Investor Highlights

Khaled Ismail, Ph.D. Founder and Managing Partner of HIMangel , an angel investment fund focused on early-stage startups in Egypt (2017 -present). HIMangel invested in 11 startups starting June 2017, and supported more than 30 other startups. Founder and Chairman of Kiangel, a not-for-profit angel investment fund investing in early-stage startups in Egypt (2011 - 2017). Kiangel invested in 11 startups between 2012 and 2017, and supported more than 50 other startups. Chairman of Endeavor Egypt (2011-2014) Managing Director of Intel Mobile Communications (2011 -2014) Founder of SySDSoft (2003-2011), an Egyptian engineering company that ranked among the top in the world in the design and development of the protocol stack of 4G cellular technology, which has been acquired by Intel in March 2011. Senior Advisor of the Egyptian Minister of CIT (2004 and 2007) VP of Engineering at Ellipsis Digital Systems (2000-2002) Research Staff Member at IBM’ s T J Watson Research Center (1989-1997) Ph.D. from MIT in 1989 IEEE Fellow since 1997. Published over 160 papers in international journals and holds 22 US patents. Recipient of the Eta Kappa Nu “ Best Young Electrical Engineer in the US” award in 1994, and the Shuman Award for the “ Young Arab Engineer” in 1995.

Dr. Ayman Ismail is the Assistant Professor and Abdul Latif Jameel Endowed Chair of Entrepreneurship at the American University in Cairo School of Business.

His research focuses on entrepreneurship venture capital and private equity in emerging markets economic development in the Middle East industrial strategy international technology diffusion and knowledge transfer to developing countries technology policy and innovation energy and food security and political economy of development.

Dr. Ismail is a former Research Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Kennedy School of Government in Harvard University.

He received his PhD in International Economic Development from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

He also holds a bachelor degree in engineering and an MBA from the American University in Cairo, and a master in city planning and geographic information systems from MIT.

He is also a co-founder and Managing Partner in Enovio, a management & strategy consulting firm operating in the US and the Middle East. Prior to that, he was a consultant in McKinsey & Company Business Technology Office, based in New York for several years.

Dr. Ismail has advised senior management in leading Fortune 100 companies, fast-growing startups, government agencies, and non-profits on key organization, operations and technology issues.

He has also consulted and conducted research for international organizations such as the World Bank and UNCTAD, as well as multiple US government agencies.

Dr. Ismail has a broad multidisciplinary experience in economic development, business strategy, city planning and technology based on professional practice and academic research.

Dr. Ismail is a co-founder and member the Board of Directors of Nahdet El-Mahrousa, a leading NGO incubating social entrepreneurs and social ventures targeting economic and social development issues in Egypt. He is also an Endeavor VentureCorps Mentor, advising entrepreneurs.

Lauren Maillian is the Founder and CEO of LMB Group, a 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 Bachelors 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.

Keith Wallace is a Scotsman with a passion for entrepreneurs and deal-making.  Having founded the Dutch Investors Club (DeInvesteerdersClub) he put his vision of joint investments within the Netherlands and further afield into effect.

With deals in Africa and Asia, as well as Europe, this small group of active investors has striven from the beginning to make impact as well as financial returns.

Working with the Hivos Foundation, he was part of the team that founded Hivos Impact Investments, where he sits in the investment team and manages the portfolio companies of the Hivos Food and Lifestyle Fund (Southern Africa) and the Hivos Mideast Creatives Fund (MENA).

Keith is also Global Ringmaster of Get In The Ring, an international entrepreneurial competition that takes place in over 100 countries and allows him to wear top hat and tails, even in the tropics.

ShehabEldin is the founder of RESOLVE consulting and ALSHEHAB Co. He is also confounder of AGRICYCLE for agricultural waste energy, AL-SONBOLAH for textile industries and AlexAngels and a senior consulting partner at IMPACT consulting.

Shehab ElDin brings in 17 years of experience as an entrepreneur, Consultant, Executive Coach, Facilitator and Speaker with the corporate sector, Startups and academia as well as development sector and governmental organizations focusing on Leadership, Strategic planning, Conflict Resolution, Mediation, Negotiation, Dialogue, Irrational Behavior, Personal Branding, Public Speaking and Social Entrepreneurship among other areas. 

His scope of work includes advising, executive coaching as well as designing, delivering and facilitating customized training and simulation workshops in Egypt and internationally.

Shehab ElDin is currently a Lecturer at the American University in Cairo, School of Business/Executive Education. 

He Spoke and lectured at various reputable international platforms and universities including George Mason University, The American University in Washington, Vienna University Business School, Northern Virginia Mediation Services in USA, Doha institute for graduate studies, the Institute for Peace Studies in Alexandria and various international conferences and events. 

Between 2002-2010 he lectured at the Institute for Peace Studies in Alexandria, the Canadian International College and at the Modern Sciences and Arts University (MSA), teaching Conflict Resolution, Negotiation, and International Relations, after his teaching fellowship experience at the University of Notre Dame in the USA.

His social activities include being a co-founder and a former board member of Nahdet El- Mahrousa, The leading NGO incubating social entrepreneurs and social ventures targeting economic and social development issues in Egypt. 

He is also the Founding Curator of the Global Shapers Community- Cairo Hub, launched by the World Economic Forum in 2011, gathering key young leaders on one platform to work together.

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.

Dalia Ibrahim is what we can confidently name as a true AUC alumni; being a holder of a B.A. in Business administration (with Honors), then a Master’s Degree of Public Administration (1999) and later an Executive MBA (2014) all from the American University in Cairo. Upon her graduation she started working in Nahdet Misr for Publishing. With perseverance and diligence she moved on in her career path to be chosen among her uncles and siblings to hold the position of the Vice President in 2004, setting up two sister companies; one dedicated to periodicals, such as Disney and National Geographic magazines- and another for software and animation; managed each of them for several years and then later handed them to a family member. She also assisted in the establishment of Nahdet Misr for Trade to be managed from the start by another family member. On the grounds of her business achievements, Dalia was nominated to be the CEO of Nahdet Misr for Publishing in July 2011. Deservedly, Dalia’s efforts earned several awards in the field of publishing, whether it be educational or cultural. 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 EdVenture, the first corporate venture capital specialized in education in the MENA region. Ambition, advancement, perfection and communication are key drivers for the publisher; Dalia Ibrahim, who seeks, through Nahdet Misr, to assert a system of values including a sincere sense of belonging to the Arab culture and society as well as efficient connectivity to the ever changing contemporary world and worthy groundwork of the future.

Industrial Director of GS Egypt and Zahran Group.

Managing Director of Zahran Furniture and Decoration

Vice President of ABA Youth Committe 

Founding Member of ALEX Angels

Chris is one of the nation’s leading experts on launching startups and has been dubbed the “Startup Whisperer.” He co-founded MapQuest, is an angel investor, ran a corporate venture fund and 2 micro venture funds (directed over $75M) and is VP Innovation with Techstars. Chris recently published his first book about starting anything called Build The Fort.

Ziad Mokhtar is Managing Partner at Algebra Ventures, Egypt’s leading VC fund. Ziad is also Managing Partner at Ideavelopers. Ziad has been an active VC investor since 2010. He has invested in many transformative technology companies in Egypt and the Middle East, including vezeeta, siware, elmenus, trella, dsquares, and posrocket. Before becoming a venture investor, Ziad served as a Consultant at McKinsey & Company where he worked on topics related to economic development, healthcare reform, and education. Prior to McKinsey, he co-founded eSpace in 2000 and served as its Chief Executive Officer until 2006. While at eSpace, he led the development of the number one mobile salesforce solution in the region, and spearheaded eSpace’s international services business. Ziad is a member of the board of directors of Elmenus, Iqraaly, SiWare, and Vezeeta. Ziad holds an M.B.A. from Stanford Graduate School of Business and a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Engineering from Alexandria University.

Chairman of Malaikah and Investia Venture Capital Experienced Chairman with a demonstrated history of working in the venture capital and private equity industry. Skilled in Business Planning, Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital, Asset Management, and Management. Strong entrepreneurship professional with a BSC Engineering focused in Architecture from Alexandria University.

Biography Marcel DRIDJE Marcel Dridje is currently the  SOPHIA BUSINESS ANGELS President / EBAN Board Member / Mentor at The Camp in Aix en Provence. A seasoned European Sales senior Executive, Marcel has substantial field experience helping IT and Telecom startups 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 startups (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 and holds an M&A executive program credentials from INSEAD. Marcel most recently left CISCO after 35 years in IT and Telecom Sales to start his new venture as a Business Angel with SBA to help startups with seed money, VC connections and Business development.  A self proclaimed Serial Entrepreneur, 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. Area of Expertise :   • Seed money, VC connections to raise Funds for start ups . • Business Dev & GTM strategy  • Channel & Alliances subject matter expert .

Lisa Atia is an Egyptian-American social entrepreneur & investor, creative strategist, and storyteller. She has over 10 years’ experience scaling rapid-growth start-ups and Fortune 500 companies. Her work of building ecosystems converges at the intersection of VC, tech, and media for the purposes of creating access to resources for founders of color and women entrepreneurs. She graduated Pepperdine University with an MBA in Entrepreneurship & Strategy. She’s a poet, soul singer, community-empowerment champion, bellydancer, 90s music aficionado, amateur chef, and coffee-lover. “Building communities builds generational wealth. Build beyond yourself.” - Lisa Atia