Amal Enan

Executive Director of the Egyptian American Enterprise Fund

Amal Enan is the executive director of the Egyptian American Enterprise Fund “EAEF”, a private corporation established by the United States Government post the Arab Spring to revitalize the Egyptian economy. Amal was part of a team of economists at the Macro-Fiscal Policy Unit in the Ministry of Finance where she formulated reform policies, drafted sections of the State Budget and negotiated with international organizations on matters that touch the lives of millions of Egyptians and address the nations’ most pressing challenges. Before the Ministry of Finance, Amal built her investment experience at the International Finance Corporation where she was an Associate Investment Officer at the Infrastructure Department working on debt and equity projects in MENA. Amal started her career in the research department of EFG-Hermes as a junior economist and later became a CFA Charter holder in the years to follow. Amal received an MBA degree from Harvard Business School, a masters in environment and development from the London School of Economics and a bachelor’s in economics from Cairo University. She is a Fellow of the sixth class of the Middle East Leadership Initiative and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Ayman Ismail

International expert in Entrepreneurship and Economic development

Ayman Ismail is an international expert in entrepreneurship and economic development. He is the Abdul Latif Jameel Endowed Chair of Entrepreneurship and Associate Professor at the American University in Cairo School of Business and the founding director of the AUC Venture Lab, AUC Angels and AUC Innovation Hub. Dr. Ismail is a former Research Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School. He received his PhD in International Economic Development from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where his research focused on entrepreneurial finance in the MENA region. He also holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering and an MBA from the American University in Cairo, and a master’s degree in city planning and geographic information systems from MIT. He has also completed executive education programs at Harvard Kennedy School, Oxford University and Georgetown University. Dr. Ismail has a broad multidisciplinary experience in entrepreneurship, economic development, business strategy and technology based on professional practice and academic research. Previously, he was a co-founder and Managing Partner at Enovio Consulting, a US-based management & strategy consulting firm. Prior to that, he was a consultant in McKinsey & Company’s Business Technology Office based in New York. He has advised senior management in leading Fortune 100 companies, fast-growing startups, government agencies, and non-profits on key organization, operations, and technology issues. He has also consulted and conducted research for international organizations such as the World Bank, IFC, UNDP, African Development Bank, UNCTAD, USAID, GIZ, as well as multiple US government agencies. Also, Dr. Ismail is a co-founder, angel investor or board member of several fast-growing startups. He is a member of board of directors and investment committee for CVentures. He has mentored and supported many entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurs through many support organizations. He is a member of the global advisory board for the Babson Collaborative for Entrepreneurship Education.

Brian Smith

Accountant, founded UGG Imports

Brian Smith was born in Australia, where he developed his love of surfing. A chartered accountant, he studied at the UCLA Graduate School of Management, and with $500 of start-up money, he founded UGG Imports to bring sheepskin footwear to America. After seventeen years, as sales reached $15 million, he sold the business to Deckers Outdoor Corporation. The new team built upon the “casual comfort” theme and through style development, merchandising and great marketing, established UGG as an International fashion brand, with sales exceeding one billion dollars for each of the past five years. In 2000, he founded Prefast, a company that provided pre-cast concrete walls in a two-story configuration for California schools. He sold this business, and the company continues to build California schools to this day. In 2003, he then Patented a new type of pre-cast wall panel incorporating lightweight concrete and steel studs. A breakthrough technology, over 100 structures were built prior to the economic recession in 2008. The 3-year halt in construction set in play those events that would lead to the eventual demise of the company.

Chad Kaleky

Founder of: Renewgoo.com Clodebase.com CKinvestment.club Tech entrepreneur, mechanical engineer, and investor

Dina el Mofty

Founder Injaz Egypt, Young Achiever awardee 2016

Dina El-Mofty is the founder Injaz Egypt. She is a community builder, investor and thought leader who works to support entrepreneurs to grow and scale their businesses. Nominated as one of the world’s most influential young Arabs under 40 by Arabian Business, she is the founder of Injaz Egypt an organization which has a strong educational focus on entrepreneurship and work readiness. Injaz is part of the Junior Achievement worldwide network and works in partnership with schools and universities across Egypt and has helped impact more than half a million young people through its programs. The organization also has a strong focus on supporting young entrepreneurs through its Startup incubator and helps them launch and accelerate their businesses helping scale and support over 80 successful startup businesses over the past 9 years. Dina has received The Young Achiever of the year award for 2016 by Arabian Business. She is also the recipient of the Top 50 Award for top performing women in Egypt for 2016. She was one of 4 main judges on the popular CBC TV show ‘Hona Al Shabab’, the Egyptian version of Shark Tank. Dina holds a Graduate degree from the Fletcher School at Tufts University and pursued her undergraduate studies from the American University in Cairo and holds professional degrees from Penn State, Insead and Harvard. She is a mom of 3 and lives with her family in Cairo Egypt.

John Sanei

Best Selling Author, Lecturer at Duke Corporate Education in Johannesburg

Driven by the real world, by humanity and ‘the now’, John Sanei is a Futures Strategist who makes sense of the challenging world of the future and merge it in a way that gives an audience the clarity to forge forward with confidence. At the intersection of human science, neuroscience, quantum technology, futurism, and business strategy he is fascinated with data, detail and insights. By unlocking new perspectives our eyes are opened and we share a clearer vision of tomorrow. John Sanei is a best-selling author, first Singularity University in San Francisco faculty member, a lecturer at Duke Corporate Education in Johannesburg, as well as an Associate Partner at the Copenhagen Institute of Futures Studies in Denmark, global speaker, and trend specialist. By combining aspects of human psychology, business strategy, and future studies, John provides a unique and holistic approach to achieving future-readiness. Over the years, He shared a stage with several internationally acclaimed speakers, including Simon Sinek, Robin Sharma, and Yuval Harari.

Keith Ferrazzi

American Entrepreneur, Chairman of Ferrazzi Greenlight and Research Institute

Keith Ferrazzi is an American entrepreneur and recognized global thought leader in the relational and collaborative sciences. As Chairman of Ferrazzi Greenlight and its Research Institute, he works to identify behaviors that block global organizations from reaching their goals and to transform them by coaching new behaviors that increase growth and shareholder value. Keith has introduced a new transformational operating system he calls co-elevation that leads to exponential change and value. Formerly he was the CMO of Deloitte and Starwood Hotels. He is a #1 New York Times best-selling author of “Who’s Got Your Back” and “Never Eat Alone” and his newest book “Leading Without Authority”, as well as a frequent contributor to Harvard Business Review, WSJ, Fast Company, Forbes, Inc, Fortune, and other publications. Keith’s 20-year history of transforming C-Suite executive teams has made him an agent of transformation and among the world’s greatest and most sought-after coaches.

Leon Lategan

South Africa’s “Top Voted” speakers

Leon Lategan is one of South Africa’s ‘Top Voted’ speakers and SA’s No. 1 Conversion Optimisation Specialists. He has coached, trained, and spoken to over 17000+ entrepreneurs, business owners and corporates in South Africa and globally in Egypt, Qatar, Jordan, Mauritius, Bahrain, Botswana, Namibia, Rwanda, and Tanzania. Leon is CEO at Independent Online i.e., www.iol.co.za – the digital division of Independent Newspapers where he launched 11 newspaper titles including www.theargus.co.za, www.thestar.co.za, www.capetimes.co.za & www.businessreport.co.za. Founder & CEO of one of South Africa’s top digital marketing agencies; Purple Cow, which he sold to Yellow Pages in 2012. Launching 3 initiatives to assist the most vulnerable sectors of our society in terms of unemployment: www.scooler.co.za, www.theblacklion.co.za and www.theladylion.co.za for school, black and women entrepreneurs respectively. Being invited to be the keynote speaker at events all around the globe and recently invited to speak at the African Youth Entrepreneur Summit in Botswana, the IMM Graduate School Graduate Ceremony in South Africa, the African Women in Leadership Conference in Rwanda, the HeForShe Africa Summit in Nigeria, the Afripreneur Conference in Ghana, the African Entrepreneur Conference in South Africa, and the Customer 360 Africa Conference in South Africa. Having worked with some of South Africa’s biggest brands including Vodacom, Pam Golding Properties, Jeep, Virgin Active, The Foschini Group, Nedbank, Nu Metro & many more. Being voted the top speaker at 15 Sales & Marketing Conferences in Southern Africa over the past few years.

Lynda Aplegate

Baker Foundation Professor at HBS, Chair of the Advisory Committee for Harvard University

Lynda M. Applegate is the Baker Foundation Professor at HBS and also serves as the Chair of the Advisory Committee for Harvard University’s Masters of Liberal Arts in Extension Studies degrees in finance and management. She also plays a leading role in developing and delivering HBS Executive Education Programs for entrepreneurs and business owners. In addition to serving as the head of the Entrepreneurial Management Unit and chair of the HBS Owner Managed Executive Education Programs, Lynda has held a variety of leadership positions at HBS, including serving as Co-Chair of the MBA program, Chair of Field Based Learning and as a founding member of the HBS Technology Board. She has also held a number of Harvard University leadership positions, including serving as the Co-Chair of the Harvard Policy Group on Networked Government Services and on the Harvard University Provost’s Technology Advisory Board. Prior to joining the HBS faculty, Lynda was on the faculty of the University of Michigan, University of Washington, and University of Arizona. Currently, she teaches a module in the HBS Owner President Management (OPM) program that is entitled Innovation @Work. The module is designed to provide a general manager perspective on how to lead innovation and transform organizations, industries, and society. The role of information, analytics, and technology in enabling the development innovation ecosystems is also discussed. Lynda is an active international consultant and has served on the board of directors of public, private, non-profit. She is an advisor and advisory board member for entrepreneurs launching new ventures and for senior executives leading innovation in established companies. Lynda’s research and publications focus on the challenges of building new ventures and leading radical business innovation in the face of significant industry, technological, capital market, and regulatory turbulence. A second stream of research examines emerging leadership and governance models to support entrepreneurial ecosystem evolution and inter-firm collaboration and innovation. Lynda is the recipient of numerous HBS awards for her research, teaching, and service to the school. She received the Robert F. Greenhill Award for her outstanding contributions to HBS over the course of her career. She has also received Harvard Business School’s Berol Award for Research Excellence and its Apgar Award for Innovation in Teaching.