Speakers

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His Excellency Omar Sultan Al Olama has been appointed as Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence in October 2017, and then was appointed as Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications in July 2020.

His responsibilities include enhancing the government performance levels by investing in the latest technologies and tools of artificial intelligence and applying them in various sectors.

His Excellency Omar Sultan Al Olama is Spearheading UAE efforts to be positioned as a global leader in Digital economy, With the focus to enhance UAEs digital economy contribution to the GDP.  

His Excellency is also focused on strengthening the UAE’s position as a global reference in remote work applications.

His Excellency Omar Sultan Al Olama is currently the Managing Director of the World Government Summit. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of Dubai Future Foundation and Deputy Managing Director of the Foundation. He is also Chairman of Dubai Chamber of Digital economy.  

In November 2017, the UAE government announced selecting HE. Omar Al Olama as a member of the Future of Digital Economy and Society Council at the World Economic Forum.  

During his work in the Future Department at the Ministry of Cabinet Affairs and the Future, His Excellency participated in developing the UAE Centennial 2071 strategy that aims to position the UAE as the best country in the world. He also participated in developing the UAE 4th Industrial Revolution Strategy that aims to promote the UAE’s status as a global hub for the 4th Industrial Revolution and develop a national economy based on knowledge, innovation and future technologies. Prior to his appointment, His Excellency worked on developing the UAE’s Artificial Intelligence Strategy, making it the first such strategy of its kind globally.

His Excellency Omar Sultan Al Olama worked in several sectors including the banking sector, telecommunications, private enterprises and government. H.E. also worked on developing and executing strategies, risk analysis, change management and scenario planning.

His Excellency Omar Sultan Al Olama holds a Diploma in Project Management and Excellence from the American University of Sharjah and a Bachelor of Business Administration from the American University of Dubai.

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Dr. Qi Tian is the Chief Scientist in Artificial Intelligence of Huawei Cloud, an IEAS Academician, and IEEE Fellow.

Dr. Tian joined Huawei in 2018 as the Chief Scientist in Computer Vision at the Noah's Ark Laboratory and later joined Huawei Cloud.

In his over 20 years of research career, Dr. Tian focuses on image content understanding, which is a core area in computer vision. He has contributed to a series of influential research in areas such as large-scale image retrieval, person re-identification, automated machine learning, and pre-trained large models.

Dr. Tian has published more than 650 international peer-reviewed journal and conference papers and won the Best Paper Award/Best Student Paper Award at eight major international conferences. As of April 2022, Dr. Tian's scientific works have been cited over 37,300 times by scholars worldwide, with an H-index of 91 and an I-10 index of 455.

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Brian Gu joined XPeng Motors (XPENG), a leading Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer and technology company, as Vice Chairman and President in 2018. Brian has held various leadership roles concerned with XPENG's business, investment, and international expansion strategies.  

Brian is a veteran M&A banker with 20 years of investment banking experience; he has previously served as J.P Morgan's Managing Director, Chairman of Asia Pacific Investment Banking, and a member of its Global Strategic Advisory Council.

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Angelika Gifford is the new Vice President for Meta in Europe, Middle East and Africa, taking over from Nicola Mendelsohn, who earlier this year became Vice President for the Global Business Group.

Angelika joined Meta in January 2020, and has represented Meta to partners, policymakers, non-profits and community organisations across 34 countries in Central Europe, including Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Benelux region as well as Eastern Europe and Russia. 

Angelika has over 30 years’ experience working for leading technology companies including Hewlett-Packard (HP), where she led the software and digitisation business for German-speaking countries, and Microsoft where she held a wide variety of senior management positions across the region. Angie serves as a member of the board of the German-American transatlantic association “Atlantik-Brücke” and is part of the corporate supervisory board of Thyssenkrupp.

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Dr. Ray O. Johnson is Chief Executive Officer of the Technology Innovation Institute (TII), which aims to be a leading global research center dedicated to pushing the frontiers of knowledge. In this role, Dr. Johnson will work on shaping the strategic direction of the Institute and lead the execution of its growth strategies to achieve operational excellence.

Dr. Johnson brings to TII more than four decades of experience in global technology leadership, making strategic investments in disruptive technologies, and developing business strategies that resulted in several new billion-dollar lines of business. He also holds outstanding networking capabilities and has met with leaders in the highest echelons of government, industry, and academia. He is frequently sought after as a speaker at global forums on business, strategy, innovation, and education.  

Prior to joining TII, Dr. Johnson was an Operating Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, a top-tier American venture capital company that has been part of 130 IPOs in the last 50 years. Founded in 1911, Bessemer Venture Partners is the oldest venture capital firm in the USA. Earlier, he was Corporate Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of the Lockheed Martin Corporation, in Maryland, USA, where he was responsible for operational performance and the associated board-reportable metrics. He led Engineering and Technology, Production Operations, Global Supply Chain, Program Management, and Logistics and Sustainment, while managing more than 72,000 people working on over 4,000 programmes. He also led the Advanced Technology Center in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, a profit and loss (P&L) centre focused on generation-after-next technologies.  

Previously, Dr. Johnson was Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Modern Technology Solutions, Inc, where he developed business strategies, implementation plans, and executive-level metrics to refine the company’s strategic direction and vision. Prior to that, he was Senior Vice President and Business Unit General Manager at SAIC, a premier Fortune 500® technology integrator and leader of US digital transformation efforts. In this role, he turned around and realigned four entities within the company and led and won a competitive multi-year US$800 million program.  

Dr. Johnson holds Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology in Ohio, USA. He earned a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma, USA. He is a Full Academician of the International Academy of Astronautics, and a Fellow of the International Society for Optical Engineering and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

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Eugene Kaspersky is a world-renowned cybersecurity expert. He is a co-founder and the Chief Executive Officer of Kaspersky, the world’s largest privately-held vendor of endpoint protection and cybersecurity solutions.

Eugene began his career in cybersecurity accidentally when his computer became infected with the ‘Cascade’ virus in 1989. Eugene’s specialized education in cryptography helped him analyze the encrypted virus, and then develop a removal tool for it. Eugene’s curiosity and passion for computer technology drove him to start analyzing more malicious programs and developing disinfection modules for them. This exotic collection of antivirus modules would eventually become the foundation for Kaspersky’s antivirus database. In 1997 Kaspersky was founded, with Eugene heading the company’s antivirus research. In 2007 he was named Kaspersky’s CEO.

Today Kaspersky operates in almost 200 countries and territories, and has 34 offices in 30 countries.

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As CEO for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and Latin America (LATAM), Helmut is responsible for all go-to-market functions across EMEA and LATAM. Prior to joining Palo Alto Networks in 2022, Helmut was CEO of Orange Business Services (OBS), leading its global organization of 28,000 employees and supporting the digital transformation of enterprise customers around the world. Prior to OBS, Helmut held leadership positions across Europe at Avaya Inc., NextiraOne Germany and Alcatel Austria.

Helmut holds a Ph.D. from Vienna University for Economics and Business (WU), and speaks English, French, German and Spanish.

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Sébastien Borget is the Co-founder and COO of The Sandbox decentralized Metaverse, a virtual world where players can create, play, own, govern and monetize their experiences using NFTs & SAND, the main utility token of the platform.  Sebastien also became the President of the Blockchain Game Alliance in 2020, a non-profit organization of 300 key members of the industry. He was recently named #4 in the Top #100 2022 most influential people in crypto by CoinTelegraph https://cointelegraph.com/top-people-in-crypto-and-blockchain/sebastien-borget. The Sandbox has been featured in TIME100 Top 100 most influential companies of 2022 by Times magazine https://time.com/collection/time100-companies-2022/6159401/the-sandbox/

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Dr. Guy Diedrich is a Senior Vice President and the Global Innovation Officer at Cisco, where he is responsible for its Country Digital Acceleration (CDA) and Networking Academy programs. In this role, Dr. Diedrich collaborates closely with government and industry leadership around the world to drive mass-scale digitization initiatives that help increase GDP, create millions of next-generation jobs, and develop sustainable innovation ecosystems. CDA operates in over 40 countries and has more than 1200 active or completed digitization projects since its inception in 2015.  Cisco’s Networking Academy operates in 180 countries and has trained more than 13 million students in networking and cybersecurity skills over the past 25 years. Dr. Diedrich continues to grow and evolve the programs into new markets, and build trust with government, industry and academic stakeholders.

Prior to his current role at Cisco, Dr. Diedrich was a Vice Chancellor at the Texas A&M University System where he was responsible for research, commercialization, strategic initiatives, federal and state government relations.

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Dimitrios Dosis is president of Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (EEMEA) at Mastercard and a member of the company's management committee.

He is responsible for driving the company’s global strategy across 80+ markets and leading Mastercard’s journey to bring new payment solutions and services to the region, spanning safety, security, data, artificial intelligence, as well as advancing social progress and inclusive growth. Under his leadership, Mastercard is advancing its ambitions as the only true multi-rail technology company, collaborating with a diverse range of public and private sector partners to enhance the region’s digital ecosystem.

Dosis was previously president of Mastercard Advisors, the company’s services arm, where he accelerated the use of predictive technologies to advance the company’s industry-proven problem-solving skills and leveraged data-driven insights and analytics to help retail and banking customers solve pressing business issues.

Dosis has more than 20 years of experience in technology, transaction banking and management consulting, and serves on the Board of Directors for ATHEX (Athens Stock Exchange). He holds an MBA and PhD from the European Business School, as well as a Master of Economics from the University of Hagen

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Paul Misener is Amazon.com’s Vice President for Global Innovation Policy and Communications.  An Amazon VP for over 22 years, Paul has long participated in Amazon’s history, culture, and methods of sustained, customer-obsessed innovation guided by the company’s Leadership Principles.  He frequently represents Amazon to external organizations and internal colleagues worldwide.

The founder of Amazon’s global public policy organization, Paul built and led the team and served as the company’s Vice President for Global Public Policy from February 2000 to May 2016. Paul has testified before the United States Congress over 30 times and dozens of times before other policymaking bodies around the world. He has met hundreds of times with political leaders, heads of state, cabinet ministers, US Representatives and Senators, US governors and mayors, and has negotiated policy agreements with many of these governors.  

Paul is both an engineer, scientist, and attorney and has brought his expertise to advise numerous policy and technology organizations during his career. He served as Senior Legal Advisor to a commissioner of the US Federal Communications Commission; co-founded and led the computer industry’s Internet Access Coalition, which successfully blocked the imposition of telecom access charges on Internet access; and chaired the technical subcommittee of the US Federal Aviation Administration’s advisory committee that recommended allowing commercial airline passengers to use portable electronics during taxi, takeoff, and landing.  

Paul serves on the board of a number of organizations in the US, advising on economic development, technology, education, and public affairs. He lives with his family outside of Washington, D.C. in the United States.

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Mike has been named one of the most influential people in tech, in surveys by GfK NOP, The Independent, and Wired UK. He is a regular broadcaster, appearing on the BBC, Al Jazeera, Sky News, CNN, and Channel 4, among others. He co-founded The Europas European Tech Startup Awards, refugee non-profit Techfugees, and military charity TechVets. He has advised both the EU and the UK government on tech startups, and was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list 2016 for services to the UK technology industry and journalism.  

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Divya Gokulnath is the co-founder of BYJU’S – the world’s leading edtech company. As a teacher and member of the board, she is a firm believer in curiosity-led learning and putting students in the driver’s seat.  After playing a key role in setting up and expanding brand BYJU’S in the Indian market, Divya is now actively building and scaling BYJU’S international business across multiple countries.   

A strong supporter of women at work, and mother to two young children, Divya strikes the delicate balance between work and life perfectly.  

Featured on Fortune 40 under 40 entrepreneur 2022 list, and winner of Fortune Most Powerful Women (2022, 2021, 2020), Express AWE Awards - Woman Entrepreneur of the Year, Education (2022), MAKERS Women Entrepreneur of the Year (2021), ASU GSV Power of Women (2021) award, Business Today's Most Powerful Women (2019, 2020, 2021) award, LinkedIn Top Voices in Education (2019,2020) (India and Global) and Forbes Asia’s 25 Most Powerful Women (2020), Divya is a strong advocate of cherishing childlike curiosity.

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Dr. Kian Mossanen studied Business Administration at the Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, where he also worked as a research assistant to the Chair of Business Informatics during his doctorate. In parallel Kian also worked as a doctoral student at Siemens AG. On completion of his doctorate, Dr. Mossanen moved to the Benteler Group where he was, in his last role, responsible for the IT of Benteler Automobiltechnik GmbH.

From Benteler he moved to OSRAM Licht AG where he was Group CIO until the end of 2017, after which he moved on to become CIO of the Dräxlmaier Group. Kian then assumed his current role as CIO of Siemens Energy

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Suzanne Kianpour is the presenter of BBC's 'Out of the Shadows' and can be found reporting and anchoring on BBC World News and BBC World Service and writing for BBC Online. She is the creator and host of Women Building Peace on the BBC World Service in collaboration with the Georgetown Institute of Women Peace and Security. Her guests have included former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas Greenfield, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatovic and Paula Gaviria, former Presidential Advisor on Human Rights in Colombia. Her documentary 'America's Place in the World' featured exclusive sit down interviews with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, among others. Kianpour is Emmy nominated and awarded as a successful alum under 40 by her alma mater Emory University, profiled as a person to watch in Washington Life magazine’s “Power Issue” at only 28 and listed as one of DC’s most influential leaders under 40 for several years in a row. She is also on the advisory board of WCOIN – Women’s Crypto Organizing & Investment Network, a member of Council on Foreign Relations, the Meridian International Center’s Rising Leaders Council and on the board of the Friends of the American University in Afghanistan.Born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia with a Persian and Sicilian background, she’s fluent in written and verbal Farsi, conversational in Spanish, basic proficiency in Italian and French and began learning Arabic while based in Lebanon for the BBC. She’s a graduate of Emory University – where she studied abroad at Oxford University – and attended Georgetown University post-grad.  

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With over 30 years of solid experience in the IT and telecom industry, implementing working strategies for the provision of innovative digital technologies, Talaat was tasked with a chief mission to lead Egypt’s Digital Transformation Initiative, 2020. Talaat is confident of what immersive technologies can offer to serve as a strong arm to empower vital sectors of the economy and realize the Sustainable Development Strategy: Egypt Vision 2030. Talaat’s endeavor aims to oversee the implementation of several strategic projects, that include developing and securing the country’s IT & telecom infrastructure, creating a generation of professionals specialized in advanced digital technologies, spurring innovation and improving government performance and quality of services offered to the citizen-as a main objective of the government’s digital transformation mega program. A strong believer in the power of youth as active participants in the socio-economic development of the nation, Talaat led a number of digitally-based empowerment initiatives to engage professionals to support such belief. Throughout his career, Talaat succeeded in materializing exceptional investments, merges and acquisitions to attract and nurture Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to the country and create the value-add. Under his leadership, before joining the Government of Egypt, Talaat spearheaded IBM Egypt’s expansion plans, ensuring the creation of unique job opportunities and the establishment of centers of excellence to export digital services. Throughout his career at IBM Egypt, he held various leadership roles till he headed the firm. Talaat was an Adjunct Professor at Cairo University with teaching experience in market and sales strategies and tactics, organizational behavior and strategic management. He was an honorary member at the ICT Board at Cairo University, member of the ICT Board of the Academy of Scientific Research and Technology, and the Chairman of ICT Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce. Talaat earned his Doctor of Business Administration from the University of Paris - Paris School of Business and obtained a Master of Science in Computer Science from Illinois Institute of Technology, and holds an MBA from Paris ESLSCA Business School, France. He is a graduate of Cairo University’s Faculty of Engineering.

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Natalya Makarochkina is Senior Vice President (SVP) of the Secure Power Division at Schneider Electric, leading more than 1000 seasoned professionals in delivering innovative solutions to empower channel partners and support customers with successful digital transformation projects and achieving sustainability goals.

Schneider Electric Secure Power Division provides complete physical infrastructure solutions for data centers, distributed IT environments, and industrial applications. As SVP, Natalya is responsible for business success within multiple geographies - Asia Pacific, India, Middle East, South America and CIS.

Natalya is a passionate and charismatic executive with strong expertise within the IT and Energy Management industries. Her previous leadership roles include senior management and sales positions within major international technology companies including HPE, Philips, Oracle, 3COM and others. She holds an Executive MBA from the University of Antwerp, and Masters degree from the Higher School of Economics.

Natalya is a confident, credible and knowledgeable speaker, able to address a broad range of topics from the digitalisation of sectors to emerging technologies such as edge computing, the Internet of Things (IoT) and the decarbonisation of data centers and IT services.

Her international experience together with her time invested face-to-face with customers and end-users in some of the fastest growing global economies, means she can speak insightfully and at first hand to the challenges and successes of delivering world-class digital infrastructure to meet the needs for speed, efficiency and sustainability in the current age. 

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Mariam Bin Al Shaikh, Director of Sharjah Business Women Council leads formulating strategic plans for SBWC, and plays a critical role in determining new opportunities for the council and steering the team towards achieving its mission and vision.   Al Shaikh’s talent and application were rewarded with a membership to the Sharjah Consultative Council in 2019. As member of the Financial, Economic and Industrial Affairs Committee, she is part of an elite team of professionals who advise on public policies, laws and legislation as well as services and public utilities.   Al Shaikh holds a Bachelors’ degree in International Studies from the American University of Sharjah. She is also a graduate of the Sharjah Leadership Programme and has attended several management and leadership programmes conducted by leading international universities.   Apart from her profession, Al Shaikh is passionate about social work, having been a Board Member of the social organisation 1971 Team since 2014, She helps organise social charity events such as ‘Ela Jary’ and ‘Food Drive’ and coordinates with the Ministry of Youth and Ministry of Happiness throughout the year on initiatives to help the underprivileged.

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Najla Ahmed Al-Midfa is the Chief Executive Officer of the Sharjah Entrepreneurship Center (Sheraa), a government-supported entity launched in 2016, with a mandate to build the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Sharjah, and support entrepreneurs as they build and grow innovative startups that will contribute positively to the region’s economy. To date, Sheraa has built a portfolio of over 122 startups, which have raised around $128m in investment, created over 1400 jobs, and generated over $187m in cumulative revenue. Sheraa also hosts the annual Sharjah Entrepreneurship Festival (SEF), which has drawn participation from 300 high-level speakers and over 13,000 attendees from around the world. Prior to Sheraa, Najla held a senior position at Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development, focused on SME financing, and was a consultant at McKinsey and Company’s New York office, primarily serving clients across the financial institutions sector. Her previous professional experience also includes roles within PricewaterhouseCoopers and Shell. Najla is a member of the Board of Directors at United Arab Bank, Emirates Development Bank, and Dana Gas. She was previously on the board of the Emirates Schools Establishment. Najla is Vice-Chairperson of Young Arab Leaders, and a board member of Endeavor UAE. She is a fellow of the Aspen Institute’s Middle East Leadership Initiative, as well as an Eisenhower Global Fellow. Najla holds an MBA from Stanford University.

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Abdelaziz Al Maazmi has played a necessary role in positioning and defining the role of the Establishment since 2007

Driving the Establishment’s growth, Abdelaziz has significantly contributed to Support the young entrepreneurs. Abdelaziz commitment to spearhead an entrepreneurship culture among the UAE nationals has generated tangible results.

As part of his aim to offer exclusive support to members of the Establishment, Abdelaziz facilitated key cooperation agreements with several leading private and public sector organisations.

Abdelaziz Al Maazmi became as well a part of Young Entrepreneur Competition organizer and in the Young Business Leader Awards since 2008. His responsibilities as a member to support the Young students to start their businesses and Evaluation projects and businesses who apply for the Young Business leader award among the Middle East.

He has rich experience to know how Conduct studies & researches to identify SMEs needs related to the requirements of start-ups, licensing, partnerships and establishing companies. Al Maazmi has more than 20 year experience working in several Government Entities.

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Currently, a foreign correspondent for one of Africa's leading news stations - Channels TV - she reports on stories of global and African interest in the Middle East and has interviewed several high profile personalities including CEO Dubai Tourism Issam Kazim, Nigeria's Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Steve Harvey, Akon, world renowned British artist Sacha Jafri (creator of the world's largest painting on canvas), Congolese tycoon - Eric Mandala, World Heavyweight Champion - Francis Ngannou and many others. With over 10 years of multi-media experience, a laudable TV broadcasting career as well success in various leadership positions, Mayowa stands as an expert in event compering (MC), public and motivational speaking.   She has been recognised as Media Personality of the Year 2021 by Lovin Dubai, 1 of 12 Inspirational and Entrepreneurial Women In The UAE 2021 by the UAE Africa Networking Group, as well as Nominee, 100 Most Influential People of African Descent (MIPAD) 2021 and Nominee, Future Africa Awards Nominee 2019.   She is the co-author of ‘The Black & African Guide To Moving To UAE’ and is currently writing her first memoir, “Bloom”.

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Selfdrive.ae is the largest car rental subscription platform in UAE.  Making it the region's first car rental & leasing platform to offer cars direct from the dealerships.  From the concept that stated from a one-desk workstation, Soham has led Selfdrive.ae to several milestone & has achieved 2 million days of reservation, Expanded its operations in 6 countries in GCC & the platform manages assets worth of 500 million US dollars.

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Belal Jassoma is the Head of Business Development of the Free Zone arm of DMCC, the most interconnected Free Zone in the world, and a leading trade and enterprise hub.  

After joining DMCC in January 2011, Belal assumed the roles of Products & Services Development Manager and Senior Business Development Manager before taking on his current position in January 2018.

Belal has been instrumental in expanding the Free Zone offering, introducing new products and services, member engagement programs, and developing key strategic relationships which resulted in both business growth and member retention. As part of his current responsibilities as Head of BD, Belal leads several key functions for DMCC including corporate sales, business setup, partnerships, and product development. DMCC is now home to over 18,000 businesses and was named Global Free Zone of the Year by the Financial Times’ fDi Magazine for 7 consecutive years.     

Belal holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the American University of Sharjah and brings over 15 years of experience in real estate, investment and government administration.

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Having always had a passion for humans and driven by a desire to support and transform territories, Mame Aby Seye turned early on to sociology and demography. With a doctorate in Sociology-Demography, she joined the NGO ENDA Tiers-Monde in Senegal in 2004, an experience that made her able to apprehend and work on issues specific to Senegalese territories. After a few years in France in consulting positions, Mame Aby Seye joined the Senegalese Caisse des Dépôts et de Consignations as Project Manager for two years, then Head of the Territorial Development Division for two more years.  In 2019, Mame Aby Seye was appointed by H.E. President Macky Sall as Executive Director of the Fonds de Financement de la Formation Professionnelle et Technique (3FPT), where she carried the voice of vocational training in Senegal for almost three years and reinforced the country's leadership at the pan-African level.  In 2022, Mame Aby Seye was appointed by H.E. President Macky Sall as General Delegate for Rapid Entrepreneurship of Women and Youth (DER/FJ), where she accompanies women and youth in entrepreneurship, guided by a constant and sustainable focus on social inclusion and territorial equity. 

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Aya is an investment professional at Delphos International - a Washington DC based investment firm that targets impact investments in emerging and frontier markets. Aya has experience in large infrastructure projects and early-stage technology companies. She is also an early-stage investor focusing on pre-seed and seed start-ups in Middle East and Africa. Aya sits on the board of several companies in the African ecosystem in the areas of financial technology, logistics, retail, and health technology. Aya is also an advisor to GIZ's SAIS investment readiness program, which targets agribusiness and technology companies in Africa. She is a rising angel investor, having been featured as a shark on the Moroccan version of Shark Tank as the youngest investor on the show.  Aya aims to empower a new generation of investors on the continent.

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Kola Oyeneyin sits at the intersection of Investments, Technology, Economic Development, Public Policy, and People, as a serial entrepreneur, investor & business leader. Kola is a Partner and Director at Volition Cap – an African-focused Private Equity company & Co-Lead of Opportunik Global Fund. As an impact-oriented business leader, he has founded multiple thriving businesses through Venia Group – a venture creation company. Venia was recognized as one of the "Companies to Inspire Africa" by the London Stock Exchange Group, after pioneering two new industries in Nigeria; the Coworking & Insurtech sectors. At Volition Cap, Kola drives strategic partnerships, deal origination and global growth. At Volition Blue LLC, a US-based company, he’s focused on bridging the Africa and the US Markets. Kola holds a master of Public Administration degree, from the Harvard Kennedy School and a Computer Science degree from the University of Nottingham. He’s an Edward Mason & Gleitsman Fellow, and a member of the Harvard Center for Public Leadership. He is also a Desmond Tutu Fellow. Kola was recently selected as one of the "The Most Influential People of African Descent”.

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A highly skilled media professional with significant experience in the fintech and blockchain sectors. Has worked and managed teams internationally, broadcaster, conference moderator, interviewer, marketer, innovator, partnership builder and extensively networked around the globe. 

She's been featured as an industry analyst in CNBC, Bloomberg, and TRT world. Alongside that, the video content from BeInCrypto is picked up by Yahoo Finance and distributed weekly on the Yahoo Finance website.

Throughout her 5 years in crypto, she has an extensive list of PR contacts and has covered over 42 events since 2018. She was the official MC of 4 events in 2021, including Draper Goren Holm events, BlockDown, and LA Blockchain Week.

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Soliman Aldukhil is a Group VP at Tap Payments, working closely with the Group CEO to drive greater collaboration and implement strategies to scale the company further. After graduating from the Queensland University of Technology in Australia, he started his career in the banking industry focusing on accelerating digital transformation and providing a seamless service across banks like the Saudi Investment Bank, Bank Saudi Fransi, and Bank Albilad. He then moved to Saudi Payments, the national payment operator of the local scheme ‘mada’, and was involved in developing the digital payment ecosystem in Saudi Arabia. Soliman enjoys new challenges and is a deep believer in “There are no limits other than the limits that you put on yourself” which is precisely the mentality he brings in everything he does within his role.

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Charles is the General Manager of 250STARTUPS Incubator where he is responsible for resource mobilisation, sustainability and overseeing all programs of the hub. He is passionate about startups and entrepreneurship and is actively involved in different mentorship programs with both local and international organizations. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Rwanda where he majored in Marketing. He then completed ‘’Mastering Design Thinking’’ from MIT which is a global tool used while supporting startups, and he hold an MBA in Project Management from Oklahoma Christian University from United states. Charles is the current chairperson of Unity Investment Board where the group invests in real estate for the last 5 years. He is also Founder and CEO Next Africa Group which is a business consulting firm that offers a 360 degrees business solutions ranging from Business development, , strategies for SME's, startups and Sustainability plan for hubs among other services with the aim of helping organizations achieve the optimum effectiveness

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