Ambareen Musa

Founder, Souqalmal.com

www.souqalmal.com – @ambareenm

Originally from Mauritius, Musa holds an undergraduate business degree from RMIT university, in Melbourne, Australia. She started her first online business, an online property portal for international students to Australia at the age of 21.She moved to London in 2004 to work for GE’s financial arm, GE Money, Musa had various roles including marketing, financial literacy, customer advocacy and E-commerce. She led the first online financial literacy initiative in the UK, Moneybasics.co.uk. In 2008, she moved to the MIDDLE EAST, Musa worked as a consultant for Bain & Company Middle East and focused on financial services projects such as growth strategies for banks in the region. She moved on to set up the consulting arm of MasterCard Middle East and Africa, where she stayed for 2 years, before founding Souqalmal.com in 2011.

Musa holds an MBA from INSEAD and is the co-author of Entrepreneurial opportunities on the internet in 2006.

Dany El Eid

Digital Evangelist & Founder, pixelbug

www.pixelbug.ae – @digitaldanful

A tech-savvy entrepreneur, Dany fuses online and offline innovations that create buzz and drive sales. This has been his mission since working in marketing with PUMA in 2007, where he devised premier digital media strategies to generate positive word-of-mouth about the brand and its offline activities. Since then, he's been involved with several startups seeking to increase their digital technology footprint. Today, as the founder of pixelbug, he continues to drive the company as an innovation powerhouse, touching all corners of the globe. With the help of his international team of experts, he's established pixelbug as a leading marketing technology partner to blue chip multinationals across the MENA region.

Dany regularly holds keynotes at regional and international conferences, continuing to develop the industry by educating professionals and students about the unique opportunities available in the digital technology space. He is also a member of the Young Arab Leaders, where he is committed to supporting the startup ecosystem across the region and helping aspiring entrepreneurs reach their fullest potential.

Omar Soudodi

Managing Director, PayFort

www.payfort.com – @OmarSoudodi

Omar is the Managing Director of PayFort one the leading online payment service providers in the Arab World. Prior to PayFort Omar successfully launched Souq.com in Egypt to become one of top 30 most visited sites and number one e-commerce site in Egypt. Prior to Souq.com Omar co-founded Accelarabia.com the first online loan origination website in the Middle East in late 2005 and sold majority of company to ORASCOM Development in 2006. Omar started his career in the US in various capacities in Banks to include consumer banking, business banking, International banking and commercial banking for Bank of America, California Bank and Trust and Sunwest Bank after studying Financial Management at California State Fullerton and obtaining a Financial Advisor Certification from the NASD. Omar is actively involved the Arab World business community serving as an advisory board member for American University in Cairo as well as a mentor at FlatSixlabs and Injaz Middle East.

Ahmed Al Kiremli

Founder, Games Corner & Iraqi Touch

www.gamescorner.com – @ahmedalkiremli

www.iraqitouch.com

As an entrepreneur, author and business maverick, Al Kiremli has worn many hats during his career. In the last decade alone he has created the world’s first Iraqi food franchise, a unique gaming brand, and undertaken or invested in myriad projects. Thanks to his perseverance, his innate belief that every day brings with it the opportunity to learn something new, and his ability to adapt and navigate any obstacles he encounters, he has made each of his “hats” fit.

Ahmed Al Kiremli has founded Be Efficient TV, Best Movie Ratings, Climb and Slide, Games Corner, Iraqi Touch and Plan Design Market.

Genny Ghamineh

Founder & CEO, Pi Slice

www.pi-slice.com – @GennyPi

Following her passions for the MicroFinance & the Online industries, and after a life-altering trek in Kilimanjaro, Genny founded Pi Slice in March 2012 and negotiated a partnership agreement with MicroWorld from the Group PlanetFinance to build and administer the first microlending online platform in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

Prior to Pi Slice, Genny began her career in Development Project Finance, and later shifted her focus to the financial industry and business development, where she honed her entrepreneurial skills in founding her 1st company Pro-ID in 2003; initiating start-ups and identifying market opportunities for the international corporations represented. She also consulted in setting-up & managing a financial security semi-governmental company in Dubai. In 2007, Genny founded and managed Pi Investments, working mainly on mergers and acquisitions deals in emerging countries, Fund Advisory and Placement Agent. In 2010, Genny joined a DIFC based investment bank as the Head of Business Development.

Genny has an MA in Civil Engineering from the Lebanese University and an MBA from London Business School (UK).

Rania Kanaan

Co-Founder & Operations Head, Ananasa.com

www.ananasa.com – @RaniaKanaan

Rania Kana'an is the co-founder and operations hand at Ananasa.com. Launched 3 years ago, Ananasa is the biggest online marketplace for handmade items from the Middle East & North Africa region. With a bachelor of commerce from McGill University, Rania has worked in marketing, media, and communications strategy, and loves the unpredictability, flexibility, and challenges of seeing a vision come to life in business. Rania is currently also working in communications consulting and is launching her new startup.

Medea Nocentini

VP - Corporate Development, OSN

www.osn.com

Founder, Consult & Coach for a Cause

www.consultandcoachforacause.com – @CandC4aCause

Medea Nocentini is VP Corporate Development at OSN, the leading Pay TV platform in the MENA Region, where she is responsible for market and consumer intelligence, corporate strategy, strategic partnerships, M&A, and cross-functional strategic projects. In her spare time Medea gives back to the community mentoring and consulting social entrepreneurs: in order to maximize her impact she launched a UAE-based social enterprise (C3 – Consult and Coach for a Cause) that mobilizes corporate professionals willing to support social entrepreneurs on a volunteering basis.

Before joining OSN, Medea worked in Business Development at McGraw-Hill and prior to that she spent several years at Booz & Co developing strategies for media, consumer and social sector’s clients across Europe, the US and Middle East. Medea holds an MBA from Columbia Business School (NY, USA), a BA in Mechanical Engineering from Politecnico di Torino (Italy) and an Engineering Diploma from Ecole Centrale Paris (France).

Ismail Issa

VP - Founder & CEO, Ta3rifah

www.ta3rifah.com – @egcoder

Ismail is the co-founder and CEO of Ta3rifah, the leading award winning & innovative customer engagement platform of the region. He is a Serial Entrepreneur and Technology Evangelist that co-founded multiple startups in the field of technology with 8 years+ experience in leading positions as subject matter expert, consultant and trainer for variety of companies in different domains of government, media and telecommunication across the middle east.

Tarek Ahmed Fouad

Founder & CEO, Lean International Group

www.leaninternationalgroup.com – @Lean_Group

Driven by the passion to lead and contribute to the world’s economy, Tarek brings in over 7 years of experience in fitness and leisure industry and an extensive background in strategic marketing and lean business models. Tarek holds master degrees in control engineering and strategic marketing and is also a certified personal trainer, life-coach, NLP practitioner and a hypnotherapist. The 27 years old business entrepreneur is the publisher of numerous research papers in both engineering and marketing fields and was a motivational speaker on various events held by the Dubai government and TEDx. Tarek Ahmed Fouad founded Lean International Group to lead and contribute to the ever-growing sports, health and fitness industry from grassroots to mega sized organizations.

Ritesh Tilani

Head of UAE, iMENA Holdings

www.imena.com – @rtilani

Ritesh Tilani is senior management professional and serial entrepreneur with extensive global experience. In his current role as Head of UAE at iMENA Holdings, Ritesh manages all of iMENA's local activities, and leads the company's telecom-related initiatives.

Prior to joining iMENA, Ritesh founded Innoventa, a firm that delivers high-impact consulting services and interim management solutions in the areas of strategy and operations, focused mainly on the technology and telecom sectors. While managing Innoventa, Ritesh also conceived and launched CareZone, the region's first cause-oriented digital mobile loyalty platform, which helped socially-conscious smartphone users shop smarter and earn rewards, while also making a difference by directly benefiting their favorite causes.Ritesh was a Co-Founder and Partner at EXA Partners, a group of cross-border business development experts, which focused on incubation of in-house ventures in the areas of TMT (technology, media and telecommunications). Prior to co-founding EXA Partners, Ritesh was with Nokia Corporation, where he served most recently as Head of Strategy for the MENA region. Before Nokia, Ritesh spent 5 years with Deloitte Consulting in New York and Bain & Company in Singapore, focusing mainly on market entry strategy, new business development and due diligence cases for various industries, including leisure, hospitality, logistics and TMT. Ritesh has spent more than 20 years in the Middle East. He holds a B.Sc. in Economics from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and an MBA from INSEAD.