexandria, Tarek is the Executive Chairman of KD Group, a group of marketing and advertising agencies serving various clients in the Middle East and North Africa. Tarek is the founder and CEO of Techne Inc. and also the founder and chairman of Alexandria Business Angel Network (Alex Angels) & founder and chairman of The Mediterranean Business Angel Investment Network.

Tarek is passionate about helping young people start their businesses. As Founding Curator of the Global Shapers Community Alexandria hub, he spends part of his time giving to the next generation of business owners in the region. Tarek was awarded by the American University in Cairo’s Venture Lab in recognition to his efforts as one of the prominent contributors to the entrepreneurial ecosystem for their outstanding support.

He has been recently appointed as Senator at the Grand Assembly of the World Business Angels Investment Forum (WBAF) Senator Elkady will represent Egypt in the Global Startup Committee of the Grand Assembly in 2020

Systems Analyst turned Tech Strategy Advisor, Public Speaker and Angel Investor, Harry ‘Tomi Davies (TD) is Collaborator-in-Chief at TechnoVision, co-founder of the Lagos Angel Network (LAN) and President of the African Business Angel Network (ABAN).  

For nearly two decades after graduating from the University of Miami TD led the implementation of innovative technology-led transformation initiatives in the Oil & Gas, Retail, Information Technology and Telecommunications industries for influential global brands Elf Aquitaine, Marks & Spencer, Ernst & Young and Sapient across Europe, the United States and Southeast Asia. 

In 2000 his focus shifted to Africa where he helped create the African Agriculture Technology Foundation (AATF), led the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) initiative in Nigeria and delivered a World Bank pilot of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel information system (IPPIS) that uncovered over 20,000 ghost workers in the Nigerian Government payroll system. Leading these kinds of innovative initiatives in Africa using his goal-oriented approach to project delivery which consistently delivered effective results inspired his 2014 book “The African Project Manager”.

TD is Chairman of TextNigeria (Telecoms) and Non-Executive Director at MBO Capital (Private Equity) and Big Cabal Media (Media & Entertainment). He is a member of the Lagos State Science, Research & Innovation Council (LASRIC) and sits on the board of Laptops4Learning (L4L) Nigeria, the World Business Angels Investment Forum (WBAF) and the Global Business Angels Network (GBAN). 

As a thought leader with increasing knowledge gained from nurturing entrepreneurs in a growing portfolio of tech-enabled early-stage business ventures originating from Africa, TD’s personal mission is “to help drive Africa’s development by supporting young entrepreneurs using innovation and technology to create social impact and economic value.”

TD can be reached at www.tomidavies.com and on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook as TomiDee

Peter Cowley, a Cambridge university technology graduate, founded and ran over a dozen businesses in technology and property over the last 40 years.  He has built up a portfolio of 75 angel investments with nine good exits (including one that is 107X his investment and returned all the cash he has invested) and thirteen failures.  He is a board member of the Global Business Angel Network (GBAN), President Emeritus of the European Business Angel Network (EBAN), former chair of the Cambridge Business Angels and was UK Angel of the Year 2014.  He has mentored hundreds of entrepreneurs and is on the board of nine startups.  

In 2011, he founded and ran Martlet: a Corporate VC, investing (currently £10M) from the balance sheet of Marshall, a £2.5bn revenue Cambridge engineering company.  He is a fellow in Entrepreneurship at the Cambridge Judge Business School and is on the investment committee of the UK Angel Co-fund.  He has also had 16 years’ experience as chair, treasurer and trustee of the boards of seven charities. 

With his son, Alan, Peter is sharing his and others’ experience and anecdotes in order to educate angels and entrepreneurs via  The Invested Investor which publishes two books and 75+ podcasts.  Peter is a public speaker on entrepreneurship and angel investing throughout the world.

Rui Falcao is a professional angel investor, co-founder and managing partner of COREangels and REDangels, the leading angel groups in Portugal. Coming initially from a software engineer background, Rui is a serial entrepreneur of the internet booming days, participating as entrepreneur and angel investor in more than 20 startups in technologies and communications sector. Rui has the complete experience of the entrepreneurial cycle going from the founding stage, validation, growth and internationalization, failure, and successful exits. Rui has received several awards during his career, regarding entrepreneurship and creativity. He was the founder and board member of professional associations such as multimedia, management, and business angels, always committed with common good for society. Rui was a university professor before he decided to enter the entrepreneurial adventure. Rui has a PhD on angel investing.

Tamer Azer is the Egypt Partner of Shorooq Partners, a leading early-stage Venture Capital firm in the Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan (MENAP) region. 

Tamer began his career at the forefront of policy making with one of the world’s most influential business designers. He then went on and co-founded a number of startups and worked closely with several entrepreneurs for many years. He later joined Fahrenheit 212 as a Senior Innovation Consultant.

In 2016, he returned to Egypt to join A15, where he led investments and venture development. In 2019, he went on to join Sawari Ventures as Principal.

Tamer holds a bachelor’s from the University of Toronto and a Masters from the University of Oxford. 

Over the last 20 years, I have supported entrepreneurship growth in over 30 countries.  I have coached over 1,000 entrepreneurs worldwide on marketing, sales, fundraising, operations, financial strategy, talent acquisition, strategy, and other topics—currently a mentor for flat6labs and accelerate Baltimore.  TechCrunch, Inc, Kauffman Foundation, media outlets, and think tanks have highlighted my work and research.  Also, my work has been recognized by heads of state and other political leaders on how to grow their entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystem.  

Catalyzing local investment in emerging by leading the Valhalla Global Accelerator in Emerging Markets.  One of Canada’s most active early-stage investors.

Stevica has a background as a developer and a serial founder: Habbits, Locodels and Alamo (robotic landmowers) are just three from his extensive portfolio. He is seriously involved with the Croatian start-up scene. In 2012 with the support from US Embassy and later organisational support from STEP Ri, he founded Startup Camp; a program for early stage startups. Dozen of start-ups managed to raise $4.5m USD after the program.

In 2015 he attended International Visitors Leadership program; the U.S. Department of State’s premier professional exchange program. During those two months in the USA he met numerous investors, start-up founders and entrepreneurs from both the States and all over the world. In 2019 Locodels, his startup, was acquired by Croatian Post.

Stevica joined Fil Rouge Capital in late 2018 and participated in more than 100 investments in the past two years.

Nelson has been an Angel investor for close to 25 years, is a member of Angel groups in Scotland and the USA, personally investing in 55 companies, and a further 50+ as a FCA regulated fund manager. He managed, and remains a member of Archangel, one of the world’s oldest angel groups, founded in 1992. His personal investment thesis is centered on ‘Strategic’ Angel Investing and creating entrepreneurial wealth. He received the Queens Award for Enterprise Promotion in 2015. He is employed the World Bank as a Senior Risk Finance Expert, and has helped to build Angel groups in many emerging and developing countries. 

Experienced professional in startup and corporate investments. Supporting funds, HNWI and companies to successfully close more than 60 deals in private equity and venture capital. 

Currently focused on developing a cross border network of investors to support startups in early stages.

Basil is an experienced company builder and general partner at Global Ventures, an international venture capital firm that backs global-minded founders, leading growth-stage companies that use technology to transform emerging markets and the world. 

Basil joined Global Ventures in June 2018. From initial idea to business scaling, his background makes him an ideal partner for founders at all stages. Basil has been an Advisor, Investor and Board Member with numerous global technology companies. These have included new ventures, such as the digital patent storage platform PatSnap, the intelligent product builder TARA.AI as well as Sparrho, Floranow and Elmenus.  

Basil started his career as a founding member of the Reuters Venture Capital group. Indeed, he was part of the team that took the group private.  A successful fund, it invested in Netscape, Yahoo!, Verisign, Webex, and several other leading global companies.

Basil then managed emerging markets for Reuters: A $600M business spanning Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, Russia, India and China. He grew the business seamlessly and made numerous strategic acquisitions. His approach included buying Zawya, a trusted source of business and financial news. The company plays a critical role in providing insights into the Middle East. Basil subsequently scaled Zawya for significant growth.

Basil's last role was at Thomson Reuters. At Thomson, Basil served as President of the Intellectual Property and Science business. He was responsible for developing the strategic proposition of the $1billion revenue business. His strategy worked in line with customer, market and competitive trends. Upon strategic execution, he prepared the division for sale to private equity which took place in 2016 for $3.55B.  

A champion of diversity and inclusion, he was a founding advisor for Reach Mentoring. Reach is a successful program focusing on high-potential woman executives in the Middle East. Furthermore, he was the executive sponsor of diversity in the workplace programs at Thomson Reuters. 

Basil holds a bachelors’ degree in Mechanical Engineering from the American University in Cairo. Basil earned an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Ayman S. Ashour is the Founder and Principal of Newton International Management, an advisory firm focused on investment, mergers and acquisitions in technology with special focus on mobility, payment, identification and security markets since 2000. 

Ashour served as Chairman and CEO for Identiv (US:INVE, Frankfurt INV)  which he joined in January 2010 following the combination of Bluehill ID and SCM Microsystems. Ashour earlier founded Bluehill ID AG, an RFID technology company in 2007. Ashour’s professional experience includes several senior executive positions within the security and identification technology industries. He has served as CEO of Assa Abloy’s Identification Technology Group (ITG), where he was responsible for building one of the most successful RFID companies. He was Regional Managing Director of Williams PLC. for the the Asia Pacific region, where he was responsible for the Chubb Security, Kidde and Yale brands in Asia as well as the global operations of Guardforce International and the Chubb Physical Security Group. Ashour earlier served as President of a number of Kidde units in North America, Global Marketing Director of Kidde in the UK. 

Ashour serves as Adjunct Lecturer at Suffolk University in Boston, MA where, since 2004, he lecturers on M&A at the Sawyer Business School for their MBA program.

Fadi Ghandour is the Executive Chairman of Wamda Group, a platform that invests, nurtures and builds entrepreneurship eco-systems across the Middle East and North Africa. Fadi is also the Founder of Aramex, one of the leading global logistics companies. Fadi spent the first 30 years of his work life as CEO of Aramex, building the company, making it the leading emerging market logistics company, employing over 15,000 people working in over 250 offices in 90 countries. He took the company public twice, first on Nasdaq making it the first company from the Arab world to do so, then on Dubai Financial market. He continues to be active on the Aramex board. Fadi is a serial entrepreneur. In his career, he was involved with founding, investing and launching tens of companies and non-profits, ranging from digital tech, hospitality, fitness & wellness to security. Passionate about impact and social entrepreneurship, Fadi founded and chairs Ruwwad for Development, a private‐sector led community empowerment platform that helps marginalized communities, across several countries in the MENA region, overcome marginalization through activism, civic engagement, education and financial inclusion. He has also co-founded and continues to support Al-Riyadi, one of the leading not-for-profit sports clubs in Jordan. Fadi also served and continues to serve on several global and regional boards of companies, education institutions and non-profits.

Dr. Mousilli is the managing partner of Lloyd & Mousilli- a boutique law firm specializing in Intellectual Property and Technology law. 

Dr. Mousilli is currently a visiting professor of law at Kyiv Polytechnic Institute in Ukraine through the United States Fulbright Program. 

Dr. Mousilli previously served as in house counsel for both Apple and Dell, and started his career at DLA Piper in the Intellectual Property Division. 

As Partner at Arzan Venture Capital ,Laith has lead many investments into technology companies in MENA, North America, and UK. He covers most verticals but is specifically passionate about SaaS, marketplaces, logistics, and transportation. His portfolio includes the likes of Careem, Swvl, Mejuri, Trukker, MunchOn, Zid, POSRocket, and others.

With an entrepreneurial background, Laith founded his first startup in 1997 to bring more people and businesses in Jordan onto the World Wide Web. Three years later that pivoted into what became one of the most notable startups in the Arab World, at the time; Jeeran.com. As Co-founder of Jeeran from 2000 to 2012, Laith served many roles while shaping and executing the company’s product vision, and growing its user base from a handful of friends to nearly 7M registered users.

A self taught technologist and a geek at heart, Laith enjoys working closely with product teams on tackling big challenges. Laith holds
 a Bachelor of Dental Surgery from the University of Jordan.

Mr. Morsy currently oversees the operations of Finance in Motion (“FiM”) in Egypt and Yemen. FiM is an asset management company based in Frankfurt and is the Advisor for the SANAD and the Green for Growth Fund that both provide financing to financial institutions and corporates in order to facilitate access of finance to SMEs and promote renewable energy and energy efficiency . Mr. Morsy has been working for FiM for more than seven years. Mr. Morsy has extensive experience in the areas of investment banking, credit risk management and corporate lending, both locally and regionally. Before joining FiM in 2012, he was an investment banking manager at Prime Capital (2011-2012). Mr. Morsy also led the corporate lending activities for the Cairo area at Egypt’s second largest private bank - Arab African International Bank ‘’AAIB’’ (2005-2010). During his tenure at AAIB, he led several syndicated loans in tourism steel, telecom, cement and petrochemicals. Mr. Morsy holds a Masters in Investment Banking and Islamic finance from Henley Business School (UK) and an MBA from the University of New Brunswick (Canada). Mr. Morsy is a also a visiting fellow at the MBA program of at the Maastricht school of business and has delivered numerous academic and executives courses in credit risk management, bank management, corporate finance, Islamic finance, financial planning, business administration, human resources, and economics, both inside and outside Egypt.

Marcia Dawood is an investor in over 100 early stage private companies. She is a Venture Partner with Mindshift Capital and a part of the investment committee for Next Wave Impact Fund. Previously, she was the COO of Portfolia (one of her portfolio companies) as well as a managing partner at BlueTree Capital Group where she was responsible for investment strategy, diligence research and member education. She was also a member of Golden Seeds in NYC and Dallas. She currently serves as the Vice-Chair of the Board of the Angel Capital Association (ACA) with a co-chair position on the membership and marketing committee. She will become Chair of the Board in July 2021. Marcia also is a founding member and current chair of the Growing Women’s Capital group building syndication and collaboration among US investment groups focused on women-led companies. She received an MBA from the Global Executive program at UNC’s Kenan Flagler’s School of Business, OneMBA. During her graduate studies, her group acquired the franchise rights to a new sports team. She served on the Board of Directors and managed financial and legal matters for the organization. This gave her experience as an entrepreneur from the start through the exit of a business. Prior to becoming an active investor she was with Kaplan Higher Education for over 16 years.

Nawaf Mohamed Alkoheji is currently the Chief Executive Officer at Tenmou. He is committed, driven and dedicated to developing a start-up culture in Bahrain and to work together with key stakeholders to benefit entrepreneurs and encourage companies to grow and scale up.

Nawaf started his entrepreneurial journey by launching Foods Limited now called the Culinary Company, a specialized catering company in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Nawaf also has several years of startup and SME experience, while was working in Tamkeen. Nawaf graduated with a BA in International Relations from Webster University London, and an MBA from the University of Incarnate Word in Texas.

H.E. Dr. Nabeel Koshak is the CEO and a Board Member of Saudi Venture Capital Company (SVC). Nabeel is the Founder and Angel Investor at Athaal (Angel Investors Group). He is the Chairman of GEN (Global Entrepreneurship Network) Saudi. Nabeel is a member of the Investment Committees of KAUST’s Innovation Fund. Formerly, he is the Founding Dean of Prince Mohammad Bin Salman College (MBSC) of Business and Entrepreneurship at King Abdullah Economic City. Nabeel is the Co-Founder and the Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of Wadi Makkah Company (Startup Accelerator, and Venture Capital Fund). Nabeel is a mentor at Endeavor Saudi Arabia. He is a Board Member and the Chairman of the Investment Committee at King Abdulaziz and His Companions Foundation for Giftedness and Innovation (Mawhiba). Koshak is a Member of the Executive Committee of King Faisal International Prize. Formerly, he was a Board Member of Oqal (Angel Investors Group) Jeddah branch and a mentor at Flat6Labs Jeddah (Startup Accelerator).

Nabeel is the former Co-Founder and Director of King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) GIS Technology Innovation Center. He is the former Co-Founder and General Supervisor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Institute. Nabeel is the former Co-Founder and Chairman of Board of Directors of Transportation and Crowd Management Innovation Center.

As an entrepreneur, Koshak was the Founder and CEO of five tech startups.

Nabeel received an Executive Education in "Venture Capital and Private Equity" from Harvard University in 2019, an Executive Education from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in "Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program" and "Management, Innovation, Technology" in 2017, a PhD in Design Computing from Carnegie Mellon University in 2002, and a Master of Architecture (Computing in Design and Planning) from the University of Colorado in 1997. 

Fadi Antaki is a General Partner in A15, a VC focusing on venture building & investing in digital products and technology brands, with more than 16 portfolio companies under its umbrella. Under his leadership of A15, there are 8 leading growth companies in the region including Connect ads, the number 1 digital agency in the Middle East. There are also 8 innovative ventures such as PayMob, the rising Fintech Startup for payments acceptance. Antaki is overseeing the business of 17 regional offices of A15, for which more than 1000 employees are working to serve more than 20 promising markets; and partnering with major international players such as Microsoft, Twitter and Linkedin). Early 2020 Fadi has also founded and is the CEO of a leading fashion E-commerce business called TFK (The Fashion Kingdom) offering 120+ local and international brands to Egyptian consumers.

A15 has succeeded in conducting 7 exits crowned by MENA’s first dragon exit which is TPay exit to Helios Investment partners in 2018, followed by Connect Ads exit to Aleph holding, in 2021, and the Otlob exit to Rocket Internet in 2014. Prior to A15, Fadi was CEO of OTVentures & ARPUPLUS. Fadi is also a shareholder & board member in premium card international, a buy now pay later company. 

Rafeh launched Cubit Ventures and Founder Institute Egypt, sits on Falak Startups board, is an advisor to Egypt Ventures and Loyal VC, and led one of the largest consulting firms in Egypt.

He is an experienced triple-digit track record executive, entrepreneur, and management consultant where he advised numerous companies of all sizes on growth, turnaround, and business restructuring strategies.

Omar Almajdouie is the founding partner of Raed Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm that partners with exceptional founders building transformative companies in the MENA region. Raed’s AUM exceeds SAR 500m and backed by top investors in the region including PIF’s Jada, SVC, Mubadala, Almajdouie Holding and many more. As an investor and entrepreneur, Omar founded Raed Ventures in 2016 as part of Almajdouie Holding diversification strategy, which has funded more than 32 innovative startups to-date.

He is the former CEO of Almajdouie Manufacturing Co. and he’s currently the Vice Chairman of the Saudi Venture Capital and Private Equity Association, as well as a chairman and board member of several leading tech startups and companies. Omar has more than 20 years of enriched experience in various managerial and executive positions. 

Born in Belgium, Francesca spent a significant part of her life living and working in emerging markets, from Argentina to Egypt passing by Colombia, Lebanon, Morocco, etc.

After working on public policy and international relations between Europe and the Middle East, Francesca decided to take a leap towards the private sector, and more specifically the entrepreneurial world. Prior to Seedstars, she launched an EdTech venture on the French market and co-founded Changemakers International, a social entrepreneurship education program in Costa Rica.

When joining Seedstars, she started working across 16 countries across the Middle East and North Africa as a VC analyst, screening hundreds of business models and giving training to early-stage startups; she now oversees Seedstars’ activities in MENA. She holds a BA from Science Po, an LL.M. from UNINETTUNO and an MSc from King’s College London.

Hisham A. Kassim is a partner at Levari. Hisham specializes in cross-border M&A transactions, venture capital and private equity transactions, and international tax. To date, Hisham has successfully closed over 100 M&A and corporate transactions representing numerous funds and corporations throughout the MENA region, the U.S., the U.K., and Europe. Several of these transactions include multi-million dollar Series A and B transactions. Hisham is fluent in Arabic and English and is a published scholar in major U.S. law reviews. Hisham holds a J.D. from the University of Iowa College of Law, and an LL.M. in International Legal Studies from the New York University School of Law. He is admitted to the bar in the District of Columbia and the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Rabih is Managing Partner & Chief Exit Officer with Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP, www.mevp.com), one of the leading Technology VC asset managers in MENA. MEVP is an institutional asset manager regulated by both DFSA and ADGM. Rabih has extensive experience in venture capital, private equity and advisory, having executed more than US$5 billion in transactions and raised more than US$2 billion in capital.

Previously, Rabih was CEO of DIC Emerging Markets, in charge of the investment portfolio in MENA, Turkey, Asia and Latin America. DIC is the international investment arm of the Dubai–based conglomerate Dubai Holding.

In New York, Rabih was a founding member of the Media & Telecom Group with Banc of America Securities, focusing on M&A, where he led broad financial advisory and restructuring services for a number of major corporations. He also worked for Prudential Securities as an Equity Research Analyst covering the Oilfield Services & Equipment sector.

In San Francisco, Rabih was a Senior Engineering Manager with URS Corporation, the world’s largest engineering design firm, where he developed new service offerings for the Technology, Biotech and Energy sectors.

Rabih received his MBA from Columbia University and his MS in Structural Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. He also received a Bachelor of Engineering with Distinction from the American University of Beirut.

Angel investor since 2014, built 7 angel groups with more than 300 angels.

Former entrepreneur and now professionalizing angel investing.

CEO @ COREangels, CEO @ REDangels, and President @ Investors Portugal - Portuguese Association for Early-Stage Investors.

Looking to connect with angels who want to go further on reshaping angel investing with outcomes, involvement, and trust.

Egyptian/American VC, development economist, and business consultant. Investing in high-growth startups and leading impact-driven organizations that foster entrepreneurship ecosystems in emerging markets since 2007.

Courtney is the COO of 500 Global. Courtney is tasked with helping 500 scales globally and explore new opportunities across both new and existing markets. She is responsible for driving day-to-day operations across the team to pursue 500’s mission.

Courtney is no stranger to the 500 family. She was co-founder and CEO of PublikDemand, part of Batch 4. She went on to become CEO of Agent Pronto, one of the largest real estate agent referral services in North America, recently acquired by Fidelity National Title Group.

Amal Dokhan is a seasoned professional with experience in startup investments, corporate innovation, and consulting in the MENA region. Amal is the partner at Sanabil 500 MENA fund where the focus is to invest in early stage comapnies and support them throughout the journey of thier startup life. Previous to joining 500 Startups Ms. Dokhan was the CEO of Global entrepreneurship Network Saudi and the Managing Director of Babson Global for Entrepreneurial Leadership. Previously She was the manger of learning and Design at the Entrepreneurship Center at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology where she Led TAQADAM accelerator and Corporate Innovation Programs. Prior to that she worked at KAUST seedfund developing marketing and events, while also providing a range of services to startups. 

Ms. Dokhan sits on the board of several organizations and startup comapnies. Amal is also active in angel investing as she initiatied the Angel investors forum in Saudi under te ministry of commerce and Monshaat were many angel investors got hands on experince on the practice, she also invests personaly as she has 13 comapnies in her personal portfolio. Amal attended many executive programs at MIT, UCBerkely, Design school and Insead.

Hamzeh joined Hikma Ventures as an Associate in August 2016 and worked on closing 12 Digital Health deals in North America, acting as an observer on 4 of these companies (Lemonaid Health, Click Therapeutics, WinterLight Labs, Inc., and SeamlessMD). Prior to that, Hamzeh was part of the Corporate Treasury team at Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC (LON:HIK). He also held various finance roles at Phillips Morris International and Capital Investments. After graduating from the George Washington University in 2010 with a Bachelor of Business Administration majoring in Finance, Hamzeh helped organize TedxDeadSea in Jordan. He was also the CEO and Co-Founder of a social networking platform based in Madrid, Spain. Jacobo Lossoj

Anurag Agarwal is a Venture Capitalist at Oman Technology Fund looking at early-stage growth deals in MENA. Prior to joining OTF, he was with another private VC fund – ArzanVC based out of Kuwait investing in early-stage opportunities. 

At OTF, he is responsible for identifying interesting opportunities for investment, as well as conducting due diligence, business plan analysis, negotiating and executing deals. Post investment my time is spent helping portfolio companies tackle product, technology, and talent acquisition challenges. That responsibility also extends into helping our startups with fundraising by tapping into my network of angel investors and venture capital firms regionally and globally.

Prominent investments include Careem, Swvl, Mejuri`, Trukker, WrappUp, EON

Board Member: eMushrif (Oman), Ijtimaati (Oman)

Board Advisor: Elevatus (Jordan)

Previously, Anurag has also worked with Baker Tilly International, J.P. Morgan, and Standard & Poors. 

He has completed his Bachelor's in Finance from St. Xavier's College, India (Ranked #1 college in India for Accounting Stream). He has also completed his Chartered Accountancy from India and CFA from the USA.

Ron is Vice Chair of the Angel Capital Association and an active angel investor with the Band of Angels for more than 16 years. His primary focus today is investing in artificial intelligence applications.  He spent 17 years as a partner with VC/PE firm Apax Partners, focusing on early stage enterprise software. Before becoming an investor, he was CMO at Verity during which time the company was named large cap turnaround of the year. Prior to Verity, he was head of strategic marketing at NeXT, reporting to Steve Jobs. He has invested or advised in more than 70 companies and has served on more than 30 boards of directors. Ron spends much of his time advising governments, companies and startup hubs around the world, including Armenia, Australia,Chile, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Georgia, Germany, New Zealand and Ukraine among his more recent activity.

Douja Ben Mahmoud Gharbi, more than 20 years of entrepreneurial experience. She has a long professional career as an entrepreneur and manager. Serial entrepreneur, she has created and managed several companies in various sectors: industry, services, and commerce. She has also been an expert on entrepreneurship, Counsellor, and mentor for more than 15 years, trained and certified by UNIDO and ITPO Bahrain. She is also a specialist of private sector and she works with several international organizations as UNIDO, EU, GIZ, etc. facilitating the dialogue between private and public sector with these organizations regarding entrepreneurship, access to finance and access to Market for MSMEs. She is lately co-founder and CEO of the accelerator REDSTART Tunisia; the accelerator is the first Tunisian company who lately joined the community Business Call to Actions -BCtA of the United Nations.

Passionate and committed to economic development and entrepreneurship, Douja is very active on a voluntary basis within DAMYA-Tunisian Women Business Angels Network- that she cofounded and that she chairs, the CEDE Association -Centre d’Entrepreneuriat et de Développement Endogène- that she chairs and the international association FPAM- Finance Participative in Africa and the Mediterranean – where she is Vice-President. Douja is also founding member of CONECT- Confédération des Entreprises Citoyennes de Tunisie- in charge of CSR -Corporate Social Responsibility-, entrepreneurship and employment projects.

As a seasoned executive, entrepreneur and Business Angel, Brigitte has 30+ years of experience in bringing new technologies to market in the US and across Europe.

Brigitte is passionate about creating positive change and opportunities for all through innovative ideas and education & knowledge sharing. In 2009 she founded GoBeyond - an early stage investing platform that enables novice & experienced, small & large investors, to access angel investing as an asset class.

Brigitte is a keynote speaker, trainer and consultant. She currently focuses on designing educational content for angel investors, business angel network managers, startup board members, entrepreneurs seeking financing and corporates.

Mohamed Aladdin joined Global Ventures as Senior Associate in October 2020. He comes from a European Venture Capital background with investment experience across the EU, US, and Southeast Asia. Before joining Global Ventures, Aladdin was Investment Associate at Allianz X in Munich, sourcing and executing late-stage and growth deals across five main eco-systems related to the insurance industry. 

Co-Founder: Dubai Angel Investors, and Multiple Investment Committees in several regional funds

Senior Partner / Head of Digital of RolandBerger - management consultancy.

Economics, Cambridge

Patrick Gouin is presently serving in his second year as the CEO of the Angel Capital Association. ACA is a professional society for accredited angel investors, North America's most prolific early-stage investment class. ACA represents 14,000+ member accredited angel investors, 260 angel groups, accredited platforms and family offices, and more than 20,000 entrepreneurial companies that are in ACA member investment portfolios. ACA focuses on knowledge sharing, best practices, and insights from top angels to ensure smarter investment decisions, connections to vetted angels that support deal flow and syndication processes, as well as representation to public policymakers to safeguard angel investor rights.

Before joining ACA, Mr. Gouhin spent 12 years as the Executive Director and CEO of the International Society of Automation (ISA). In this capacity, he was responsible for the operations of a seventy-year-old, professional technical society with more than 40,000 members and 400,000 customers worldwide. During his tenure at ISA, he provided leadership toward the creation of many new initiatives and companies including The Automation Federation, the Automation Standards Compliance Institute, a Globalization Initiative, Government Relations Program, the acquisition of a for-profit company, Automation.com, and a Work Force Development Program including a U.S. Dept. of Labor sponsored Competency Model for the profession of Automation.

Before joining ISA, Mr. Gouhin served as the Chief Operating Officer of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).  Mr. Gouhin spent 15 years with AIAA whereby his leadership contributions resulted in significant revenue growth and the successful management of 300+ project teams through the development and delivery of multiple products and services.

Mr. Gouhin also served as the first Vice President of Operations and Technology Transfer for the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA) at Langley Research Center. This was a start-up resulting from a $69 million government contract award to build a world-class research and education institute. Gouin served as the Chief of Staff in managing day-to-day operations and issues associated with a 50-person start-up company after serving as the integration lead on the successful proposal. 

Mr. Gouhin has experience in corporate divestitures and acquisitions, business construction and relocation, strategic standardization management, business planning, project management, process mapping, and re-engineering, and serving as a company-wide change agent. He has served on the board of directors of multiple non-profits including the Council of Engineering and Scientific Society Executives (CESSE) where he is a past president.

He has a bachelor of science in aeronautical and astronautical engineering from The Ohio State University and a master’s in engineering management from George Washington University.  He has also completed the executive development program at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and the advanced management college of Stanford University.   Mr. Gouhin is a Certified Association Executive or CAE.