Baher Alhakim

Bio: Baher has always been passionate about building simple and clean apps across all platforms (web, mobile, facebook, twitter, etc.) and for that he founded a company to help build his own apps and help others build theirs and realize their ideas.

Cherif Algreatly

Bio: Specialist in the innovation process including prototyping, product development, and patent writing with over 40+ personal US patent and patent applications.

-In 2010, co-invented product with Dr. Douglass Engelbart (known as the Father of Computing and inventor of the computer mouse, cursor, Windows GUI, e-mail, and Web conferencing).

-Accredited by a US federal consortium for inventing the best software technology for optimizing engineering designs to resist earthquakes using new computer vision technique.

-Accredited by a US federal organization for inventing breakthrough technologies for three dimensional (3D) computer applications.

-Winning the first place in three business plan competitions in the Middle East in 2007, 2009, and 2011.

-Currently, founder and Interim CEO of TalkCloud.me, a startup company that provides a highly advanced technology for dynamic social network.

Abdelrahman Mehilba

Bio: Abdelrahman Mehilba is a serial investor and founder in the Internet field. Started in the Internet business back in 1997. Co-Founded the largest Arabic Music website, Mazika.com in 1998. Within the first two years of its launch to be one of the top 10 visited Arab websites and became the Only Arabic online entity that legally owns the digital music copyrights by 2011.
In 2002 , Mazika.com merged with a group of the biggest online companies in Egypt , like Masrawy.com, Otlob.com and others to form a holding company that was acquired by Link dot Net holding later in 2002 to form the biggest ISP and Online group in Egypt.

Co-Founder of multiple successful websites like Gawab.com, the only outsourcing and free email solution developed in the Arab world till today, Arabiccards.com, Egypthome IT that owned and managed Alex4all.com, and Banknoteclub.com , a Portal for Papermoney collectors.

Abdellatif Olama

Bio: -CEO & Co-Founder of Dare’n’Deal

-Board member of Arab Cotton Ginning Co. (ACGC:CA)

-Ex-McKinsey & Co. Consultant

-Marketed large real-estate projects, attracting EGP~25 billions in investments

-Designed and implemented multiple policy reform programs spanning real-estate, agriculture, development / SMEs, healthcare, microfinance and banking

-Designed and set up human capital development programs with 15,000 trainees annually catering to the Outsourcing & Off-shoring industries

-MBA from INSEAD, France / Singapore; B.Comp.Sc. from Concordia University, Canada

M. Moharram

Bio: IT Director - Africa and East Med. (Beverages, Snacks & Dairy) at Pepsico:

-M Moharram is a Senior executive, engineering graduate, holds a masters degree in computer science and management from Stevens Institute of Technology, USA.

-With 20 years of critical experiences in the United States in top fortunate 100 corporations such as AT&T, IBM, PWC, with Business Transformation background encompassing a broad knowledge of systems management, strategic and operational planning. He has restructured and transitioned PepsiCO IT organization to a solid partner and contributor towards business growth and strategic goals.

-Has broad and deep experience of Manufacturing, Distribution, Logistics, Sales and Marketing business practices and related IT systems. Consistent success managing large-scale IT Project Portfolios, including developing organization capability in the areas of Project Management, System Support, and Business Transformation.

-Activist and founder of several NGOs in USA and Egypt in the field of advocacy strategies and development.

-Community leader and strong believer in civic services and empowering constituents.

Ahmed Eldeeb

Bio: Ahmed El-Deeb is an independent Software Engineering Consultant selling consulting services and assisting companies by conducting activities related to all cycles of software development ranging from Requirements Analysis & Engineering, design, implementation, testing, project management, process improvement, CMMi, tools and technologies. As a consultant to some software SME\'s (a core of his interest to assist SMEs become better), part of his responsibilities is establishing a robust system of development through technical staff training, best practices, standards & policies and help them deliver high quality software systems within schedule and budget.

Scientifically, Ahmed El-Deeb is specifically concentrating his research in the Computer Aided Detection of diseases & Pervasive Computing for everyday life. Additionally, he is involved in multiple personal and organizational research projects in collaboration with different entities and individual researchers worldwide.
He was published at the 2010 Edition of Who\'s Who in the World.

Mohamed Abdeljalil

Bio: Mohamed Abdeljalil is responsible for Nokia\'s Business Development for North Africa and LEVANT Area, based in Cairo, Egypt. He worked for Nokia since the summer of 2006 holding various positions in the Services, Solutions Sales and Markets team.

-A key contributor to the Nokia Ecosystem engagement program in North Africa and in Egypt in particular. Recent initiatives are launch of a series of Nokia services to the developers’ community and the hosting of several entrepreneurship events.

-During his current assignment he led many local initiatives in the market like the Nokia launched Mobile Lab for Egypt and Mobile Monday Egypt Chapter. He was able to introduce new technologies to Egypt and North Africa Markets including Mobile Wi-Fi, GPS enabled phones, Nokia Services (Messaging, Music, Maps, & Browser), Operator Billing, Location APIs and recently NFC enabled Smart Phones.

-Before joining Nokia, He was the Technical Support for the Mobile Value Added Services Platforms at Nokia Siemens Networks for the Middle East. Prior to that, he has assumed different Business Development and technical positions at Alcatel-Lucent and YallaOnline ISP.

-He has a diverse technical background, business and strong network in the Arabic developer community, holding a BSC degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Ain Shams University.

Hesham Wahby

Bio: Hesham Wahby is Co-Founder and CEO of Innoventures. Based in Cairo, he is responsible for the company\'s strategy and organization, creating and maintaining partnerships, access to potential ventures, and coaching entrepreneurs. In addition, Hesham is also Principal, Egypt & Middle East for Mercator XXI, a professional services firm helping clients engage the global economy. He represents Mercator XXI in the Middle East, and supports a platform for the firm’s programs in the region.

Hesham has a background of 10 years in the technology industry, as well as experience with entrepreneurial ventures. At Human Network Labs, he took part in developing a market entry strategy, and seeking strategic partners, for a novel wireless location technology. At Scenario Design Services, he provided consulting services for clients in the semiconductor industry. His earlier career also includes 5 years with Mentor Graphics as a Software Development Engineer.

Hesham has been involved since 2002 in economic development initiatives in Egypt and the Arab region through his affiliation with the IEEE activities in the Middle East, as well as the Global Entrepreneurship Week. In 2004, he acted as Chairman for the Egyptian Engineering Day, and has since served in a marketing and public relations capacity for the annual event and its related programs, which promote entrepreneurship and industrial development in the region. In 2009, he also started the BusinessNEXUS, a platform for business matchmaking for start-ups and SMEs. Hesham has also been a judge and mentor for start-ups through the INJAZ Company Program, as well as the Made In Arabia competition. Hesham obtained an MBA from the Wharton School in 2009, with a major in Entrepreneurial and Strategic Management, and also holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering from Cairo University.

Samer El Sahn

Bio: Samer El Sahn is the founder and CEO of Tahrir² , an incubator and accelerator that helps seed fund young entrepreneurs in the feilds of internet and green technologies.
He used to head of eSpace Technologies. eSpace is a software development company headquartered in Alexandria, Egypt and has been pushing entrepreneurship in Egypt and the MENA region as a whole for a couple years now. His vision has been building Egypt as a startup nation, and promoting the Arab presence on the web. Prior to joining eSpace, Samer had a couple attempts in building his own startups – and failed – which just fueled his yearn to build something and never give up in the process

Radwa Hozien

Bio: Radwa Hozien is the service delivery manager at Link Development; a leading software and services company in the Middle East, with responsibility for managing IT outsourcing services that include software development and technology consultancy for the Gulf territory.

Radwa holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business administration and Information systems. She is Project Management Professional (PMP)® certified since 2004. PMP credential is the most important industry-recognized certification in project management globally. With more than 12 years of experience in program and project management experience in the software industry; Radwa has proven ability to bridge technology and business goals to provide productive solutions.

Radwa is a passionate internet geek who is carefully looking at the latest internet trends. In 2004; Radwa was lucky to attend one of the early usability events done by Jakob Nielsen as she was the only representative from the Middle East. This allowed her to pioneer Web 2.0 best practices, usability tests and web user experience lifecycles implementation in Link Development.

Ahmed Laiali

Bio: - Bachelor of Science (Ain Shams University).
- MIBA (Ecole Superior Liber des Science commercial Appliqué-Paris).
- Certified Incubator Manager -National business Incubation Assoc (NBIA- Athens, Ohaio.).
- 14 Years of Experience, 6 of them as BD Manager.
- 6 Years of international assignments covering USA- Germany- Italy- France- Japan, Gulf countries
- 4 years of Government exposure leading National initiatives within the ICT hand by hand with local key players e.g. Cairo University, Alexandria University, Assiut University as well as leading global Technology owners, e.g. Intel, Microsoft, Google, Nokia, Rim along with Mobile Operators as Vodafone & Etisalat.
- 6 Years of experience supporting Start-ups and SME’s, 4 years of them with main responsibility of establishing Egypt ICT Incubation Network & managing 4Million US$ Angel Fund supporting 5 ICT Incubation Centers 3 of them within Universities managing a portfolio of 30+ start-ups.
- Recognized by the Government of the USA & EU, supporting their Entrepreneurship development Programs.

- Currently:
-Entrepreneurship Support Manager at Technology Innovation & Entrepreneurship Centre (TIEC) an MCIT affiliate
-Mobile Monday (Egypt Chapter) Founder
-Volunteering mentor to a Turkish startup through Mowgli program.
-Board Member at “Egyptian Euro African Asian for Human Rights”

Ayman Rashed

Bio: Graduated from faculty of Civil Engineering, Ain Shams University in 1990, Ayman started his career as a civil engineer acquiring his first master in 1993. In the same year, he shifted his career to Information Technology. In 1995, he got his executive MBA in Information Technology Marketing. Having worked in different positions and gained wide experience in the field, Ayman started his first venture in 1999: otlob.com - a food home delivery portal. Otlob.com was totally acquired just six months after its launch. After the acquisition, Ayman Started IT-Blocks a Professional Software Services firm where multiple projects and businesses were created. Of these businesses are: Gates an IT Training Center, Corsat a brand of training management solutions, Sortak.com a website for printing photos online, Egybanners.com where you find all printed ads from all printed newspapers and magazines online, IT-Blocks Saudi Arabia and others.

Sherwat Elwan

Bio: Sherwat Elwan Ibrahim is Associate Professor of Innovation and Operations Management at the Faculty of Technology Management, German University in Cairo

. She holds a Master’s and Ph.D. in Technology Management from the Wesley J. Howe School of Technology Management, Stevens Institute of Technology, and a B.S. in Accounting from the Faculty of Commerce and Business Administration, Helwan University, Cairo Egypt. Her Ph.D. dissertation titled ‘Technological Clusters and Sources of Knowledge for Innovation,’ was awarded ‘Best Dissertation,’ May 2005, by the Wesley J. Howe School of Technology Management. Her Masters thesis was on applying Total Quality Management principals to vocational training in developing countries. She has several publications in prestigious journals including Journal of Economic Geography, EMJ, and Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, and has been jointly awarded the Ted Eschenbach prize for Best paper in Engineering Management Journal, Fall 2005 issue, and the “Bright idea” award, for her paper in New Jersey Publications, 2006. Dr. Ibrahim teaches several courses in the area of Innovation and Operations Management including; Product and Process Innovation, Operations for Competitive Advantage, Operations Strategy, Supply Chain Management, and Technology and Innovation Management. Her current research interests include Process innovations and Sustainable Supply Chain Management. Dr. Ibrahim is an expert in training and mentoring entrepreneurs, she is a core faculty member of Goldman Sachs Women Entrepreneurship and Leadership Program (WEL) that has graduated over two hundred women entrepreneurs in the Middle East. She has received extensive training in Executive Education from Wharton and Kellogg business schools, and has also received training on Sustainable Entrepreneurship from the Centre on Sustainable Consumption & Production (CSCP) in Germany. Prior to joining the German University in Cairo, Dr. Ibrahim was Assistant Professor and Head of the Operations Management Unit at the American University in Cairo, Egypt.

Ghada Maher

Bio: - 14 Years’ Experience in the IT industry

- Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree in Marketing & International Business, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Information Systems.

- Products Manager at ITWorx ; a global software professional services organization , with responsibility for setting the strategy and roadmap of ITWorx portfolio of education products, envisioning new products and defining sales proposition and competitive edge.

- Served as a project manager in e-Gov, BPM, Business intelligence and Telecom business solutions where she successfully managed to secure long-term relationship with the client through understanding both short and long term requirements, identifying business opportunities within the account and ensuring continues client satisfaction.

- Passionate about setting digital and social promotional marketing strategies to maximize leads generation at lower costs. Attended a variety of international marketing events.

Amgad Kaldas

Bio: Amgad Y. Kaldas, a technology exporting expert and one of the first players in the outsourcing Industry in Egypt. Amgad managed in less than 5 years to transform his start-up business into a CMMI/ISO certified Software house having more than 25 developers and working with the biggest health Associations in USA and Europe. Being a mentor in several organizations and a consultant in the MCIT Egypt, One of Amgad’s purpose in life is to boost the Entrepreneurship Spirit in Egypt through direct assistance of Young Start-ups , wishing they start from where he ended.

Nora Kafafi

Bio: Nora Kafafi is the Programs Manager at Innoventures. Her role includes developing and managing the company\'s programs in collaboration with the start-up industry and community as well as business development with potential affiliates and partners. Nora has 7 years of experience in Egypt and Kuwait derived from prior positions held at Motorola, the Ministry of Investment (Special Economic Zone) and Ernst & Young. Her passion and insight in the areas of innovation, entrepreneurship and social responsibility grew with through her correspondence with the Drucker Foundation and with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Nora graduated from Misr University for Science and Technology with a degree in Business Administration, majoring in Accounting. She is now pursuing a Project Management Professional certification.

Ashraf El-Sharkawy

Bio: Ashraf El-Sharkawy is Co-Founder and CCO of Innoventures. In this role, he is mainly responsible for the company\'s branding and public relations campaigns, and relationships with investors and partners, and he is the official spokesperson for the company. Ashraf is also the entrepreneur for two of Innoventures\' portfolio companies, the Children\'s Day Care, and Nile Egypt for Animal Feeds. In addition, his main location in Munich, Germany provides access to a wider range of entrepreneurs and strategic partners. Ashraf previously, held the position of Global Head of Marketing and Communication at Allianz Global Corporate and Specialty, the industrial insurance arm of Allianz Holding Company, one of the biggest financial services provider in the world. He was responsible for internal and external communication, strategic marketing and market research. He also held positions at IBM and at a Internet Start-Up called portax.com. He holds a degree in International Business from FH Reutlingen, one of the leading business schools in Germany.

Lana Newishy

Bio: Experienced finance and strategy professional and a creative problem solver. Skilled in financial management, revenue enhancement, cost re-engineering, pricing, project management, and customer loyalty/rewards pricing. Significant experience in the credit card business and in the consumer goods industry. International experience in North Africa and the Middle East. MBA, General Management, Finance, Strategy from Harvard Business School and Business Administration from The American University in Cairo.