Speakers

Esraa Abdel Fattah

Political Activist

Esraa is a leading Egyptian democracy and human rights activist. Esraa Abdel Fattah is Projects Manager and Women Program Manager at the Egyptian Democratic Academy, which runs Almahrousa, an online radio program popular among Egyptian youth. Abdel Fattah created the April 6 Strike Group on Facebook in March 2008 and organized a strike in support of workers in Mahalla al-Kobra that lead to her arrest and a sentence of two weeks in jail. The success of the strike, her arrest, and the size of the Facebook group she founded made Abdel Fattah a well-known figure throughout Egypt and among human rights activists. Abdel Fattah was a major participant in the January 25th Egyptian Revolution and has recently founded the Free Egyptian Women Group, which seeks to empower women to participate in social and political activities and to hold leading positions in all fields. In June 2010, Abdel Fattah won the New Generation Democratic Activist Award from Freedom House, and she was recently named one of Arabian Business Magazine's 100 most powerful Arab women and nominated for Nobel Peace Prize in 2011.

Sherife AbdelMessih

CEO, Future Energy Corporation

Sherife AbdelMessih is the founder and CEO of Future Energy Corporation (FEC), the leading company serving the renewable energy industry in the Middle East & North Africa (MENA). Initially, Sherife built FEC as a Research & Development (R&D) startup designing disruptive renewable energy technologies catered for MENA, and then grew it into an energy company with project development, consulting and R&D divisions. He further grew the company's business outside MENA, into the Americas, Europe and Asia. Along with his partners he is now creating the first investment vehicle of its kind in MENA that will be focusing on Renewable Energy and CleanTech investments in emerging economies.

Sherife was also a consultant on the first solar power plant in Egypt and the MENA region throughout the bidding, and contract negotiation process. He has authored multiple energy programs on the transformation of the Egyptian Energy Economy by 2020 and 2050, which has been endorsed by political parties in Egypt. Sherife is a passionate entrepreneur and played a pivotal role in building the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Egypt through founding SPARK! Ventures. His work has created a talent pipeline of high school students, college students and full time entrepreneurs; empowering entrepreneurs across all age groups. In 2010 he was selected by Yahoo! and Nahdet El Mahrousa as one of the top 9 social entrepreneurs in Egypt and the youngest on the list.

While at MIT, Sherife assisted in teaching corporate entrepreneurship at the MIT Sloan School of Management for the graduate MBA and the Sloan Fellows programs. He was also an undergraduate researcher at the MIT Mechanical Engineering Department, the MIT Nuclear Engineering Department, and the MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research. Sherife is a recipient of many prestigious awards and fellowships from MIT, in addition to a $250,000 Onsi Sawiris Scholarship for his BSc in mechanical engineering from MIT.
 

Dr. Magid Abraham

President, CEO, & Co-Founder, comScore, Inc.

Dr. Magid Abraham is president, CEO and co-founder of comScore, Inc. He is particularly focused on product development, business strategy and maintaining comScore’s industry leadership.Dr. Abraham is a widely recognized expert on market research, consumer modeling and innovative information solutions. He has authored many articles in a variety of academic and industry journals. His most recent honor, received in January 2011, was the Buck Weaver Award for Marketing, established by MIT’s Sloan School of Management for individuals who have made important contributions to the advancement of theory and practice in marketing science. In 2009 he received the AMA’s Parlin Award, a preeminent national honor recognizing one individual annually who has demonstrated “outstanding leadership and sustained impact on advancing the evolving profession of marketing research over an extended period of time.” He has received the Paul Green award by the American Marketing Association (AMA) for the "best article that shows or demonstrates the most potential to contribute to the practice of marketing research and research in marketing," and the AMA’s William F. O’Dell Award for an article “that has made the most significant long-term contribution to the marketing discipline.” Dr. Abraham was also named Ernst & Young® Entrepreneur of the Year in 2008. 

Moeed Ahmad

Head of New Media, Al Jazeera

Moeed Ahmad is the Head of New Media at Al Jazeera, the network which is headquartered in the middle east and has pioneered independent and fearless journalism in the region and across the world since 1996.

He joined Al Jazeera in 2005 and is currently managing a dynamic team which focuses on enhancing Al Jazeera’s presence and engagement with its viewers on the internet and mobile. In recent years, the team has led the way in leveraging social networks for news, particularly for Al Jazeera's coverage of the Arab Spring.

He has been a proponent of open source and empowering communities through projects like Al Jazeera Creative Commons Repository http://cc.aljazeera.net

Thuwayba Al Barwani

Dean of the College of Education at Sultan Qaboos Universisty, Oman; Visiting Professor of Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education

Thuwayba Al Barwani is a member of the State Council (the upper chamber in Parliament) and previously served as Deputy Minister of Social Affairs and also Deputy Minister of social Development. She is a member of the Council for Higher Education and a Founder and member of the Board of Trustees of AlSharqiya Private University.

In 1993, she was honored by His Majesty the Sultan of Oman for her work in the promotion of research and the sciences. In 2002, she was given a leadership award by Special Olympics for her work in the area of sports for the disabled; she was also awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the Sports Academy in the UK in 2009.

She has published internationally in areas such as quality in higher education, teacher education, women’s education and empowerment, education and the family, innovation and school improvement. She is currently a Visiting Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education teaching a course called Education at the Cusp of Change in the Middle East.

Abdul-Ghani Al Iryani

Founder, Democratic Awakening Movement in Yemen

Abdul-Ghani Al Iryani has been observing Yemeni politics and economy for the past three decades. Benefiting from a career in the private sector and 15 years of development consulting, he has been a noted participant in the public debate on the political and economic direction of his country. He writes on political, economic and development issues in Yemen. Recently, Abdul-Ghani Al-Iryani was elected president of the newly established "Democratic Awakening Movement (TAWQ)", a non-partisan popular movement to seek a democratic future for Yemen.

HRH Prince Saud K Al-Faisal

Deputy Governor for Investment Affairs at the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA) President, National Competitiveness Center

HRH Prince Saud K Al-Faisal heads the Investment Affairs Agency, which is responsible for managing the investment environment and competitiveness agenda of Saudi Arabia. The Investment Affairs Agency has focused on establishing a more liberal investment environment in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. As part of these efforts, HRH Prince Saud K Al-Faisal also chairs the Saudi negotiation team for bilateral investment treaties. HRH Prince Saud K Al-Faisal is Vice Chairman of the: Swiss Saudi Joint Economic Commission; Saudi Russian Joint Economic Commission; Saudi Uzbek Joint Economic Commission; Saudi Kazak Joint Economic Commission; Saudi Greek Joint Economic Commission; Saudi Azerbaijan Joint Economic Commission; and Saudi Senegal Joint Economic Commission. HRH Prince Saud K Al-Faisal also presides over The National Competitiveness Center (NCC) which was established by SAGIA in 2006 to act as an independent body to monitor, assess and support the enhancement of competiveness in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Dr. Khawla Al-Kuraya

Director, The Research Centre at King Fahad National Centre for Children’s Cancer

Khawla Al-Kuraya, a distinguished physician-scientist, is the Director of the Research Centre at King Fahad National Centre for Children’s Cancer, King Faisal Specialist Hospital (KFSH) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

After receiving her Medical Degree from King Saud University School of Medicine in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, she completed her Residency and Fellowship in Pathology at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington D.C.

Dr. Al-Kuraya is a leader in the field of genomic cancer research. She is widely respected as Translational Scientist whose work bridges the laboratory and clinical settings. She has focused on identifying molecular signature of common Saudi tumors utilizing the recent technologies in the cancer genetic field.

Under Dr. Al-Kuraya’s leadership, Research Centre at KFSH has become a member in International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) which aims to identify the molecular abnormalities more than 50 types of cancers.

An author of over 100 original research articles, editorials, review articles and book chapters. Dr. Al-Kuraya is first Saudi female recipient of the prestigious “First Rank King Abdulaziz Medal” for her pioneering initiatives in cancer research.

Dr. Al-Kuraya’s professional memberships include the American Association for Cancer Research, College of American Pathologist and the American Society of Human Genetic. She is also on the Executive Committee of ICGC. She also serves on numerous editorial boards.

Carine Allaf

Lecturer, Teachers College, Columbia University

Born in Lebanon but raised in Kuwait and Philadelphia, Carine received her Masters in Elementary Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. She then taught at an International American school in Beirut, Lebanon which led her to pursue and complete her PhD in Comparative and International Education at UCLA in June 2010. She is currently teaching in the Department of International and Transcultural Studies at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her research agenda is two-fold, focusing on women, higher education, and Jordan and on education provision in emergencies and post-conflict. She has worked with UNICEF in Jordan and with Save the Children in Iraq and is also currently consulting with Qatar Foundation International on its Arabic Language and Culture Initiative in the Americas.

Khaled Al Sabawi

President, MENA Geothermal and General Manager, Union Construction and Investment

Khaled Al Sabawi, a Palestinian-Canadian Engineer, received his degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Waterloo in Canada in 2006 and later became the first certified Geothermal Engineer in the Middle East. Khaled installed the first geothermal systems in Palestine in 2007 and went on to becoming the Founder and President of MENA Geothermal, a Palestinian green energy business. MENA Geothermal was awarded the National Energy Globe Award in 2008 and is currently installing the largest geothermal system in the Middle East at a capacity of 1.6 MW megawatts at the University of Madaba in Jordan. Khaled was named “One of the World’s Top Energy Entrepreneurs” by Global Post and was promoted to the position of General Manager of UCI, MENA’s parent company and one of the largest real-estate development companies in Palestine.

Amin Amin

Chief Executive Officer, ASK for Human Capacity Building

Dr. Amin Amin is the Chief Executive Officer of ASK for Human Capacity Building. ASK (Attitude, Skills and Knowledge) based in Amman, Jordan and serving the Arab region is a pioneer company that provides human capacity building services focusing on overbridging the missing link between Education and Employment (Educate 2 Employ).

Though Dr. Amin pursued his graduate and post graduate studies in Architecture and Urban Planning at Delft University of Technology (The Netherlands), his educational background did not hinder him from realizing his dream; establishing a vehicle that aims at developing and reforming education within the 21st century context and enable the optimal readiness of Arab youth to the labor market.

Today, ASK provides culturally sensitive professional development services for educators that draw on international practices and customized to the local needs. In 2009, Dr. Amin was selected as a High Impact Social Entrepreneur by the global network “Endeavor”.

Betty S. Anderson

Associate Professor, Middle East History at Boston University

Betty Anderson is the author of Nationalist Voices in Jordan: The Street and the State (University of Texas Press, 2005) and The American University of Beirut: Arab Nationalism and Liberal Education (University of Texas Press, 2011), as well as a co-author with Carol Berkin of the History Handbook (Houghton-Mifflin 2003 and Cengage 2011). Dr. Anderson has published articles in Civil Wars, Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, Critique, and Jordanies, as well as chapters for a number of edited volumes. She has written about the themes covered in Islamic and history textbooks used in Jordan, the politicizing role of education in the twentieth-century Middle East history, and the evolution of the American liberal education system at the American University of Beirut (AUB). She is currently writing State and Society in the Modern Middle East for Stanford University Press.

Morsi Arab

Emeritus Professor, The Department of Medicine of the University of Alexandria, Egypt

Professor Morsi Arab is currently Chairman of the International Diabetes Federation Eastern Mediterranean and Middle-East (EMME) Region. He is Emeritus Professor and Ex-Head of the Department of Medicine of the University of Alexandria, Egypt, and also the Founder and President of the Egyptian Diabetes Association.

Over the past 20 years, Prof Arab has held numerous positions within IDF: Regional Chair, Vice-President, Member of the Board of Management and Executive Board. He has also set up and held leading positions in Pan-African, Arab and Mediterranean groups for the study of Diabetes.

Prof Arab has authored and contributed to numerous national and international books on diabetes, the history of medicine and poetry. He has also been Editor-in-Chief and reviewer for several national and international diabetes magazines.

Dr. Amjad Aryan

CEO & Founder, Pharmacy1

The Chief Executive Officer of Pharmacy1, MENA's leading chain pharmacy with branches in Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Erbil , Iraq.

Dr Aryan was selected as Jordan's EOY Entrepreneur of the year (2010) . He is also 2009 Endeavor Entrepreneur of the year.

He serves on boards of trustees of Isra university and INJAZ. Chairman of: Advanced Soft and member of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO) Jordan chapter .

Dr. Aryan founded several initiatives; focusing on decreasing unemployment rates and preparing the youth for the job market (Mish 3aib (No Shame) and Step &Mile)

Dr. Aryan obtained his degree in Pharmacy from Massachusetts College of Pharmacy in Boston, USA .He is American Boarded in both Massachusetts and Florida.

Reem Badran

Member, Jordanian House of Representatives

Ms. Reem Badran is a member of the Jordanian House of Representatives, the Second Vice-President of both Amman and Jordan’s Chamber of Commerce. She is the chairperson of Al Hurra for Management and Business Development and is also a member and the chair of several boards of directors in various investment companies in Jordan and the Arab countries in Real Estate, education, finance, Manufacturing and other fields…

Walid Bakr

Principal, Riyada Enterprise Development

Walid is a principal with Riyada Enterprise Development, the growth equity investment platform of the Abraaj Capital Group, the Middle East’s leading PE firm. He is responsible for sourcing, evaluating, and structuring investment transactions, as well as leading active portfolio management and value creation. Due to his rich operational background, Walid maintains specific interest in the TMT and financial services industries. Prior to becoming an investment professional in 2001, he was an entrepreneur and IT professional who lived and worked across the Middle East (the Region), Europe, and the US. He worked with and advised a number of VC and early-stage funds across the Region and was responsible for a number of early- and growth-stage transactions. Walid is a frequent speaker on the topics of VC and entrepreneurship in the Middle East. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Engineering, with top honors, with a major in communications engineering.

Dr. Layla Batarseh

U.S. FDA Senior Regional Advisor for the MENA region

Dr. Batarseh is the U.S. FDA Senior Regional Advisor for the MENA region. Her office’s objectives are capacity building, regulatory information gathering, and building strong collaborative relationships with the MENA countries to strengthen their regulatory infrastructure, preventive controls, and production practices to ensure that their FDA-regulated products are safe, effective, and secure for ultimately improving public health. Previously, she worked at the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition/FDA; an investigator at the National Center for Toxicological Research; a lecturer/researcher of toxicology at Eastern Michigan University; lecturer at the School of Pharmacy and the Biology Department, and a researcher at the Center for Water and Environmental Studies and Research at the University of Jordan. She holds a Ph.D. and M.Sc. from the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan/Ann Arbor; an M.Sc. and a B.Sc. in Biology and a Science Teaching Diploma from the American University of Beirut/Lebanon.

Paul Beran

Director, Outreach Center, Center for Middle Eastern Studies

Paul Beran is the Director of the Outreach Center at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University. The center has been awarded National Resource Center status by the US Department of Education’s Title VI program and serves educators, students and the general public on topics related to the Middle East region. Paul teaches, Introduction to the Conflict in Israel and the Occupied Territories (GOVT E 1960/W) and Introduction to Middle East Politics (GOVT E 1970/W) at the Harvard University Extension School, and directs the Egypt Forum, a program of training for K-12 educators on Middle East region studies and Egypt. Paul has worked, researched or taught in Turkey, Israel, the Occupied Territories, Jordan, Egypt, Sudan and Lebanon and has lived in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Cairo.

Dawn Chatty

Professor, University of Oxford, UK

Dawn Chatty is University Professor in Anthropology and Forced Migration and Deputy Director of the Refugee Studies Centre, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford, UK. Her research interests include coping strategies and resilience of refugee youth, nomadic pastoralism and conservation, gender and development, health, illness and culture. Her most recent books include: Dispossession and Displacement in the Modern Middle East, Cambridge University Press, 2010; Dispossession and Forced Migration in the Middle East and North Africa (eds. with Bill Finlayson), Oxford University Press, 2010; Deterritorialized Youth: Sahrawi and Afghan Refugees at the Margins of the Middle East, (ed.) Berghahn Books, 2010; Nomadic Societies in the Middle East and North Africa: Facing the 21st Century, Leiden, Brill, 2006; Children of Palestine: Experiencing Forced Migration in the Middle East (eds. With Gillian Lewando-Hundt), Berghahn Books, 2005; and Conservation and Mobile Peoples: Displacement, Forced Settlement and Sustainable Development (eds. with Marcus Colchester), Berghahn Press, 2002.  

Peter Dorman

President, American University of Beirut

In July 2008, Peter Dorman became the 15th president of AUB. An accomplished academic leader and administrator, before coming to AUB he chaired with great success the distinguished Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago. Dorman is a humanist and an international leader in the study of the ancient near east, and in particular the field of Egyptology, in which he is an historiographer, epigrapher and philologist. He is the author and editor of major books and articles on the study of ancient Egypt.

Founded in 1866, AUB is an independent institution of higher learning located in Lebanon’s capital that bases its educational philosophy, standards, and practices on the American liberal arts model of higher education. AUB has around 700 instructional faculty, a student body of around 8,000 students, and currently offers more than 120 programs leading to the bachelor's, master's, MD, and PhD degrees.

Ishac Diwan

Professor, Harvard Kennedy School of Government

Ishac Diwan is a lecturer on public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and is Director for Africa and the Middle East at the Center for International Development. At The World Bank, he served in numerous positions advising and directing country programs throughout the Middle East and Africa region, including work in conflict prevention and state-building in Palestine and Sudan. Diwan’s research centers on growth strategies, the political economy of development, and the pro-active management of natural resources, specifically in Africa and the Middle East.

Hatem Dowidar

CEO, Vodafone Egypt

Hatem Dowidar is currently the CEO of Vodafone Egypt S.A.E.. Before that he spent over 5 years working internationally with Vodafone as CEO of Partner Markets in Vodafone Group with partnerships covering over 40 markets in five continents. He has been in this job since June 2007. He was also the CEO of Vodafone Malta for two years and the Global Director of Consumer Voice Services in Vodafone Group in the HQ for 18 months. He initially joined Vodafone in 1999 as the CMO of Vodafone Egypt. Before Vodafone, Hatem worked in various managerial roles in Procter & Gamble as well as AEG (Daimler Benz Group) in Egypt.

Dr. Mostafa El-Sayed

Julius Brown Chair and Regents Professor; and Director, The Laser Dynamics Laboratory, US

Dr. Mostafa El-Sayed is Julius Brown Chair and Regents Professor, and Director of the Laser Dynamics Laboratory in the United States of America. He has been granted numerous prestigious awards as a recognition of his outstanding scientific research, including the 2007 US National Medal of Science from US President Goerge W. Bush and the 2009 Order of the Republic of First Class from Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. He was also announced to be the recipient of the 2009 Ahmed Zewail Prize in Molecular Sciences. Professor Elsayed is an elected member of the US National Academy of Sciences; elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Science (AAAS), and the American Physical Society; and an associate member of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS).

Dr. Walid Fayed

Partner, Booz & Company

Dr. Walid Fayad is a partner with Booz & Company and a member of the firm’s Energy, Chemicals, and Utilities practice. He has over 12 years of consulting experience in strategy, privatization, restructuring, and business building in the energy, utilities, and telecommunications sectors. He currently leads Booz & Company’s activities in the Middle East in the utilities, renewable energy, and climate change areas.

Dr. Fayad holds a Diplôme d’Ingénieur from École Polytechnique, France; a Diplôme d’Ingénieur des Arts et Manufactures from École Centrale Paris; an MS in civil and environmental engineering from MIT, and a PhD in electronic materials from MIT.

Sherif Foda

President Europe and Africa, Schlumberger

M. Foda is the President of Schlumberger Europe and Africa since June 2011 based in Paris. Earlier, he spent two years as the Vice President and Managing Director of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain based in Dhahran. Prior to that he was the Worldwide Vice President for Well Intervention based in Houston since July 2007. Has 18 years Oilfield Industry experience working for Schlumberger around the globe, particularly in the Middle East, Europe and the US. He started by working in the offshore fields in the Red Sea, moved to Germany and Eastern Europe then to Technology centers, Global Marketing, Project Management, senior management in different part of the world. Prior to the Oilfield: Computer Industry for 2 years, working in Egypt. Graduated from Ain Shams University in Cairo, Faculty of Engineering, Electronics and Automatic control department. Attended various advanced courses in IMD, Oxford and presented in different SPE forums.

Najib Ghadbian

Associate Professor of Political Science and Middle East Studies, The University of Arkansas

Najib Ghadbian is Associate Professor of Political Science and Middle East Studies at the University of Arkansas; his research interests include democratization and leadership in the Arab world, Syrian politics, Islamic movements, and US-Mideast relations. He is the author of Democratization and the Islamists Challenge in the Arab World, (English 1997 & Arabic 2002).  His second Arabic book, The Second Asad Regime: Bashar of Lost Opportunities, was published in 2006. Dr. Ghadbian has published book chapters, reviews, essays, as well as articles in journals including: New Political Science, Middle East Journal, Middle East Review of International Affairs, and al-Mustaqbal al-Arabi. He is a frequent political commentator to several US, European, and Middle East media outlets. Dr. Ghadbian has been active in the Syrian dissent as an independent academic and is a member of the Syrian National Council.

Marshall Ganz

Senior Lecturer in Public Policy, Harvard University

Marshall Ganz grew up in Bakersfield, California, where his father was a Rabbi and his mother, a teacher. He entered Harvard College in the fall of 1960. He left a year before graduating to volunteer with the 1964 Mississippi Summer Project. He found a “calling” as an organizer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and, in the fall of 1965, joined Cesar Chavez in his effort to unionize California farm workers. During 16 years with the United Farm Workers he gained experience in union, political, and community organizing, became Director of Organizing, and was elected to the national executive board on which he served for 8 years. During the 1980s, he worked with grassroots groups to develop new organizing programs and designed innovative voter mobilization strategies for local, state, and national electoral campaigns. In 1991, in order to deepen his intellectual understanding of his work, he returned to Harvard College and, after a 28-year "leave of absence," completed his undergraduate degree in history and government. He was awarded an MPA by the Kennedy School in 1993 and completed his PhD in sociology in 2000. As senior lecturer in public policy at the Kennedy School of Government, he teaches, researches, and writes on leadership, organization, and strategy in social movements, civic associations, and politics. He has published in the American Journal of Sociology, American Political Science Review, American Prospect, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and elsewhere. His newest book, Why David Sometimes Wins: leadership, organization and strategy in the California farm worker movement was published in 2009, earning the Michael J. Harrington Book Award of the American Political Science Association. He was awarded an honorary doctorate in divinity by the Episcopal Divinity School in 2010.

Rana Ghandour Salhab

Regional Talent & Communications Partner, Deloitte Middle East

Rana has regional responsibility for talent and communications at Deloitte in the Middle East, whose network of offices covers 16 countries and 25 offices. Her previous roles before joining Deloitte, included HR director of the Growing Economies region (CIS, Central & Eastern Europe, Middle East) and director in the EMEIA (Europe, Middle East, India & Africa) regional management team. During her career, she worked in the education and corporate sectors, and provided human capital consulting services to multinational and leading companies in the region. Rana is a co-chair of the MENA Entrepreneurship Action Group of the World Economic Forum. She is actively involved in women advancement, corporate responsibility, and youth skills building initiatives and sits on the advisory boards of a number of Non Government Organizations in the region.

Bassam Haddad

Director, Middle East Studies Program at George Mason University

Bassam Haddad is Director of the Middle East Studies Program and teaches in the Department of Public and International Affairs at George Mason University, and is Visiting Professor at Georgetown University. He is the author of Business Networks in Syria: The Political Economy of Authoritarian Resilience (Stanford University Press, 2011) and co-editor of a forthcoming book titled Arab Uprisings: Unraveling of an Old Order? Bassam serves as Founding Editor of the Arab Studies Journal a peer-reviewed research publication and is co-producer/director of the award-winning documentary film, About Baghdad, and director of a critically acclaimed film series on Arabs and Terrorism, based on extensive field research/interviews. He recently directed a film on Arab/Muslim immigrants in Europe, titled The "Other" Threat. Bassam also serves on the Editorial Committee of Middle East Report and is Co-Founder/Editor of Jadaliyya Ezine. He is currently a Visiting Scholar at Stanford's Program for Good Governance and Political Reform in the Arab World. Bassam is also the Executive Director of the ArabStudies Institute, a research, publishing, and production organization dealing with the Arab world.

Ghassan Haddad

Director of Internationalization, Facebook

Ghassan Haddad is the Director of Internationalization at Facebook, where he is responsible for defining and implementing the company's crowd-sourcing strategy which contributed to making Facebook available in more than 70 languages. Prior to Facebook, he was Director of Software Engineering and Localization at PayPal where he was responsible for enabling PayPal as a payment solution in almost two hundred countries, 30+ currencies, and 15+ languages. He has over twenty years of experience in language research & technology, management, and software development. He has held several middle and upper management positions at Intergraph, Berlitz, eTranslate, PayPal and now Facebook. Ghassan holds a Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Habib Haddad

CEO, Wamda; Founder, YallaStartup, Yamli

Habib is a tech entrepreneur and CEO of Wamda. He is also the founder of Yamli.com and YallaStartup. In 2009, the World Economic Forum recognized Habib as a Young Global Leader and the ArabianBusiness named him one of the most influential Arabs under 30. He currently serves on the Global Agenda Council on fostering entrepreneurship, and advises several startups and non-profits. He holds a Bachelor of Computer and Communication Engineering from the American University in Beirut and a Master's in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California.

Samir Hanna

Director, GM and Group Chief Executive Officer, Executive Director of Banque Audi. Chairman of the Group Executive Committee, Member of the Board Group Risk Committee, Bank Audi

Samir Hanna started his banking career at Banque Audi sal (now Bank Audi sal - Audi Saradar Group) in January 1963. He held positions across several departments of the Bank in Lebanon, before moving to the United Arab Emirates in 1975, where he was appointed General Manager of a joint venture bank in which Bank Audi participated. He relocated to Lebanon in 1982 and was appointed General Manager of Bank Audi in 1986. In the early 1990s, he initiated and managed the restructuring and expansion strategy of the Bank, transforming it into a local banking powerhouse that offers universal banking products and services.

He currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer of the Group and, as such, is leading the development of the Group to become a leading regional financial institution.

Ghassan Hasbani

CEO, International Operations of Saudi Telecom Company (STC)

Ghassan Hasbani is the Chief Executive Officer of the International Operations of Saudi Telecom Company (STC).

His responsibilities are primarily focused on supporting the group in creating value across the global community of partners and operating companies. The role includes the management of synergy creation activities, post merger integration, market monitoring, legal and strategic governance of board and executive management relationships across the group companies in addition to manging mergers and acquisitions activities.

Mr. Hasbani is the Chairman of the Board of Axis in Indonesia, and a Board Member in Maxis Communications Berhard in Malaysia, Turk Telecom, Viva Bahrain and Kuwait.

He joined STC from the global management consulting firm Booz & Company, where he led the firm’s Middle East Communications and Technology practice. Mr. Hasbani has more than 17 years of experience in the telecom industry in the Middle East, Asia, Europe, and Africa.

Ossama Hassanein

Chairman, TechWadi

Over the last 40 years, Ossama has managed 14 international funds, investing over $1billion in 120+ companies across the US, Canada, and Europe. He co-managed the spinout or growth equity of numerous startups, some of which became spectacular successes including Oracle, Juniper, LSI Logic , Cypress Semiconductors, and Netscape. Combined market value of companies he financed today exceeds $150 B. Most recently, he led seven international companies to global success including Highwave (IPO: €500M); Zong (acquired by eBay, $240M); and nCipher (IPO: £360M). He served on the Boards of Advisors of Harvard University, UCSF, and AUC. He lectured at Stanford University, UC Berkeley, USD, and Santa Clara University.

Samir Hulileh

CEO, PADICO HOLDING

Hulileh has held various management positions in the public and private sectors. Prior to joining PADICO HOLDING in 2008 as CEO, he was the Managing Director of The Portland Trust in Palestine. He also served as the Cabinet Secretary General of the Palestinian government during 2005-2006 and the Assistant Undersecretary for the Ministry of Economy and Trade in 1994-1997.

Hulileh is an active member in many economic and academic establishments. He was the Chairman of the Palestine Trade Centre (PALTRADE) in 2004-2005 and a board member since 2002. Hulileh is also the Chairman of Palestine International Business Forum as well as a board member of the Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute (MAS), Palestinian Banking Corporation, Palestinian-British Business Council, Palestinian-Russian Business Council, and the International Chamber of Commerce ICC/Palestine. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Friends Schools, Ramallah.

Steen Jorgensen

Sector Director, Human Development in the Middle East and North Africa Region of the World Bank

Steen Lau Jorgensen is Sector Director for Human Development in the Middle East and North Africa Region of the World Bank covering health, education, labor and social protection. In his twenty-five years in the Bank, Mr. Jorgensen has worked on strategy and operational activities across a number of themes including economic and social development, governance and community empowerment. Mr. Jorgensen has worked across the developing world and in transition countries. Mr. Jorgensen has also held corporate jobs in the World Bank advising Regional and Senior Management. Mr. Jorgensen is the co-author of two strategy papers as well as academic publications on community development, climate change and poverty analysis.

Mr. Jorgensen holds a post-graduate degree in Economics from the University of Aarhus, Denmark. 

James Ketterer

Country Director, AMIDEAST/Egypt

James Ketterer is Country Director for AMIDEAST, based in Cairo. He previously served as Vice Chancellor for Policy & Planning at the State University of New York, on the New York Governor’s Commission on Higher Education and Director of the SUNY Center for International Development. He also served on the National Security Council staff, policy analyst at the New York State Senate, project officer with the Center for Legislative Development, and as an election specialist for the United Nations, the African-American Institute, and the OSCE. He is currently a Fellow at the Foreign Policy Association and held teaching positions in international politics at the New School for Social Research, Bard College, SUNY New Paltz, the University at Albany and Russell Sage College. He was a Boren Fellow in Morocco and a Graduate Rotary Scholar in Tunisia. He received his education at Johns Hopkins, NYU and Fordham.

Umaiyeh Khammash MD MPH

Chief, UNRWA Health Services - West Bank

A senior health professional with over 30 years of experiences, Dr. Khammash is currently the Chief of UNRWA Health Services–West Bank. Dr. Khammash Obtained his MD from the Former Soviet Union in 1979, trained in epidemiology from France and obtained MPH from Emory & CDC in USA 1987.

Dr. Khammash worked in several countries in the Middle East, Central Asia and Central America with UN and other international organizations. Co-founder of several organizations: The Palestinian Medical Relief Committees (UPMRC), “Juzoor” for Health and Social Development, the Center for Primary Health with AL–Quds University, International People’s Health Council in Nicaragua, and Middle East & Palestinian Health Policy Forums .

Dr. Khammash also a civil society activist serving on board of number of organizations such as Al Haq for Human rights, Women Center for Counseling and others and co fonder of NGO movement in Palestine .

Dr. Khammash authored several articles and books such as “Sex Education” and “Health and Globalization in the Arab World”.

Dr. Susan Kahn

Associate Director, Acting Director of Graduate Studies, and Director of the AM Program, CMES; Lecturer on Near Eastern Studies

Dr. Susan Kahn is the Associate Director of Harvard's Center for Middle Eastern Studies and Lecturer in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. Dr. Kahn is also Director of Harvard's Masters Program in Middle Eastern Studies. She received her PhD in Social Anthropology from Harvard's Department of Anthropology in 1997 and her masters degree in Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard's CMES.

Rasha Khouri

Founder and CEO, DIA

DIA founder Rasha Khouri spent her formative years traveling between Paris, New York, Beirut and London. Educated at Brown University, Sciences Po and INSEAD, she launched her career as an investment banker with JP Morgan in New York. From there, she merged her interest in luxury goods with finance as an analyst with Merrill Lynch and UBS, in London.

Discerning a niche in the e-commerce space for a luxury e-tailer with a product mix aimed at modern nomads such as herself, she launched DIA-boutique.com in 2010. The site delivers fresh fashion to audiences across the globe. Khouri sits at the helm of a new online fashion group attracting notice and investment. 2011 marks the launch of DIA-style.com, a new online fashion network aimed at Middle Eastern shoppers.

Omar Koudsi

Co-Foundr & CEO, Jeeran

At the age of 20 and after experimenting with several models online and witnessing the rise and fall of several Internet giants, Omar and his friends launched Jeeran in 2000 during university.

In 2003, Jeeran started showing a lot of promise; Omar decided to work on it full time believing in the potential even though it had yet to start making revenue at the time. Ten years and two VC rounds later, latest investment being from Intel Capital, Jeeran in its latest iteration is the largest reviews site in the MENA region.

Omar currently spends most of his time leading the growth of Jeeran by filling in many shoes; typical of many entrepreneurs working on their startup. He is an Endeavor entrepreneur and a Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year nominee.

Alim Ladha

Associate Principal, McKinsey & Company

Alim is an Associate Principal with McKinsey & Company’s and a core member of the McKinsey’s Global Education practice. Based in the Dubai Office, Alim’s experiences include, alongside others a comprehensive school system diagnostic, reform strategy and implementation to raise low student outcomes in a Middle Eastern country; leading the numeracy and literacy strategy improvement for 500,000 teachers in the Middle East; designing a strategy to develop a solution to address healthcare vocational worker shortage in developing countries through the creation of a network of education for employment institutes, a strategy and implementation to raise the teaching and research quality. Alim has a B.Eng. in Electrical Engineering from Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal. He also holds an MBA from INSEAD France and Singapore.

Asmaa Mahfouz

Co-founder, Egypt’s 6 April Youth Movement

Asmaa Mahfouz (b. 1985) is a co-founder of Egypt’s 6 April Youth Movement and served as the group’s media coordinator and main speaker through 2010. Her YouTube videos imploring the people of her country to join her to demand fundamental human rights of their government were instrumental in inspiring the protests in Tahrir Square that brought about the end of the rule of president Hosni Mubarak. Her emphasis on unification, hope, and peace as productive tools in catalyzing political change have earned her and four other representatives of the Arab Spring a nomination for the 2011 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, awarded annually by the European Parliament to affirm human rights or democracy. Mahfouz is also a 2011 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate nominee. 

Chibli Mallat

The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Visiting Professor of Islamic Legal Studies at Harvard Law School

Chibli Mallat is a lawyer and law professor, tenured in turn in Britain, Lebanon and the United States. He has been involved in leading human rights work, including high-profile international criminal law cases against Saddam Hussein, Ariel Sharon, and Mu’ammar Qaddafi. His firm in Beirut is legal counsel for the ME regional office of Amnesty International. He was one of the leaders of the 2005 Cedar Revolution in his native Lebanon, where he ran for the presidency in 2006.  He has been since at the forefront of nonviolent activism across the Middle East with Right to Nonviolence, an international NGO based in Beirut.  He is the author or editor of over thirty five books in Arabic, French and English, including The Middle East into the 21st Century, London 1996;  2221-Lebanon's Cedar Revolution: an Essay on Non-violence and Justice, Lir, Beirut 2007; Introduction to Middle Eastern Law, OUP. Oxford 2007; Iraq: Guide to Law and Policy, Kluwer, Boston 2009. 

Noel Maurer

Associate Professor, Harvard Business School

Noel Maurer is an associate professor at the Harvard Business School in the Business, Government and the International Economy (BGIE) unit. He earned his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1997. Professor Maurer’s primary research interest is on how governments protect (or fail to protect) property rights and how do private actors defend their property rights against predatory governments or in the face of political instability? Maurer’s first two books, The Power and the Money and The Politics of Property Rights examined how Mexican politicians and private actors created mechanisms that enabled investors to protect their property rights by transferring rents to third parties upon whom the government depended for political support. He has also researched the history of the U.S. government's attempts to protect American investors when they venture outside the United States. He is currently teaching the "Energy & Geopolitics" course at Harvard Business School.

John McDermott

Director, CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Improved Nutrition and Health

John McDermott has been recently appointed as the Director of the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Improved Nutrition and Health based at the International Food Policy Resaerch Institute. Prior to that he served as the Deputy Director General for the International Livestock Research Institute in Nairobi Kenya, He has worked in Africa and Asia for 25 years as a research in veterinary public health and as a professor. 

Mohamad Said Maqadama

Cheif, Field Health Programme at Gaza Field Office of UNRWA

Dr. Mohammad Maqadma is the Chief of the Field Health Programme at Gaza Field Office of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA). His work focuses on providing health services for the Palestinian refugees in Gaza, who constitute two thirds of Gaza inhabitants. During his nearly 30-year career at UNRWA, Dr. Maqadma has served as a School Health Medical Officer, a Medical Officer of Maternal and Child Health Care, a Senior Medical Officer, a Field Family Health Medical Officer, culminating in his current position as Chief of the Field Health Programme. He completed his medical degree at Cairo University in 1981 and, in 1991, received a Master of Science in “Community Health & Health Management in Developing Countries” from Heidelberg University in Germany.

Mona Mowafi

Research Fellow, Harvard School of Public Health

Mona Mowafi is currently a Research Fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health, where she completed her Doctorate in Social Epidemiology in the Department of Society, Human Development, and Health. She has worked at the Center for Research on Population and Health at the American University in Beirut, Lebanon as well as the Social Research Center at the American University in Cairo, Egypt. Mowafi’s public health research analyzes the effect of living conditions on health in Egypt and the Arab world, with a focus on obesity and
noncommunicable diseases (NCDs).

Walid Musallam

Managing Director, Carlyle

Mr. Musallam is Managing Director of Carlyle and head of the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey fund. Prior to joining Carlyle, he was CEO of Abu Dhabi Investment Company, a large financial institution involved in private equity and regional investments. Before that he was President and CEO of Middle East Capital Group, a regional investment banking and private equity firm based in Beirut, Lebanon. Prior to joining MECG, Mr. Musallam was Managing Director of Infrastructure Finance Group, a Washington DC based financial advisory firm specialized in the structuring and financing of private infrastructure projects in emerging markets. Before that, he managed debt and equity investments in the power sector at the International Finance Corporation in Washington, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group. Prior to IFC, Mr. Musallam worked for Lehman Brothers in New York. Mr. Musallam received his MBA from Columbia University, MS from Stanford University and BS from the University of Pennsylvania.

Rami Nakhle

Political Activist

Rami Nakhle, 28, is a pro-democracy Syrian activist. He is more known with his pseudonym Malath Aumran, that has been used by him for the last three years in order to protect his identity and activism. Nakhle fled Syria to the neighboring country of Lebanon at the beginning of of 2010.

In Lebanon, Nahkhle has continued his activism and coordination with activists on the ground who played a key role inside Syria by organizing protests, and by keeping the flow of information about the uprising in order to inform the world about the human rights abuses in Syria and the regime’s atrocities against the peaceful protesters in the country.

Nakhle is the spokesperson of the LCC, the local coordination committee of Syria, which organizes the protest movement in the country and documents the human rights abuses. Nakhle is a member of the newly formed Syrian National Council that portray a big umbrella of the Syrian opposition movements in and outside the country.

Peter Olson

Senior Lecturer, HBS

Peter Olson graduated from Harvard College (A.B. 1972), Harvard Law School (J.D. 1976), and Harvard Business School (M.B.A. 1976). He worked as a lawyer and banker before joining Bertelsmann AG, where he served on the Executive Board (2001-2008) and as Chairman and CEO of Random House, Inc. worldwide from 1998 until 2008. He has been Senior Lecturer at the Harvard Business School since 1998. He is also Co-EO of Fullbridge, Inc., an innovative business education company focused on the gap between traditional schooling and the global modern workplace.

Linda Piwowarczyk

Co-Founder, Boston Center for Refugee Health and Human Rights

Dr. Linda Piwowarczyk, Co-Founder of the Boston Center for Refugee Health and Human Rights (BCRHHR) specializes in the mental health evaluation and treatment of refugees, asylum seekers, and survivors of torture. She is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the Boston University School of Medicine and Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. Since 2002, Dr. Piwowarczyk has served on the Executive Committee of the National Consortium of Torture Treatment Programs and was elected NCTTP President in 2011. In 2009, she was awarded the Sarah Haley Memorial Award for Clinical Excellence from the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies.  

Fernando Reimers

Ford Foundation Professor of International Education; Director of the International Education Policy Program at the Graduate School of Education

His current research in Brazil and Mexico focuses on the impact of education policy, education leadership and teacher professional development on citizenship and entrepreneurial skillsl. He is also evaluating a cross-national project to foster democratic citizenship skills and civic education in Chile, Colombia, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Paraguay. He is also studying the effectiveness of various education programs to promote youth entrepreneurship in the Middle East and is beginning research on education leadership in China. As co-chair of the Harvard Advanced Leadership Institute, an Interfaculty Initiative to support the development of leadership to support social reform, he is conducting research on private sector social entrepreneurship in education.

He is the founding director of the International Education Policy Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a founding co-chair of the Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative. 

Joshua Rubenstein

Northeast Regional Director, Amnesty International USA

Joshua Rubenstein is the Northeast Regional Director of Amnesty International USA and a long-time Associate of the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University. He has been a staff member of Amnesty International since 1975. His current responsibilities include organizing Amnesty’s grassroots membership in New England, New York, and New Jersey.

He is the author of Soviet Dissidents, Their Struggle for Human Rights and Tangled Loyalties, The Life and Times of Ilya Ehrenburg, a biography of the controversial Soviet-Jewish writer and journalist He is the co-editor of Stalin's Secret Pogrom: The Postwar Inquisition of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee. Mr. Rubenstein received a National Jewish Book Award in the category of East European Studies for Stalin's Secret Pogrom. He is the co-editor of The KGB File of Andrei Sakharov. He also helped to edit and translate The Unknown Black Book, the Holocaust in the German-Occupied Soviet Territories, which first came out in January 2008 and was re-issued in paperback in 2010.

Mr. Rubenstein’s latest book is Leon Trotsky: A Revolutionary’s Life for the Jewish Lives series at Yale University Press; it was published in October 2011.
 

Sahar Sallab

Non Executive Chairman, Hiteknofal Co.

Ms. Sallah is the Non Executive Chairman of Hiteknofal Company and a Board member of the Nile Financial Leasing Company, Naeem Holding for Investments, Smart Village for Real Estate Investment, and varios other Egyptian NGOs.

Previously, Ms. Sallab was Deputy of the Ministry of Trade and Industry in Egypt and Vice Chairman, Managing Director and Board Member of Commercial International Bank (Egypt) and Chairperson of Commercial International Capital Holding Company. Ms. Sallab worked and trained in Citibank Cairo and Athens, and then joined Chase National Bank of Egypt.

Ms. Sallab graduated from the American University in Beirut and from the Harvard Kennedy School. She was ranked 6th among the top 50 Arab businesswomen in 2008 by Forbes Arabia, awarded best Economic Arab Woman of the year in 2006 by the Arab League, nominated as one of 100 most powerful Arab women in 2011 by South African Magazine CEO, and one of 10 most powerful Egyptian women 2011 by Egypt Business Directory.

Frederic Sicre

Partner, Abraaj Capital

Frederic Sicre has about 20 years experience in engaging the private sector in global issues, regional-development agendas and community building. As an Executive Director at Abraaj, he engages a wide network of decision makers from around the world with the business activities and philanthropic work of the firm. He spearheads the Abraaj Strategic Stakeholder Engagement Track (ASSET) that works with leaders from all fields, including government, private sector, media and culture. He helps drive business development at Abraaj, its stakeholder communications, international positioning, government relations and strategic philanthropy. He serves on the advisory boards of Dubai Cares, a US$ 1 billion endowment dedicated to providing education to poor children around the world, as well as Injaz Al Arab, an organisation which harnesses the mentorship of Arab business leaders to help inspire a culture of entrepreneurialism and business innovation among Arab youth. He is also a member of the Advisory Board of the Gerhart Center at the American University in Cairo and Chairman of the Gaza Children Trust.

In the early 1990s, Mr. Sicre established the activities of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Africa and the Middle East. He then managed the Forum’s Centre for Regional Strategies and was promoted to WEF Managing Director in 2000. In 2002, he was responsible for moving the Annual Davos Meeting to New York City to show support for New Yorkers after 9/11. In 2003, he was responsible for the Extraordinary Annual Meeting at the Dead Sea in Jordan following the Iraq conflict. Mr. Sicre has initiated private-sector led dialogue and reconciliation initiatives during South Africa’s transition to democracy, and between Palestinians and Israelis. He also initiated the first Africa and Arab World Competitiveness reports. He oversaw the creation of the Arab Business Council and is editor of ‘South Africa at Ten’, a book celebrating the first ten years of democracy in the country. From 2002 to 2005 he served as a member of the international advisory board of Scripps Medical Foundation, San Diego.

Mr. Sicre holds an MBA from IMD, Switzerland, a Bachelor of Arts and Sciences from Villanova University, Philadelphia, and is a fellow of Stanford University, Palo Alto.

Abdulrahman Tarabzouni

Head of Emerging Arabia, Google

Abdulrahman's mandate is to shape Google’s investment to emerging markets in Arabia, streamline business operations, and solidify partnerships with Governments and TMT companies. He is responsible for working across Google teams to establish, incubate, and grow Google's core and emerging businesses while fostering the internet ecosystem in the region.

Prior to Google, Abdulrahman led key projects at Morgan Stanley, Blueprint, Oracle, Atos Origin, and held a seat on Microsoft's Board of the Future. Abdulrahman is co-founder of number of tech ventures: Honeybee Tech Ventures, Syphir (won MIT Arab Entrepreneurship Competition), Laimoon.com, PopOver Games, and a board member of Qaym.com.

ArabianBusiness named Abdulrahman as one of the most influential Arabs under 30. He holds BSc and MEng degrees in EECS and Economics from MIT and was the first recipient of the MIT ASO Science and Technology Achievement award. 

Nayla Tuéni

CEO, An-Nahar newspaper

At the age of 23, Nayla Tuéni is thrust to the forefront of media and public life as heir of An-Nahar newspaper, Lebanon’s leading daily founded by her great-grandfather in 1933, and long a leading voice of freedom.

The assassination of her father, the 48-year-old publisher and managing editor of An-Nahar, MP Gebran Tuéni, on December 12, 2005, led to Nayla’s appointment as member of the Board of Directors and Deputy General Manager, in charge of development of the newspaper.

At the age of 26, young, dynamic and an involved journalist herself, Nayla announces that she will follow her father into politics. She is elected Member of Parliament in June 2009.

In July 2009, she weds Malek Maktabi. Together they have a son named Gebran.

In September 2011, she is elected Chief Executive Office of An-Nahar.
Nayla Tuéni is now focused on raising her son and managing the newspaper.

Dr. Sven-Olaf Vathje

Partner & Managing Director, BCG

Sven-Olaf joined BCG in 1996. Before becoming a founding member of BCG's Gulf offices in 2006, he worked in the firm's Hamburg, Frankfurt and Los Angeles offices. Sven-Olaf is a core member of BCG's insurance and financial institutions practice areas.

In recent years, Sven-Olaf has worked primarily with financial services, real estate and healthcare clients, covering a broad range of topics including business build, strategy development, organizational redesign and implementation support.

Sven-Olaf holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Kiel, Germany and an MA from the University of Tennessee where he was a Fulbright student. In his leisure time, he enjoys long-distance running and travelling.

Jamal Zahalka, MD

Member, The Israeli parliament, the Knesset

Jamal Zahalka, has been a member of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, since 2003. He is a member of different committees in the Knesset that address education, culture, sports, local government and economic affairs. He is the head of the National Democratic Assembly, a party representing the Palestinians citizens of Israel. He holds a PhD in pharmaceutical studies from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Daniel Zoughbie

Visiting Scholar, The Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law

Daniel Zoughbie is a visiting scholar at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law. Previously he has conducted research at Georgetown University's Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs and taught at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Zoughbie is also the Founder, CEO, and President of Microclinic International and serves as the organization's principal investigator. In this capacity, he directs all multidisciplinary research activities across four continents.

Dr. Zoughbie's research interests combine the fields of international health, US foreign policy, Middle East politics, and general international relations. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa and with highest honors from the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Zoughbie studied social anthropology at Oxford on a Marshall Scholarship and completed his doctorate in international relations, also at Oxford, as a Weidenfeld Scholar. Presently, he is a member of the Board of Directors of the San Mateo County Community Colleges Foundation. 

Zeena Zakharia

Middle East Education Fellow, Columbia University

Zeena Zakharia (B.A., Yale College; Ed.M., Harvard University; Ed.D., Columbia University) is the Middle East Education Fellow and Lecturer of International Educational Development at Columbia University, where she is jointly appointed by the Department of International and Transcultural Studies at Teachers College and the Middle East Institute at the School of International and Public Affairs. Her work focuses on human rights and educational policy in conflict/post-war and development contexts, particularly in the Middle East and Arab diaspora. These interests stem from over 15 years of educational development practice and school leadership in war-affected contexts. She comes to Columbia from the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government where she was Tueni Fellow, and currently leads the Lebanon country team as International Senior Research Consultant for UNICEF’s study on Education and Peacebuilding.