Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr., was born November 20, 1942, in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He graduated from the University of Delaware and Syracuse Law School and served on the New Castle County Council. Then, at age 29, he became one of the youngest people ever elected to the United States Senate.
As a Senator from Delaware for 36 years, Senator Biden established himself as a leader on some of our nation's most important domestic and international challenges. As Chairman or Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee for 17 years, then-Senator Biden was widely recognized for his work on criminal justice issues including the landmark 1994 Crime Bill and the Violence Against Women Act. As Chairman or Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee since 1997, then-Senator Biden played a pivotal role in shaping U.S. foreign policy.
Now, as the 47th Vice President of the United States, Joe Biden has continued his leadership on important issues facing the nation. The Vice President was tasked with implementing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, helping to rebuild our economy and lay the foundation for a sustainable economic future. Vice President Biden has also focused on the issues of college affordability and American manufacturing growth, key priorities of the Administration.
Vice President Biden advises the President on a multitude of international issues, representing the United States in every region of the world. He has played a leading role in strengthening transatlantic relations, deepening U.S. engagement in the Western Hemisphere, and U.S. policy toward Iraq.
Salaheddine MEZOUAR was appointed by His Majesty King Mohammed VI, on October 10th 2013, as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation. He was born in 1953 in the city of Meknes in Morocco. He holds a masters’ in Economics from the Grenoble University of Social Sciences (France) and graduated with a degree in management from the Higher Institute of Commerce and Business Administration (ISCAE) in Casablanca (Morocco).
In early 1980, he started his career as head of finance and
administration in two public companies in Rabat and Tangier, then he became
chief financial officer of a french-tunisian private company located in Tunis.
During the 1990s, he joined the Spanish Group TAVEX as deputy CEO. In June
1993, he was promoted as CEO of SETTAVEX, morocco's subsidiary of the Spanish
group TAVEX, and the Commercial Director of TAVEX for Morocco, Africa and the
Middle East.
In 2002, he was elected President of the Moroccan Association of Textile and
Clothing (AMITH).
Salaheddine Mezouar was appointed in June 2004 by His Majesty King Mohammed VI, as Minister of Industry, Trade and the Economy. Then, from October 15th 2007 to January 23, 2012, Mr. Mezouar was the Minister of Economy and Finance of the Kingdom of Morocco. He has been awarded the prize of the best minister of economy and finance in the MENA region for the year 2010.
Mr. Mezouar was elected in January 2010 and again in April 2012 President of the political party RNI "Rassemblement National des Indépendants", a leading political party in Morocco. He has been representing the city of Meknes in the Chamber of Representatives, since the 2011 legislative elections.
Mr. Mezouar is a keen sportsman and was Captain of the national basketball team in the 1980s.
Penny Pritzker has served as the 38th U.S. Secretary of Commerce since being sworn in by Vice President Joe Biden on June 26, 2013. As Secretary of Commerce, she is focused on providing American businesses and entrepreneurs with the tools they need to grow and hire.
Before joining the Obama Administration, Pritzker founded and ran five different businesses in the real estate, hospitality, senior living, and financial services industries.
She has worked closely with the business community and helped advance the President’s priorities of expanding growth and opportunity for all Americans. Guided by conversations with more than 1,200 CEOs and business leaders, and over one-third of the Fortune 500 CEOs, Secretary Pritzker has developed the “Open for Business Agenda.” This bold strategic plan and policy blueprint for the Commerce Department focuses on expanding trade and investment, unleashing government data for economic benefit, spurring innovation, protecting the environment—and executing these priorities with operational excellence as careful stewards of taxpayer dollars.
Mohammed Boussaid was born September 26th 1961 in Fes. He received a degree in Engineering from the “Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées -ENPC- Paris” in 1986 and a Master of Business Administration from the “International School of Business of ENPC" in 2000. Since October 10th 2013, he has held the position of Minister of Economy and Finance. Prior to this, he was Wali of the Grand Casablanca region, Governor of the Prefecture of Casablanca, the Wali of Souss -Massa -Draa, Governor of the Prefecture of Agadir Ida Outanane, Minister of Tourism and Handicrafts, and Minister in charge of the Modernization of Public Sector.
From 1998 to 2001, he was the Director of programs and studies at the Ministry of Public Works. Between 2001 and 2004, he was Director of Public Institutions and Investments, then Director of Public Enterprises and Privatization at the Ministry of Finance and Privatization.
Mr. Boussaid also served from 1995 to 1998, as head of the office of the Minister of Public Works and head of the office of the Minister of Agriculture, Infrastructure and Environment. From 1994 to 1995, he was portfolio manager of major enterprises at the « Banque Marocaine du Commerce et de l'Industrie » (BMCI). From 1986 to 1992, Mr. Mohamed BOUSSAID was a consulting engineer in the « Banque Commerciale du Maroc ». He subsequently served as the deputy general manager of a chemical trading and production company (1992/1994).
Overview
October 2013 : Minister Delegate to the Minister of Industry, Trade, Investment and Digital Economy in charge of Small Enterprises and Integration of Informal Sector.
Investment Banker
June 2008 – 2012 (4 years) London, United Kingdom
Commodities - Option Trader.
Equity derivative - Quantitative trading
April 2007 – August 2007 (5 months)
Education
2004 – 2008
Ecole nationale supérieure des Mines de Paris
2006 – 2007
Lycée Henri 4
2004
Mr. Moulay Hafid Elalamy was appointed Minister of Industry, Trade, Investment and the Digital Economy on October 10, 2013. A graduate of the University of Sherbrooke with a degree in information systems, he began his career in Canada as a Senior Advisor to the Ministry of Finance of Québec before joining Saint-Maurice, a Canadian insurance company, where he was Director of Information Systems. Upon returning to Morocco in 1988, Hafid Elalamy joined the African Insurance Company, a subsidiary of the ONA Group, as CEO.
In 1995, he created the SAHAM Group, which currently operates in four sectors: Insurance, Offshoring, Health and Property. Saham Group is present in 22 countries in Africa and the Middle East with a turnover of 1.14 billion USD. Mr. Hafid Elalamy was President of the Moroccan General Confederation of Enterprises of Morocco from 2006 to 2009.
Mr. Hafid Elalamy is also a Member of The Mohammed V Foundation for Solidarity presided over by His Majesty King Mohammed VI, and Member of the board and Treasurer of the Lalla Salma Foundation for fight against Cancer, chaired by Her Royal Highness Princess Lalla Salma.
Mr Aziz AKHANNOUCH was born in 1961 in Tafraout. Holder of a Management degree from Sherbrooke Management School / Canada, before being Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Mr Aziz AKHANNOUCH is the president of Akwa Group, major hydrocarbon media and real estate 50 entities Holding Company. He was also the ex-president of Sous Massa Draa Region.
Ms. Bouaida was born in 1975 in Laqssabi near Guelmim in southern Morocco. A Member of the Political Bureau of the National Rally of Independents (RNI), Ms. Bouaida was elected in 2007 for the first time in the House of Representatives. In 2010, she presided over the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defense and Islamic Affairs in the House of Representatives and co-chaired the Joint Parliamentary Committee Morocco European Union since its inception in May 2010.
Between 2008 and 2009, she served as vice Chair of the Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs and Rapporteur of the same Committee for 2009 Finance Bill.
Ms. Bouaida was named “Young Global Leader” by the World Economic Forum in 2012. Since September 2011, she has been Vice- President of the International Parliamentary Forum for Democracy. She is also a member of the North-South Centre of the Council of Europe, the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations and “Munich Young Leaders” of the International Munich Conference on Security.
After completing her studies in financial management in Casablanca, Ms. Bouaida received her Masters in Marketing and Communication from the Université de Toulouse in France and her Masters in Business Administration from Hull University in the United Kingdom.
Mr. Nizar Baraka is the President of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council of Morocco. Prior to becoming president, Mr Baraka was Minister Delegate to the Prime Minister for Economic and General Affairs (2007-2012) and Minister of Economy and Finance (2012-2013).
Born in Rabat in 1964, Mr. Nizar Baraka received a degree in econometrics in 1985 and a PhD in economics from the University of Aix-Marseille (France).
After having taught at the University of Rabat and the National Institute of Social Economy, Mr Baraka joined the Ministry of Finance in 1996, where he held a variety of positions, including that of Deputy Director of the Department of Studies and Financial Forecasts.
Miriem Bensalah Chaqroun, a Moroccan national, graduated from a school of commerce in Paris and holds an MBA in International Management and Finance from the University of Dallas, Texas (USA). She began her career at Société Marocaine de Dépôt et Crédit (SMDC) in the Securities Department. In 1989, she joined Holmarcom Group, where she currently sits at the Board, and she is the CEO of the subsidiary Eaux Minérales d’Oulmès. She is also Member of the Board and Chairwoman of the Audit Committee of Bank Al Maghreb (Morocco’s Central Bank). Ms. Bensalah Chaqroun is also Director of the Mohammed V Foundation, Chairwoman of the Euro-Mediterranean Board for Mediation and Arbitration, Member of the Arab Business Council (ABC), Member of the Management Board of the Moroccan British Business Council (MBBC), Member of the Young President’s Organization (YPO) and of the Board of the Social Development Agency (ADS). Since May 2012, she has been the President of the Confédération Générale des Entreprises du Maroc (CGEM), the Moroccan employers’ federation, and she is the first woman to ever hold this title in the MENA region.
Pedro Pires, Capeverdean freedom fighter, was born in 1934. He was head of the delegation that negotiated the independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde with the Portuguese Government. Pires was elected Prime Minister of the Republic of Cape Verde in 1975, a position he held for 15 years. He was previously a Member of Parliament (1975-2001), and the leader of the largest Capeverdean opposition party from 1991 to 1993, resuming leadership in 1997 until mid-2000. He was elected President of the Republic of Cape Verde in 2001 and reelected in 2006. He received a Honoris Causa Degree from the Federal University of Ceará, Brazi, and Honoris Causa Degree in Public Administration from the Institute of Social and Political Sciences of the Technical University of Lisbon. He is a Mo Ibrahim laureate, President of the Pedro Pires Institute for Leadership and Amilcar Cabral Foundation. He is also a Member of the Africa Forum and the West African Commission on Drugs. Pires was on the jury for the Gulbenkian Prize and the UNESCO Prize Jose Marti. He is a UNCCD Ambassador of Drylands and an Honorary Board Advisor of the Africa Foundation for Governance and Leadership.
Hamdi Ulukaya founded Chobani in upstate New York in 2005 and launched Chobani Greek Yogurt in 2007. In just five years, Chobani became the No.1–selling Greek yogurt brand in the US, with more than a billion dollars in annual sales – making Chobani one of the fastest-growing companies in history. Led by his passion to democratize better food for more people, Hamdi’s vision for Chobani has effectively transformed an entire food category.
Hamdi is a member of the Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship (PAGE) in which he has committed to helping develop the next generation of entrepreneurs. He was named the 2013 Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur Of The Year and also earned the Small Business Administration’s Entrepreneurial Success Award. Hamdi is a passionate philanthropist and has pledged to give 10 per cent of profits to charity. He resides in New Berlin, NY, with his two German Shepherds.
Nationally and internationally recognized business executive, Othman BENJELLOUN is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Banque Marocaine du Commerce Extérieur, BMCE Bank - since its privatization in 1995 - and the Chairman of FinanceCom.
He also chairs the Moroccan Banking Association since 1995 and the Union of Maghreb Banks from 2007 to 2009. Mr. BENJELLOUN was nominated “Banker of the Year 2007” by the Union of Arab Banks.
Mr. BENJELLOUN is the founder of BMCE Bank Foundation, to which he assigned two main priorities: Education and Environmental protection.
Mr. BENJELLOUN was appointed Chancellor of Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane by the late King Hassan II, from 1998 to January 2004. The Board of Directors he chaired aimed to position the University as an elite international academic institution founded on excellence and merit. In 2007, Mr. BENJELLOUN was granted the prestigious distinction of “Honorary Fellow” of the King’s College of London.
Mr. BENJELLOUN was decorated Officier de L'Ordre du Trône of the Kingdom of Morocco by His Majesty the King Hassan II and Commandeur de l'Etoile Polaire of the Kingdom of Sweden. He was awarded the Médaille de Commandeur dans l'Ordre National du Lion of the Republic of Senegal by HE the President Abdulaye Wade, and Encomienda de Numero de la Orden de Isabel la Catolica of the Kingdom of Spain by His Majesty the King Juan Carlos, and recently decorated “Commandeur dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres” of the French Republic. On April 7, 2010, Mr. BENJELLOUN was elevated to the rank of Commandeur de l’Ordre du Trône by His Majesty the King Mohammed VI.
Alexa von Tobel, CFP® is the founder and CEO of LearnVest.com, and The New York Times-Bestselling Author of Financially Fearless. A Certified Financial Planner who attended Harvard College and Harvard Business School, Alexa launched LearnVest to pursue her dream of bringing financial advice to people nationwide. Since then, Alexa has raised over $72 million in financing for LearnVest.
Alexa has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, InStyle, Fast Company, Good Morning America, CNN, Rachael Ray, and more. Alexa has been named as an inaugural member of the Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship, included on Vanity Fair’s Next Establishment list, listed as one of “18 Women Changing the World” in Marie Claire, given a “Genius Award” by Elle, and selected as one of Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs. She is a columnist for Cosmopolitan and Inc. Magazine and hosts a weekly radio show on SiriusXM.
Since his appointment in 2007 as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Attijariwafa bank, Mohamed El Kettani has overseen the development of the banking and financial services group, both at domestic and regional levels, to its current status as North Africa’s leading bank and the seventh largest in Africa. An engineering graduate of ENSTA Paris, Mohamed El Kettani began his banking career in 1984 when he joined Banque Commerciale du Maroc (BCM).
Mohamed El Kettani is also Vice-Chairman of the Moroccan Bankers Association and director of several companies.
Mohamed El Kettani received the Officier de l’Ordre du Trône decoration from His Majesty King Mohammed VI as well as Senegal’s Commandeur de l’Ordre National du Mérite. He is 56 years old, married and the father of three children.
Attijariwafa bank currently has operations in 23 countries, including 13 countries in Africa. It has the largest branch network in Africa with 3,265 branches and 16,286 employees.
Daphne Koller is the President and co-founder of Coursera. She was recognized as one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People for 2012, Newsweek’s 10 most important people in 2010, and more. Prior to founding Coursera, she was the Rajeev Motwani Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University, where she served on the faculty for 18 years. In her research life, she worked in the area of machine learning and probabilistic modeling. She is the recipient of many awards, including Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the MacArthur Fellowship, and membership in the US National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is an award winning teacher, who pioneered in her Stanford class many of the ideas that underlie the Coursera user experience. She received her BSc and MSc from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and her PhD from Stanford.
Sefrioui began his professional career at the end of the 1970s in paper production and conversion. After creating several industrial businesses in Casablanca, Tangier, Fez, and Agadir and laying the foundations for their long-term growth, Mr. Sefrioui opened the companies’ capital in association with Frantschach, a global leader in the sector.
In 1988, while still developing his industrial and shipping businesses, Mr. Sefrioui created Douja Promotion Groupe Addoha, which has since become Morocco’s leading property developer, and became the first Moroccan property developer to be listed on the Casablanca Stock Exchange.
Mr. Sefrioui concluded an agreement with Polysius for the construction of two turnkey cement works in the Ben Ahmed and Béni Mellal regions, with a total annual capacity of 3.2 million tons of cement.
Mr Sefrioui set out to launch factories in Sub-saharian Africa under the name CIMAF. He is also an active member of the CGEM (General Confederation of Moroccan Enterprises) Foundation.
In June 2009, Mr. Sefrioui was decorated Knight of the Order of the Throne (Wissam Al Arch de l’Ordre de Chevalier) by His Majesty King Mohammed VI.
Samir Abdelkrim is a Blogger, an Entrepreneur and an Innnovation Consultant. Samir specializes in African startups, Emerging Markets Ecosystems and Diaspora Entrepreneurship. Multicultural, curious, and passionate, he launched StartupBRICS.com in 2013, the 1st French-speaking blog covering the Startup scene in Emerging countries, from Africa to Asia to Russia. Samir has been travelling for 7 months across 15 countries in Africa in order to meet incubators and startups for his new project called TECHAfrique (http://techafrique.co). After meeting hundreds of African startups and dozens of tech hubs, Samir is deeply engaged in the African start-up ecosystem and now creates bridges between Africa, France and MENA. Prior to these current entrepreneurial projects, he worked for over 6 years managing international innovation projects in the MENA region, including in Morocco, Egypt, and Palestine.
After studying 3 years in France in engineering school ( Epitech ), he decided to drop out to focus on his business as he was working and studying at the same time, nevertheless, he still managed to do an Executive Program about leadership in Harvard.
Hamza Aboulfeth is a young Web entrepreneur that started his company Genious Communications at the age of 17.
Hamza is very passionate about entrepreneurship, technology and business in general, in 10 years, Genious Communications, became leader in Web hosting & Domain names in Morocco.
He is a very active member of ICANN, especially in working groups aiming for developing the Domain name industry in Africa and Arab Regions, he has attended many ICANN events around the world.
Hamza is also involved in two other companies, Anonymous which is specialized in VPN services and MyVLE a virtual learning platform.
Social commentator, social entrepreneur and disruptive-thinker, Adnane has committed his life to working in the MENA region, particularly in Morocco, to enable creative thinking, entrepreneurship and innovation for the common good. He has co-founded the Moroccan Center for Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship where he currently serves as Chief Visionary. He is the Country Director for Enactus Morocco, is a World Bank-IMF Fellow, and an active member of the Junior Chamber International. He has delivered talks and conferences to thousands of people on the fields of social innovation and entrepreneurship. Adnane is interested in interfaith dialogue, history and has a business background. He is currently based in Rabat, Morocco.
Lanre Akinola is the head of the editorial team at “This is Africa,” a special publication of the Financial Times, which focuses on the policy and the business environment across the continent, as well as Africa’s strategic relationships with other world regions.He covers a broad range of topics relating to Africa across the fields of business, policy and development. Lanre developed and continues to drive the adoption of social media and other forms of digital media. He helped develop, manage and execute several high-profile events for “This is Africa” and Financial Times Live. He graduated from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London with a BA in Politics. Born and raised in Lagos, Nigeria, Lanre is now based in London.
Akon is an international, multi-award winning hip-hop and R&B recording artist, songwriter and record producer. The Senegalese American has 35 million albums sold worldwide, five Grammy Award nominations, and 45 Billboard Hot 100 songs under his belt. In the aftermath of Akon’ s 2006 release of album Konvicted, Akon garnered the American Music Award for Favourite R&B Male Artist, Teen Choice Award for Breakout Male Artist, three World Music Awards in the categories of Best Selling R&B Male Artist, Best Selling African Artist and Best Selling Internet Artist, and the Billboard Music Award for Artist of the Year. In addition to his own chart-dominating singles “Smack That” and “I Wanna Love You”, he’s made a staggering 300 guest appearances for icons including Michael Jackson, Lady Gaga, Gwen Stefani, Lil Wayne, R. Kelly, and Eminem. Akons latest single So Blue, released in 2013, has already received over 2 million hits on YouTube. The single is from the album Stadium, set to be released this year. He is currently selling out shows globally, most recently in Bangladesh in March, 2014.
Willy launched Les Transports Citadins (LTC) to provide quality transportation and logistics services to Business people and Tourists in Gabon. His 5 years of experience in the logistics and transportation service industry in West-Central Africa allows him to anticipate his client’s needs and provide solutions. He co-founded the young Gabonese Entrepreneurs Association (APJA), which aims to foster an entrepreneurial spirit among young people. His team successfully raised over US$1 million from the African Development Bank (AFDB) to set up the first Gabonese business incubator in partnership with the Gabonese Government and Junior Achievement Gabon. As a former national Basketball player, he is passionate about motivating young people to turn their youthful energy into projects and founded the Basketball Academy Club (BAC), which aims to use sport and education to develop the next generation of African leaders. Willy is the GEW Host for Gabon and a 2014 Nelson Mandela Washington Fellow (Yale University).
Dr. Abood Al Sawafi has been in a senior management position in Higher Education for more than 15 years. He has been successful in strategically fostering both academic and financial growth in the institutions for which he has worked. Dr. Abood is now the Vice Chancellor of A’Sharqiyah University after having served as the Vice Chancellor of Sohar University in his previous post. He has been a member of the Omani Research Council and is a Chair of the Industrial and Energy Grant committee of the Research Council. He is also a Chair of the Training Committee at the North Sharqiyah Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry section. Prior to joining Sohar University as Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Abood served for six years as Dean at Majan (University) College and Associate College of the University of Luton. Dr. Al Sawafi holds a B.Sc. Electrical Engineering – Electronics (Communications) from Bahrain University (1981-1985). He earned a Ph.D. in the same field from the University of Bradford in 1993. He also gained an MBA in 2006 from the University of Luton.
Hicham Amadi is the CEO of 2WLS, a company he founded in 2004 in Casablanca to help companies retain their customers increasingly volatile and highly competitive in the new Internet environment. With the explosion of e-commerce, this vision has become increasingly strategic, and has enabled the company to grow rapidly and steadily.
Richard Attias, born in 1959 in Morocco, was educated as a Civil Engineer and spent some years in the field of computing and information technology first at IBM then at Econocom, where he occupied the post of general manager in France and Japan. In 1990 he turned to consultancy for business in communication and strategy.
For almost 25 years, Richard Attias has advised his clients, States, governments and international groups on communication strategy, investment, international development and image.
Now the head of Richard Attias & Associates, www.richardattiasandassociates.com founded in 2009, Richard Attias designs and implements platforms for dialogue, information exchange and call for action in the economic, social, sports and political fields.
In recent years this has led to the creation of the New York Forum, the New York Forum Africa and the Doha GOALS Forum in particular.
Prior to this, at the head of Publicis Events Worldwide and Publicis Live, for more than 15 years Richard Attias organised the Davos Forum, all the regional summits of the World Economic Forum, the Clinton Global Initiative and more than 1000 events and initiatives for both the public and private sectors.
In January 2014, the WPP group, the world’s leading communication group took a 30% share in the capital of Richard Attias & Associates.
Tribal Planet’s Founder and CEO is Jeff Martin, a seasoned Silicon Valley executive who has spent his career applying innovation to multimedia product design. Referenced by the San Francisco Chronicle as Steve Jobs’ “marketing whiz,” Martin spent ten years at Apple, six of which he was Head of Music, Entertainment, and Marketing. Jeff Martin was instrumental in the strategy and marketing for the iMac and Mac OS X, and the strategy for iPhoto and iTunes.
In 2001, Martin founded Tribal Brands, Inc., the first company to drive one billion dollars in mobile-based sales for the entertainment industry through several global carrier alliances. Martin led the merger of Tribal Brands and Tribal Technologies to launch Tribal Planet in 2014 – a company focusing on increasing mobile mindshare meaningfully.
(Lady) Kinvara Balfour is a creative director, producer, writer and entrepreneur. As an interpreter of global cultural trends with a focus on tech, fashion and popular culture, she is considered a key influencer and 'consultant of cool' for brands around the world.
As of February 2014, Balfour hosts Fashion in Conversation for Apple Inc. in UK and USA, a series of interviews with global icons like Vogue Editor-in-Chief, Anna Wintour; blogger Scott Schuman, aka The Sartorialist; and fashion designers Zac Posen.
Kinvara is currently developing a fashion-based docu-series for TV in USA/UK.
Kinvara trained as an actress at Central School of Speech & Drama and has written several plays. Her first, ‘Dazed & Abused’, was staged in Edinburgh, London and New York. In 2013, she performed in the experimental stage show ‘You Me Bum Bum Train’. She is an advocate for London’s Royal Court Theatre.
Stéphane Bacquaert is a Managing Director with Wendel, a French family holding with a 300-year history, listed on the Euronext with €10Bn asset under management. Stephane joined Wendel in 2005. He is a member of the group Investment Committee and CEO of Wendel Africa. He currently serves on the boards of Bureau Veritas, Mecatherm, Saham Group and IHS Africa.
He was previously a Partner at Atlas Venture, an international venture capital fund with $2.5Bn under management, where he specialized in new technologies, telecoms and media. He began his career at Bain & Company, a leading strategy consulting firm, where he conducted studies in the telecom, banking and private equity industry in Europe and Central America. He then co-founded and led NetsCapital, an investment bank specialized in TMT. Stéphane Bacquaert graduated from the Ecole Centrale Paris and the Institut d’Etudes Politiques Paris, and holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School (Baker Scholar).
Akram is a tech entrepreneur and a former investment banker with extensive experience in product management and deal structuring. He spent the first decade of his career as a Silicon Valley banker at Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, and UBS where he was Vice President of investments. He then moved to Advanced Equities, a technology focused investment bank, as a Senior Vice President of private equity where he led several growth stage financing deals for technology companies. In 2009 Akram moved on to found his first startup Social IQ – an innovative influence marketing platform based in San Diego. Active in the MENA region as well, Akram is the co-founder and President of Elbotola.com the #1 Sports news portal in Morocco. He’s also the co-founder of Techwadi.org a Silicon Valley based non-profit organization with the mission of building bridges between Silicon Valley and the MENA region. Akram holds a B.S and an M.S in Economics, and an MBA from the University of Southern California – Marshall School of business.
Kola Karim is the Group Managing Director/CEO of Shoreline Energy International Ltd (a leading energy and infrastructure company focused on Sub Saharan Africa). His current portfolio consists of business in the construction, commodity trading, agro-allied products, oil and gas, and the engineering and power sectors.
As a strategic business enthusiast, Mr. Karim has ventured into the upstream oil & gas exploration sector with Shoreline Natural Resource (OML 30). OML 30 is the premier asset available in Nigeria, the second largest onshore field, by crude reserves. He has also acquired a foothold in the food (QSR), cosmetics, retail, entertainment and technology industry. In addition, he is the current Chairman of African Eagle PLC, Costain West Africa Plc and Nigerian Ropes Plc. He serves as director in seven other companies. He is a Young Global Leader Award Honoree (2008), a pioneer and an active member of the Global Agenda Council on Emerging Multinationals of the World Economic Forum.
Dr. Naif Al‐Mutawa is the creator of THE 99, the first group of comic superheroes born of an Islamic archetype. He holds a PhD in Clinical Psychology and completed his Masters from Long Island University, an MBA degree from Columbia University and a Masters in Organizational Psychology from Teacher’s College, Columbia University.
Dr. Al-Mutawa was named one of '500 Most Influential Muslims in the World' by The Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre, Jordan every year from 2009-2013. He also won ‘The Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneurship Award’ for 2009 and was named a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum in 2011.
Chinwe Effiong is President - Africa Region, for Junior Achievement (JA) Worldwide. She oversees and provides strategic direction for JA operations in sub-Saharan Africa and works closely with government and private sector stakeholders to raise awareness and promote support for programs that enable young people in Africa to improve their livelihoods and take control of their future.
Prior to joining JA, Chinwe served as Director of Programs for Discovery Channel Global Education Partnership in Silver Spring, MD. She also worked for several years and in various positions of increasing responsibility at Africare including five years as Africare's Country Representative in Nigeria.
Chinwe started her professional career as an Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Relations at Lincoln University, Pennsylvania and holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in International Relations from the University of Delaware and a Bachelor of Arts in English and Literary Studies from the University of Calabar, Nigeria.
Tas Anvaripour, a Turkish-American, is the CEO of Africa50, Africa’s largest and most important infrastructure delivery initiative. Previously, she was the Director of Business Development at the African Development Bank where she had led the design, structuring and establishment of Africa50 among other initiatives. Prior to this position she was the Head for Private Infrastructure Finance, where she was in charge of the Bank’s private sector investments in the Energy, Transport, Water, and ICT sectors. A strategy mastermind, Tas honed her deal origination and portfolio management skills at the Asian Development Bank, Arthur Andersen LLP and PriceWaterHouse Coopers.
She has 26 years of industry experience, and in the past six years she has closed over 6 billion dollars in infrastructure projects in key emerging markets. In 2012, the African Business Magazine and the Commonwealth Business Council nominated Tas as one of the Top 5 Most Outstanding Women of the Year at the African Business Awards. A World Bank Fellow, Tas holds a BSc in Finance from Ankara University in Turkey and an MA in Economics and Policy Management from Columbia University.
Koffi Fabrice Djossou is the Africa Liaison of ZACR, a South African based entity. ZACR performs the technical and administrative functions of the ZA Central Registry (Internet registry and infrastructure), which includes the administration of the CO.ZA domain name space and also the dotAfrica geographic Top Level Domain under the African Union leadership.
Also an IEEE member, Koffi is a telecommunication engineer with more than 10 years experience in ICT related to project management, strategy and policy development. For more info : www.registry.net.za
Elé Asu is a French TV journalist and video producer born in Calabar Nigeria.
She holds a degree in English, and is a graduate of the Institute of Political Studies of Strasbourg. She started her career at the Ministry of Culture in Paris, before joining the Canal+ media group as a news anchor in 2006. She now also presents « REUSSITE », the first French program dedicated to African economies, and regularly hosts international corporate events.
Khalid Abdulla Janahi is currently the Group Chief Executive of Dar Al Mal Al Islami Trust (DMI Trust) with over 30 years’ of experience in banking and financial services. He is also the Chairman of Faisal Private Bureau (Switzerland), the Islamic Investment Company of the Gulf (Bahamas) Ltd; Solidarity Group Holding; Ithmaar Development Company and Naseej B.S.C. Mr. Janahi is a board member of Faisal Islamic bank of Egypt and Ithmaar Bank. Mr. Janahi was previously a Partner of PWC, Vice-Chairman of the Arab Business Council, World Economic Forum and a member of the Bahrain Economic Development Board and has served on a number of other boards including Centre for International Business and Management, University of Cambridge.
Mr Janahi holds a BSc in Computer Science & Accountancy from the University of Manchester and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants (UK).
As an agronomist and crop physiologist for the last thirty-eight years, Dr. Mohammed El Mourid has worked on crop production, irrigation, cropping systems, drought resistance in cereals, crop modeling, farming systems, community and local development and technology transfer as well as in research management and coordination at national (Morocco) and international levels. As regional Coordinator for North Africa ICARDA since 1999, Mohammed has coordinated more than 50 regional and sub regional research/development projects and contributed to the development of agricultural strategies and research for development projects in the Maghreb and Sub-Sahara Africa. He is a strong proponent of South-South Cooperation and agricultural-rural science based development. Mohammed is also an active member of several scientific and professional associates. He has been the recipient of several awards and authored and co-authored more than 120 peer-reviewed publications, book chapters, and conference papers.
Ethel Cofie is a tech entrepreneur with extensive experience in Europe and Africa. As a Mandela Fellow for President Obama's Young African Leaders initiative, she was recently featured on BBC and CNN for her work. She has international experience working on a variety of projects including the Bill and Melinda Gates Mobile Technology for Health project, the Ford Foundation's Election Monitoring project for Nigeria, and was head of Commercial Solutions at Vodafone.
She is the founder of Women in Tech Ghana, initiator of the first ever Pan African woman-in-tech meet up. Her latest project is an Accelerator (www.africatwenty10.com) for startups launching in multiple African markets. Read her thoughts on her blog, http://blog.ethelcofie.com, Twitter @missedcofie.
Honored by TIME Magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential People for his nonprofit work with EFE, Mr. Bruder began as a serial entrepreneur with businesses in real estate, travel, pharmaceuticals and energy. In 1977 he founded The Brookhill Group, which owns and manages properties throughout the US, creating investment partnerships to develop shopping centers, office buildings and multi-family homes. At the World Economic Forum in Tianjin, he was named a Schwab Foundation Global Social Entrepreneur for his work in founding EFE. He has served as a delegate of the Council on Foreign Relations to the Jeddah Economic Forum, and a contributor to the US-Islamic World Forum in Doha, Qatar. He has spoken at the Clinton Global Initiative, World Economic Forum and United Nations, among others. Mr. Bruder earned his BA from Adelphi University, MBA from New York University, and Post Master in Accounting & Taxation from Iona College.
Chief Executive Officer of Silatech, an innovative regional organization that promotes the economic empowerment of Arab youth through employment, enterprise development, and entrepreneurship with operations in 15 countries.
He served between 2006 and 2010 as the Founding Dean of the Dubai School of Government, and between 1998 and 2006 at Georgetown University as Sheikh Al Sabah Professor of Arab Studies in the School of Foreign Service.
He received his Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University. Recent publications include the forthcoming volumes: Public Sector Reform in the Middle East and North Africa: The Lessons of Experience (World Bank, 2014); Young Generation Awakening: Economics, Society and Policy on the Eve of the Arab Spring (Oxford University Press, 2015).
His policy experience includes working at the IMF, the World Bank and the UN. At present, he is nonresident Senior Fellow at Brookings; and member of the Board of Directors of the Qatar Development Fund, and the Central Bank of Libya.
Barclay Paul is a 22-year-old entrepreneur who is the Founder/CEO of Impact Africa Industries, a three-year-old company that manufactures affordable sanitary pads for women at the bottom of the socio-economic pyramid. The company employs 34 staff members and currently distributes within Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan and Tanzania. Before founding Impact Africa Industries, he helped found two other start-ups, SkypeScience and Marketplace, which had mixed success. He started his first company at 15 years old. Barclay is an author of the book MarketPlace, which gives start-ups advice on how to navigate the early days of running a company.
He was named a World Economic Forum Global Shaper in 2013 and was an Anzisha Prize winner - the African Oscars for young entrepreneurs – in the same year. He is a Spark Fellow, named one of the social entrepreneurs to watch (Under35CEO), a Remarkable25 Under 25 Young African Entrepreneur, and one of Forbes’ 30 Most Promising Entrepreneurs under 30. He has a Bachelor degree in Commerce with a major in Finance from the University of Nairobi.
Dr. Abdulhasan Al-Dairi is the Chairman of Bahrain SMEs Society since 2006, a founding member and shareholder of various companies. He is a researcher and practitioner in the field of entrepreneurship and SMEs development for more than twenty years.
With PhD in Entrepreneurship and MBA in Marketing Management, in addition to his Family-Business background, Dr. Al-Dairi enjoys a wealth of experience in private and public sectors as well as an accumulated teaching and training best practises in banking, vocational and academic higher institutions. He is also well known for introducing the entrepreneurship education to tertiary level students in Bahrain since 1990s.
He has extended his services to the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the International Council for Small Business (ICSB), the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the Arab Union of Small Enterprises (AUSE), the GCC Union of Entrepreneurs (GCCUE), the National Coordination Committee for SMEs Development at the Kingdom of Bahrain (Chaired by the Minister of Industry & Commerce, Kingdom of Bahrain) and the Bahrain Chamber of Commerce & Industry (BCCI) SMEs and HRD Committees, few to mention.
He is also the Founder of the annual ‘SMEs Day Forum’ since 2010 as well as the Founding Board Member and Treasurer of Ebtikar (Innovation) Bahrain Association.
Dr. Al-Dairi currently serves as the Manager of Stakeholder Relations at the Bahrain Polytechnic University, which he joined in 2010 after his previous post as the Director of Community Centres in the Kingdom of Bahrain.
Catherina Ballout is the Operations Manager/Levant & GCC Lead at the MIT Enterprise Forum Pan Arab, one of the 28 worldwide chapters of the MIT Enterprise Forum Global - an avid promoter of entrepreneurship and innovation worldwide.
Catherina also leads the MIT Enterprise Forum Arab Startup Competition (www.mitarabcompetition.com). It is the biggest entrepreneurship competition in the region targeting 21 Arab countries, bringing in more than 5,000 applications every year from all industries, and engaging entrepreneurs in mentorship and networking.
Prior joining the MIT Enterprise Forum Pan Arab in 2010, Catherina was a member of the National Committee of the Francophone Games when Lebanon was the host. She was also part of the Darwazah Center for innovation management and entrepreneurship at the Olayan School of Business.
Catherina holds a Bachelor degree in Business Administration and Marketing from the American University of Beirut.
In 1995 at age 22 he started Youngstars Foundation in a local barbershop in Jos, Plateau state that has grown to have its headquarters in Abuja and an office in Accra, Ghana. He works to develop young people and strengthen youth organizations in the areas of democratic governance, entrepreneurship and leadership. Since its inception, Youngstars has conducted over 60 workshops, 500 stepdown workshops and over 100 radio and television programs. Youngstars conducts the oldest annual youth democracy-training program in Nigeria currently in its 10th year – www.desplay.org. Youngstars has also founded Nigeria’s first political leadership preparatory program for youth, called “Young Aspirants Leadership Fellowship – YALF.” They are currently piloting Nigeria’s first youth online television channel www.youthtvafrica.com. Kingsley has also launched Thinking School Africa, which is held annually in Dubai, and fosters innovative thinking among youth. Kingsley is an ASHOKA Fellow, a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, UNDP Innovation Consultant, an Alumnus of the Harvard Kennedy Leadership School of Public Policy, a fellow of Yale University 21st Century Leadership Module, as well as a Fellow of the Stanford Democracy and Leadership Program.
Karim Bernoussi has over twenty-five years of technical and managerial experience, both abroad and in Morocco, in the public as well as in a multinationals. Today, he is the CEO of Intelcia Group, a company he co-founded.
Holder of an engineering degree from the “École Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications” in Paris (1987), Mr Bernoussi began his career abroad before returning to Morocco in 1991 to take up the position of Head of Service for the Commercial Network of ONPT (National Office of Post and Telecommunications).
In 1992 he joined the Private Office of His Majesty King Hassan II for the creation of Al Akhawayn University as the Head of Organisation. He was in charge of establishing the university’s IT systems, implementing the administrative organisation, and launching the recruitment campaign for university employees and teaching staff.
In 2000, he joined Microsoft as Managing Director for Morocco, then later attained the role of Regional Director of Microsoft North Africa, heading up Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia and launching Microsoft’s activities in Mauritania and Libya.
In 2006, Mr Bernoussi became President of Intelcia Group. In less than six years Intelcia became the Moroccan leader in outsourcing.
A visionary for social entrepreneurship and an advocate for women's development for more than 30 years, Dr. Iman Bibars is Vice President of Ashoka Global and Regional Director of Ashoka Arab World.
Bibars has participated in the Obama Presidential Summit on Leadership, served as a member of the Clinton Global Initiative and worked with Amr Moussa both when he was Egyptian Ambassador to the United Nations and during his recent Presidential campaign.
She is also the co-founder and current chairperson of the Association for the Development and Enhancement of Women (ADEW), Egypt’s very first microfinance organization that provides credit and legal aid for impoverished female heads of household.
Bibars is the author of several books on gender issues including Victims and Heroines: Women, Welfare and the Egyptian State, and The Women of Tahrir, which details the most recent experiences of women during the Egyptian uprising. Bibars also published one of the first books written in Arabic on US President Barack Obama– Dreams of a Good Fellow.
Hicham Bouzekri received his Engineer diploma in electronics and communications from the Ecole Mohammadia d'Ingénieurs in 1995. After two years working as a microelectronics industrial process engineer for SGS-Thomson in Casablanca, he was awarded a Fulbright scholarship in 1997 to join the Master’s of Science program of the University of Florida, Gainesville from which he graduated in 1998. He obtained a Ph.D. from Texas A&M University, College Station in 2002. After graduating, he was among the pioneers who started STMicroelectronics’ Rabat IC Design center, a first in Africa. He served as ST-Ericsson representative at USB-IF Board of Directors and as their representative in MIPI. In 2013 he joined Mascir, a Moroccan, publicly funded, non for profit foundation conducting market oriented R&D in Microelectronics, Biotechnology & Nanomaterials, where he still serves as interim General Manager. He co-founded and currently serves as the president of the Morocco Microelectronics Cluster, a government backed non-for-profit Industry-Academic consortium.
Candida G. Brushis Professor of Entrepreneurship, Chair of the Entrepreneurship Division, holds the Franklin W. Olin Chair in Entrepreneurship, and serves as Research Director of the Arthur M. Blank Center at Babson College. She was awarded an honorary doctorate from Jonkoping University, Jonkoping, Sweden in 2010, and is a visiting adjunct at Nordlands University, Bodo Graduate School of Business. Brush is a founding member of the Diana Project International, and winner of the 2007 the International Award for Entrepreneurship and Small Business Research, the foremost global award for entrepreneurship research. Her research investigates growth oriented women entrepreneurs, angel investing and strategies of emerging ventures. Her research was funded by National Science Foundation, U.S. Small Business Administration, and Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. She has authored 11 books, 140 journal articles and publications. She is a Senior Editor for Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, an angel investor and board member for several companies and organizations.
Jaime Malet is a business leader with a strong background in international relations. He is the CEO of 32 Telam, a Spanish consulting firm providing actionable guidance to large multinationals and fast growth companies in transportation, energy, IT and finance. The company is associated with 32 Advisors (www.32advisors.com) headquartered in NYC. Jaime is also senior advisor of CISCO Systems for Latin America. He is a member of the International Board of APCO Worldwide. As elected Chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in Spain (AmChamSpain) during more than 12 years, Jaime plays a crucial role in improving relations between US and Spain and leading advocacy efforts in competitiveness. He is member of the Advisory Board of the Spanish Federation of Businesses (CEOE) and of other Companies' and non-profit organizations' boards. Education: JD University of Barcelona; Master of Laws (LLM) University of Houston; Executive Program of Business Administration (PADE) IESE; Master Tax ESADE.
Honored by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader, Ajay Chaturvedi, is an ex-Citi employee where he served in Strategy and Sales positions in Cards and Consumer banking verticals. An Engineer from BITS Pilani and a Graduate in Management of Technology from the School of Engineering and The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Ajay holds a Diploma in Global Leadership & Public Policy from The Harvard Kennedy School of Government.Ajay was awarded CNN IBN Youth Icon / Young Indian Leader of the year 2011, was nominated as one of the Amazing Global Indians by Times Now News 2012-13, and a Yahoo unsung Hero 2012-13. He has also been honored as an Iconic Youth 2014 by Rotary International and chosen as one of the 50 most creative leaders across the world to attend THNK, The Creative School of Amsterdam's Accelerator program for Creative Leaders. Ajay was felicitated by the BITS Pilani in the golden jubilee celebrations as on of the 50 most inspiring alumni in 50 years. Ajay is also an ambassador of the Power of Youth initiative of Scotland.
Yassir Chakib, a Moroccan and French citizen, is the Founder of Etoile Capital, a new investment venture that aims to help French Entrepreneurs develop their projects and concepts in Morocco. Yassir is also the founder and ex CEO of PAYTOP/Flouss.com, a leading payment company in France. As an innovative and results-driven leader and entrepreneur, he is an expert in regulated Finance and Telecom sectors. He is also a Business Angel in Hi-Tech and Payment Sectors. Yassir is an Engineer, holds an MBA from HEC Paris and speaks four languages fluently. He was invited as a guest speaker by World Band (RIO 2011), OSEO-China Jiangsu Conference, (Shanghai 2012), and Banque de France.
Ibrahima Cheikh Diong is the Founder and CEO of the Dakar-based pan-African management consulting and commercial facilitation firm, Africa Consulting and Trading (ACT). Mr. Diong also advised the Middle East and Africa Region Department of the Corporate and Investment Banking Unit of BNP Paribas. He served in July 2007 as Minister, Special Adviser to the President of the Republic of Senegal. He was appointed in May 2010 as Managing Director of the International Cooperation of Senegal and in February 2011 as Permanent Secretary of Energy of Senegal.
Mr Diong served as the first Chairman of the Board of Senegal Airlines. Previously, he served as a Manager in the Africa Department of the International Finance Corporation and as Regional Coordinator for Africa of the World Bank-managed multi-donor facility, the Public Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility. Before that, Mr. Diong worked for Booz Allen and Hamilton where he led the Africa privatization business and served as an independent consultant to a number of private, bilateral and multilateral organizations and NGOs.
Issam Chleuh is the Founder & CEO at Africa Impact Group. AIG is influencing the growth of impact investing in Africa by channeling investments in startups, social enterprises and SMEs as the best solution for Africa’s development. AIG is a multiservice firm specialized in advisory, intermediation, research and BIG DATA.Issam has been featured on Forbes 30 Most Promising Young Entrepreneurs in Africa, CNN Top Entrepreneurs, Youth Village Top 30 Most Inspirational Young people in Africa, Take Part magazine 10 Amazing Millennials Who Are Saving the World and Young People in International Affairs (YPIA) 2014 Top 35 Africans Under 35. A native of Mali, Issam grew up in Mauritania, Guinea, Benin, Morocco, Mali, Republic of Congo, Ghana, Senegal, Saudi Arabia and the USA.Issam has a Bachelor in Finance from Suffolk University Boston and a Master in Accounting from the University of Notre Dame.
Omar Christidis is the Founder & CEO of ArabNet, the leading events & media company focused on the Arab web and mobile industry. ArabNet organizes the leading conferences for the digital sector in MENA including the ArabNet Digital Summit, the premier international gathering for Arab digital professionals and entrepreneurs. The Summit was held for the fourth time in Dubai in June 2013 and brought together more than 800 attendees from 35 countries and received more than 9,100 tweets and 42,800 hits on the live-steam.In 2012, Omar was selected by GulfNews Magazine as one of its “30 under 30" list. He is a graduate of Yale University and the Co-Founder of the Yale Arab Alumni Association.
As a young entrepreneur Amine Chouaieb displayed a lot of talent leading his young innovative company to the top of the international start-up scene and winning a large number of awards worldwide. Graduating from business and engineering school, Amine worked as a consultant for two major French corporations before launching his own business, Chifco.
Based between Paris and Tunis, Chifco is a customer engagement platform that reinvents the way utilities, telecommunications companies, and facility managers interact with customers in order to create value over IOT (internet of things) data, targeting security, energy, device management and healthcare…
He is member of Global Shapers Tunisia (World Economic Forum), board member of the Symboles foundation, winner of Maghreb UC Berkley Intel Global Challenge, winner of the best Tunisian company in terms of energy savings (Tunisian government), 3rd place award of the African Social venture by Orange (Africom), ranked top 100 business man in Tunisia by Enterprise magazine and ranked top 10 young leaders in the Middle East by Elan magazine.
Graduated from HEC Paris, Youssef Chraibi was 24 years old, when he cofounded, in 2000, Marketo.com, a leading online B2B marketplace. The start-up raised 10 m€ from Bernard Arnault internet found, before being sold to Vivendi Universal 2 years later. He then worked as a strategy consultant in the CRM industry. In 2003, he founded Outsourcia, a contact center, BPO, ITO, Social Media Management provider. Outsourcia was the first Moroccan company investing in the French BPO market via an M&A operation. The group employs today 800 people in Morocco and France in 6 platforms, working for leading companies as Carrefour, GDF Suez or Total. In 2010, Youssef is nominated president of the morocco CRM federation. In the same year, the International Trade Commission (an agency of the United Nations Organization) attributed him the first Medays Young Entrepreneurship Award. In 2012, Outsourcia received from World Intellectual Property Organziation, the first Price of the moroccan brand expanding internationally.
Maria Contreras-Sweet became the 24th Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration and a member of President Obama’s Cabinet on April 7, 2014.
Prior to her arrival in Washington, Contreras-Sweet founded the first Latino-formed commercial bank in California in more than 35 years.
She was the first Latina to hold a state cabinet post in California. As Secretary of Business, Transportation and Housing Agency, she managed 13 departments, including Caltrans, the California Highway Patrol, the Department of Motor Vehicles and the Department of Financial Institutions.
Contreras-Sweet
entered the private sector as the director of public affairs for Westinghouse’s
7-Up / RC Bottling Company. She was a founding director of The California
Endowment, a multi-billion dollar philanthropic health foundation, and Hispanas
Organized for Political Equality (HOPE), a nonprofit dedicated to encouraging
Latinas to engage more fully in the democratic process.
Born in Guadalajara, Mexico, Contreras-Sweet is a first-generation immigrant who came to America at age 5 with her mother and five siblings.
Isabel dos Santos is an Angolan businesswoman and entrepreneur.
Since 2008 she has had relevant interests in telecommunications, media, retail, finance and the energy industry, both in Angola and in Portugal.
She is the Chairman of Unitel, one of Angola’s two mobile phone networks, where she started working in 1998 as a project manager.
Isabel also is a Director on board of Angola’s Banco BIC.
In Portugal, she is a board Director in NOS, a listed cable TV company, and holds an interest per in Banco BPI, one of Portugal’s largest publicly traded banks.
Isabel attended St Paul's Girls School in London, and holds a degree in Engineering from King’s College, London University.
Tebogo Ditshego is the CEO of public relations agency Ditshego Media and one of Forbes Magazine’s top 30 African Entrepreneurs under the age of 30. He has excelled in the public relations industry for over eight years. In 2014 Tebogo Ditshego completed the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) and was also named as one of the top 200 Young South Africans by the Mail and Guardian.
In 2006 and 2007 he was elected twice to serve in the University of Johannesburg’s Student Representative Council. He is the founder of South Africa’s most followed reading initiative @ReadAbookSA, which has more than 10,000 books recommended by its followers. @ReadabookSA is a project that falls under the South African Reading Foundation, of which Tebogo Ditshego is the Founder and Chairperson. Tebogo is a former freelance journalist writing for Avusa Media publications such as the Business Day, Sowetan and Sunday Times and he holds an Honours in Communications and Media Studies from the University of Johannesburg.
Started his professional career in 2003 in China, where he successfully developed and mass manufactured complex products for brands such LVMH, RIVA, Shanghai Tang as well as several European Union government bodies (Army and Post Office). Camile has great expertise in high-tech and luxury product development, which blends techniques, aesthetics, durability and functionality.
Mastering the language of Confucius, he succeeded in working in symbiosis with several industries, helping them to improve their production techniques and above all he has the talent of being able to coordinate technically and culturally complex projects.
Born entrepreneur, In 2011, he got the inspiration to create from scratch and launch the first Moroccan Surf brand. MOOR”S Surfboards was born.
Since its launch in 2012, the brand has been nominated twice at the Morocco Awards for best innovating brand and the best product design. The brand is distributed in Morocco and internationally: Hawaii, Europe, soon California and Bali.
Camile, earned an MBA from EM LYON, he speaks Chinese, French, English and Arabic, he spends his time between Asia (his permanent home in Hong Kong), Morocco (his home country) and the rest of the world for the development of MOOR”S and other specific consulting jobs for prestigious brands and industrial groups.
As the chairman of FASMICRO Group with stakes in electronics, semiconductors, IT, finance, and real estate, Dr. Ekekwe holds seven academic degrees including a PhD in Electrical/Computer engineering from the Johns Hopkins University. He graduated top of his class with a Bachelors in Engineering from Federal University of Technology, Owerri Nigeria. In Analog Devices, he worked on a generation XL for iPhone and created the company's first wafer-level-chip- scale package for inertial sensors. He blogs in Harvard Business Review, and previously served in the United States National Science Foundation Engineering Research Committee. Dr. Ekekwe is a Board member of Temple & Aegean Das, a Lagos-based investment-banking firm and Co-Chairman of JPL Financial Group, a US/China-based financial advisory firm for Chinese investors in Africa. An inventor, TED Fellow, World Economic Forum "Young Global Leader", Dr. Ekekwe holds/held professorships at Babcock University and Carnegie Mellon University.
Walid EL ALAOUI MRANI is the Founder and CEO of Azur Systems, a Moroccan innovative company specialized in event management software and Globaya, a hotels distribution system connected to more than 50 000 hotels worldwide.
Walid have been involved in the Moroccan entrepreneurial ecosystem for the ten years :
In 2004, he launched several social entrepreneurship projects as ENACTUS team leader,
In 2006, he’s finalist of a national TV show « Challengers » broadcasted in 2M TV
In 2009 he launched his first startup in parallel with his studies in France.
In 2012, his company is granted a interests free loan of 1 million by the moroccan center for innovation
In 2013, he started expanding the business to GCC countries
In 2014, his company is selected among 17 arab startups to take part of « the arab world meets silicon valley » program organized by the MIT Enterprise forum
He graduated from a Moroccan engineering school (ENSIAS) with a major in Business intelligence and from a French business school (ESCP Europe) with a double major in entrepreneurship and market finance.
Before launching his start-up, he worked for Dell computers in France and Canada as a business analyst, and then worked as a fixed income trader in an investment bank.
He launched Azur Systems in 2009. The company is growing fast, with an average annual growth of 200%, it employs 10 engineers and has a portfolio of 30 clients.
Mourad Elajouti has extensive experience in community work and was elected member of the Moroccan children’s parliament at the age of 12. He participated in several conferences organized bynational and international organizations such as UNESCO, USAID, and Action Aid Denmark, and received training in group management, conflict management, strategic planning and corporate communications. Mourad holds a BA degree in Mathematics, MA degree in Euro-Mediterranean studies, and obtained a grant from the European commission to pursue an MA degree in Financial Management and European law, He is distinguished by his environmental initiatives and commitment to green entrepreneurship.
Mohamed Touhami El Ouazzani was appointed General Manager for VISA Morocco and Francophone Africa in 2008. His main role is to develop corporate country growth strategies and drive long-term business planning in Morocco and Francophone Africa. A key function area in his role is the management of strategic relationships with key financial institutions, industry partners and government bodies.
El Ouazzani joined Visa in 2006 to head the Corporate Relations function for the Middle East and North Africa. Prior to Visa, El Ouazzani spent eight years at Goodyear Worldwide working as Head of Sales, Marketing and Communications and was also a Professor of Marketing and Communication at l’Ecole Supérieure de Gestion and l’Ecole Nationale de Commerce et de Gestion in Casablanca. He graduated with an MBA in Marketing and Management from Ecole Superieure de Gestion Paris and London University in 1997. He is also a certified Dale Carnegie management coach and holds a Bankcard Management certificate from Cambridge University.
Marilyn Diamond is the Honorary Consul General for Morocco in Chicago and has held this position since 2010. She promotes business, cultural, and education initiatives between individuals and institutions in Chicago and Morocco. She is also the Former Co-Chair of the Chicago/Casablanca Sister Cities Program, 2001-2014 and current Board Member. Marilyn sits on the Executive Board of Directors of The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, an Independent, non partisan, organization committed to the discourse on global issues, through contributions to opinion and policy formation. She is also on the Board of Advisors of The Crown Center for Middle East Studies, Brandeis University. Additionally, Marilyn is on the Board of Friends of Al Akhawayn University, Ifrane Morocco.
Managing Partner & Head of Research at Young Digitals, an Italy-based creative agency with a focus on digital brand communication in emerging markets.
Sam Goldman co-founded d.light in 2007 and served as the company’s founding CEO. During his tenure as CEO, he raised over $11 million in funding, started the India sales and marketing division, and oversaw multiple launches of products, including the award-winning S250 and S10. Sam has been selected as an Ashoka Fellow and World Economic Forum Young Global Leader; he was also recognized by Forbes as one of the world’s top 30 social entrepreneurs. Prior to d.light, he founded and managed multiple ventures in Africa, including improved agriculture and construction businesses, a for-profit NGO cultivating the miracle tree Moringa oleifera, and the distribution of low-cost latrines, cook stoves and rain water catchment cisterns. Sam has lived in Cameroon, Mauritania, Pakistan, Peru, India, Rwanda, Canada, Hong Kong, and the United States. After graduating with degrees in Biology and Environmental Studies from the University of Victoria, Canada, he earned an MBA from Stanford.
Asmaa was born in Morocco in 1986. She moved to France after high school to study entrepreneurship in one of the top French business schools. Asmaa worked as a management consultant at PwC in Paris for 4 years following graduation.
After this first professional experience, Asmaa decided to make a major change in her professional life.
Today, Asmaa is Connector at OuiShare, a global community, think-tank and do-tank with the mission to build a collaborative society. As a strong believer in the power of collaboration and social entrepreneurship, Asmaa is developing the OuiShare community in Paris and has started a new one in Morocco, her birth country, where the startup ecosystem and entrepreneurship culture are beginning to grow. She is also co-chair of OuiShare Fest 2015, one of the world greatest conferences about the collaborative economy. The third edition will take place from May 20th to 22nd 2015 in Paris.
Anas Guennoun has over 14 years of experience in Private Equity and Investment Banking in sectors such as insurance, energy, agribusiness, media and retail.
He is a member of The Abraaj Group’s investment team in North Africa and is responsible for the Group’s partner companies as well as for sourcing and executing investments in Morocco.
Prior to joining The Abraaj Group, he spent over 10 years within Société Générale in the M&A department in France and in private equity in Morocco.
Mr. Guennoun holds a Master’s degree in Finance from Paris Dauphine University.
Chonchol Gupta is the Chief Executive Officer and Founder of
Rebirth Financial, Inc.- America’s first peer-to-business lending platform. Since
2010, company has been recognized as one of the most important alternative financial
innovations in America, and was called “An Idea to Change the US Finance
System” by the Federal Reserve Bank. Mr. Gupta also serves on the Board of the
North African Economic Research Council; and is the former host of the radio
talk show “Entrepreneur Happy Hour.”
Mr. Gupta is a globally recognized financial
innovator, business-funding expert, trusted consultant to both foreign and
domestic governments, and advisor to public and private financial institutions.
Mr. Gupta earned his MBA, Master of Global Management Degree, and Certificate in Latin American Business Studies from Tulane University, where he also served as President of the Graduate Business Council. He also holds a B.S. in Civil Engineering from West Virginia University, and a B.A. in International Studies from the University of California, Irvine.
After graduating from the Institut des Sciences Politiques et Economiques in Paris, Haddad went on to complete an MBA at Columbia University. In 1977 he joined McCann Erickson and in January 1984 he established his own agency, Al Mona International, which then merged with Tihama, forming TMI in 1987. In that year, TMI signed a franchised agreement with JWT. Under Haddad’s leadership, WPP acquired a majority stake in TMI-JWT in 2000, so the Agency was renamed JWT.
The region’s footprint increased to include all of Africa in 2011 and officially became known as JWT MEA. It still operates under Roy Haddad as Chairman with 27 teams in 24 countries. Always a champion of innovation, Haddad celebrated 35 years in the industry in 2013, 25 of which have been at JWT. Leveraging new technological advances in an imaginative way lies at the very heart of the company’s success. Roy Haddad was appointed Director of WPP, MENA, in July 2012. He is Chairman of Mindshare and Media Com.
Habib is a serial entrepreneur and Founding CEO of Wamda. He is also the founder of Yamli.com and YallaStartup. In 2009, the World Economic Forum recognized Habib as a Young Global Leader and the ArabianBusiness named him one of the most influential Arabs under 30. He currently serves on the Global Agenda Council on fostering entrepreneurship, and advises several startups and non-profits. He holds a Bachelor of Computer and Communication Engineering from the American University in Beirut and a Master's in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California.
Mark Halperin, managing editor of Bloomberg Politics and host of Bloomberg TV’s “With All Due Respect,” has covered every American election since 1988
Prior to joining Bloomberg in 2014, Halperin served as editor-at-large and senior political analyst for TIME, covering politics, elections and government for the magazine and TIME.com. He was also the creator and author of TIME.com’s The Page, a news and analysis tip sheet reporting on current political stories, campaign ads, TV clips, videos and campaign reactions from every news source, along with Halperin’s own analysis.
Prior to joining TIME in April 2007, Halperin worked at ABC News for nearly 20 years, where he covered five presidential elections and served as political director from November 1997 to April 2007.
Additionally, Halperin founded and edited the online publication The Note on abcnews.com, which was characterized as the most influential daily tip sheet in American politics.
Halperin received his BA from Harvard University and resides in New York City with Karen Avrich.
David Hamod has been a prominent and active member of the U.S. business community for nearly three decades. In the past, he worked for the Brookings Institution, IBM, Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), and The New York Times, among others. He has testified before the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives on numerous occasions, and he has been interviewed by CNN, CNBC, NPR, C-Span, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, and others.
Mr. Hamod has served as an advisor to such entities as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Greater Washington Board of Trade, Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE), and others.
Mr. Hamod is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (M.A.) and the University of Iowa (B.A.). A member of Phi Beta Kappa, Mr. Hamod received 15 scholarships, two of which took him to Yale University and the American University in Cairo, Egypt.
Cathy Han is the CEO of 42 Technologies, a San Francisco based big data company for retailers. 42's intuitive platform consolidates multiple data sources, and gives retailers actionable recommendations on how to drive growth and reduce costs. 42 is funded by Y Combinator (early investors in Dropbox, Reddit, and Airbnb), and has presented on stage at New York Fashion Week, TechCrunch Disrupt NYC, Decoded Fashion in Milan, and Hackers on the Runway in Paris.
Prior to founding 42, Cathy worked at Procter & Gamble on the billion-dollar brand Olay, where she specialized in growth strategy and data analytics. Cathy holds a finance degree from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.
Harry has deep knowledge and understanding of the East African ICT landscape, having followed it for the last 18 years. Harry is a founder and publisher of CIO East Africa, an ICT information platform that has a monthly print publication (CIO East Africa), an online ICT portal (www.cio.co.ke) and a series of events including the CIO Executive Breakfast Series, the CIO Golf Series and the CIO 100 Awards and Symposium. He is also a founder and Director of African eDevelopment Resource Centre, where engineers from over 27 African countries have been trained in the last eight years. Harry also founded DEMO Africa 2012 to discover innovative startups from Africa and presenting them to the world. DEMO Africa has since launched 80 startups who have raised over $8million.
Rahaf Harfoush is a Digital Foresight Strategist and New York Times Best Selling Author who has a deep passion for emerging technologies, innovation and digital culture. Her second book “The Decoded Company: Know Your Talent Better Than You Know Your Customers” (Penguin/Portfolio) was released in early 2014. Formerly, Rahaf was the Associate Director of the Technology Pioneer Programme at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland.
Rahaf is also the author of "Yes We Did: An Insider's look at how social media built the Obama brand." She is a World Economic Forum Young Global Shaper, and was named as a 2014 Rising Talent by the Women's Forum for the Economy and Society. She sits on the board of Taking it Global, and is on the advisory boards of companies like Enstituteu.com, OneLeap.to &SyriaDeeply.org. She writes about technology and innovation at The Mark News, Techonomy and The Next Web. Rahaf teaches Innovation and Emerging Business Models for the MBA program at Sciences Po in Paris.
Kerry Healey is President of Babson College, a worldwide leader in entrepreneurial education.
Serving with distinction as the 70th lieutenant governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007, Dr. Healey worked to lead, enact, and implement a wide range of policy and legislative initiatives for the Romney-Healey administration. She co-chaired the state’s Regional Competitiveness Councils, which focused on coordinating economic development and increasing business competitiveness throughout Massachusetts and was a key member of the leadership team that crafted Massachusetts’ first-in-the-nation health care-reform legislation.
From 2009-2013 she was Founding President of the Friends of the Public-Private Partnership for Justice Reform in Afghanistan, a non-profit promoting rule of law by educating young Afghan lawyers and judges and, in 2010, created and hosted “Shining City,” a television series showcasing New England’s cutting-edge scientific and social innovation.
She currently serves as a trustee of the American University of Afghanistan and is a member of the World Economic Forum Global Advisory Committee on Justice.
Mazen Helmy was chosen by Forbes as one of Africa’s most prominent entrepreneurs under 30 in 2014. Mazen was born and raised in Cairo and studied construction engineering at Cairo University. In 2011, Mazen founded The District – one of the first co-working spaces in the region, and the largest in Egypt. Additionally, he is the founding partner of various ventures inside and outside of Egypt, working in different sectors. You can read his blog: www.district-egyptegypt.com, or follow him on Twitter: @mazenh
Moratuoa Hlongwa is a Chartered Accountant and 2014 Mandela Washington Fellow at Yale University who founded of Image Evolution Chartered Accountants, which aims to address lack of solid financial, internal control and corporate governance structures in businesses in Lesotho. She is an Image Consultant who founded Image Evolution Brand Consultants, an organisation which aims to solve lack of personal, corporate and nation branding in Lesotho.
She served her articles at KPMG, became Head of Internal Audit at Nedbank Lesotho and later became partner at New Dawn Chartered Accountants. She is an Audit Committee member of the Central Bank of Lesotho and co-author of the book titled ‘Image Matter’.
Being an ultra marathon runner, through her project ‘Moratuoa Speaks’ - she advocates for healthy lifestyle and strong image principles among girl children and women to build confidence with the aim of increasing number of women in leadership positions.
Jean-Michel Huet graduated from Neoma Business School; Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris and Yale Management School.
Jean-Michel was marketing manager at Orange, then Consultant at PwC and he has working for 10 years at BearingPoint. He is in charge of emerging markets business unit and has launched the office in Morocco. He is an advisor of more than 25 institutions including government, think tanks, utilities, telcos and media companies. In particular, he has worked on incubators, innovation and social development.
He has written more than 400 articles on telecoms, management and ITC impact in Africa (Expansion Management Review, Futuribles, European Business Forum, Questions Internationales, etc.). He has also edited two “notes” (white papers) with the most important French think tank (Ifri) on telecoms and health in Africa. He has also published four books edited by Pearsons education, including “What if Telecoms, …” (2010)
With more than 20 years of experience in law and public policy, including expertise in economic growth and resource management in the United States and around the globe, Dana J. Hyde is the Chief Executive Officer of the Millennium Challenge Corporation. She has served in two administrations and five U.S. Government agencies, including as Associate Director at the Office of Management and Budget, where she led a team that managed more than $150 billion across six cabinet agencies, and as Senior Advisor to Deputy Secretary Jack Lew at the State Department, where she contributed to the first Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review and strengthened the lifesaving work of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief or PEPFAR. She also worked in the White House as Special Assistant to the President for Cabinet Affairs and at the Justice Department as special assistant to two deputy attorneys general. As an attorney, Hyde worked in private practice in London and in Washington, D.C. and served as counsel to the 9/11 Commission. She is a graduate of Georgetown Law School and holds a B.A. in political science from the University of California, Los Angeles. She is married and the mother of two young boys.
Andrew G. (Andy) Inglis joined Kosmos on March 1, 2014 as chief executive officer and chairman of the board of directors. With more than 30 years of experience, he is one of the most respected upstream executives in the oil and gas industry. Mr. Inglis came to Kosmos most recently from Petrofac where he was chief executive of the Integrated Energy Services business and a member of the board of directors. Prior to Petrofac, he spent 30 years with BP, most recently as CEO of its exploration and production business. He was an executive director on the BP board between 2007 and 2010. From 2004 to 2007, he was BP executive vice president and deputy chief executive of exploration and production, with responsibility for BP's growth areas, including Azerbaijan, Angola, Algeria, Gulf of Mexico, Egypt, Trinidad, and the Asia-Pacific region. He is a former non-executive director of BAE Systems plc and TNK-BP Ltd. Mr. Inglis holds a master’s degree in Engineering from Pembroke College, Cambridge University. He is a Chartered Mechanical Engineer, a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.
Rafa Jimenez is the founder of Ahorro Libre a rotating savings platform which empowers consumers and small business owners in emerging markets to leverage their communities for access to savings & credit.
Rafa is a business development expert with 6 years experience at McKinsey & Co., co-founder of Agavis Consulting, with an MBA from HEC Geneva. Since 2005 he has lived and developed business across 25 different countries, advising and working with start-up entrepreneurs, SMEs, leaders of Fortune 100 companies, directors of international organisations, and even heads of state.
More recently Rafa has joined Seedstars (a global venture builder focusing on EMs) as Founder & Managing Director to help build Seedstars LATAM.
Jessyca Joyekurun holds a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from the University of Kent in the United Kingdom, as well as a postgraduate degree in human resources. Jessyca has extensive work experience in human resources consulting in the offshore, IT and telecommunication, and the business process outsourcing and logistics sectors.
She successfully founded Expand Human Resources in 2012 in Mauritius, and she opened two branches in Uganda and Tanzania in 2014. Jessyca specializes in providing human resource outsourcing and employment law advisory for small and medium enterprises. Ms. Joyekurun is also a 2014 Mandela Washington Fellow for President Obama's Young African Leaders initiative. She is also a fervent supporter of various initiatives in her country that work to combat youth unemployment.
Eric Kacou is cofounder and CEO of Entrepreneurial Solutions Partners (ESPartners), an advisory and investment group. ESPartners provides Intelligent Capitalthe right mix of insights and financingto entrepreneurs and leaders across Africa and the Caribbean.
A frequent speaker on entrepreneurship, Eric authored Entrepreneurial Solutions for Prosperity for BOP Markets published by Wharton School Publishing. Eric currently serves of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council Innovation as well as the Wharton Board for Europe Middle East and Africa.
Prior to starting ESPartners, Eric led the Rwanda National Innovation and Competitiveness (RNIC) Program, an initiative credited with helping revitalize Rwanda's economy by fuelling exports and entrepreneurship. An expert in economic growth and reconstruction, Eric has also served leaders of business, government and development partners in over a dozen other lowincome nations.
Eric was honored by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader, the African Leadership Institute as a Tutu Fellow as well as Forbes Afrique as one of Africa’s 20 builders of tomorrow. Eric earned his MBA at the Wharton School and his MPA at the Harvard Kennedy School as a Mason Fellow.
Dan Keeler is the editor of WSJ Frontiers, the Wall Street Journal’s editorial section devoted to coverage of the world’s frontier markets. Launched in early 2014, WSJ Frontiers brings together a broad range of news and analysis, providing readers with a deeper understanding of some of the world’s most dynamic and fast-growing economies.
Prior to joining the Journal Dan was the Editor and subsequently Editor-at-Large of Global Finance magazine, where he steered the magazine’s coverage toward corporate responsibility and emerging markets.
He is also founder of New York’s FM Network, a group that hosts gatherings of finance professionals focused on smaller emerging markets.
Before taking the reins at Global Finance, Dan served as a freelance editor and writer for various publications, including New York magazine, and provided consultancy and editing expertise for a number of non-profit groups. Through his own content management company, Celerity Media, Dan worked as an editorial consultant in various industries, including private banking.
Born in Guadeloupe, Christine Kelly began her television career in 1992 when she joined Achipel 4, a Guadeloupean channel, as the host of the show "Caribscope " and " RFO Guadeloupe”. She also worked in radio for K.Danse FM. In 1996, she moved to France to study journalism. While pursuing a career in television and radio presentation, she discovered her passion for documentaries. Her first appearance in this capacity was on "Ushuaia TV". Soon after, she appeared in the documentary of François Fillon, former prime minister of France. After 17 years of experience in the television industry, Christine Kelly was appointed to the Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel (CSA). She has received numerous awards including ‘Best Journalist’ from the Blackworld Victories Awards and an award from the European Federation of Black Female Business Owners. In 2010 she was named "Knight of the French National Order of Merit."
For nearly twenty years Karen’s leadership and advocacy have helped foster U.S. entrepreneurship and global small business growth. She regularly testifies before the U.S. Congress and meets with the President’s advisors and cabinet members on the key issues impacting entrepreneurs and the economy. Kerrigan has been called America’s “entrepreneurial envoy” and “small business ambassador” for her extensive work overseas. She is a founding member of the World Entrepreneurship Forum, and is a board member and former chair of the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE). In 2013, 2012 and 2011 she was a Top 100 Champion Small Business Influencer. She was recently named a Top Power Woman in U.S. Crowdfunding by CEO World magazine.
Othman
Laraki has founded several companies including his current venture, Color
Genomics, which provides accessible, population-scale genetics services. His
previous company, Mixer Labs, was acquired by Twitter where he was VP of
Product focused on growth, revenue & international expansion. Before that
he was a product manager at Google. Othman is an active investor and advisor in
a number of notable companies, including Pinterest, TreasureData, and
AngelList. He has an MBA from MIT and a BS + MS in Computer Science from
Stanford University.
Will MacNamara is an executive at Infusive, a London-based research and investment company focused on consumer goods. He was a correspondent at the Financial Times for six years, covering both multinationals and start-up enterprises all over the world. He is a US citizen who has lived most of his life in Britain, China, and Africa.
John Macomber teaches Finance at Harvard Business
School. His research focuses on urbanization, infrastructure, entrepreneurship,
and public-private partnerships. Courses include “Innovation
in Business, Energy and Environment” and “Building Cities: Infrastructure and
Sustainability.” Before joining the faculty at Harvard, Mr.
Macomber was the CEO of a large regional general contracting and real estate
company. He has also led construction services and
software-as-a-service companies in the built environment. He is a
graduate of Dartmouth College and Harvard Business School. Recent
publications include “Building Sustainable Cities” in Harvard Business
Review. In addition to the MBA program, Mr. Macomber also leads
Executive Education programs including “Real Estate Management Program” and
“Investing in Sustainable, Competitive Cities.’
Henri Malosse, the 30th President of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), was previously involved in the launch of the French Chambers of Commerce and Industry Delegation to the EU, becoming its president six years later. He also established the European Association of SMEs at the European Parliament.
He is the originator of the Young Entrepreneurs Seminar of the EESC in Brussels and has focused his presidency on combatting youth unemployment and fostering the right conditions for young entrepreneurs in Europe and neighbouring countries as well as the EU outermost regions.
He has authored over fifty reports as Member of the EESC since 1995, including a highly critical analysis of the Bolkestein Directive. Henri Malosse feels a strong sense of responsibility towards young people and has taught for many years in France, Poland and Russia on topics closely related to EU politics and the public sphere. He recently received (15th October 2014) the highest French Distinction (Legion d' Honneur) from the former President of France, Valéry Giscard d Estaing.
He is fluent in Polish and Russian and graduated from the Paris Institute of Political Science (Sciences Po).
Ranked in 2013 by Forbes Magazine among the "top 30 entrepreneurs under 30 in Africa", Vérone Mankou is President - General Manager of VMK, a Congolese startup that aims to "make technology accessible to the greatest number." VMK is known to have placed on the market in 2011 the first touch pad designed in Africa. In 2012 VMK repeated this feat by selling the first smartphone designed in Africa.
Still to this day, VMK always brings innovative products to the field of mobile technology, and they are currently building a plant in Congo to assemble these products (phones & tablets). In 2014 VMK will unveil a "tablet for development", dedicated to the education, health and agriculture, at a price of 60 USD ... the cheapest in the world for a product of this kind.
Appointed as a CEO of SOMED in December 2008, Mr. MAROUANE was also the Deputy General Manager of SONASID (National Steel Company) until September 2010 where he oversaw since 2007 the Financial, Information Systems, audit and General Affairs Directions.
Mr. MAROUANE began his career in 1989 at Auto Hall where he was in charge of the development of cars and Light Commercial Vehicles business. He successfully introduced Ford and Mitsubishi brands in Morocco.
In 1999, he was appointed at the Commercial Department of COSUMAR where he was responsible for regulating the sugar market in order to reduce the speculation.
In 2003, he was entrusted the Human Resources Departement of ONA to work on the development of Human Resources strategy, Governance, Communication and the creation of the ONA University.
In 2004, he joined SOPRIAM as Deputy General Manager and took in charge the support functions. He worked on organizational aspects, financial optimization and outsourcing.
Mr. MAROUANE is member at the CGEM as a President of the Commission Research and Development, E-Business and Relationship with the University. He is also a member of the Higher Committee of Education, training and Scientific Research.
Mr. MAROUANE is graduated from the “Ecole Centrale de Nantes”, have a postgraduate degree in mechanical engineering and is holder of an MBA from the “Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées”.
Born in 1955, Panagiotis Mihalos has studied
Mathematics and Economics (B.Sc.), then Finance and Business Administration
(MBA) at the City University of New York. He started his professional
career in Finance and Marketing in the United States, spending 10 years with J.
E. Seagram & Sons Inc. in New York. In 1993 he founded “South Real Estate
SA.” He is also the Founder of “Soros Real Estate Partners”, serving as its
Managing Director from 2002 to 2004. In 1990 he joined the cabinet of Antonis
Samaras, then Minister of Foreign Affairs and currently Prime Minister of the
Hellenic Republic.
In 2007 Mr Mihalos was elected President of
the Hellenic Entrepreneurs Association, playing a pivotal role in the
institutional development and international networking of the Greek
Entrepreneurial Community.
As the Secretary General of the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, Panagiotis Mihalos is currently leading all efforts related to
Economic Diplomacy in Greece, responsible among others for the promotion of
international trade, and the attraction of investments.
He currently serves as Honorary President of
the Hellenic Entrepreneurs Association (EENE) while he is Vice Chairman of the
US-Greece Business Council, Secretary General of the Greece-Turkey Business
Council , Member of the Board of the Hellenic Centre for European Studies,
Member of the Commercial and Industrial Chamber of Commerce, Guest Lecturer at
Johns Hopkins University, Washington DC, USA, in International Real Estate,
Masters of Science Department and Founding Member of the Board of the Greek
Foundation for the Repatriation of Greeks Abroad.
He is married to Christina Karantani and they
have a daughter
Nick Moon was raised in Singapore, educated in England, and has lived in East Africa since 1982, working in social and economic development. He is co-founder of the multi award-winning social enterprise KickStart International, (www.kickstart.org), listed in 2012 by Forbes Magazine as one of the world’s Top 30 Social Enterprises, and by the Global Journal as one of the Top 100 NGOs. KickStart develops value-adding technologies for people at the ‘Base of the Pyramid’ - smallholder farmers - in Sub Saharan Africa, and develops the market channels that ensure the last mile delivery of these solutions. KickStart solutions have enabled hundreds of thousands of very poor farmers to transform from subsistence to business, escaping poverty through enterprise.
Nick is now active as Executive Chairman of Wanda Organic, a start-up social enterprise offering the latest bio-organic soil and plant health solutions to African farmers; is Board Chair of ‘Peace for Africa and Economic Development’, a peace building and job creation initiative serving African youth; and supports his wife Rose to run a children’s home for orphaned and vulnerable girl children in Western Kenya.
Rhett Morris is the director of Endeavor Insight, the research arm of Endeavor. Endeavor Insight studies high-impact entrepreneurs and their contribution to job creation and economic growth. Its research educates policy makers and practitioners on how to accelerate entrepreneurs’ success and support the development of entrepreneurship ecosystems. In 2013, Endeavor Insight joined with the Kauffman Foundation and the World Bank, to launch the Global Entrepreneurship Research Network.
Rhett's writing on entrepreneurship has been published by TechCrunch, the Harvard Business Review, and the Huffington Post. Before working at Endeavor, he was a consultant at Bain & Company and the confidential assistant to the mayor of Baton Rouge.
A Ghanaian national, Tarek Mouganie moved to the U.K. to pursue a career in academia. After gaining a PhD in Applied Superconductivity at the University of Cambridge, he was sponsored to commercialize his research and through a series of coincidences, ended up as an investor focusing on global financial institutions including the emerging markets. Tarek returned to Ghana in 2012 to setup Affinity, a financial institution that supports SMEs in Ghana by providing long-term growth capital and advisory services.
Tarek is on the board of Arms Around the Child and OneLeap. He is also an advisor to Dr. Jane Goodall DBE and Chatham House. Tarek is a seasoned athlete and has competed in many international marathons and triathlons, including being the first Ghanaian to qualify and race in the 2014 ITU World Championships. Tarek is involved with the Ghana Olympic Committee and helped setup the Ghana Triathlon Federation.
Marcel Mutsindashyaka, 25 years old, is the founder and CEO of UMUSEKE IT LTD; a media social venture in Rwanda. He was orphaned in the genocide of 1994 that killed more than a million people within 100 days, and grew up believing that he could make difference in Rwanda. At 22, He started UMUSEKE with the purpose of promoting peace, reconciliation and youth empowerment after the genocide.
The media was one of the key drivers of the genocide against Tutsis in Rwanda through young people, and Marcel decided to use the same channels for healing wounds, reconciliation and empowering the community. After three years, UMUSEKE is already the second most popular, influential and successful digital media house in Rwanda. It has created jobs for more than 20 people from different tribes. Recently, Marcel qualified for the Washington Fellowship for young Afri
