Who Speaks in Techne

Amr Talaat has been appointed the Minister of Communications and Information

Technology since June 2018, to the Cabinet of the Prime Minister Dr. MostafaMadbouly.

Talaat possesses over 30 years of solid experience in communications and information technology areas, with a wide experience in developing and implementing strategies across a vast spectrum of activities in Egypt.

Talaat joined IBM-Egypt in August 1988 and held various managerial positions. On May 23 rd , 2010, Amr Talaat held the position of the Country General Manager of IBM, and also served as IBM Egypt Territory Manager since 2005.

He held various managerial positions within IBM Egypt including Business Partner Organization (BPO) Manager as well as Systems and Technology Group Manager.

During his tenure, his scope transcended financial goals to strategic and operational elements such as building human capital, fortifying customer loyalty, corporate social responsibility and employees’ Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

He also sought to establish relationships with key officials and executives of various sectors, both at the national and international levels, to attract major investments, and Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) deals.

In addition, Talaat was an adjunct professor at Cairo University; teaching marketing and & sales strategies and tactics, organizational behavior and strategic management. He was, also, an honorary member at the ICT Board at Cairo University and member of the ICT Board of the Academy of Scientific Research and Technology (ASRT) and the Chairman of ICT Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham).

Talaat graduated in 1983 from the Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University, completing his undergraduate studies in Electrical Engineering at Cairo University.

He earned his PhD or doctorate of Business Administration (DBA) from the University of Paris - Paris School of Business (PSB) and Masters of Science in Computer Science from Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), in addition to an MBA from Paris ESLSCA Business School, France.

David S. Rose is an Inc. 500 CEO, serial entrepreneur, super angel investor, best selling author, and keynote speaker who has founded or funded over 100 pioneering companies.

He has been described by Forbes as "New York's Archangel", by BusinessWeek as a "world conquering entrepreneur", by Crain's New York Business as "the father of angel investing in New York", and by Red Herring magazine as "patriarch of Silicon Alley". He is the New York Times best-selling author of both Angel Investing: The Gust Guide to Making Money & Having Fun Investing in Startups and The Startup Checklist: 25 Steps to a Scalable, High-Growth Business.

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

Dave Parker – Author, Entrepreneur, & Investor

Dave is a five-time founder and has been part of >15 transactions, as founder, operator, board member, and advisor. His primary time is spent helping founders scale their companies from growth and exit through his work at NextPath Advisors. His “20%” time (that can sometimes be 80% time) is as a community builder, and speaker he works with accelerators and startup programs worldwide.

The author of “Trajectory: Startup – Ideation to Product/Market Fit“.  The book helps early-stage founders understand what they can test and know about their startup idea before they take the leap and leave their day job. The book also includes research on 2,564 funded companies and the 14 revenue models that made them successful. A free excerpt here. Many of Dave’s talks are available on his YouTube Channel. A partial list of programs can be found here.

• Ahmed El Alfi is a veteran investor & VC with over 25 years of entrepreneurial and TMT-related experience spanning across different regions Named as one of the most creative people in the world by Fast Company, Ahmed El Alfi has been an early stage/growth investor for the past 25 years, translating to extensive experience in funding, nurturing early-stage companies.

  El Alfi founded Hybrid Capital Partners in 1990, a private investment partnership. Hybrid Capital has funded, helped grow and exited several successful companies: among them are PC Mall, a USD 1bn rapid response supplier of technology services for businesses, governments and consumers; ATML, an owner and operator of over 1,000 ATMs; Banquet, an extreme sports portal, and community site; Internet Brands, a leading the operator of e-commerce and community websites; and The Genetics Institute a genetic diagnostic company. During 2006, he served as CEO of EFG-Hermes Private Equity (“EHPE”). From 2010 to present he founded Sawari Ventures, FLat6Labs, Nafham, and TATP (GrEEK Campus). Sawari Ventures aims to help transform the Egyptian and MENA region economies through the creation of sustainable, high impact businesses. 

  In 2011, Sawari Ventures created and funded Flat6Labs, since then Flat6Labs has grown to become the MENA region's leading startup accelerator. Nafham is the top Arabic online video educational platform covering the Egyptian, Saudi, and Syrian public school curriculums, Nafham currently gives free video lessons per day to over 1 million students monthly. In addition to Sawari Ventures' portfolio of investments, his current portfolio includes Triporati, an innovative online travel company; Pacific Toxicology, a leading Toxicology laboratory in the USA, as well as Zignal Labs a big data analysis company. Prior to becoming an early-stage investor in 1990, El Alfi was Senior Vice President of Jefferies & Company, where he worked for 10 years. He is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Waqf Endowment. He has also served on the Boards of Directors or Advisors of the Polytechnic School in Pasadena, Claremont Graduate School of Religion, as well as several for-profits corporate boards.

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. 

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.

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.

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. 

Julian Costley is the author of the guidebook for entrepreneurs: HOW TO: USE CROWDFUNDING. He’s an expert on raising capital, an active angel investor, and a professional chairman/NED.

He was a Country Manager at Thomson Reuters, then created his own TV channel on BSB (later BSkyB), then founding CEO of France Telecom’s Globecast satellite company. He then met venture capitalist Hermann Hauser in 1998 and together they created E*TRADE UK the UK’s first all-Internet stockbroking firm and effected a trade sale at the height of the dotcom boom. 

Since then he has invested in 22 companies and become chairman/NED or adviser to many more focusing on the financial services, media, telecoms, and internet markets in UK, Netherlands, Scandinavia, France, Canada, and China. He’s also leading a start-up that will launch in Autumn 2018.

He is an occasional lecturer/mentor/MBA course judge at London Business School, Said (Oxford) University, EDHEC (Nice), UM (Barcelona), and Skema Business School (Sophia Antipolis). 

He now lives back in the UK after 7 years in France. His interests/passions are his four children, design, storytelling, sailing, tennis, guitar, and opera.

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.

Ahmed Amin an Egyptian comedian, actor, writer, and tv presenter, graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts, who started acting and directing while he is still a kid in school, then he gets into the college, participates in acting activities during the years of studying. 

But, after graduation and searching for stabilization he lost his way to his dream and worked in child press, yet achieve lots of success writing well-known cartoon series like (Bassant & Diasty) (El Kobtan Azzuz) he never forgot about his dream, Acting. 

People actually started to know Amin from his online videos “30 Sanya” (30 seconds) that went viral among Egyptians on Facebook, just when he's decided to leave everything and took the risk back to his real passion His second, and more important step, was “Al Plateau” TV show, then (El wasseya) and last but not least (Amin and partner) theatrical show.

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.

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.

KHALIL I. EL BAWAB, MBA

CEO , Misr Capital, Banque Misr Investment Banking Arm

Mr. Khalil El Bawab is currently the CEO & Managing Director of Misr Capital (MC); the Investment Banking arm of Banque Misr, the Second Largest bank in Egypt. He joined MC in November 2018 and managed to grow the business from just Asset Management (AM) & Direct Investments to expand to become a full-fledged Investment Bank. MC currently have a footprint and active operations in AM; which became the largest AM in Egypt with AUMs surpassing EGP 30 Bln from just EGP 1.2 Bln before he joined, Private Equity, Fixed Income Brokerage, and Investment Banking activities.

Mr. El Bawab is also the Chairman of Misr Capital Fixed Income Brokerage and a non-executive board member in BM Lease, & Misr Digital Transformation.

Mr. El Bawab headed the Fixed Income Division at EFG-Hermes AM. He was the Managing Director of Hermes Fund Management and a key member of the Investment Committee overseeing the Fixed Income Investment Team. He spent more than 11 years at EFG Hermes. During his reign at EFG-Hermes, the AUMs of the Fixed Income mandates grew more than seven folds reaching EGP 18bn (it was EGP 10bn when he left). Mr. El Bawab managed a variety of Money Market Funds including Credit Agricole Money Market Fund (MMF), Bank of Alexandria MMF, and Qatar National Bank “Themar” MMF, Bank Audi MMF, and Arab Investment Bank MMF. Since joining the firm in 2007, EFG Hermes AM has consistently outperformed market peers in the Egyptian market and has received several awards and distinctions from major local and international prominent institutions including Zawya, EIMA and MENA Fund Manager Awards marking its robust performance. Among those awards, EFG Hermes AM received several awards & distinctions in the MM & FI universe including the title of "Money Market Fund of the Year in the MENA region" for five times in seven years from the London-based MENA Fund Manager Awards, in addition to “Best MM Fund in Egypt” for four times in six years presented by Thomson Reuters/Zawya MENA AM Awards (before Zawya was acquired by Thomson Reuters). Last but not least, he was one of the key team members who managed to win the best AM firm in Egypt presented by MENA Fund Manager Awards for six times in seven years.

Moreover, Mr. El Bawab was in charge of managing the 1st structured capital protected fund in Egypt; HSBC’s Fund "Istikrar" in addition to managing the 1st Fixed Income fund in Egypt for Bank of Alexandria in 2010 which was the first Egyptian FI fund to receive a high commendation; in the MENA region, by the MENA Fund Manager Awards in 2015. He is also co-managing the Principal Bank of Agriculture & Development (El Massy) Balanced Fund which has recently received the title of “Balanced Fund of the Year” for 2012 performance from the London-based MENA Fund Manager Awards. In addition to the funds, Mr. El Bawab was also managing a variety of discretionary portfolios for some of the region’s premiere banks, institutions, and high-net-worth individuals.

Prior to joining EFG-Hermes AM in May 2007; Mr. El Bawab held the position of the Assistant Chief Dealer at Arab Bank plc's Treasury & Capital Markets Department; where he worked since 1998 and was one of the leading primary dealers since its introduction in Egypt.

Mr. El Bawab is also a freelance lecturer in Managerial & Corporate Finance, AM, Treasury Products, & Risk Management.

Mr. El Bawab is a CPM and pursued his MBA in Banking and Finance from Maastricht School of Management, Netherlands in 2008 with distinction and a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration; Finance Concentration with high honors from the American University in Cairo in 1998.

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.

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. 

• Retail 
• IT Services
• Publishing 
• Management Consulting 
• Appliances
• Marketing

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. 

Yasmine Nagaty brings 8 years of project management and leadership experience in youth development and employability programs as well as entrepreneurship. 

Yasmine is currently Acceleration Manager at AUC Venture Lab where she is responsible for an annual acceleration of up to 50 startups across five various sectors. Prior to this, she was responsible for the rollout of several operational projects in an educational management startup. 

Through this experience, Yasmine developed a deep knowledge of the startup scene in Egypt and the challenges entrepreneurs face in access to finance, operations and growth as well as the needs of early stage startups to accelerate their growth.

Rula El Kaliouby is a Strategic Communications Advisor and UN Consultant, a former Advisor to the Minister of International Cooperation and Minister of Tourism, Entrepreneur in the Making and Strategy Coach. Prior to assuming her role in 2018, Rula served in several key leadership positions in the Marketing & Communications sector in the region such as the Group Executive Director of Strategy at Tarek Nour Communications/DDB Egypt, Executive Director of J. Walter Thompson & Head of Digital and Social Media BBDO.

As the Strategy & Communications Advisor to the Government of Egypt on the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and National Agenda through the Ministry of International Cooperation, she has developed the public and institutional outreach communications and advocacy program, to position Egypt's Development Cooperation story on the national and global stage. In September 2018, Rula was appointed Communications Advisor to Egypt’s Minister of Tourism, focusing on the destination’s brand architect, go - to - market strategies, content development, digital and social media ecosystem, public relations, international partnerships and media relations. During this time, Egypt scored 1st in Country Branding on Strategic Positioning, Digital Demand, Social Media Presence and Tourism Receipts. In September 2019, Rula received an Award of Recognition by the Government of Egypt - For the Creative and Strategic Efforts in "Contributing to Changing the Narrative on Egypt’s Nation Brand".

Throughout her 14 years career in strategic consultancy, marketing and communications, Rula has been cra_ing integrated traditional and nontraditional strategies and orchestrating plans that build brand experiences and drive growth across the public and private sector. In her previous roles, she lead and managed all aspects of the business and external partners’ strategy building communications ecosystems through consumer acquisition and business growth models fueled by data driven intelligence and research.

Rula is a true thought leader, continually developing her understanding of how emerging trends and digital technologies are shaping private and public sector communications, competitiveness and future readiness with a vision to create impact through leading with vision, strategy and stakeholders engagement. She specializes on solving complex and pressing challenges with at the intersection of marketing, technology and operations with fit for purpose transformational strategies. Those responsibilities tap on years of experience managing global, regional and local prestigious and challenging brands such as PepsiCo, Vodafone, Egypt Tourism Promotion Board, Dubai Tourism & Commerce Marketing, Emirates Airline & Commercial International Bank.

Ms. Kaliouby is a member of The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising & Communications (IPA) and has won a number of global and regional excellence awards such as the MENA Effie and Dubai Lynx.. She was also recognized and won several international awards for her globally acclaimed work on @MyDubai, the most creative and effective tourism brand campaign in the past 5 years.

Rula holds a bachelor’s degree from the American University in Cairo in Mass Communications & Business Administration, with Highest Honors.

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.

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 almost eight 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.

Ali is the head of young enterprise finance department for the German government in Egypt with GIZ through it's project Promotion of Access to Financial Services for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Egypt (PAFSME) to Improve access to finance for young enterprises (startups), the project supports the development of risk capital investors such

as angel investors and venture capital firms, which offer young entrepreneurs an alternative way of mixed financial and mentoring support.

Ambitious Digital Transformation Lead with over 14 years of diversified experience of marketing, medical, commercial, and digital in the pharmaceutical industry with a track record of success driving new launches, new ideas, and crafting digital strategies either in Egypt or international assignments in Asia cluster and Global functions Passionate about leading business transformation through innovation, resilience and customer-centricity.

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.

Deputy Chief Executive Officer at Education For Employment-Egypt (EFE-Egypt).

Nora Toma leads the Strategy and Partnerships efforts of EFE-Egypt across the country. Nora joined EFEEgypt in 2019 as Deputy CEO to provide support to the CEO in a phase where EFE - Egypt is growing in size and expanding in cooperation. She provides support in overall leadership and oversees key projects and initiatives in their startup phases.

Prior to EFE-Egypt, Nora held executive positions in strategy, investment, and finance in operating companies and investment vehicles, with exposure extending from Egypt to Sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to that, Nora served as a middle management in finance and other support functions, growing into that from a ten-year career in auditing and accounting. 

In addition to her corporate experience, Nora was the finance officer of Save the Children UK and Finance Manager of Save the Children International from 2011 to 2012, with four years of her auditing experience being in projects funded by the European Union (EU), United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and other donor organizations.

Nora is a recognized angel investor and entrepreneurship leader. In addition to her role in EFE-Egypt, she is on the steering committee of Tiye Angels, Egypt’s first women’s angel investor network.

Doaa Aref is the founder & CEO of Chefaa, an Egypt-based, GPS-enabled pharmacy benefits platform, operating nation-wide, helping patients to manage their recurring prescriptions as well as all their pharmacy needs. Driven by personal experience, it became prudent to safely digitize healthcare by being patient-centric and data driven.

Before devoting her work full-time to Chefaa, she worked in digital marketing, with more than 19 years of experience and has worked in national & multinational companies including Speakol where she was the digital marketing manager & Stylish Eve with the famous brand Rush Brush as director of digital marketing.