Keynote Speakers
Zahra Bahrololoumi is the CEO of Salesforce UK and Ireland. She was appointed in March 2021 to lead the company’s operations across both key growth markets.
Prior to joining Salesforce, Zahra worked for Accenture where she led the Technology business for the UK and Ireland with a particular focus on transformation in artificial intelligence, cloud computing and platforms underpinning new applications. Zahra has been widely recognised throughout her career as an industry leader, including Computer Weekly’s Most Influential People in UK Tech 2022, Woman of the Year for MENA Women In Tech Awards 2022 and Most Influential Women in UK Tech 2021,
Zahra is a strong advocate for equality for all and has held many D&I roles across the world. She currently sits on the boards of TechUK, Cancer Research UK and Movement to Work.
As a Principal CX Evangelist at Salesforce, Sally generates advocacy and enthusiasm for CX and how it can empower people and businesses. She focuses on futurology and strategic foresight to influence and inspire applications of technology. During her 7 years at Salesforce, she has consulted with enterprise companies on the future of their customer experience. Having spoken at many global conferences such as Dreamforce, she is a thought leader on what it takes to create world-class experiences.
Sally has been recognised as the “Inspiring Ambassador’ of the year at MENA Women in Awards 2022. As an ambassador for women in STEM, she’s passionate about creating a change and is a Women of MENA in Tech Ambassador, enthusing young people and inspiring the next generation of STEM professionals.
Sally holds a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing and Advertising, having graduated from University of Arts London in Marketing + Advertising and has over 15 years experience in her field.
In her spare time she aspires to connect people around the world with the culture of the Middle Eastern with her food blog @cookingwithsaloomeh and hosting Persian Supper Nights.
Arefeh is an experienced Operational Excellence consultant with a demonstrated history of managing agile projects in the automotive, renewable and telecommunications industries. In the past year, she was working as a consultant for the London-based innovative telecom and cyber security solutions provider, Exponential-e. She is now moving to Baringa Partners as a senior consultant to help the firm with its growth and lead continuous improvement projects within the vast range of clients across the world.
Arefeh has been involved with Women of MENA in Technology since it landed its London chapter back in 2017 and is volunteering as the lead of the London chapter at the moment being recognised as "Volunteer of the Year" in 2021 for her dedication and involvement in the mission of empowering women and girls in STEM that is very close to her heart.
She has vast experience in Continuous Improvement practices, Lean Six-Sigma and Lean Startup, Digital Transformation and Business Management System development, helping businesses with improving their management systems and processes to achieve excellence.
Arefeh has done her undergraduate studies in Electronics Engineering at the University of Tehran, Iran and her post-grad and PhD in the same field with focus on electron microscopy of semiconductor materials and devices at University of Sheffield, UK.
Mitra Kashanchi is the vice president of manufacturing and supply for Chevron Chemical Company, a position she has held since October 2020.
Ms. Kashanchi began her career with Chevron in 1992. Her most recent role before she joined Chevron Chemicals, she was general manager of Chevron’s Salt Lake Refinery, where she worked for three years. Prior to her Salt Lake assignment, Mitra was the refinery business manager for the Richmond Refinery. She also served as the operations manager for the Chevron refinery in Burnaby, British Columbia. From 1991 to 2012, Mitra worked at the El Segundo Refinery in various roles, including an assignment as the refinery system division’s section head, where she was responsible for three cogeneration units, the water treatment unit, blending, and shipping and wharf operations.
Mitra earned a bachelor’s degree in Applied Chemistry from Iran National University. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering and a master’s degree in Physical Chemistry, both from California State University, Long Beach.
Mitra served on Utah Air Quality board and Utah Symphony Board of directors during her time at Salt Lake Refinery.
Babak Parviz is the founder and lead of Grand Challenge, an organization chartered with identifying, investing in, and operationalizing entirely new areas for Amazon. Examples of recent launched products/services from Grand Challenge include Amazon Care, Comprehend Medical, Echo Frames, Amazon Glow, and Amazon Explore. Prior to joining Amazon in 2014, Babak was with Google as a Distinguished Engineer and Director at Google [x] where he founded the team and built Google Glass and founded the robotic surgery program (now an independent compa ny, Verb Surgical) and the active contact lens program (now a joint collaboration with Novartis). Prior to Google, he co-invented the biosensing technology resulting in the founding of Claros Diagnostics Inc. (acquired by OPKO). Since 2003 he has been a faculty member in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of Washington.
Babak received his BA in Literature (University of Washington), BS in Electronics (Sharif University of Technology), MS in Physics and MS and PhD in Electrical Engineering (University of Michigan), and completed his postdoctoral fellowship in Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University. His work has been put on display at the London Museum of Science and has received numerous recognitions and awards including National Science Foundation Career Award, MIT Technology Review 35, Time magazine’s best invention of the year (2008 and 2012), IEEE CAS Industrial Pioneer Award, Your Health Top 10 Medical advance of the year, and About.com top invention. He was selected by Ad Age as one of the 50 most creative people in the United States. In 2017 he received the University of Michigan Bicentennial Alumni Award.
Purnima Kochikar is the VP of Play Partnerships at Google Play where she oversees all aspects of the app ecosystem including strategy, operations, partnership management, technical and growth consulting. Her team partners both with the world’s leading companies and budding entrepreneurs to create effective mobile businesses that can reach global audiences.
Prior to Google, Purnima held various roles at Nokia, including leading diverse developer initiatives across the globe. Before Nokia, Purnima held technical and engineering management roles, and started her career building a computer education company while still in college.
She is passionate about K-12 education and entrepreneurship, and focuses on helping women excel in both. She serves on the advisory boards of the University of Minnesota and the Asian University for Women, which is educating future women leaders from South East Asia and the Middle East.
Noor is a biotech entrepreneur and recognized healthcare innovator. Her recent venture, Glamorous AI was acquired by X-Chem in 2021. Prior to that, Noor was an assistant professor at Aalborg University. Noor is passionate about data and artificial intelligence (AI) and is on a mission to cure disease by pushing the boundaries of what is possible with AI. She has a record of achievements in AI, including numerous papers published in the field and its application to drug discovery, as well as holding a number of AI patents. She sits on AI and diversity advisory boards for small and med-size organizations as well as universities advising on AI strategies — she was one of the 2018 winners of Innovators Under 35 Europe from MIT Technology Review and named one of BBC’s 100 Women of 2019.
Master of Ceremony (MC)
Hanae Bezad is an impact tech entrepreneur and certified international project manager with 8 years of overall professional experience, including 5 years in social impact stewardship at a multi-award non-profit and 2 years of operational stewardship at a high growth tech startup. She developed a fluency across borders and sectors with an understanding of how different sectors (governments and international development institutions, civil society, business, and finance) impact systems-change, both locally and globally. Her areas of interest and expertise are at the intersection of technology, sustainability, inclusion, entrepreneurship and international development.
Hanae is the founder of Douar Tech, an inclusive tech hub that helps build the resilience of vulnerable youth, especially women, from precarious backgrounds in rural and peri-urban areas, empowering them with digital skills.
She recently helped define the strategy of the pan-African organization Smart Africa for Startups and Innovation Ecosystems on the continent, to support member countries to create favorable conditions for startups.
Previously, Hanae was also the executive director of Le Wagon coding school in Morocco, bringing the innovative bootcamp to its first African market.
Before launching Le Wagon in Morocco and founding Douar Tech, Hanae worked as a digital strategy consultant at Eleven in Paris. She was also a member of the board of directors of Led By HER, a social incubator that supports women entrepreneurs who are victims of violence.
Hanae is a public speaker, and participated at a dozen international conferences as a keynote speaker, panelist or moderator (Demo Africa Oct 2018, House of Beautiful Business Oct 2019, AU-EU Meetup Jul 2020, AU-EU Youth Cooperation Hub Jul 2020, Make-IT Africa Sept 2020, AEDIHB Congress Oct 2020, EBN Congress Nov 2020, Emerging Valley May 2021, IEEE Sept 2021, MTL Connecte Oct 2021, etc.)
Hanae is a fellow of the Harambeans African entrepreneurs Alliance, a fellow of the Responsible Leadership Network of the BMW Foundation and a fellow of the Atlantic Dialogues Emerging Leaders and Ambassador for Africa and resident of the House of Beautiful Business.
Hanae holds a Bachelor of Science and Social Sciences from SciencesPo Paris, a Bachelor of Science and Technology from Pierre and Marie Curie University, a Bachelor of Law from Panthéon Paris Sorbonne, a Master in Management from HEC Paris and a Master in Public Administration from SciencesPo Paris. She was the recipient of a 5-year Scholarship for Excellence granted by the French Government.
Mina Mohit is the Director of Content Strategy for 1021 Creative, supporting YouTube EMEA. Before working with the video-sharing platform, Mina was a journalist for CBC News in Toronto, The Jordan Times in Amman, and Al Jazeera in London. Mina is passionate about helping students and recent graduates navigate uncharted career paths in media and tech.
Moderators
Ella is a Vice President within Global Gateway, SVB’s international business development arm. Ella works with some of the most disruptive companies from emerging international markets, focused on India & Middle East North Africa regions. Based in San Francisco, Ella extends SVB’s network and services to leading venture capital firms and VC-backed companies in these regions as they expand globally.
Joining Silicon Valley Bank in 2018, previously Ella was part of the Global Fund Banking team at SVB, where she helped providing banking and lending services to venture capital and private equity firms in New York. Before joining SVB, Ella worked at Morgan Stanley as an investment Advisor to institutional investors including pension funds, foundations, endowments, and government entities globally.
Ella holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics with a minor in Technological Innovation & International Finance. Given her global upbringing, Ella is passionate about leveraging innovation and capital to invest in emerging global markets and is active with numerus initiatives facilitating inclusive global economic growth.
Ella Adhanan
Vice President
Silicon Valley Bank
Maya Nasr is a PhD candidate in the Aerospace Engineering department at MIT, working with Professor Jeffrey Hoffman on the Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment (MOXIE) for NASA Jet Propulsion Lab’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover. A native of Lebanon, she received her acceptance to MIT at the age of 16 and finished her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Aerospace Engineering from MIT in 2018 and 2021 respectively. She has previously worked on several projects including NASA’s Cassini mission activity on Titan, the OneWeb satellites network, the MIT KitCube Satellite, Zero Robotics ISS programming competition and the AquaMAV at Imperial College London.
She is passionate about increasing global representation and access in the space sector and bringing awareness to nationality-based discrimination in career opportunities for foreign nationals. She is a TEDx talk-featured speaker about this topic and is currently the co-founder and project lead of the HUMANS—Humanity United with MIT Art and Nanotechnology in Space—project that creates a symbolic avenue for space access worldwide and is intended to be launched to the International Space Station (ISS) in partnership with the MIT Space Exploration Initiative (SEI).
As part of the Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC), she is the Policy Lead for the SGAC Taskforce on US Space Policy. She is additionally the research coordinator of the Space Law & Policy Project Group, and the lead of the Space Resources and Space Ethics & Human Rights subgroups. As part of the Space Consortium at Harvard and MIT, she has also completed the Group of Researchers for Interdisciplinary Politics of Space, Space Law, Policy and Ethics Graduate Workshop (GRIPS-SLPE).
She has received a series of awards including the Yvnge Raustein Award (2015), MIT Advanced Undergraduate Research in Aeronautics and Astronautics Award (2017), MIT Rene H. Miller Prize for Excellence in Systems Engineering (2018), AIAA Best Paper Award for her paper “Evolution of the Flight Crew and Mission Control Relationship” (2020), the Gerald A. Soffen Memorial Fund for the Advancement of Space (2021), Zonta International Amelia Earhart Fellowship (2022), and MIT Rene H. Miller Prize for Excellence in Systems Engineering (2022).
She is also interested in entrepreneurship and startups and has worked on organizing the MIT Global Startup Workshop conference in Colombia and the MIT Global Startup Labs (GSL) program in Peru. Her primary research interests are space systems engineering and international space law, policy and ethics. Outside of MIT, she loves traveling around the world, painting, and writing Arabic poetry.
Mahtab is a technologist and musician interested in the intersection of music, art and technology.
Mahtab is currently a senior Product Manager at FlawlessAI, working on transforming how dubbing is done in entertainment for global audiences.
She was previously a Product Manager at Creative Passport, building a product to give music makers a recognisable digital identity that gives them direct control of their music industry data. Other experiences have included working on misinformation at Facebook,
transforming how people interact with the digital world through sound at Hypersurfaces, applications in VR, live music, concert recommendation tools, and other web projects.
Mahtab studied Systems Design and Music Technology. Her MA thesis presented methods and studies used in mapping live performance (human) gestures to sound in digital musical instruments.
Massy is an entrepreneur and enthusiastic Strategic Business Leader working in emerging markets across multiple sectors with a focus on Tech ecosystem development. She has a passion for setting up new ventures and became a founder of a company in the Middle East and excited to an international JV. Also led and raised over 10M successful fundraise projects in the region and the UK.
In recent years, she has focused on developing sustainable business ecosystems between the UK and the Gulf region, currently serving as the strategic advisor to the Saudi-UK Tech Hub and various other SMEs, as well as being part of the leadership team at the Institute of Directors, Young Executive committee, bringing together entrepreneurs who share an interest in corporate governance and inclusive leadership.
After extensive experience in strategy consulting and Private Equity, Salma made the choice of entrepreneurship and innovation in 2015 to support the development of entrepreneurial innovation to address Africa's socio-economic challenges.
Today, IMPACT Lab is a leading innovation accelerator in Africa, with more than 240 startups supported across 17 countries. IMPACT Lab also supports corporates and public institutions in their entrepreneurial innovation dynamic in Africa.
Salma Kabbaj is a founding member for the Startup Ecosystem Federation in Morocco MSEC.
Salma Kabbaj holds a Bachelor in Economics and Finance from McGill University (Montreal) and a Master in Management from the London School of Economics (London).
Speakers
Sadia has a history of working in Innovation, R&D and Product development. She has a background specialising in Technology and Sustainability; often operating at the intersection of business, academia and NGOs. Having completed her PhD in Computational Ecology and PGC in Business she has spent the last decade working with large companies and Start-ups, in senior leadership roles focussing on strategy, innovation and developing commercial solutions.She was recently invited by the British Embassy to take part in a delegation on ‘Green Technology’ as a leader in the space and was a Finalist for ‘The Every Woman CIO of the year 2022’ award. She currently leads Deloitte’s Climate Change and Environment Studio, focussing on innovative, impactful solutions in the sustainability, Net Zero and ESG arenas. Sadia cares deeply about women in STEM careers and strongly believes that Diversity and Inclusion in society and the workplace are not end goals themselves but the way towards a better, more effective, equitable culture and better business outcomes.
Farzana Azam heads up Ideation at SCIEX as part of the Strategy and Innovation team, and is responsible for contributing to the company's long term technology vision, strategic direction, and inorganic future growth. Farzana has been with SCIEX for 6 years, and most recently headed up the Pharma/CRO business Unit. Prior to SCIEX she spent over 8 years leading the marketing department at Celerion, an early phase CRO. She holds a master’s in chemistry from University of Kent at Canterbury and a BSc (Hons) in chemistry from University of Huddersfield in the UK.
For the past 5 years Farzana has been actively involved in DEI programs. She has led and participated in regional and global DEI programs, has been active in the Women and Friends Associate Resource Group in Canada, and this year serves as co-lead. Farzana has acted as a mentor to many associates at SCIEX for the past 5 years, and is a member of WSTEM Toronto, where she mentors STEM women committed to developing their career path.
Dr. Najat Benchiba-Savenius is an outsourced Chief Operating Officer and Board Member for Family Offices, most recently a Saudi Royal Family Office where she oversees the management of numerous companies and businesses across jurisdictions.
Najat is also Founder and Director of Gazelle Advisory Group, a GCC-focused firm based in London that provides strategic leadership and comprehensive Arab Family Office services as an outsourced Chief Operating Officer. Najat has lived in various geographies and has fostered excellent Family Office and institutional investor relations in London, Casablanca, Cairo, Riyadh, Jeddah, Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Singapore. Najat has consulting experience across various sectors and industries in Europe, North Africa, Asia and the Middle East and was previously part of the McKinsey & Company Practice Management team in the Financial Institutions Group, Singapore.
Najat is a University of Oxford graduate with distinction for her thesis research as well as a published PhD. Najat is a public speaker in both business and academic spheres across the world where she covers topics from oil diversification, Arab women in finance, entrepreneurship and general social and economic issues pertaining to the GCC region.
An award-winning speaker and campaigner, Najat is a global champion in promoting Arab women in business, mentorship and workshops for women, having spoken widely on these topics working with both the public and private sectors in nudging policy change.
Najat is fluent in English, Arabic, French, Spanish and Italian.
Nouran Ghannam (also known as Nono) is the cofounder and CEO of Stllr, the decentralized marketing network for quick access to vetted marketing freelancers and teams. Born through Stllr Network is Stllr Academy where young content creators and potential marketers are up-skilled for companies. She also founded Startups Galaxy, a platform showcasing MENA startups and launched their flagship event Techila Con during 2020.
Her mission is growing the potential of the Middle East. She also mentors companies on marketing with the region’s top accelerators: Flat6Labs, AUC VLab, Falak SA and Techstars Riyadh. When OOO, she’s probably camping in Sinai.
With over 12 years of experience, Wafa Al Obaidat is the founder of PLAYBOOK, an edtech company that aims to accelerate women's careers. Wafa is an award-winning serial entrepreneur and Global Shaper, and has built successful businesses from the ground-up including the leading PR & Design Agency Obai & Hill.
She hosts a number one rated show on Apple podcast, Women Power Podcast and has been named amongst the Top 50 Most Powerful Women by Business in Gulf. Wafa has been featured in Wamda, Harper's Bazaar Arabia and Entrepreneur magazine. Read more about Wafa on her website.
Dana Baki is the Co-Founder & COO of MUNCH:ON (formerly LUNCH:ON), one of the region’s fastest growing tech companies that was recently acquired by Careem.
Before starting MUNCH:ON, Dana was a Partner of Business Development at AlJal Capital—a boutique financing and venture capital firm in the United Arab Emirates.
Previously, Dana worked for Procter & Gamble in the United States for 7+ years, benefiting from a wide range of assignments within the company and gaining expertise in Corporate Strategy, Marketing and Consumer Insights.
She holds an MBA from Georgetown University and B.A. in Economics and English Literature from The University of Michigan.
Shirin Dehghan is a successful serial entrepreneur, currently CEO of Oxford Algorithms Ltd, an exciting start-up, bringing together the domains of AI and the financial markets. She is also Chair of mobile analytics software business Opensignal, tele-therapy solution provider Neurofenix and employee engagement AI software company, Winningtemp. Prior to Oxford Algorithms, she was an Operating Partner at Frog Capital. She founded and scaled Arieso before selling the business to JDSU.
Wanjiku Kanjumba is an Aerospace Engineer, co-founder, chairwoman, and CEO of Vicillion – a technology research and development firm that also provides product development services, and the first Kenyan-born Project PoSSUM Scientist-Astronaut Candidate Program Graduate.
She has a Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering - Concentration in Dynamics and Control, a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering - Concentration in Astronautics, and a Minor in Spaceflight Operations.
Wanjiku has experience working as an Aerospace Certification Engineer, Airworthiness Engineer, Aerospace Controls Engineer, Maintenance and Aircraft Performance Engineer for a high-ranked airline company and working under the Flight Operations department in a commercial drone company (where she gained her Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) remote (drone) pilot license).
Wanjiku has made and continues to make strides in her career in solving problems and striving to make a difference on Earth and beyond. Her life mission is making the impossible possible.
Before co-founding Suzugia, Sahar Attaripour, has spent more than a decade working in the field of digital transformation consulting in different sectors in the UK, Belgium, and Italy. She has an MBA from the University of Southampton and a BA in industrial design.
Since the acquisition of Suzugia by Alliance Bernstein in April 2022. Sahar is an SVP and portfolio manager at AB.
Manal Habib is the CEO and founder of MightyFly. A graduate from both MIT and Stanford, Habib has developed a strong technical background in aerospace engineering. She previously specialized in flight controls and developed the first robust commercial flight controller. Manal is also a private pilot and in the process of building her own airplane. Her passion for aerospace, vision for a better world, and determination make her a motivated and unstoppable entrepreneur and leader.
Sonia El-Sherif is a first-generation American with immigrant parents from Egypt and Ireland.
Her cultural upbringing instilled an openness and desire to connect with diverse people and
groups. At a young age, she discovered that being a connector opened doors she didn't know existed. As Chief of Staff for JLL Spark Sonia develops and monitors critical business metrics that provide actionable information to JLLT senior leadership, JLL Executives, and Board.
She drives operational efficiency and repeatability throughout Spark, a $100 Million Corporate Venture Capital fund for JLL. She serves as a highly visible strategic partner, focusing on long-term planning and projects to ensure the growth of the organization. She focuses on connecting startups to the resources needed to grow and creating a platform for those building a better and more equitable workplace. In addition, Sonia works tirelessly to bring diverse voices into the workplace of the future conversation.
Prior to joining Spark, Sonia worked at JLL specializing in tenant representation on both a local
and global level. She utilized JLL’s best in class technology platform to find creative solutions to
meet her clients’ unique needs. Her responsibilities included technology platform management,
global market analysis, lease and sale negotiations, client portfolio optimization, as well as all
disposition and acquisition activity.
Prior to JLL she worked at WBT and WESCO Distribution selling into the industrial, construction,and data center markets. She managed revenue streams for six states by establishing sales targets, deployment strategies, and go-to-market initiatives.
Sonia was first a personal trainer for LifeTime Fitness and found that focusing on physical
exercise significantly impacted her mental health. She spent the next few years guiding her
clients to push past the mental blocks that got in the way of their goals. This role clearly defined
her path and contributes to her love for helping founders today. Today, Sonia still heavily
focuses on mental and physical health in and out of the workplace.
Katy is a Partner at Baringa Partner. She has extensive of experience working in business transformation. Specialising in Operating Model, Organisational Design, Operational Efficiency, Enterprise Agility, Tech Transformation, Restructuring and Change, Katy is passionate about helping clients deliver their strategy effectively and efficiently. She understands how crucial it is that benefits are felt in the bottom line, working tirelessly to improve organisations and unlock potential savings. Having guided numerous high-profile agile transformation projects with clients including a string of multinational names across the energy industry and financial services sector, her skills and understanding have been developed at the highest level. In addition to her focus on providing consulting services to clients, Katy also heads up the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion agenda at Baringa.
Sara Sabry is a mechanical and biomedical engineer, and is the first female Egyptian Analog Astronaut. She is the founder and executive director of Deep Space Initiative, a non-profit company that aims to increase accessibility and opportunity in the space field while enabling deep space exploration for all Humankind.
Sabry received her Mechanical Engineering Bachelor’s degree in 2016 from the American University in Cairo, with a concentration in Mechatronics, as well as double minors in Biology and Chemistry. She received her Master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering in 2020 from Politecnico Di Milano in Italy. Sara’s wide range of experiences span from Mechatronics and Robotic Surgery, to Stem Cell Development and Bioastronautics. After her studies, Sara worked at a Tech Startup in Berlin as the deputy CTO working on Augmented Reality mobile applications. This Fall 2022, she will begin her PhD in Aerospace Sciences at The University of North Dakota, where her research will focus on engineering the next generation of planetary spacesuits. Along with her studies, she plans to begin her private pilot license, as well as continuing her astronaut training.
Sara is helping the Egyptian Space Agency with a number of exciting projects that will be announced this summer, including building the first analog research station in Africa. Sara was the team lead for the Transportation on the Moon group within the Lunar Commerce & Economics of the Moon Village Association, a PoliSpace external advisor, an independent researcher with Biofrequency Analytics, and a teaching associate at Mars University.
Prior to her work in the Space industry, Sara was a Yoga instructor, Crossfit coach and spent some time practicing Mixed Martial Arts. In 2016 she traveled around Africa volunteering in different schools and organizations, including a Women Empowerment Center in Uganda, and a primary school in South Africa. Sara is extremely passionate about our oceans, is an Advanced Open Water Certified diver, and spent 6 weeks in Madagascar as a marine conservationist.
Dalya Perez, PhD is a diversity, equity, and inclusion strategist, and qualitative researcher with expertise in Critical Race Theories and frameworks. She is a Senior Program Manager at Microsoft for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Mixed Reality where she works to advance inclusive hiring, to transform culture, and to influence equity in products. She is the daughter of an immigrant father from the Philippines and a refugee mother who is a Sephardi Jew from Egypt. She Her research has focused on the intersections of race and gender; equity gaps in matrixed systems; historical consciousness for Filipinx Americans, and the complexity of Jews of Color in the U.S. She lives and works on Duwamish and Coast Salish land and gives thanks to the first peoples.
Narimane leads the Board of Women at Intel (a global leader in the semiconductor industry and computing, employing ~130,000 people worldwide). Serving as Board Leader has provided her the opportunity to partner across Intel to drive cross-company efforts promoting diversity and inclusion, and career growth and development for women. Since joining Intel in 2014, she has focused her career on advancing Intel’s integrated circuit design capabilities to extend Intel’s leadership in computing. She has held several engineering roles developing design methodologies and guidelines, translating electrical circuit designs into manufacturable products, and driving design and process technology optimizations.
Narimane is known for developing partnerships and constructively challenging the status quo with colleagues and senior leaders. She is inspired by Intel’s mission to deliver products that benefit the lives of every person on the planet, and achievements in corporate responsibility, inclusion, and sustainability. Intel has given her great opportunities to develop as a technical leader. Narimane is excited to share her experiences and encourage women to act boldly in pursuit of their aspirations. She firmly believes that women not only have a place in technical fields, but that we must engage and encourage one another to fulfill the world’s need for beneficial innovations.
Narimane earned her Master of Science degree in Computer and Electrical Engineering from the Université Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris France. She draws great strength and resilience from having lived in 4 countries, adapting to local cultures, and learning to speak 3 languages. Originally from Egypt, Narimane now lives in San Jose, California with her husband, raising their sons (ages 8 and 3 years old). She enjoys an active lifestyle (running, tennis, swimming) and exploring new places, cultures, music, and cuisines.
Shahad Geoffrey is the founder and chief executive officer of Taffi Inc. A VC backed fashion-tech startup.
She is building the first styling platform in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia with a vision to be the global fashion brand that creates possibilities for the unseen to be seen. The platform connects stylists with consumers and fashion brands. It creates opportunities for millions of women to be a stylist and have extra income to be part of the growing gig economy which contributes to the Kingdom’s Vision 2030.
Before Starting Taffi, She worked for several companies in direct-to-consumer brands in different industries managing digital operations and marketing. In 2019, She was selected out of +100 candidates to work with the founder, Tim Draper on his fund, Draper Associates, a venture capital firm in Silicon Valley, California. Tim is a third-generation venture capitalist, invested in Skype, Tesla, Hotmail, and more. She worked with the investment team as an analyst and has done deal memos for companies that are valued today at $500M to $1B.
Shahad Geoffrey attained her bachelor’s degree in business administration and minor in finance from INSEEC University, in Paris, France, in 2016. She got her first full-time job at a cosmetics startup as a second employee in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Paris, France, before it got acquired by a UK investor.
In 2021, she was selected by Arabian Business as one of the 50 most influential women in Saudi Arabia. Also Shahad was a speaker at the Global Entrepreneurship congress, which took place in Riyadh in March 2022, where she discussed disruptive technologies and the growth of the fashion-tech industry.
Johana RIQUIER is a business strategist, award-winning diversity advocate, guest speaker and business strategist.
She is an expert in the gaming industry in the Middle-Eastern and African markets. She is known for her pioneering approach to economic development and for securing several gaming partnerships with governments in the region.
She founded Gamerging Solutions, a Solutions-focused agency focusing on disruptive innovation and social impact in the MEA region, leveraging Gaming and Emerging Technologies.
Since joining the gaming industry, she has promoted and represented diverse demographic experiences and social impact projects in the digital and gaming spaces.
She works head-on to advocate for the diversification of content, content creators, and communities.
Shayna is Managing Director at RunwayGrowth Capital; she focuses on investments in the technology sector.
Before joining Runway, Shayna was the Founder and Managing Partner of Lodestar Ventures, an early stage venture fund investing in technology companies that create lifestyle efficiencies. Shayna also serves as an Investment Advisor to Correlation Ventures, where she sources investments in early/growth stage technology companies. Prior to Lodestar, Shayna was a Partner at XG Ventures where she helped back nearly 50 companies (five of whom reached IPO: FB, TWTR, BOX, SFT, WISH).
Before XG, Shayna managed DLA Piper’s venture group where she focused on making investment recommendations and enhancing the funding prospects of early and growth stage companies.
Earlier in her career, Shayna was with Probitas Partners, where she was responsible for raising more than $3B from institutional investors for venture funds such as Scale Venture Partners, BCE Ventures, and IDG Ventures. While at Probitas, Shayna also advised on the firm’s secondary activities. She started her career in Investment Banking at Lazard and spent six years executing on M&A and Private Placements.
Shayna was named a Women of Influence in Venture Capital by the Silicon Valley Business Journal and was a featured investor in the 2020 book “The Intelligent Investor: Silicon Valley”. Shayna is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley. She holds degrees in Molecular Cell Biology and Mass Communications.
For close to twenty five years, learning and development has been the main focus of Dr Shaheem's career in a deep and deliberate manner, through the application of psychological and adult educational principles and practices. The intertwined nature of multiple roles throughout her career (such as a Learning & Development Senior Consultant, university professor and various leadership roles) are inseparable and constantly leveraged to engage in purposeful work to make a positive impact.
So when Dr Shaheem works as a consultant or executive coach, her comprehensive and broad academic background colours and frames both the process and product of that engagement. Similarly, as a university professor, Dr Shaheem's consulting projects breathe life and relevance into her lectures.
As Dean and Executive Director of an international business school with triple crown accreditation, Dr Shaheem merged and managed the kaleidoscope of her experiences in order to inspire, educate and transform lives by helping both staff and students progress towards their potential. Furthermore, Dr Shaheem's reach and impact extends across multiple continents through different dimensions. For close to seven years, she was a co-host on a talk radio show called 'Voices of Diversity' and had a monthly column called 'Psyched Sundays.' She has published a number of books and articles, is a senior research fellow and regular keynote presenter at conferences & Tedx speaker. She was also the founder of the first anti-bullying campaign in the UAE, 'Bolt Down on Bullying' and the founder and director of Balanced Leadership Circle, an association that aims to confront and prevent gender inequality. Through her social media platforms, she has touched the hearts and minds of many people worldwide.
On International Women’s Day in 2018, Dr Shaheem was recognized by the Mayor of London for her extraordinary contribution to the UK.
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Past Speakers
Haifa Fahoum Al Kaylani is President & Founder of the #ArabInternationalWomen’sForum and a development economist recognised in #Arab and international government, private sector and NGO circles as a high-impact change agent focussed on women’s leadership and youth empowerment, working for progress, peace and prosperity in the Arab region and internationally.
Mrs. Al Kaylani’s work for the last two decades has centred on economic empowerment for women and youth, having founded AIWF in 2001 as a development organisation supporting women’s leadership in social and economic growth in the MENA region and globally and serving as its Chair for nearly 20 years. She is a Fellow of the Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative 2017 and was the only Arab Commissioner to serve on the ILO Global Commission on the Future of Work.
She is a Board Member of the Arab British Chamber of Commerce in London, a Member of The Stimson East West Council on Track 11 Diplomacy, and a Member of the Women’s Leadership Board at Harvard. She has received numerous regional and global awards for her exceptional efforts to enable and advance women and youth through education and economic engagement in the #MENA region and beyond.
Somaya Farqui is 19 yrs old and from Herat, Afghanistan. She is a member and spokeswoman of the Digital Citizen Fund’s Afghan Girls Robotic team. Somaya has won several awards, including a silver medal for Courageous Achievement at the FIRST Global Challenge - in recognition of science and technology - in the US; a Benefiting Humanity in AI award at World Summit AI; the Janet Ivey-Duensing's Permission to Dream Award at the Raw Science Film Festival; and the Entrepreneurship Challenge at Robotex in Estonia, Europe's biggest robotics festival. Last year, she was named one of BBC's 100 women in 2020. This year she and her team were featured in Forbes 30 under 30.
Somaya Faruqi
Afghan Girls Robotic Team Member
18 years old
From Afghanistan Nimroz
A member of the Afghan Girls Robotics Team
Mechanical engineer
Nahid Rahimi
Afghan Girls Robotic Team Member
Saroj Kumar Jha is the Regional Director of the Mashreq Department (Lebanon, Iraq,
Syria, Jordan and Iran) at the World Bank Group. He assumed the position on July 1,2017. Jha brings to the region a vast experience in a critical period of
transition.
Jha’s top priorities in his new role are: (i) maintaining a dialogue with all
stakeholders to provide overall strategic leadership for the Bank’s engagement in
line with the region's emphasis on job creation, sustainable growth, inclusion and
governance; (ii) developing a strong analytical program that can inform policy and investment choices;
and (iii) building effective, integrated country teams to ensure efficient and high quality support to the
client focused on results.
Before this, he was the Senior Director for the Fragility, Conflict and Violence (FCV) Global Practice at the
World Bank Group since February 2016. He provided strategic leadership addressing the challenge of
fragility, conflict and violence, working across the World Bank Group and in close collaboration with
partners.
Earlier, Mr. Jha was the World Bank’s Regional Director for Central Asia based in Almaty from February
2012 until January 2016 where he led the Bank’s strategic engagements in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic,
Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan in cooperative management of water and energy, and regional
action on climate adaptation and mitigation.
Also, Mr. Jha worked as the Bank’s Global Manager for the Disaster Risk Management Practice and served
as Head of the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery(GFDRR), which he founded in 2006.
GFDRR is now the world’s largest global fund for disaster prevention and post-disaster recovery
operations.
Mr. Jha, an Indian national, joined the World Bank in 2005 as a Senior Infrastructure Specialist in the
Sustainable Development Network, after working for the Government of India (1990-2005) and the United
Nations agencies (1999-2004) as a senior executive in the field of public sector management,
infrastructure financing, natural resources management, natural disaster prevention, and environmental
sustainability.
18 years old
From Afghanistan Herat
A member of the Afghan Girls Robotics Team
Game developer
Sadaf Hamidy
Afghan Girls Robotic Team Member
Dr Anino Emuwa is the Founder and Managing Director of Avandis Consulting, a strategy and financial advisory firm in France. A former corporate banker with Citibank, she sits on the board of several organisations including Nottingham Trent University. A global women’s leadership expert, she is the founder of 100 Women@ Davos and Africa Women CEOs Network.
Anino is an international speaker on entrepreneurship, fintech, and D&I, Anino has been invited to speak at prestigious institutions including Forbes, Reykjavik Forum, Facebook, University of Cambridge, London School of Economics and the French National Assembly. She has received several awards including the Women in Fintech Award from TechPark Davos (2020). Anino chairs the African Women in Fintech and Payments Network (AWFP) Nigeria, and is a goodwill ambassador for the European Women in Payments Network (EWPN).
Dr Emuwa holds a Doctorate in Business Administration from Nottingham Business School, an MBA from Cranfield School of Management and a BSc Economics from the London School of Economics. Anino is a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute and a member of the Institute of Directors.
16 years old
A member and programmer for the Afghan Girls Robotics Team
Ayda Haydarpour
Afghan Girls Robotic Team Member
2021 MCs
2021 Moderators
Parissa Behnia coaches C Suite and Senior leaders who are high will-high skill and have a growth mindset. In other words, they're badasses like you who go 80MPH in a 45MPH zone. These days,
leadership is full of complexities whether you’re navigating from an audacious goal or trying to avoid that iceberg up ahead. In either case, Parissa's clients choose her because she's either sat in those seats or next to those seats often enough to know how it can feel to be alone in a crowded leadership room.
She's unafraid to speak truth to power to help propel you forward.
With over two decades of corporate, consulting, coaching and – let’s be honest – real life experience, Parissa’s key strategic difference is Empathy. Empathy in business is more than being nice to one
another, it’s a strategic imperative. It means that leaders create context and understanding so that they do a better job of serving their customers AND engaging their teams. She’s so passionate about the
application of empathy in business that she’s developed the Sixense Empathy Model for her clients to employ. And, she wants all of us to put empathy at the forefront of how we engage with everybody.
One of Parissa’s favorite things to do is to stand in front of a whiteboard – real or pretend – to help clients imagine what the world could look like and then propels them as they navigate to that vision of
success. This work enables clients to put together pieces of the puzzle to create the “A-Ha!” or “Eureka!”
moment that ignites action. She leans into the discomfort of the unknown and invites her clients to embrace all of their talents (even ones they don’t recognize or value fully) to create their own paths out of the unknown.
Parissa Behnia is a Certified Professional Coach, holds a BA from Northwestern University and MBA from NYU’s Stern School of Business.
Roni Sharabi, is co-founder of MENAco community, a professional networking platform for women entrepreneurs from across the Middle East and North Africa (the MENA region).
Additionally, she is the pedagogical manager at QueenB, a non-profit organization that teaches coding to young girls, and learning and development manager at Playstudios. Roni’s main goal is to create equal opportunity for the underprivileged and to promote collaborations through real human connections.
Sara Hamdan is a former Merrill Lynch banker, New York Times journalist and editor at Google. She is currently a podcast host, with an Instagram blog (@holidaysinheels) that has nearly 20,000 organic followers.
She regularly writes pieces for Arab News, Conde Nast Traveler, and Travel + Leisure. Sara frequently appears on the radio and has moderated high level panels, including Harvard's ACH Conference 2021 and the World Economic Forum's Women in Leadership panel.
A Berkeley and Columbia graduate, Sara has spent the last two years writing her debut novel. When she's not in front of her laptop, she's running around after her two kids.
Jennifer Tacheff is an award-winning leader and strategist, who helps companies and founders grow and scale their impact. She’s launched global products, programs, and campaigns with world-renowned brands like Twitch, Sony, Twitter, Nike, etc and has helped to build some of the biggest, inclusive programs and communities in the tech industry.
As Founder & CEO of Manifest Advisors, Jennifer has led her clients to become recognized brands and industry thought leaders in virtual culture, inclusion and talent, gaming, and technology. Jennifer serves on the SXSW Advisory Council and is a Board Advisor at Women 2.0, Onramp.io, Kijiji, Mothercoders and more.
She’s been featured in Inc, GeekWire, BizTech, UN Women, Women in Silicon Valley, Women Transforming Tech, and Radius as well as How to Be an Ally, Adventures of Women in Tech, Leaders of Growth and is an Associate Producer of the award-winning film, "The Divisible."
Nour Moghrabi is a seasoned leader and manager with around 20 years of combined experience in leadership and management, workforce development, youth and gender integration, gender training, gender responsive budgeting, gender sensitive value chains and human resources management. She is a senior gender consultant with the World Bank Mashreq Gender Facility. She started her career in the ICT sector in the United States and then in Jordan, where she supported the establishment Cisco's first Technical Assistance Center in the region. Sourcing women to serve the center and expand in the region was part of her tasks, where she sought qualified and motivated technical engineers. Realizing the challenges women face in the tech industry, she supported mentoring projects for young women and girls in STEM, led partnerships with ICT and Telecom companies to institutionalize gender diversity management practices, twinning them with European peer companies, and developing pioneering case studies about business benefits of hiring female talents. As well, she fosters collaboration with ICT business association and initiatives to enable experience exchange and prompt higher rates of female market entrants to the labor force.
2021 Speakers
Afnan is the Director of Women Entrepreneurship & Social Entrepreneurship department in SMEA, where she tirelessly works to increase women contribution to the economic and social growth of the Saudi Arabia.
She has developed the national strategy to grow and enable women entrepreneurs through programs and initiatives such as Women Accelerator, the National Network for Women in Business, as well as making sure of women inclusion in national transformation projects.
Prior to SMEA, Afnan had been the Executive Manager at Prince Sultan Fund for Women Development, leading programs to empower women and youth to develop their skills or start their own businesses. She led the team to build and operate the first and largest women incubator in Saudi Arabia. Afnan has also helped non-profits to develop and implement their strategy and programs, including public awareness campaigns and awards.
Afnan is also a member in the Board of Trustees of Eastern Province Council for Social Responsibilities, and Nourah University in Society Service and Continual Education. Also a member of women committee in family committee. a Board member in women Spark . a member in the National Supervisory Unit of the Non-profit Sector
Melinda Briana Epler has more than 25 years of experience elevating brands and developing business innovation strategies for startups, Fortune 500 companies, and global NGOs.
As CEO of Change Catalyst, Melinda is a strategic diversity, equity, and inclusion advisor for executives, entrepreneurs, investors, and activists around the world. As part of her changemaking work, she is an inclusive leadership coach, trains executive and management teams, and builds learning and development solutions for clients.
Melinda is the author of How to Be an Ally (McGraw-Hill) and the host of the popular "Leading With Empathy & Allyship" podcast. She is also a TED speaker, award-winning documentary filmmaker, and former marketing and culture executive. She speaks and writes about diversity and inclusion in tech, allyship, and empathy.
Caroline works with UNICEF at global level and is based in Geneva. She is part of the Gender-Based Violence in Emergencies (GBViE) team and oversees the portfolio on Gender-Based Violence Innovations and Service Delivery. She is a GBV Specialist with over 12 years of experience working on GBV Information Management, GBV programming and fight against immunity of sexual violence mostly in Africa and the Middle East. She has been leading on the development of UNICEF’s GBViE portfolio which includes the Virtual Safe Spaces (VSS) online platform for women and girls and the digital GBV referral pathway app (eRPW).
An international banking veteran and serial financial literacy entrepreneur, Dina Shoman brings almost two decades of experience to her role as Co-Founder of Verity, the Middle East’s family banking app that teaches kids and teens how to make smart money management decisions.
Verity is Dina’s third financial literacy-focused venture, having previously founded inherQuests, a New York-based startup that offers subscription boxes with games and activities, built on a curriculum that empowers young girls to begin their financial journey, and Nahji, a Jordanian social enterprise that teaches basic financial concepts through a range of engaging resources. By working closely with educational and child development experts, both startups successfully integrated experiential and play-based learning with relevant content and programs, encouraging kids to start building their personal finance skills.
Before starting her entrepreneurial journey, Dina was Executive Vice President and Head of Branding at Arab Bank. During this time she also served as a Board Member for Arab Bank Plc, Arab Bank Switzerland, Arab Tunisian Bank and Arab Bank Australia, as well as a number of non-profit organizations based in Jordan.
Dina holds a Bachelor’s degree in Finance, and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Bentley University. In addition, she has completed continued educational certificates in Organizational Design and Change Leadership from Georgetown University, and in Design Thinking from INSEAD. Adding to her cohort of achievements, Dina was nominated as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2012, and ranked third out of the ‘Top 100 Most Powerful Arab Business Women in Listed Companies’ by Forbes Middle East.
When she’s not exploring new and fun ways to teach kids the importance of saving and spending responsibly, Dina can be found whipping up her favourite dishes in the kitchen, traveling the globe, spending time with friends and family (especially her niece and dog), and singing karaoke every chance she gets.
Ramy is the founder of 1984 Ventures, a seed fund focused on startups tackling antiquated industries. Before 1984, Ramy was the founder and CEO of Snip.it (Acquired by Yahoo where he served as a product executive under Marissa Mayer) and was one of the earliest engineers at Tellme Networks (Acquired by Microsoft). Ramy started his investing career at Khosla Venture working closely with legendary investors Vinod Khosla and Pierre Lamond on a number of investments including Square (NASDAQ:SQ), Groupme (acquired by Skype) Storify (acquired by LiveFyre) and Ness Technologies (acquired by OpenTable). Ramy holds a Bachelors and Masters in Computer Science from Harvard and an MBA from Stanford where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar.
Mitra Kashanchi is the Vice President of Chevron Chemicals, a position she has held since October 2020.
Ms. Kashanchi began her career with Chevron 30 years ago as a chemist in El Segundo Refinery. Previously, she served as Salt Lake Refinery General Manager, Refinery Business Manager for the Richmond Refinery Hydro Processing Business Unit. In 2012, she was the Operations Manager at the Chevron refinery in Burnaby, British Columbia. From 1991 to 2012, she worked at the El Segundo Refinery in various roles in technical, Oils planning, M&R and operations roles.
Mitra earned a bachelor’s degree in Applied Chemistry from Iran National University. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering and a master’s degree in Physical Chemistry, both from California State University, Long Beach.
Mitra has two daughters. One graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles and now works in the field of Human resources Los Angeles Area. The other is currently studying for her Ph.D in Chemistry and Materials Science at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her husband of 32 years, Ryan, is with Remax Premier-Realty.
Diane El Hachem is a marketing thought leader who embarked on her marketing career 17 years ago. She’s best known for her track record of successfully translating plans into execution. Diane has been active in different industries including IT, Retail, Media, Telcom, F&B and Entertainment. And now she is the co-founder of Related, heading Strategic Partnerships at the company.
Before Related, she worked with Seagate Technology for more than 8 years. As their Channel Marketing Manager for Europe, Middle East & Africa, she handled some of the most challenging markets and successfully led projects with top players like Amazon and Best Buy.
At Related, Diane succeeded in designing and implementing an award winning unique coalition program including 150+ different brands for one of the biggest Real Estate companies in the region. When it comes to partnerships in the loyalty industry, Diane strongly believes in the power of experiential rewards that help brands move from a transactional connection to an emotional interaction with customers.
She’s also part of WiiN Global - Women In Incentives Network, a space for top female leaders, female founders, and entrepreneurs in the global Incentive and Loyalty industry, as well as Dubai Business Women Council (DBWC), the UAE’s leading platform for the personal & professional development of business women.
Sepideh Nasiri is the CEO and Founder of Women of Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in Technology (previously known as Persian Women In Tech). She is an award winning serial entrepreneur with over 16 years of experience in the Tech Industry, and a life-time advocate for women, diversity and inclusion.
Sepideh is responsible for the strategy and oversight of Women of MENA in Tech programs and global operations across 17 cities. As the CEO, much of Sepideh’s work is focused on connecting communities, companies, and individuals to bring change in how we should invest in minorities and immigrants.
Sepideh’s leadership is recognized globally for advancing women’s careers in STEM, and developing scalable mentorship and community driven programs. Currently, Sepideh advises global initiatives such as WeMENA, a program by the World Bank, and TechWomen, an initiative of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA). Sepideh mentors many female entrepreneurs and founders in technology around the world, and serves as an advisor to many early stage startups.
Prior to Women of MENA in Tech, Sepideh started her career as a Co-founder and Managing Editor of a digital and print Los Angeles Magazine, and later as the Vice President at Women 2.0.
Sepideh has received several awards from government officials including David Chiu, the Assembly member of California, John Tory, the Mayor of Toronto, Scott Wiener, the Senator of California, and London Breed, the Mayor of San Francisco. In 2014, she was recognized by San Francisco Business Times/Journal “40under40” and Diversity Journal’s 2014 “Women Worth Watching”.
Enas Siam is the Co-founder and COO of Flextock, a tech enabled end-to-end fulfillment solution. She started her Career at Nestle gaining experience in channel sales development and distribution before moving to Careem where she became the GM of Careem Bus in Egypt.
Lateefa Alwaalan, is an inventor, and a serial entrepreneur. She started her first company at the age of 16. She earned her bachelor degree in computer science from King Saud university and later gained experience in information technology from working at different companies. In 2011, Lateefa earned a Technology management MBA from University of Washington.
Her passion for Arabic coffee drove her to reinterpret how Arabic coffee drinkers consumed it. She started her first steps in (Yatooq) by manufacturing readymade Arabic coffee blends, and the first automated Arabic coffee machine. Yatooq sold thousands of coffee machines across the GCC countries and the world. She also recently co-founded Aroom a company focused on developing technology for coffee vending machines.
Her passion for women empowerment drove her to co-found CellA+ in 2012. A Saudi professional women's network, which has about 3000 members. Lateefa acted as president of the network during 2015.
Lateefa received Arabs Women Awards Entrepreneur of the year 2014, and in 2015 she received EY entrepreneur of the year for Saudi Arabia. Forbes magazine listed Lateefa in the Kingdom's most innovative leaders for 2013/2014/2015. More recently, Harvard Business School published a case study about Yatooq in Nov 2018.
Currently, Lateefa is the managing director for Endeavour Saudi, which is part of Endeavor's global network. Being an Endeavour entrepreneur her self since 2014, she is driven by her believe of how endeavor supports high-potential companies can impact local economies positively.
Lateefa has also been appointed as board member to the Riyadh chamber of commerce.
Nora Bavey, General Partner at Unconventional Ventures, a Nordic VC that focuses on impact tech companies founded by diverse founders. She is the the award-winning brand strategist who became a tech entrepreneur only to become an investor who focuses on diverse founders and sees ownership and entrepreneurship as the strongest tools for equality. With her understanding and focus on Sustainability, DEI and future trends, she is building ecosystems in the Nordic region to take advantage of the potential she sees being lost today. "
Rama is a seasoned Global Tech Executive with over 20 years of experience in the technology sector with diverse experience in sales & distribution, operations and business transformation in high growth and M&A scenarios.
As former Andela's Country Director- a technology company that’s solving the global technical talent shortage - Rama built and launched Andela Egypt, while positioning it as a Tech company leader in the Tech ecosystem as well as the home to great tech talent. Before joining Andela, Rama led teams at IBM, Lenovo, and Dell working across different continents, moving from Cairo to Dubai to Paris.
She recently moved back to Egypt to act on her long-time desire to help build the future of technology in her home country. Her energy and passion for building a great organization in Africa and the region are contagious.
In her own words, ""dare to dream, believe in yourself, follow your passion and help build a better world"". Rama holds a BSc in Computer Science from The American University in Cairo and an Executive MBA from HEC Paris in General Management and Entrepreneurship.
Rama El Safty
Global Tech Executive
Katie Partridge is the CEO of Saphira Group, a private investment office headquartered in London with a presence in the US and the Middle East.
The group is responsible for the management of ultra-high net worth individuals &global assets. Saphira Real Estate is the real estate advisory arm of the business and Saphira Technology Partners focuses on private equity investments.
Katie is also the Founder and Chairwoman of Al Johara, a social enterprise organisation that fosters female leadership and cross-cultural understanding between the East and the West via tailored leadership, social entrepreneurship and mentorship programmes. The Four Pillars of the initiative also offer bespoke content on Education, Philanthropy, Entrepreneurship and Wellbeing through a digital platform and live events.
Her institutional investment career includes working at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, Credit Suisse First Boston and Caledonia Investments plc. Prior to setting up Saphira, Katie was responsible for the real assets investment arm of WMG Advisors, a multi-family office. Before that, she served as a Managing Director at Hannam & Partners (previously Strand Partners), a privately owned merchant bank that specialises in corporate finance and M&A transactions.
Katie believes in making a difference at grassroots level and is a Founding Trustee of The Childhood Trust, a charity that supports the alleviation of childhood poverty and early development struggles of children in London. CHT raises millions of pounds in funds every year, and distributes grants supporting projects that assist in the practical, emotional and inspirational needs of over 250,000 disadvantaged children in the capital.
Katie graduated from Queen Mary University of London with a Bachelor of Science Honours in Economics and Politics.
Neda Tabatabaie is Vice President, Business Analytics and Technology for the San Jose Sharks of the National Hockey League. In her 6th season with the Sharks, she is responsible for devising, developing, implementing and guiding the overall business strategy initiatives for the organization through the use of technology, data, and analytics.
Tabatabaie has over 15 years of experience in the professional sports and entertainment industry. Prior to joining the Sharks, she served as Vice President, Best Practices at KORE Software where she was responsible for their Consulting Services.
Prior to KORE, Tabatabaie spent 9 years at Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (MLSE) overseeing CRM, email marketing, research, analytics and digital for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Toronto Raptors, Toronto Marlies and Toronto FC as well as other MLSE properties.
Tabatabaie earned a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Toronto.
She serves on the boards of Sharks Foundation, San Jose Downtown Association, and is an advisor to Women in Sports Technology (WiST). She was selected as one of the 100 of Women of Influence 2019 by Silicon Valley Business Journal and Sports Business Journal Game Changers class of 2019.
Hanane Benkhallouk is an award winning senior consultant with a broad scope of expertise and exposure to international markets.
She counts 20 years of a diverse thriving career journey that started in New York city before moving to Dubai in 2005. Her multi-industry working experience included being in charge of innovation and entrepreneurship programs across the Arab World, at the Mohammed bin Rashid AlMaktoum foundation, which was the turning point in her career shift, Hanane works today as the Executive Director of Sustain Leadership consultancies.
A culture change and certified innovation strategist, Hanane supports corporates, government
institutions, NGOs and SMEs, in building human centric business models, and creating cultures of innovation to remain relevant in an ever-changing world.
Hanane pioneered a multitude of initiatives which stemmed from her passion to accelerate the gender balance in the region: Lean in Arabia, the first lean in chapter in the GCC that she co-founded in 2014, the Link women to women mentoring program, she was also a founding VP of the first chapter in the GCC of the 80 year old women and girls empowering global organization, Soroptimist international.
More recently, Hanane founded Tawazoun, the first think-do tank and platform in the Middle East that aims at accelerating the gender balance discussion in a fundamentally different way.
Hanane is recognized as a thought leader, a global conference speaker, and a published author, with 2 co-authored book, and the first book coming up soon, some of her articles were also published on Harvard business review Arabic, and Forbes Middle East to name a few.
Khawla is the founder and CEO of Takalam L.T.D, an online counseling platform that supports mental well-being. Takalam was founded in early 2020 to ease access to mental health services in a convenient, private, and affordable way, catering to individuals and organizations in a one-stop-shop digital solution. Takalam’s mission is to promote a state of well-being and the pursuit of a healthy mind by breaking the cultural stigma around seeking mental health care and create a social impact for a greater community benefit.
Before devoting her work fulltime to Takalam, Khawla held several positions in various Abu Dhabi based government entities, including Emirates Foundation & twofour54 where she utilized her skills and expertise in Business Development, Strategic Partnerships, Media & Communications. She also worked as an independent consultant for startups between the UAE & the US while she was based in Washington DC. Khawla holds a Master’s degree in International Business from Georgetown University in Washington DC and a Bachelor’s degree in Media & Communication Sciences from Zayed University in Abu Dhabi.
Dina Saoudi is the mother of Hashem and Hamzah, who define her purpose to help better the
world for all children as much as her own. She co-founded Seven Circles, an investment and consulting agency focused on establishing strategic partnerships, creating new revenue streams, and building sustainable, impactful solutions. She is also the co-founder of its philanthropic arm, Seven’s World.
Dina co-founded and heads Empowering throughTM (EtTM), a new breed of social enterprise with the purpose of empowering ecosystems to enable individuals economically and socially. EtTM's publications, platforms and events are based on a measurable and scalable model that identifies and connects stakeholders — aid agencies, private and public sectors, academia, impact funds,
and civil society — to work together to enable and celebrate individuals. Since 2017, EtTM has been
creating impact in more than 10 countries with a portion of the proceeds committed to giving back.
Dina proudly serves two of Her Majesty Queen Rania’s initiatives as a member of the board of directors of The Children's Museum and the board of trustees of the Royal Health Awareness Society.
Payam Zamani is the founder, chairman, and CEO of One Planet Group.
Born in Tehran, Iran, Zamani was denied an education due to his following of the Baha’i Faith, a peaceful religion that focuses on the equality, love, and unity of people of all races and backgrounds. At the age of 15, Zamani was forced to flee Iran ultimately receiving asylum from
the United States and arriving in San Francisco in 1988.
After graduating from UC Davis with a degree in environmental toxicology, Zamani founded
Autoweb in 1994 along with his older brother, Frank Zamani. The first online car buying service, Autoweb made its stock market debut on March 23, 1999, ultimately changing the way people bought and sold vehicles. Within a day of its debut, Autoweb’s valuation reached $1.2 billion.
In 2001, Payam launched Reply.com, a lead exchange and marketplace in automotive, real estate, and home improvement, that was relaunched as Buyerlink in 2015. Today, Buyerlink is the leading online auction marketplace for the generation and monetization of locally targeted
and category-specific consumer demand.
In 2015, Zamani also founded One Planet Group, a hybrid tech firm that owns and operates a portfolio of businesses and funds seed and early-stage startups, including Buyerlink, Quite Remarkable, California.com, BahaiTeachings, One Planet Media, One Planet VC, and One Planet Studios. Infused with Zamani’s deeply held religious beliefs, One Planet Group supports
strong business ideas while also building an ethos that helps improve society and gives back to communities. Beyond trying to implement best business practices, One Planet Group tries to cultivate an environment that consciously thinks about how “innovation x intention” authentically translates to every aspect of the company, from culture, policies, and governing values to the
companies’ impact on the surrounding community and on humanity as a whole. In 2020, One Planet Group was named a ‘Best Place to Work’ by the San Francisco Business Times and the Silicon Valley Business Journal, and also received the Better Business Bureau’s
Torch for Ethics Award. Zamani was also honored as a ‘Best CEO for Diversity’ in 2020 by Comparably, was granted the Tahirih Justice Center’s ‘Hope Award’ (2016), and is a recipient of the University of California, Davis Award of Distinction (2018).