Firas Alkhatib is the Deputy Director of the Department of Congressional Affairs at the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates in Washington, DC. During his tenure at the embassy Firas has managed the passage of a bilateral US-UAE nuclear cooperation agreement through the US Congress.

Prior to joining the embassy Firas worked for the private equity teams at Cerberus Capital Management in New York and Istithmar PJSC in Dubai.
 

Eng. Najeeb Al-Awadi, 40years old, has graduated in 1994 with honors, from the Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston-USA. He holds BS in Electrical& Electronic Engineering.
 

He is a stubborn, dedicated, committed, and determined telecommunications professional. His career life is enriched with 15 years of experience in this field and others. With an experience in corporate establishment, he spent 10 years of his career life establishing and managing two regional telecommunications companies, and watched it grow into well-established and highly accredited companies, at Kuwait market. He also has a considerable experience in sales and marketing. In addition, he is an expert in technical& commercial operations management, IT infrastructure, and telecommunications grids.

Al-Awadi was a General Manager at Future Communications Company International, for five years. During which, he has built a regional telecommunications network, that soon came into its own in record time. In Kingdom of Bahrain, he was a Project Manager of rolling out, installation, and maintenance, of the middle East 1st 3G Network (3rd generation network) Operator Project. He started as a Planning and Development Engineer, at Kuwait Oil Company. Further, he had handled planning of telecommunication projects, before moving forward into implementation of successful commercial projects. Nevertheless, Najeeb was a founding member of the Middle East and North Africa branch, of a leading American business& commercial consultancy firm.

In terms of training, this engineer is well structured and equipped, through continuously participating in series of training programs and workshops. All of which, have enhanced and added real and practical values to his professional experience, competence, and skills. Hence, he is nowadays utilizing that experience, applying it in reality, and starts enjoying the fruitfulness of his achievements.
 

Robert Ayan is Founder and Managing Partner of Cambridge Advisors, an international strategic advisory firm specializing in socio-economic development. Currently, Robert is serving as Chief Strategist to El Hassan Science City in Amman, Jordan, to develop an innovation ecosystem to support knowledge based entrepreneurship. Robert brings over fifteen years of experience in roles spanning technology strategy, product management, technology entrepreneurship, public policy, education and venture capital.

As Program Manager of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center, Robert helped innovators commercialize their emerging technologies and supported the launch of technology entrepreneurship initiatives across the MENA region, including the establishment of three entrepreneurship centers and a technology venture capital fund. Robert continues to provide public policy advice on building an entrepreneurial ecosystem to support technology entrepreneurship to institutions and regional development authorities. Robert also continues to deliver customized workshops on technology entrepreneurship and venture capital to support aspiring entrepreneurs.

Prior to MIT, Robert worked in Product Management at LiveVault Corporation, a Boston area data storage startup acquired by Iron Mountain (NYSE: IRM). While at LiveVault, Robert worked on the design, launch, marketing, and sales of new dynamic storage products. Prior to LiveVault, Robert led a Technology Strategy team at MFS Investment Management.

Robert currently serves on the Board of a number of startups in the MENA region. Robert is also a Senior Advisor to the Queen Rania Centre for Entrepreneurship at Princess Sumaya University of Technology where he has been actively supporting entrepreneurship programs. Robert is Board Member and President Emeritus of the MIT Arab Alumni Association and is active in several U.S. and MENA professional, technology and entrepreneurship groups as an Advisor, Executive, or Founder. Robert is also a writer and regular contributor to various publications discussing issues ranging from education and innovation, to social issues and socio-economic development.

Robert earned his MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management, where he was awarded the Carroll L. Wilson Fellowship to study the use of Information and Communication Technology as a means to foster economic development in the Arab World. Robert also earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the Boston University School of Management, where he studied Management Information Systems and Computer Science.
Email: bobayan@alum.mit.edu
 

Cristian Baeza is a Senior Expert in Health Systems Policy, Financing, and Health Insurance in McKinsey & Company’s Washington DC office, which he joined in 2008. Cristian leads the Health System Financing Group at the firm and his recent projects have included:

Leading work in regulation, health financing, and food regulation in GCC countries

Advising on the strategy development for a large international health foundation

Supporting work in health financing and health insurance in the Middle East and Latin America

Cristian has published articles on financing health systems, health and global development, including “Healthy Development: The World Bank Strategy for Health, Nutrition and Population Results”. He is also a co-author of the book “Financing Health Systems in the 21st Century” (OUP 2006) and “Health Systems: Improving Performance” (World Health Report, 2000, WHO).

Prior to McKinsey, Cristian was Director of Health, Nutrition and Population at the World Bank, a senior health systems and health financing specialist at the International Labour Organisation and CEO of the Chilean National Health Insurance Fund, FONASA. Cristian is a medical doctor with an MPH (Master of Public Health) from Johns Hopkins University and an MS (Master of Science) in Neurosciences from the University of Chile.
 

Sara Barclay is a second year student in the Master in Public Policy program at the Harvard Kennedy School. She is interested in human capital development in the Arab world. Sara graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania with an honors degree in Political Science and a minor in French. She spent one year as a visiting student at the American University of Beirut. An Arab-American of Lebanese, Palestinian and Iraqi background, Sara has spent significant time researching and volunteering in Lebanon. Prior to attending the Kennedy School, she served for one year in AmeriCorps, a national service program focused on poverty reduction in the United States. Sara is currently serving as the Chairperson of the Arab Caucus at HKS and a Graduate Intern at the Dubai Initiative.

Matthew M. Barnes has nearly 15 years of experience in corporate philanthropy and executive positioning, having served as aide or strategic advisor to members of Congress and the UK Parliament, business leaders, and foundation heads.

He brings to bear extensive background in strategic planning, government relations, and issue management. Matthew and his team serve as counselor and administrative manager to individuals and institutions seeking to build legacies through philanthropy and charitable giving—among them PSEG, Integrity Health, Xerox (Middle East, North Africa), Avis Budget Group, and the Egyptian American Community Foundation.

Matthew was previously an analyst at Chase Securities, the investment banking arm of Chase Manhattan Bank, and philanthropic advisor to David T. Kearns, chairman emeritus of the Xerox Corporation. Additionally, Matthew has worked as a research assistant to two members (and future cabinet ministers) of the UK Parliament: Rt. Honorable Alan Milburn and Rt. Honorable Stephen Byers.

Matthew earned a Bachelor of Arts from Purdue University and studied at the London School of Economics as a Hansard Scholar.

Matthew’s commentary and analysis on philanthropy and executive positioning have appeared in Forbes magazine, The New York Times, Radar magazine and Campaigns & Elections magazine, among others.

Matthew and his wife, Martina, live with their two children in Jersey City.
 

Aziza Chaouni is the co-principal with Takako Tajima of Bureau E.A.S.T, a design firm with offices in Los Angeles, Toronto and Fez, Morocco.

Both Chaouni and Tajima graduated from the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Chaouni holds a B.Sc. with Honors in Civil Engineering from Columbia University.
 
Chaouni has worked in several offices in Morocco, Europe, Canada, and the US, such as Hashim Sarkis ALUD, Diller Scofidio + Renfro; and Renzo Piano Building Workshop.

She was awarded the Progressive Architecture award in 2007 for her research project, “Hybrid Urban Sutures: Filling the Gaps in the Medina of Fez.” 
 
She was the Aga Khan Visiting Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Design in 2006-2007. While a fellow, she collaborated in the production of a seminar on desert tourism and a studio on the Medina of Fez. Chaouni exhibited her research on Desert Ecolodges at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. She also organized an international conference on the theme of Desert Tourism with Virginie Lefebvre.
Proceedings from the seminar and studio will be released in the Fall 2009.

Chaouni is the director of the research board of DOCO.MO.MOMorocco, a chapter of an international organization that seeks the preservation of the modern heritage. Her research on architect J-F Zevaco will be assembled in a book, Detailing Modernism, to be published with the support of a Graham Foundation grant and the Archilab Center in Orleans.
 


Bureau E.A.S.T’s Fez river rehabilitation project won the 2008 Regional Holcim Gold Award in Sustainable Construction and the 2009 EDRA Best Places Award, the 2009 Holcim Gold Global Award in Sustainable construction, EDRA Best places Award and was a finalist for the INDEX and SQUAT city competitions.

Bureau E.A.S.T curated the architecture section of the Casablanca Biennale and took part in two sections of the Rotterdam Biennale 2009.

Chaouni is currently an assistant professor at the John H. Daniels Faculty of architecture landscape and design, where she researches green technologies in arid climate and the rapidly changing Middle Eastern city. With Professor Liat Margolis, she launched the Out of Water research project.
 

www.bureaueast.com

www.oowproject.com

Scott Daniels is a Senior Partner of Monitor Group and a leader in Monitor’s global Chemicals / Energy and Sustainability practices as well as Head of Monitor’s internal sustainability strategy. He has been with the firm since 1994 over which time he has overseen and participated in projects across a wide range of industries. The bulk of the work over his career has been focused in primary manufacturing businesses as well as technology-driven sectors, helping companies develop growth and competitive strategies in complex environments such as commodity and specialty chemicals, mining, energy, and telecommunications.

Over the past 15 years Scott has designed and led many significant engagements with large global enterprises and various levels of government to evaluate portfolio positions, regional strategies, organizational structures, investment priorities and micro and macroeconomic impacts of policy regimes. One particular area of Scott’s expertise is in developing and quantifying scenarios around industry evolution and applying them to identify competitive and strategic issues and risks, as well as expected value of different strategic choices and programs.

Scott occasionally serves as an industry expert in energy and petrochemicals. He has extensive experience in the oil and electricity value chains, chemical / materials markets and high technology consumer markets.

Scott is an economist, with a focus on micro and macroeconomic analysis, statistical methods, game theory, and corporate and competitive strategy. He holds an M.A. in economics from Queen’s University where he was a Senator Frank Carrel Fellow, and an Honours B.A. in economics from McGill University where he served as Editor of the Journal of Political Economy. He works out of Monitor’s Toronto office but his client practice is mainly in the US and Middle East
 

Dr. Al-Duaij co-founded and currently serves as Chairman of the Kuwait Health Initiative, a nonprofit organization based in Kuwait that focuses on developing equitable reform strategies for Kuwait’s health sector. Through it, he is spearheading efforts to establish a prominent health policy “think tank” serving the Gulf Cooperation Council region. Dr. Al-Duaij bases his clinical practice at the Whidden Memorial Hospital Emergency Department, member of the Cambridge Health Alliance health system in Massachusetts. He is also Assistant Director of Medical Toxicology at Cambridge Health Alliance and Staff Toxicologist at the Regional Center for Poison Control and Prevention serving Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

Dr. Al-Duaij’s interests are in health sector reform, health inequities in the Gulf States, and systems development in public health, emergency medicine and medical toxicology. Among his efforts to raise standards of care in the MENA region, Dr. Al-Duaij has initiated plans to establish the region’s first clinical toxicology association, MENATOX.

Dr. Al-Duaij gained his medical degree from the Université de Genève in 2001 and has worked for the Ministry of Health in Kuwait before moving to Boston in 2004. In 2007, he completed his clinical training at the BIDMC Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency in Boston. Dr. Al-Duaij is diplomate of the American Board of Emergency Medicine and has completed a fellowship in medical toxicology at the Children\'s Hospital Boston. He also holds a Master of Public Health degree with a concentration in global health policy from Harvard University. Dr. Al-Duaij holds an appointment at Harvard Medical School and memberships at several professional societies including the American College of Medical Toxicology, for which he has re-established and presently chairs its International Committee.

He lives in Boston with his wife Dr. Bibi Alamiri. When not working, they enjoy travelling, fine cuisine, and are avid moviegoers.
 

Ziad Al-Duaij (aka Zaydoun) was one of the first Kuwaiti bloggers, and since 2003 his "KUWAIT UNPLUGGED" has been Kuwait\\\'s longest-running blog as well as one of the Middle East\\\'s earliest blogs. Blogging came about by accident for Ziad and, with the creation of many more blogs in Kuwait, became part of a growing movement that made its social and political impact felt on many occasions and milestones over the past few years, most notably the Orange Movement that called for greater electoral transparency and the redistricting of Kuwait\\\'s electorates.

Ziad graduated from The George Washington University with a B.A. from the Elliott School of International Affairs but chose a career in marketing and has since worked for some of Kuwait\\\'s top financial and telecoms companies. He is now General Manager and partner at Massaleh Media Holding Co., a small private equity firm that invests in marketing and media related ventures.

http://www.kuwait-unplugged.com

Before joining Citadel Capital, the leading private equity firm in the Middle East and North Africa with US$ 8.3 billion in investments under control, in February 2006, Mr. ElEbiary was a banker with the Investment Banking Division at Merrill Lynch & Co., where he participated in merger and acquisition transactions in addition to public and private financing, including the comprehensive financing of telecom and media companies such as Clearwire and Valor Communications Group. Previously, he was Business Analysis Manager at the Corporate Finance Department of the MeadWestvaco Corporation. He sits on the boards of Citadel Capital platform companies including Nile River Transportation Company (NRTC), ASEC Cement and Gozour. Mr. ElEbiary holds a BA in Economics from the American University in Cairo and an MBA from Columbia University in New York.

Rob Farris is the Research Director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. His recent research includes Internet content regulation, state censorship and surveillance practices, broadband and infrastructure policy, and the interaction of new media, online speech, government regulation of the Internet and political processes. Rob is a contributor to the OpenNet Initiative, studying Internet censorship activities in over 60 countries around the world. He is currently working on the integration and comparison of analytical tools to better understand the structure of online communities and digital media content.
 

Walid Fayad is a Principal at Booz & Company Middle East Offices with nearly 10 years of experience in management consulting. As a management consultant, his main area of focus has been strategic and investment planning, privatization, restructuring and business building in the energy, utilities and telecommunications sectors. Dr. Fayad leads Booz & Company’s Middle East Utilities practice, developing and managing relationships with leading utilities in Saudi Arabia and the Arab world, including the Saline Water Conversion Corporation, Saudi Electricity Company, and the Saudi Ministry of Water and Electricity. He has also published numerous articles addressing the challenges and the transformation requirements of the regional utilities sector. Dr. Fayad holds a Diplome d’Ingenieur from Ecole Polytechnique, France; a Diplome d’Ingenieur des Arts et Manufactures from Ecole Centrale Paris, France; a M.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from MIT, and a Ph.D. in Electronic Materials from MIT.

Joseph Fuller is a Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Monitor Company. During his tenure at Monitor, Joe has worked with clients in a wide variety of industries. His particular interest is in industries undergoing structural transition, including those sparked by technological change and globalization. His interest in this field began during his collaboration with Professor Michael Porter of Harvard Business School, a co-founder of Monitor Company, on the development of the concepts presented in Porter’s book, Competitive Advantage. Over the last year, he and his colleague, Professor Michael Jensen, have written extensively on the interplay between the capital markets, corporate governance and strategy.

He is an internationally recognized expert in media and telecommunications and has served some of that industry’s leading companies. He has advised over two dozen of the leading information, entertainment and telecommunications companies. His research on the impact of information services and telecommunications on national economic development has been exploited by a number of governments in the formation of their national policy. He has authored articles for the Harvard Business Review, the Sloan Management Review, CEO and Across the Board, Directors and Boards, the Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, and The American Scholar magazines, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, the Washington Post, the International Herald Tribune, India’s Business Standard and Indian Management and Brazil’s EXAME magazines and an upcoming piece in Perspectives on Political Science.

Joe is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, where he was a Charles Warren fellow, and of Harvard Business School. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the Harvard Fund and the Board of Dean’s Advisors of the Harvard Business School. He serves as a Senior Advisor to the Center for Global Health of the Massachusetts General Hospital.
 

Habib is an entrepreneur and recently co-founder of Yamli.com a startup focused on empowering the Arabic language on the web. Today, he drives Yamli\'s vision and product strategy.

The World Economic Forum recognized him as a Young Global Leader in 2009, he is also part of the 2009 "Thirty under 30" list by ArabianBusiness.

Prior to Yamli he co-founded INLET (International Network of Lebanese Entrepreneurs and Technologists), to promote entrepreneurship in the Arab world. During the July of 2006 war he founded Relief Lebanon to support relief operations. His past work experiences also include AMD and Mok3 a Boston startup out of the MIT.
Habib advises several young entrepreneurs and startups from the MENA region and often speaks about early stage development and entrepreneurship. He holds a Bachelor of Computer and Communication Engineering from the American University in Beirut and a Masters in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California.
 

Dr. Imad Hajj serves as Ministerial Advisor at the Ministry of Public Health and Director of the Saint George Hospital University Medical Center in Beirut, Lebanon. He also holds the position of Management Representative for Quality Systems for Healthcare at that Saint George, an innovative program he established. Dr. Hajj was an elected member of the “National Lebanese Committee for Hospital Accreditation”.

He has also served as Chairman of the Department of Surgery at SGHUMC since 2007. He holds a special interest in breast diseases and is a member of the “National Breast Cancer Screening” program in Lebanon.

Dr. Hajj held multiple leadership and academic positions in various institutions in Lebanon. He served as Dean of Saint George Faculty of Postgraduate Medical Education at the University of Balamand, Associate Professor and Clinical Tutor in General Surgery for undergraduate and postgraduate medical education, and as the Medical Director of the Hamlin Hospital.

Dr. Hajj received his BSc in Biology and Chemistry from the American University of Beirut and later received his medical degree from Baghdad University College of Medicine in 1985. He completed his training in General Surgery at the American University of Beirut Medical Center and later obtained the Fellowship in General Surgery from the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh. In 1992, he received a Diploma of General Surgery from the Royal College of Surgeons, England. He finally received a Master in Business Administration from the Lebanese American University in 2002.

Dr. Hajj lives in Beirut with his wife and two children.
 

David Harvey is the Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY). A leading social theorist of international standing, he received his PhD in Geography from University of Cambridge in 1961. He is among the top 20 most cited authors in the humanities. In addition, he has been cited as the world\'s most cited academic geographer and the author of many books and essays that have been prominent in the development of modern geography as a discipline. His work has contributed greatly to broad social and political debate, most recently he has been credited with helping to bring back social class and Marxist methods as serious methodological tools in the critique of global capitalism, particularly in its neoliberal form. In 2007, Dr. Harvey was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Dr. Helfrick is a graduate of Indiana University and received his oral and maxillofacial surgery training at Sinai Hospital of Detroit. He chaired the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at Sinai 1973 to 1984 and served as President of the hospital’s medical staff of 600 physicians from 1982-1984. From 1984-2000 he was Professor and Chairman of the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at the University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston. He had additional appointments as Clinical Professor of Surgery at the University of Texas Medical School and as Clinical Professor of Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine. From 1985 to 1997 he was Director of the University of Texas Health Science Center Cleft Palate/Craniofacial Deformity Team. Dr. Helfrick has over 40 publications in the scientific literature and has participated extensively in clinical and laboratory research. Dr. Helfrick chaired the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons special committee on the development of Parameters of Care for a period of ten years, and in 1991 he was the recipient of a $1.5 million grant from the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research to study the dissemination of professional parameters of care. He is a Fellow of the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, and in 1993 was recipient of that Association’s Distinguished Service Award. In 1997 he was awarded honorary Fellowship in the Royal College of Surgeons, London, England.

Dr. Helfrick has served in various capacities with the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) since 1984, and for eight years was a member of its Board of Commissioners. In 1997 and 1998 he served as Chairman of the Board of the Joint Commission. Under his leadership as Chairman, several task forces were created to address important emerging issues for the Joint Commission. These included the JC Oversight Group, which developed Joint Commission International, the Accreditation Process Improvement Task Force, the Complex Organization Task Force, and the Restraint Standards Task Force. Dr. Helfrick also played a leading role in the development of the Joint Commission’s approach to addressing sentinel events in healthcare organizations. In February 2000, Dr Helfrick stepped down from the Board of Commissioners and became Vice President of Joint Commission International and Executive Director of International Relations until January 2003.

Dr. Helfrick is a Past President of the International Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (IAOMS) and of the International Society for Quality in Healthcare (ISQua). In 2003 he became a Senior Consultant for Harvard Medical International and part-time Executive Director of the IAOMS. Dr. Helfrick and his wife reside in Sugar Land, Texas.
 

A graduate of AUB medical school in 2003 and Harvard University in 2008, Haytham is currently a surgeon-in-training at Tufts Medical Center. He has recently finished 2 years of health services research at the Boston VA Healthcare System, Harvard School of Public Health and the Center for Health Quality, Outcomes and Economic Research. He has been extensively researching and publishing in the areas of patient safety , safe healthcare system design, and quality benchmarking of surgical care, bridging a wide gap between the clinical surgical world and the health policy and quality assurance worlds. His current focus is on Patient Safety Culture in healthcare organizations, validation of quality indicators to assess surgical care and derivation of electronic trigger tools (targeted injury detection systems) for surveillance of adverse events in surgery.
 

Dr. Safwan M. Masri is Professor at the Graduate School of Business at Columbia University, and Director of the Columbia University Middle East Research Center. He is Chairman of the Board of Trustees of King’s Academy, and is also Chairman of Queen Rania Teacher Academy.

Professor Masri joined the Decision, Risk, and Operations Faculty at Columbia Business School in July 1988, and was appointed Vice Dean of Columbia Business School in January 1993. He served as Vice Dean, MBA Program Director, and Faculty Director of the Samberg Institute for Teaching Excellence through December 2005.

Professor Masri earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering from Purdue University in 1982; his Master of Science in Industrial Engineering also from Purdue in 1984; and his Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management from Stanford University in 1988.

Dr. Masri was a Visiting Professor at INSEAD in 1990 and 1991. He has also held teaching positions at Stanford University and Santa Clara University. Professor Masri was honored with the Singhvi Professor of the Year for Scholarship in the Classroom Award in 1990, the Robert W. Lear Service Award in 1998, and the Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence in a Core Course in 2000. He has also been honored with the 2003 American Service Award from the American Arab Anti Discrimination Committee (ADC).

Professor Masri is Trustee of International College and of the National Children’s Museum in Jordan, and is Director of a number of non-profit organizations and a former Director of the Arab Bankers Association of North America (ABANA). Professor Masri has also served as Director of ARAMEX International Corporation and the Nuqul Group of Companies.

Professor Masri’s areas of expertise include Middle East business and economy with an emphasis on reform in the education and economic sectors; supply chain management; technological change management in the financial services industry; and manufacturing flexibility and its impact on firm performance.
 

Dr. Massoud, a physician internist and an internationally recognized leader in improving health care, is Senior Vice President for the Quality and Performance Institute at University Research Co. LLC. (URC), in Bethesda, MD, USA, and Director of the USAID Health Care Improvement Project (HCI) – a centrally procured global contract currently active in 25 countries.

Dr. Massoud served as Senior Vice President at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) in Cambridge, MA, overseeing IHI’s Strategic Partnerships – the key customers working with IHI on innovation, transformation and large scale spread. In his previous capacities, he worked at URC where he led several improvement efforts around the globe including working on developing the World Health Organization’s (WHO) strategy for design & scale-up of antiretroviral therapy to meet the 3x5 target and large scale improvement in the Russian Federation. He also founded and for several years led the Palestinian health care quality improvement effort. He was a founding member and chaired the multi-country Quality Management Program for Health Care Organizations in the Middle East and North Africa (QMP-MENA). He worked as a Medical Officer with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. He has also consulted for and collaborated with several NGOs, KPMG, UNICEF, the World Bank, USAID and WHO.

Rashad is married to Karma Shaath who is an artist and they have two boys (bundles of energy) Fares - ten and Rami - six years old.
 

Michael Matly is a first generation Arab-American and U.S. trained Medical Doctor, having completed his Medical Degree from Mayo Clinic and his MBA from Harvard Business School. He is Co-Founder and CEO of HAYATI Healthcare (www.hayatihealthcare.com), the region’s first patient financing company. Patient’s can apply online through an innovative e-portal to receive financing for medical procedures which includes elective (plastic, dental, fertility, etc.) and non-elective (chemotherapy, maternity, orthopedic surgery, etc). HAYAT launched in early 2009 and has grown into a network of 400 physicians and surgeons, 50 clinics and hospitals, and has processed hundreds of medical procedures.

Michael has over 10 years of experience in healthcare including R&D, pharmaceuticals, and entrepreneurship. He has worked on numerous healthcare projects in Dubai including the ‘Dubai Healthcare City’ (DHCC) and as a Consultant for ‘The Executive Office’ of Dubai particularly involved with the creation of the new ‘Dubai Health Authority’ (DHA).

He has a distinguished career in clinical research in areas including; diabetes, hypertension, neuroregeneration, multiple sclerosis, and pediatric brain cancer. He has worked in a number of world-class institutions including Harvard Medical School, Mayo Clinic, Cornell University, and Eli Lilly Pharmaceuticals. Michael has been awarded several distinctions including an honorary membership into the American Academy of Science.

He is a member of the Young Arab Leaders (YAL) and a mentor for entrepreneurship in the Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation.
 

Lily Mazahery is an Iranian-American lawyer, feminist, human rights defender, and social and political activists. A member of Mazahery Law firm and the founder and president of the Legal Rights Institute, Mazhahery represents some of the most high profile political dissidents, human rights activists and victims of human rights violations around the world. Mazahery has spoken widely on recent events in Iran and was invited to speak at the World Technology Conference in 2009.

Evgeny Morozov is a leading thinker and commentator on the political implications of the Internet. He is a contributing editor to Foreign Policy and runs the magazine\'s influential and widely-quoted "Net Effect" blog about the Internet\'s impact on global politics (neteffect.foreignpolicy.com). Morozov is currently a Yahoo! fellow at Georgetown University\'s E.A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. Prior to his appointment to Georgetown, he was a fellow at George Soros\'s Open Society Institute, where he remains on the board of the Information Program (one of the leading and most experimental funders for technology projects that have an impact on open society and human rights). Before moving to the US, Morozov was based in Berlin and Prague, where he was Director of New Media at Transitions Online, a media development NGO active in 29 countries of the former Soviet bloc.

Morozov\'s writings have appeared in The Economist, Newsweek, The Washington Post, The International Herald Tribune, The Boston Globe, Slate, Le Monde, San Francisco Chronicle, Boston Review, Foreign Policy, Project Syndicate, Dissent and many other publications. He has appeared on CNN, CBS, SkyNews, CBC, Al Jazeera International, France 24, Reuters TV, NPR, BBC Radio 4 and BBC World Service. His research has been quoted in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Suddeutsche Zeitung, Wall Street Journal, CNN.com, Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, Bloomberg News, The Globe and Mail, Die Zeit, Il Sole 24 Ore, Der Standard, L\'Express, AFP, Der Spiegel, Corriera della Serra, El País, Le Figaro, and many others
 

Hythem T. El-Nazer is a Senior Vice President at TA Associates, a $16 billion growth private equity and buyout firm based in Boston. Hythem concentrates his efforts on investments in telecommunications, media and other technology-based services companies. He is a member of the Board of Directors of eSecLending, Radialpoint, TEOCO, Orascom Telecom Holding S.A.E. and Weather Investments S.p.A. Hythem was actively involved in TA\\\'s investments in MetroPCS Communications and Idea Cellular. Prior to joining TA in 2004, he worked in the U.S. and the Middle East offices of McKinsey & Company and the Investment Banking Department of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette.

Hythem received a General Course degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science, an AB degree in Economics from Brown University and an MBA degree from Columbia Business School. He is also a Board Member of Endeavor Egypt.

 

Mr. Nosseir is a Partner of Perella Weinberg Partners and is responsible for the Firm’s overall business activities in the Middle East and Firm relationships with a select group of founding investors.

Prior to joining Perella Weinberg Partners, Mr. Nosseir was Managing Director and Head of the Middle East Group in Morgan Stanley’s Investment Banking Division. Mr. Nosseir has almost 25 years of investment banking experience having been involved in a wide range of corporate advisory assignments, mergers and acquisitions, privatizations, equity and debt financings and asset management initiatives. During his leadership of the Middle East Group, Mr. Nosseir and his team were responsible for Morgan Stanley’s primary relationships with the region’s governments, institutional investors, financial services firms, corporations and family groups. He also led the firm’s efforts in capital raising activities across the region and was responsible for coordinating the firms overall franchise in the region.

Mr. Nosseir received a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Colgate University and a Masters in Business Administration in Finance from Columbia University Graduate School of Business.

Elie is an independent financial risk management consultant with over 8 years of experience in risk management, prime brokerage services, client relation management solutions and IT Systems. He is currently in the process of founding a firm specializing in risk management consulting in the Middle-East to help businesses create recovery plans from unforeseen financial breakdowns as well as other factors affecting operations including disasters and conflicts. Prior to that, Elie was the Chief Risk Officer at Master Trend Capital Advisors, a Global Macro Fund based in Beirut where he created a platform to assist the asset managers understand and manage their exposure to unexpected market swings and mitigate operational risk.
Previously, Elie was an Executive Director at Goldman Sachs in London where he developed stress tests and devised risk methodologies for the Prime Brokerage Division to assess hedge fund portfolio risk and extend leverage. Elie has also an extensive software systems experience since he was a developer at Siebel Systems Customer Order management Group in the Silicon Valley. He helped many large multi-national firms like AT&T and Gateway recover from call center outages costing millions of dollars daily.
Elie holds an MBA from the Wharton School of Business, a Master of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and a Bachelor in Computer and Communications Engineering from the American University of Beirut.

 

Rani Saad spent fifteen years developing innovation and new business globally. He is currently in the process of co-forming a venture capital focused on innovation in the Middle East and North Africa , Middle East Ventures Partners (MEVP). Prior to MEVP, he led Microsoft’s innovation development initiatives across the Middle East and Africa, after developing global strategy for new products and business at Microsoft’s corporate headquarters, including launching a website software product and co-attempting a spin-off from a Microsoft Research innovation.

Previously, he helped build three startups, across software and telecom, in the US and in the Middle East, and was an Entrepreneur-in-residence at a Silicon Valley accelerator, Reactivity. Rani also spearheaded new business and technology strategy at a financial services firm, Capital One. He has additionally consulted to or advised a variety of businesses globally including several technology startups, two private investment funds, and larger firms.

Rani holds an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business, a Master’s in Civil (Intelligent Transportation) Engineering from Virgina Tech, and a Bachelor’s in Computer and Communications Engineering from the American University of Beirut.
 

Joe Saddi is the Chairman of Booz & Company. He is the Managing Director of the firm’s Middle East business. Since joining the firm in 1993, his projects have covered policy formulation, corporate and business strategies, organization and governance. He has participated in and led multi-functional assignments on numerous continents in the public and private sectors covering water, oil, gas, mining, steel, automotive, consumer goods, and petrochemicals. Joe holds an M.B.A from Cornell University, and a Bachelor of Business Administration from ESSEC in France.

Dr. Sameh El-Saharty works as Senior Health Policy Specialist in the South Asia Region, at the World Bank in Washington, DC. He is a Medical Doctor graduated from Cairo University and holds a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree from Harvard School of Public Health in International Health Policy and Management and a Master of Sciences in Public Health from the Military Medical Academy in Egypt. Before joining the Bank, he held several positions with international donors, academic institutions, and consulting firms such as USAID, UNFPA, Harvard University, the American University in Cairo, and Pathfinder International.

Dr. El-Saharty has extensive experience for over 25 years working as researcher, technical advisor, and international consultant on maternal and child health, health management, health insurance, and health sector reform programs in more than 15 countries in the MENA region, Africa, South Asia, and in the US.

His recent work has focused on "health systems" with particular interest in "health service delivery" and "improving the performance” of health sector organizations. He authored and led the development of several health policy notes, strategy papers, technical assistance studies, and analytical reports. His most recent work includes: "Improving Health Service Delivery in Developing Countries: From Evidence to Action" published by the World Bank in 2009. His other work includes “Public Health Challenges in the Middle East and North Africa” (The Lancet), “Egypt’s Health Sector Reform and Financing Review”, “The Millennium Development Goals: Challenges and Opportunities”, “Public Expenditures Reviews” (Yemen, Egypt), “Yemen: Strengthening, Integrating and Sustaining Public Health Programs”, “Yemen: Health Sector Strategy”, “Egypt’s: Health Policy Note”, “Tunisia: Health Sector Study”, “Tunisia: Improving the performance of public health service delivery”, “Morocco’s Decentralization of Health Services”, and “Oman’s Cost Effectiveness of Health Services”.

Dr. El-Saharty is the President of Harvard Arab Alumni Association and Board Member of the World Bank-International Monetary Fund Arab Club. He also served on the Board of numerous organizations including the Institute for Social and Economic Policy in the Middle East at Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

Djavad Salehi-Isfahani holds a BSc from University of London and Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University (1977). He is currently Professor of Economics at Virginia Tech and Non-Resident Guest Scholar at the Brookings Institution. He was Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Pennsylvania (1977-84), visiting faculty at the University of Oxford (1991-92), and Visting Fellow at the Brookings Institution (2007-08). He has served on the Board of Trustees of the Economic Research Forum (2001-2006), a network of Middle East economists based in Cairo, where he has been a Research Fellow since 1993, and on the Board of the Middle East Economic Association. His research has been in demographic economics, energy economics, and the economics of the Middle East. He has coauthored, with Jacques Cremer, The World Oil Market, 1991, and edited two volumes: Labor and Human Capital in the Middle East, 2001, which was recognized as a Noteworthy Book of the year by the Princeton University Industrial Relations Section; and The Production and Diffusion of Public Choice Political Economy: Reflections on the VPI Center, with Douglas Eckel and Joseph C. Pitt, 2004. His articles have appeared in Economic Journal, Journal of Development Economics, Economic Development and Cultural Change, Journal of Economic Inequality, International Journal of Middle East Studies, and Iranian Studie, among others.

Shahm is a Director at Foursan Group, a leading Middle Eastern private equity fund based in Amman, Jordan. Foursan manages the Jordan Fund and is currently launching Foursan Capital Partners, a $200 million private equity fund targeting the Middle East and North Africa. Previously, Shahm was a Senior Associate at Debevoise & Plimpton in New York, one of the world\'s leading international law firms, having spent over six years focusing on US and Middle Eastern mergers and acquisitions and capital markets transactional and advisory work.

Shahm is an attorney admitted to the New York Bar and is a member of the American and New York Bar Associations. He is also the Vice President and Director of Development of the Harvard Arab Alumni Association.

Shahm received a Juris Doctorate in Law from the University of Virginia School of Law, and a Bachelors in Arts in Government, Magna Cum Laude, from Harvard University.

 

Dr. Zu’bi is the founding and leading member of management of Accelerator Technology Holdings, who as CEO, brings a wide network or regional and international contacts, and strong relations with regional and ICT companies. Dr. Zu’bi served as the Minister of Information and Communications Technology and Minister of Administrative Development in the Government of Jordan (2000-2004).

He left government in October 2004 to pursue his venture. He served on HM King Abdullah’s Economic Consultative Council, is a member of the Board of the King Abdullah II Fund for Development and a member of the Board of Trustees of Princess Sumaya University of Technology in Jordan.