Khaled Ismail is the Willard W. Brown Chair at the American University in Cairo (AUC) for the academic year 2014-2015. He is also the head of the African Academic Association on Entrepreneurship. Ismail is the Founder and Chairman of KIangel, an angel investment fund focused on investing in early-stage startups in the Middle East. The fund has invested in 11 companies since 2011 and is still growing. Ismail is a serial entrepreneur who has started 7 companies in Egypt since 1992. His latest company, SySDSoft, which is a technology company focused on the design of wireless communication system modems, was acquired by Intel in March 2011. Ismail became thereafter and until January 2014 the Managing Director of Intel Mobile Communications. Ismail was the Chairman of Endeavor Egypt between 2011 and 2014, board member of Orascom Telecom (2004-2011) and board member of the IT Industry Development Authority (2009-2012). Between 2005 and 2007, Ismail was the Senior Advisor of the Egyptian Minister of CIT, responsible for Technology Development. Between 1997 and 2000, Ismail was the Managing Director of Gemma, a company specialized in Ceramic manufacturing, which he managed to take public in 1998. Ismail was with IBMs TJ Watson Research Center in NY. He is the recipient of the IBM Invention Achievement Award and the IBM Outstanding Technical Achievement Award in 1997 and 1995, respectively. Ismail received his Ph.D. from MIT in 1989. He has been an IEEE Fellow since 1997 and has published over 160 papers in international journals, and is the holder of 22 US patents. He was the recipient of the Eta Kappa Nu Best Young Electrical Engineer in the US award in 1994, and the Shuman Award for the Young Arab Engineer in 1995.

In addition to his role as CEO of the non-bank financial institute, Walid Hassouna is also a non-executive board member of Tanmeyah microenterprises and EFG Hermes Leasing, both subsidiaries of EFG Hermes Finance. Vice Chairman of EFG-EV fintech accelerator, board member of Karm solar and Kazyon hard discount stores.

Prior to joining EFG Hermes in 2016, Walid Hassouna was General Manager and Head of Structured Finance and Investment Banking at Bank Audi, where he closed structured and project finance transactions in excess of USD 15 billion over a seventeen-year banking career that began at Misr International Bank. He also structured and executed several award-winning deals, in project finance and M&A within Egypt and GCC, in addition to several investment banking transactions. He has also been the Head of structured finance and syndication in Banque Misr where he successfully managed to top the league table of the MENA region in syndicated loans.

Walid is a Cairo-University B.B.A holder, where he graduated with highest honors. He also holds an MBA from J. Mack Robinson College of Business, Georgia State University as well as Islamic Finance Qualification from CISI- UK.

Rania Ayman is the founder and managing director of Entreprenelle which is a mission-driven enterprise that strives to bridge the gender gap economically by educating, training and linking women to all the resources possible impacting more than 50,000 women. At the age of 23, She found her self concerned with socioeconomic gender rights focusing on the right to adequate standard of living based on the SDG 8 of “ Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all “ that's when she started her Initiative “ Entrerenelle “ in Cairo serving most of Egypt and been chosen to represent Egypt and speak in many international conferences as The Global Entrepreneurship Summit in India, Social Enterprise World Forum in the United Kingdom and African Youth Conference in Kenya. Awarded as “ Best Female Entrepreneur “ by YE!, Featured as one of the most active influential “ 25 under 25 Entrepreneurs “ by Startup Scene, Women Entrepreneurship Network board member, Global Institute for Women's Empowerment member, UN Women Gender innovation Agora member, CEFP Alumni & Injaz Alumni. Fearless risk-taker by nature, with more than 6 years Experience in Social development and corporates social value with a degree in Business Administration and further studies in Gender. Most passionate about Traveling, reading and civic work.

An accomplished global business and people leader with +22 years of experience with Unilever where she managed and grew multi-billion-dollar brand and business franchises, in a variety of marketing and business development roles spanning multiple categories (Home Care, Personal Care, Food & Beverage) across the diverse geographies of the Gulf, the Middle East & North Africa, Central & Eastern Europe, and Russia. She was also a member of the Global Personal Care Leadership Team of Unilever. Nihal started her career in the Financial Consulting field with Arthur Andersen Consultants, on the Egyptian Privatization project with responsibilities including public company valuations and IPO preparation. She has recently co-founded Axellerus Consultants, which provides tailor-made solutions, anchored in deep global experience, with a mission to enable sustainable high performance in a connected world. Nihal is also an Advisory Board member at the College of Business Administration, American University in the Emirates and a Senior Consultant with Human Network International (HNI).

An Egyptian National, her schooling included many years in Paris, France before returning to Egypt for a Bachelors’ degree of Business Administration, followed by an MBA both from the American University in Cairo. She has recently completed a Doctorate degree from the Maastricht School of Management, Netherlands where she has developed and tested a model explaining the potential Sources of Sustainable Competitive Advantage.

She is married with two lovely boys. An active Rotarian, she is passionate about women development, water conservation and education. Her areas of research interest include competitive strategy, growth in VUCA environments, and the impact of the digital transformation on Marketing.

• Head of Digital Transformation - Gemini Holding.
• Worldwide Project Management Consultant – Schlumberger International, Houston, USA.
• Vice-chairman & board member - Al Mawwan technology.
• Vice-chairman & board member - Al Nayzek cosmetics.
• Board member – Alfa Electronics S.A.E.
• Entrepreneurship life mentor, Jury & examiner and Project Management lecturer for post graduates – The American University in Cairo (AUC).

·         Member of the entrepreneurship & innovation committee - The American Chamber of Commerce.

• Partner with GIZ, ICT Cairo, RiseUp, ECES to support the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Egypt & Africa.

·         Adjunct faculty - Dubai school of government in cooperation with Harvard Kennedy school.

• Project management & Risk management consultant, advisor & instructor within the Middle East, North Africa, Europe & the Far East.
• External examiner, judge & jury at many African & Arabic competitions and initiatives.
• Partner with many start-ups & entrepreneurs all over Africa.
• 20+ years of business management experience at Gemini Enterprises Africa, Orascom Group, Schlumberger, Orange & Lucent Technologies in the fields of Entrepreneurship, Oil & Gas, Telecom, and Development in addition to IT management.

Mohamed Morsy currently is the Country Head of Finance in Motion (“FiM”) in Egypt and Yemen.  FiM is a German asset management firm, based in Frankfurt, with 18 offices around Europe and the MENA region. FiM is the fund advisor for the Green for Growth Fund (“GGF”) for Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency and the SANAD Fund for MSMEs, with assets under management nearly EUR 2bn.

Mr. Morsy has extensive experience in the areas of investment banking, credit risk management and corporate lending, both locally and regionally. Before joining FiM in 2012, Mohamed was an investment banking manager at Prime Capital (2011-2012) and  Head of Credit (Cairo) at Egypt’s second largest private bank - Arab African International Bank (2005-2010).

Mohamed holds a Masters in Investment Banking and Islamic finance from Henley Business School (UK) and MBA from the University of New Brunswick (Canada). M. Morsy is also a Chartered Islamic Finance professional and is currently working towards his Chartered Financial Analyst (“CFA”) Designation.

Mohamed is a visiting fellow at the MBA program of the Maastricht school of business (Cairo Campus) and has delivered numerous academic and executives courses in credit risk management, bank management, corporate finance, Islamic finance, financial planning, business administration, human resources, and economics, both inside and outside Egypt.

Mohamed Aboulnaga is the Co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer of Halan for Technology & Services. He is also a shareholder in Fawry, and a board member of Robusta Studio. He has built his expertise in business development in four different industries; Financial Services, Food & Beverage, Transportation, and Energy.

Karima is heading the commercial side of Falak Startups, from the Accelerator’s Business Development, Investor Relations to Marketing and PR. Having an extensive background in Market Research and Business Development, she was able to establish a focused commercial strategy for Falak Startups, revolving around success stories and thought leadership.

Karima is also the great force behind building and maintaining many strategic partnerships with industry leaders in respective sectors; Novartis, CIB, GB Auto and Schneider Electric to name a few.

Prior to Falak, Karima came from business intelligence and strategy background working with big corporates in Egypt and France, such as Orascom Holding and Danone France.

Karima holds a BSc. in Business Administration from the American University in Cairo and a Masters in Market Research and Marketing from Science Po, Paris.

Dr. Dalia Abd-Allah is an Egyptian professional with more than 15 years of experience in management, business development, economics, international business and international cooperation. Specifically, she had advised and contributed to the establishment of several FDIs inflows to Egypt through the several International-Egyptian business partnerships in food & agriculture, aquaculture, logistics and transport, consumer goods, renewables and environment industries. She has also been working on supporting business innovation services geared towards Egyptian small and growing business & startups in local manufacturing industries (including food, engineering, and creative industries.

Dr. Dalia is also an Adjunct Faculty/Lecturer for International Business Studies, Contemporary Management, Strategic Management, Industry Analysis and Entrepreneurship to both undergraduate & MBA students as well as industry professionals. She holds a Doctorate degree of Business Administration (DBA) from Maastricht School of Management (MsM)- the Netherlands, from where she previously earned her Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree. She also holds a Master of Science (MSc) degree from Faculty of Economics And Political Science Cairo University from which she earned her Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) degree.

Business Development guy with an operational and technical background. Loves to make organizations grow, create a positive culture, help people learn, and Analyzes everything.

I am a passionate person with an obsession with how change works, how cultures evolve and how performance is shifted over time. I am curious to understand how theories of change can be applied in the technical, business, social and educational contexts. I am a learner who seeks knowledge, and I am a generalist who rolls up his sleeves while not losing focus on the big picture. I am a futurist, with a continuous interest in the future, and how the current butterfly moves will impact the big events of it.

In University, I co-founded one of the most successful youth organizations in Alexandria, Egypt. aiming at developing the Egyptian community through enhancing capabilities of youth, and been successfully doing so since 2010 serving thousands of Egyptian youth.

I joined P&G as a regional Project Manager after a successful internship there, where I learned a lot and knew what a real corporate and multinational means.

Later, I joined Tahrir Academy, building on my project management experience and wanting to make real change and affect people through Education. where I got in touch with the amazing world and spirit of startups, and Ed-tech industry with the concepts of user-centric designs, scalability, measuring social impact and gamification.

I am now Co-Founder and CBO of Brimore, where we try to enable housewives with better income opportunity, local manufacturers with better penetration strategies and consumer with cheaper and higher quality goods. I am also a hardworking student bridging Sweden with Africa, and a Global Shaper trying to embrace the 4th industrial revolution.

Mohamed Hamza is the associate director of the American University in Cairo’s business accelerator, the AUC Venture Lab (V-Lab). 

Hamza joined the Venture lab as a program Manager mid 2015. Under his management he was able to scale the Venture lab from a program graduating 12 startups a year into a Center graduating 45 to 50 startups a year and adding value to more than 400 students and entrepreneurs to be yearly. Over the years Hamza co-Founded three new programs under the V-Lab; the Fintech Accelerator, DeepTech Lab and AUC Angels. As an Impact driven individual, Hamza’s efforts were crowned by receiving the High Impact Incubation Program award for the Middle East & North Africa by University Based Incubator Index (UBI). To date the Venture lab has graduated128 startups, maintaining quality for the first 3 years represented in maintaining a survival rate of 80% where 48% of graduates received investments. Hamza’s endeavors at the managerial level could only be successful by maintaining a strong and impactful content, especially as the Venture lab is a non-profit accelerator that does not do seed investments in its graduate startups. V-Lab receives 800-1000 applications yearly and remain to be competitive among different programs with attractive ticket sizes for its commitment to an innovative startup centric program capitalizing on the Evidence Based Entrepreneurship mindset. Before joining the V-Lab, Hamza worked at Nahdet el Mahrousa, one of Egypt’s top social entrepreneurship incubators. Hamza’s work with NM allowed him to be exposed to entrepreneurship at the micro level in different development programs and accumulating impact assessment knowledge through assisting in laying the the foundation for a monitoring and evaluation system to assess the overall impact of their social startup incubator. Hamza graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and a Minor in Business Administration from the American University in Cairo and is currently pursuing his Masters degree in Public Policy and its direct effects on the entrepreneurship ecosystem.

Ahmed Mohamed M. Dahy is a Branch Manager - TIEC Assiut. He is working also in assisting, mentoring and evaluating (TIEC) incubated companies. In addition, He is working as an innovation management and IP consultant.

Ahmed is also an MBA holder in marketing and He is a certified entrepreneurship mentor and trainer from several national and international organizations such as GIZ, The Next Society and Mowgli Mentoring. He is participating as a trainer and mentor in several initiatives that focus in entrepreneurship support.

Ahmed has been participated in several international projects aimed to support entrepreneurship and startups formation in Washington DC, USA, Freie University of Berlin, Germany and Politechnico Di Torino University, Italy. This was beside his work in projects funded by TEMPUS program by the European commission.

Ahmed has also worked as technology transfer officer, after an extensive training in a number of European universities and patent offices, supporting University community with their research output to be ready for commercialization.

General Manager at Barek.net for Real Estate Technologies. Worked in the entrepreneurship field since 2011, joining the journey of success of several significant tech-startups and incubators including Tahrir Sqr, Opendayz, and bkam.com. Also, as part of the AWTAD NGO Team, worked on empowering youth and women entrepreneurs.

Hesham, in a nutshell, is a young and motivated entrepreneur working hard for his success. Hesham has already engaged with 15+ international and local communities and founded 2 Startups. He is extremely passionate about entrepreneurship, marketing, and interactive training and enjoys sharing his knowledge and experiences with others.

Currently, he is working as Product Manager at Barek.net, He was an Ecosystem engagement manager at GEN Egypt / MCSBE with the aim of supporting the Egyptian entrepreneurship community by inspiring young people to develop their ideas into successful initiatives and companies.

And Co-Director at Startup Grind Cairo, He was responsible for one of the very successful programs of ICSB in Egypt “ICSB Academy” is designed to educate, engage and connect entrepreneurs.

Team Leader Sales Trainer at OPPO, a phone brand enjoyed by young people around the world, specializes in designing innovative mobile photography technology. I train the promoters on sales skills and negotiating skills around smartphones and technology

Organized official launch event phones in Egypt in addition to the work of inspection on several governorates and centers to ensure the quality of work in addition to the work to follow-up continuously with promoters and organize monthly meetings of area managers and supervisors also with the Chinese branch manager