2012 Gist Tech-I Brochure

Entrepreneurs in Action
December 10-12, 2012 Dubai, UAE

www.gistinitiative.org
CRDF Global
Welcome Message
Table of Contents
CRDF WELCOME MESSAGE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE WELCOME MESSAGE AGENDA GIST OVERVIEW GIST TECH-I COMPETITION FINALISTS GIST TRANSFORMER ALUMNI SPEAKERS, MENTORS & JUDGES GIST ADVISORY GROUP MEMBERS CRDF GLOBAL GIST TEAM U.S. STATE OF DEPARTMENT GIST TEAM GIST IN THE NEWS GIST MENTOR HIGHLIGHT CALENDAR OF EVENTS FEATURED EVENTS RESOURCES GIST PARTNERS 1 2 3 6 8 18 20 31 32 33 36 38 39 40 41 42
Dear Entrepreneurs and all who support them, CRDF Global and its celebrated initiative, Global Innovation through Science and Technology (GIST), welcome you to the 3rd annual Global Entrepreneurship Summit presented by Entrepreneurial Ventures of Arabia. We are very proud to present a talented group of 30 aspiring young entrepreneurs who are finalists in the annual GIST Tech-I Competition. They join a rapidly-growing, global GIST community. In the past year alone, GIST connected over 80,000 entrepreneurs from the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, offering mentorship to 300 people and providing critical skills-training and funding opportunities to enable hundreds of early-stage ventures to move their start-ups forward. Through GIST, CRDF Global connects people who, though they may live across the globe, speak the same language people who believe in the power of entrepreneurship and the power of young and dynamic innovators to improve their communities, countries, and regions. It is no accident that the United Arab Emirates is graciously hosting the Summit this year. This is a country committed to growing entrepreneurship not only within its borders but throughout the region. . GIST is very privileged to have with us in Dubai enthusiastic and forward-thinking mentors, judges and speakers to share their insights and advice. Several GIST partner organizations, including N2V, Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship (QRCE), MIT-EF chapters (of the Pan Arab Region, Turkey and Pakistan), American University of Cairo, Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey (TEPAV), the Technology Innovation & Entrepreneurship Center of Egypt (TIEC), Startup Malaysia, and the African Incubator Network, have provided dedicated support. They represent an important part of the expanding network that CRDF Global, in partnership with the U.S. Department of State, is developing through GIST. Congratulations to the GIST Tech-I Competition participants. We look forward to an amazing experience in Dubai as we help you to pursue your dreams. Good luck! Sincerely,
Cathleen A. Campbell President and Chief Executive Officer CRDF Global
GIST Initiative is a partnership led by the U.S. Department of State and CRDF Global
U.S. Department of State

Welcome Message
Welcome to the second annual GIST Tech-I Final Competition and Award Ceremony. As President Obama said, We believe entrepreneurs can create jobs that fortify relationships between countries, build global markets, and help fulfill the dreams of all who desire the freedom to make of their lives what they will. The GIST Tech-I competition highlights the potential of entrepreneurs worldwide to facilitate the creation of high-impact technology startups. GIST Tech-I is an important part of the Global Innovation through Science and Technology (GIST) initiative which implements a network of programs to identify, train, and connect young innovators. This initiative provides the mentorship, seed funding, and market exposure needed for young entrepreneurs to succeed. The U.S. Department of State supports GIST and works in partnership with CRDF Global to create technology entrepreneurship role models through activities like GIST Tech-I. Last years inaugural Tech-I group of young problem-solvers demonstrated their positive impact on communities around the globe through their innovations. It is my pleasure to welcome this second inspirational and formative group. Congratulations to all of the participants and best wishes on growing your ideas and startups into businesses that have strong economic and societal impact.
Monday, December 10, 2012 Location: Theater 4

MORNING 8:45-9.00 GIST SESSION: CLOSED TO PUBLIC Introductory Remarks Ovidiu Bujorean, GIST Initiative Manager, CRDF Global Dr. Anna Quider, Foreign Affairs Officer, U.S. Department of State Team Building Exercise Jim Bagnola, President, The Leadership Group International Nuts and bolts of the executive summary and the pitch Scott Gillespie, Founder and Managing Partner, Jigsaw Group Mentoring Session 1 Mentoring Session 2 Lunch GIST Startup Training: ENTIRE AFTERNOON IS OPEN TO PUBLIC
Agenda
9:00-9:45 9:45-10:30 10:30-11:30 11:30-12:30 12:30-1:15 AFTERNOON 1:15-1:30
Introductory Remarks Ms. Cathy Campbell, President and CEO, CRDF Global Dr. Jonathan Margolis, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Science, Space and Health in the U.S. Department of States Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs. Ms. Natalia Pipia, Associate Program Director, Innovation & Entrepreneurship, CRDF Global Mr. Rashid AlBallaa, CEO N2V, GIST Global Advisory Board Member Keynote Speech Jeff Hoffman, Co-founder, Priceline.com; Founder, ColorJar; GIST Global Advisory Group Member Strategic Professional Networking Practical seminar introducing 7 key principles of how to build a professional network of top contacts using events, online tools and peer to peer groups. Ovidiu Bujorean, GIST Initiative Manager, CRDF Global and International Speaker, Ovibees.com Leading is Everybodys Business Interactive, thought provoking and fast moving workshop challenges the major myths about leading and counters with a new mindset. Jim Bagnola, President, The Leadership Group Break Raising funds for your ideas and ventures The workshop will provide a road map on how to identify, approach and secure venture capitalists as well as other sources of funding. Mr. Ahmed El-Alfi, Founder & Chairman, Sawari Ventures Business Models for Startups This workshop will cover techniques on how to create, deliver and capture value while putting emphasis on how to create realistic forecasts. Scott Gillespie, Founder and Managing Partner, the Jigsaw Group
1:30-2:15 2:15-3:00
3:00-4:00
Sincerely,
4:00-4:15 4:15-5:15
Kerri-Ann Jones, Ph.D. Assistant Secretary The Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs
5:15-6:00
Monday, December 10, 2012 Location: Theater 4

6:00-6:45 Sales Training This workshop will cover a successful sales strategy from the hiring to acquiring leads. Klaus Miserra, Managing Director at KM Transformations
Agenda
Wednesday, December 12, 2012Location: Theater 4

12:45-1:45 1:00-6:30 2:15-5:00 2:15-3:15 Open Session LOCATION: THEATRE 3 Lunch. Judges meet to select the GIST Tech-I award winners. GIST entrepreneurs attend the Summit Young Entrepreneur Forum (A Joint Program from the GIST initiative and Startup Youth)
Agenda
7:15-9:30
GIST Reception (Open to the public) Introductory Remarks Ms. Cathy Campbell, President and CEO, CRDF Global Dr. Jonathan Margolis, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Science, Space and Health in the U.S. Department of States Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs Mr. Ovidiu Bujorean, GIST Initiative Manager, CRDF Global Keynote speaker: Ms. Patricia Dinneen, Managing Director, Siguler Guff & Company, GIST Global Advisory Group Member Stories from GIST Entrepreneurs Ms. Rumaisa Mohani, UAE, Founder, E-Aid, Mr. Ziad Sankari, Lebanon, CEO, Cardio Diagnostics, Ms. Perihan Abou-Zeid, Egypt, Communications Director, Qabila Media Productions, Mr. Saimum Hossain, Bangladesh, Managing Director, Greenovation Technologies
Tuesday, December 11, 2012 Location: Theater 4

GIST Mentoring & Pitching Sessions: Room A 9:30-11:00 11:00-12:00 12:00-2:30 2:30-4:00 4:00-4:30 5:30-6:30 4:30-6:00 6:00-6:45 6:45-7:00 First Set: 10 entrepreneurs pitch to a panel of at least 3 judges. Each venture has 5 minutes to pitch and 5 minutes for Q&A and feedback. (Others attend GES-EVA sessions) Judges deliberation GES-EVA Keynotes: Main Hall All GIST entrepreneurs attend GES-EVA keynotes GIST Mentoring & Pitching Sessions: Room A Second Set: 10 entrepreneurs pitch to a panel of at least 3 judges. Each venture has 5 minutes to pitch and 5 minutes for Q&A and feedback. (Others attend GES-EVA sessions) Judges deliberation Partners for a New Beginning Reception Location: Sheikh Saeed Hall 2, Theater 3, Dubai World Trade Center Third Set: 10 entrepreneurs pitch to a panel of at least 3 judges. Each venture has 5 minutes to pitch and 5 minutes for Q&A and feedback. (Others attend GES-EVA sessions) Judges select the top 10 The top 10 are announced 3:15-4:00
ENGAGE - Digital Talk: Media, Startups and the Real-Time Web New technologies and entrepreneurs continue to change the media industry landscape in the fast-paced environment of the 21st century. At the same time, entrepreneurs and startups benefit from media exposure which provides necessary amplifier effects to promote their ventures and encourages the entrepreneurial spirit worldwide. Panelists will discuss the new phenomenon of covering start-ups and technology, explore the reciprocal relationship between media and entrepreneurship, talk about the influence of mass media on national culture and participation in entrepreneurship, and identify concrete steps to promote and celebrate entrepreneurship in the Middle East. During the panel, discussants will look at how social media changes the way people fund and grow new companies. Moderator: Ms. Natalia Pipia, Associate Program Director, Innovation & Entrepreneurship, CRDF Global Panelists: Mr. Jeff Hoffman, Co-founder and former CEO of Priceline, columnist Inc. Magazine and GIST Global Advisory Group Member Ms. Perihan Abou Zeid, Director of Media, Qabila Production, GIST Women entrepreneurship award Mr. Ammar Bakkar, CEO - Yes 2 Digital (Y2D) Mr. Ihsan Jawad, Founder and CEO at ABQ Zawya, Thompson Reuters Mr. Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi, Columnist, The National, UAE Mr. James Andrews, Founder of Social People SUPPORT - Startup Youth Launch Microsoft and U.S. Department of State, Office of Global Youth Issues speaker series on entrepreneurship: Highlighting the role of partnerships between government and the private sector in building entrepreneurial ecosystems supporting young entrepreneurs. Speakers: Zeenat Rahman, The Secretary of States Special Adviser for Global Youth Issues, U.S. Department of State Akhtar Badshah, Senior Director of Global Community Affairs, Microsoft Young Entrepreneur (TBD) Panelists: Zeenat Rahman, the Secretary of States Special Adviser for Global Youth Issues, U.S. Department of State, Akhtar Badshah, Senior Director of Global Community Affairs, Microsoft Young Entrepreneur (TBD) CONNECT EMPACT100 Networking Session Empact100 members, a highly accomplished group of young entrepreneurs, will host an interactive Q&A on the role of networking for young entrepreneurs and the challenges facing young entrepreneurs in building robust networks. Moderator: Zeenat Rahman, Secretary of States Special Adviser for Global Youth Issues, U.S. Department of State Panelists: Sarah Green, CEO, Empact, Rahim Fazal, Founder, Involver, Max Durovic, CEO, AArrow GIST TECH-I AWARD CEREMONY The dynamic ceremony is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate role models of global entrepreneurship, to award the most promising GIST technology entrepreneurs, and to highlight practical approaches to entrepreneurial ecosystem building globally. Winners of past GIST competitions also known as transformers will be featured in the award ceremony and will share their experiences for the past year. The top 10 GIST Tech-i entrepreneurs from Middle East, Turkey, Africa and Asia will be announced. Keynote: Mr. Jeff Hoffman, Co-founder & former CEO, Priceline, GIST Global Advisory Group Introductory Remarks: Ms. Cathy Campbell, President and CEO, CRDF Global Dr. Jonathan Margolis, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Science, Space and Health in the U.S. Department of States Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs. Guests: Ms. Patricia Dinneen, Managing Director, Siguler Guff & Company, GIST Global Advisory Group, H.R.H. Prince Saud Bin Khalid Al-Faisal, Deputy Governor - Saudi Arabian General Investment Authorit, GIST Global Advisory Group MC.: Ovidiu Bujorean, Manager The GIST Initiative GIST Reception (invitation only) Introductory Remarks Ms. Cathy Campbell, President and CEO, CRDF Global, Dr. Jonathan Margolis, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Science, Space and Health in the U.S. Department of States Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs. Ms. Natalia Pipia, Associate Program Director, Innovation & Entrepreneurship, CRDF Global, GIST Global Advisory Group representative, GIST Transformers representative (1-2 entrepreneurs share their experiences at the summit)
4:15-5:00
5:15-6:15 Open Session LOCATION: THEATRE 2
Wednesday, December 12, 2012 Location: Theater 4

9.00-10.30 10:45-12:45 Open Session GIST Entrepreneurs attend keynote sessions at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit Venture pitching sessions to select awards for the top entrepreneurs Pitching will occur in one room, with 10 entrepreneurs in the room. There will be at least five judges in the room. Each venture has 5 minutes to pitch and 5 minutes for Q&A and feedback. Mr. Jeff Hoffman, Co-founder and former CEO of Priceline, columnist Inc. Magazine and GIST Global Advisory Group Member Mr. Scott Gillespie, Founder Jigsaw Group, & Partner T2VC Mr. Faysal Sohail, Managing Partner CMEA Ventures Mr. Chris Schroeder, Angel Investor, co-founder and former CEO Health Central, WSJ journalist Mr. Khalid Alkhudair, Founder of Glowork, COO of KPMG Markets for KSA, Jordan and Kuwait Mr. Imran Sayed, Chief Technology Officer, NTT Data, Inc; Senior Lecturer, MIT Sloan School of Management; Global President, Organization of Pakistani Entrepreneurs Mr. Ahmed El-Alfi, Founder & Chairman, Sawari Ventures
7:00-9:30
all of us must recognize that education and innovation will be the currency of the 21st century. Barack Obama President of the United States of America Together we can build an ecosystem that allows entrepreneurs to get the support they need, the financing they need, the mentoring they need, to launch a brilliant idea into a business. Thats the importance of the GIST mission. Jeff Hoffman Co-Founder and former CEO, Priceline; GIST Advisory Group Member
Where Innovative Minds and Entrepreneurial Spirit Merge

Submission Deadline: September 24, 2012
The Global Innovation through Science and Technology (GIST) initiative strengthens innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems through programs and partnerships focused on networking, skills development and financing. GIST empowers youth across Africa, the Middle East, and Asia to develop new technology-based products and companies that address economic and development challenges NETWORKING: Linking innovative ideas, people, and financial and human resources SKILL DEVELOPMENT: Providing business training, mentorship and resources FINANCING: Connecting innovators and their ideas with seed capital
CONNECT WITH GIST COMMUNITY

GIST Programs
Startup Boot Camps: Supporting tech startups through mentorship and training activities led by U.S. entrepreneurs and investors Tech-I Competition: Bringing tech ideas to the community via a YouTubebased idea pitch competition The GIST Entrepreneurship Journey: Immersing high-potential entrepreneurs in the American innovation ecosystem
GIST is a great opportunity to increase participation by the academic sector in the transfer of technology into the marketplace through the development of practical knowledge and skills, as well as to heighten understanding of the value of entrepreneurship and innovation for economic growth and sustainability. Dr. Abdelali Haoudi VP of Research, Qatar Foundation Malaysia welcomes the GIST Initiative to support technology development in Muslim-majority countries to advance key innovation areas, especially innovation capacity, entrepreneurship and access to seed capital. Dato Madinah binti Mohamad Secretary General, Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, Malaysia [GIST] was our shortcut towards better connections and visibility. Ziad Sankari Founder of CardioDiagnostics; GISTech-I Competition Winner
Your solution
Your world
The GIST initiative is seeking entrepreneurs and innovators to participate in this multinational GIST Tech-I competition.
GIST Impact Highlights

Supporting High-Growth Potential Entrepreneurs
2,500tech startups trained and mentored by international experts 23 GIST partner organizations connected with additional entrepreneurship education resources
Submit Go-to-Market Plan: 2 minute Video Pitch & Executive Summary & Win: More Than $200K in Awards
First Place: $25,000 Runner Up: $15,000 Second Place: $10,000 Third Place: $5,000 Best Female Entrepreneur Award: $5,000 5 Honorable Mentions: $2,000 iPad for applicant with most online votes for video 3 months of mentorship for 30 companies
First Round
Second Round
Creating Innovation Ecosystems

Catalyzed the first angel investment network in West Africa in partnership with the World Banks infoDEV program Trained journalists in Indonesia and Malaysia Launched a global business mentorship training program with MIT faculty
Up to 5 Scholarships to GIST Accelerator: 6 week immersion program in Silicon Valley $200,000 in seed funding for best companies
Building a Global Innovation Community

2 million youth reached globally through the Department of State Innovation Generation Facebook page 75,000 technology developers linked to business development training, tools, and mentorship
Apply now at: www.gistinitiative.org

Competition Starts: July, 2012 GIST Webinars/Partner Trainings: August 13-31, 2012 Submission Deadline: September 24, 2012 Online Voting for Video: October 31, 2012 - November 9, 2012 Semi-Finalist Workshop & Award Ceremony: December 11-13, 2012 GIST Accelerator: August - September 2013
Join the GIST network today! facebook.com/gistinitiative

6
GIST Tech-I Competition Finalists

NearestNeighbour
Ipek Altunmaral, Founder
http://www.nearestneighbour.co.uk http://www.youtube.com/embed/SWEht13Xtn4
Ipek is a service and interaction designer working as a sole trader for various technology and retail startup companies in the UK, Turkey and Europe. She developed the NearestNeighbour project while studying towards an MSc in Research and Design at Goldsmiths University, Since her studies, she has worked in DesignLondon, the Royal College of Art and Imperial College before starting on her own entrepreneurial journey. NearestNeighbour is a mobile application designed to enhance peer-to-peer community news-sharing and outsourcing. With this app users can hire, buy, borrow, find out the latest news in their neighborhood, advertise and promote their services and be the first to learn what happens in their community.

Digital Blood Glucose Record System
Handy Lukito & Christian Warawan, Co-founders
http://binus.ac.id/ http://player.vimeo.com/video/52397162
Handy recently graduated from BINUS University, Indonesia, majoring in Information Systems and Management, and since graduation has been handling various mobile application projects, such as Digital Blood Glucose Record System, Anonymous Ticket System, Smart Insurance System, etc. Christian also graduated from BINUS, majoring in Information Systems and Management. Christians work focuses on system analysis. Together their team has developed a number of apps which have been nominated in several prestigious competitions. Digital Blood Glucose Record System is a mobile app based on social media which allows people suffering from diabetes to record their daily blood sugar via their mobile phones, so they can control and monitor their blood sugar level anywhere and anytime.
ICT, Turkey
Health, Indonesia
Mobile Augmented Reality Shop & Save

AP Leow, Founder
http://player.vimeo.com/video/52332612
AP calls himself a creative technologist, a person who puts customer user experience high in his design priority and who values simplicity and creativity in the design process. He also co-founded e-Trifecta which specializes in image recognition and Augmented Reality technology. He holds an engineering degree from University of Arizona and an MBA from University of Aix-Marseille in France and Universiti Putra Malaysia. Shop & Save is a mobile Augmented Reality (AR) app that enhances the shopping experience in malls, serving as a shop locator using AR technology in an indoor setting and alerting users of the best deals that are happening in real time.
The Home Page
Khaled Shaheen, Co-founder & CEO

http://www.thehomepage.com.eg http://www.youtube.com/embed/oE0mdhndwCI
Khaled has been co-founder and CEO of The Home Page since June 2012, and previously worked with two major Egyptian telecom companies Etisalat and Vodafone. He has eight years of experience with these corporations in marketing, sales, project management, customer operations & online advertising. The Home Page is an online fair for furniture and designa one-stop shop for users furnishing their homes giving them the chance to search/compare all products available in the market with different categories, styles, and price ranges. The Home Page enables furniture producers/showrooms to showcase unlimited number of products with detailed and updated description and hence serves as a targeted and efficient advertising medium and sales channel.
ICT, Malaysia
ICT, Egypt
Eco-Fuelants
Hafiz Muhammad Ali, Founder and CEO

http://player.vimeo.com/video/50566295
Hafiz Muhammad is a Chemical Engineer by profession and an entrepreneur by passion; he was previously the Director Operations of Ecofy and served as the President of AIChE-Pakistan, Event Ambassador of Spark. After witnessing the extreme hike in fuel prices and energy crisis in Pakistan, Hafiz started thinking about inventing an alternative fuel, and eventually decided to produce bio-diesel from waste cooking oil. The Eco-Fuelants bio-diesel product is economical, environment and engine friendly. It is an alternative fuel that has good lubricating properties and its technology is in accordance with ASTM standards.
MobiTrader
Joseph Ajao, Co-founder

http://mobitrader.net http://www.youtube.com/embed/YxErUjILHAA
Joseph is a software developer with more than 6 years of experience in IT, not-for-profit businesses, building new companies, startup consulting, and project management. He has worked with Google, Goldman Sachs, and Rocket Internet GmbH, which has given him valuable experience for his ventures.Joseph graduated as the best student in his Engineering class and rejected offers from 3 Fortune 500 Oil and Gas companiestopursue his dream of building his own company. He founded two successful technology companies in Nigeria(Oacsoft Technologies and GloballyEducated). MobiTrader is a web and mobile start-up dedicated to bringing better job opportunities to the informal job sector (cooks, maids, designers, security guards, office helpers, etc.) by appropriately connecting the right employers and job-seekers via the web, mobile apps, SMS and the mobile web.
Energy, Pakistan
8
ICT, Nigeria

Ujamaa
Gilles Ajavon, CEO
http://mcommulticartes.com/Ujamaa http://www.youtube.com/embed/gFZLm_dYCrI
Gilles is the entrepreneurial mind behind Ujamaa, with a vision to create a commercial electronic platform that would serve Africans and also the rest of the world with resources from Africa. He earned a Bachelors degree in Computer Science from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana and is currently studying Information Technology Administration and Management at Sup Info international IT Academy of Dakar, Senegal. Ujamaa is an online market that offers products from Dakars favorite shops with ease, security, delivery and payment systems adapted to Senegal. It is a channel to promote African culture through clothing, jewelry, fashion accessories and gadgets.

E-Park
Mustain Mahrus & Harry Sunarsa, Co-founders
http://www.youtube.com/embed/-ZGDNVVcYEs
Mustain and Harry attended the same university under scholarship from the Italian government, where they were two of a team of four Indonesian students collaborating on an idea to improve urban life in Jakarta. Mustain is a Masters candidate in Tourism Marketing and Harry is a Masters candidate in Information Technology at the University of Calabria. They dream of establishing a worldwide company on the basis of this idea started from their homeland. E-Park is an innovative system that offers online reservations (by using SMS or internet) of parking spots in specific partner buildings. Starting from their personal experience of the difficulty of parking in downtown Jakarta, the team created a sensor-based parking system drawing on the hotel reservation process that offers a time saving and convenient solution to vehicle users.
ICT, Togo/Senegal
ICT, Indonesia
Mallna
Abedul-Azez Kasaji, CEO

http://mallna.com http://www.youtube.com/embed/hmlDa-eltAQ
Abedul-Azez has been the CEO of Mallna since late 2011, before which he worked as a field engineer for Jordan Technology Access. He is a graduate of Al-Balqa Applied University with a bachelors degree in mechatronics engineering; He has also earned his MBA degree at the German Jordan University. Mallna is a social shopping app on Facebook that helps users save and discover products they like from all over the web. With a special +POST button, users can save their favorite products from nearly every online store in one convenient place. Users personal Mallna profile becomes a wish list of items they can share with others. Moreover by visiting the Mallna profiles, users will discover relevant products from people they trust.
Etkallm
Ahmed Saber, Co-founder

http://www.etkallm.com/ http://www.youtube.com/embed/PdCN-AoqVR8
Ahmed helped found Etkallm in April 2012 and works as their project director, product developer, and web developer. He also works as an application factory developer for Microsoft in Egypt where he develops and publishes Windows phone 7 and Windows 8 applications and represents them in start-up events. Ahmed is a recent graduate of Cairo University with double majors in Communications and Computer Engineering. Etkallm provides a convenient micro-blogging environment for users to generate and share news. These news items are gathered and organized with a high degree of categorization and customization.
ICT, Jordan
ICT, Egypt
Jolene Sim, Marketing Director & Joshua Ooi, Business Development Director
http://www.gocentsless.com http://player.vimeo.com/video/52473354
Jolene and Joshua met in the Maybank MoneyTree Young Entrepreneur Startup (YES) Challenge. Jolene co-founded a social media network called Mainstream Online Buzz (MOB) which became Centsless. Joshua used to work in the strategy department of one of Malaysias largest conglomerates but through the YES Challenge discovered his love for entrepreneurship. He brings a wealth of experience in building strategic partnerships and developing businesses to Centsless. The Centsless helps businesses grow by creating opportunities to acquire new customers and nurture loyalty among customers both online & offline. For shoppers, Centsless strives to make the shopping experience more fun and rewarding by allowing users to easily earn points, and redeem for attractive rewards by simply providing their mobile number.
Centsless
ma2too3a!
Mohammad Taha, Founder & CEO

http://ma2too3a.com/ http://www.youtube.com/embed/uCjd0eHhJYo
Mohamad is an experienced computer engineer who runs his own mobile app development company, La Roche Soft. His passion for technology, politics, and giving back to his community inspired him to create the ma2too3a! app to keep people safe and save their time in Lebanon. ma2too3a! is a crowd-sourced mobile application that offers real-time location-based news and traffic updates for Lebanon. Once a user posts news, it gets filtered, and then shared with all users, after automatically adding the post time and location of the user using the devices GPS capability.
ICT, Malaysia
10
ICT, Lebanon
11

E-Cash To Cash
Naama Bak, Co-founder
http://www.e-cashtocash.com http://www.youtube.com/embed/8EfUKM1SSdQ
Naama is an engineer in electronic banking and security systems, and he is currently pursuing his MBA and Masters in Applied Mathematics in France. Naama is also employed by France Telecom R&D as a research engineer designing and developing a mobile ticketing solution. E-CashToCash is a mobile money transfer service for individuals. Simple, secure, and efficient, it allows users to send money anywhere and at any time with just a phone and a National Identity Electronics Card (NIEC). The service works in partnership with banks and retailers to provide easy access to funds without any need to leave home or visit an ATM.

8villages
Sanny Gaddafi, CTO
http://www.8villages.com http://www.youtube.com/embed/gANx5AIwTv4
Sanny Gaddafi is an experienced developer and serial entrepreneur specialized in niche social networks. He is very active in the Indonesian start-up community as an initiator of #StartupLokal and as a director of the Founder Institute. He holds an undergraduate diploma in Informatics and Statistics and a postgraduate diploma in Finance and Investment from the Universitas Bina Nusantara, Indonesia. 8villages is a mobile social network for farmers in emerging countries, allowing them form locationbased communities (villages) and connect through SMS and a mobile website. This is a highly scalable platform for farmers to generate microblog posts, share brand comparisons, give feedback on products and farming techniques, and attend trainings provided by experts. For agri-businesses, 8villages offers a data aggregation tool to provide market intelligence on consumption behaviors, yields, and acreages.
ICT, Morocco
Agriculture, Indonesia
Croakun
Kai Feng Chew, Founder

http://www.croakun.com http://player.vimeo.com/video/52263934
Kai Feng is CEO of Croakun.com; prior to that he created Actuary.my and the Web-based Actuarial Mock Exam System (WAMES) which helped more than 1,000 aspiring actuaries pass their professional exams. He has won national and international ICT recognition and raised a half a million dollars in seed funding in the Make the Pitch Season 2 Reality Show by MyEG. Kai Feng holds a Bachelors degree in Actuarial Science from National University of Malaysia. Croakun offers social media monitoring and analysis services for the Asian market. With unique tools in the field of sentiment analysis and structured analysis of texts, it helps marketing professionals, business leaders and advertising agencies monitor their brand reputation across social networks and blogs and automatically track mentions. Croakuns technology covers multilingual content from the region.
KolshiMedia
Lana Haddad and Montaser Al-Majali, Co-founders

http://www.kolshimedia.com http://www.youtube.com/embed/vOKgoA8U31M
Lana and Montaser are partners in KolshiMedia, with Lana working as General and Human Resources manager, and Montaser serving as Marketing, Sales & Public Relations Manager. They both have relevant experience in the entertainment industry. KolshiMedia is a unique portal for entertainment stars as well as those talents still on the rise, connecting them to their admirers and leveraging their fan bases. KolshiMedia provides these entertainers with a platform to promote themselves, achieve fame, and find the right connections for employment and internships, so that they may progress in their chosen profession. The idea arose from an awareness of rising unemployment in the MENA region, particularly in the entertainment sector, and a need to foster growth in the industry.
ICT, Malaysia
ICT, Jordan
Khaled Wagdy, Co-founder
Motion Capture Systems

Khaled is a computer engineer with a strong background in the IT, animation, and motion capture industries. Earlier in his career Khaled was a Teaching Assistant in the MET department at the GUC, specializing in microprocessors and robotics. Later on, he joined the IT industry in one of the biggest multinational telecommunication enterprises which helped shape his business processes & support experience. Motion Capture Systems aims to provide high quality and cost effective motion capture solutions for character animation, allowing 3D artists to focus on their ideas and output rather than the complex technicalities faced in producing character animations.
Niokobok
Laurent Liautaud, Founder

http://www.niokobok.com http://player.vimeo.com/video/52482857
Prior to launching Niokobok, Laurent worked in start-ups or small divisions of large corporations, in mature as well as emerging markets, and was a consultant with Bain & Company. He received the third prize of the Orange African Social Venture Prize for Niokobok in November 2012. Laurent is an alumnus of the London School of Economics and a graduate from the Institut dEtudes Politiques de Paris and from HEC. Niokobok is an online retail store that allows the estimated 650,000 Senegalese living abroad to shop for their families back home, saving 5 to 10% on money transfers and allowing for better family budgeting.
http://www.snapperstech.com http://www.youtube.com/embed/xgesgbupgWk
ICT, Egypt
12
ICT, Senegal
13

Mawdoo3.com
Mohammed Jaber Altawafsheh and Rami Abu Omar, Co-founders
http://mawdoo3.com/ http://www.youtube.com/embed/JdkyvRLwe5Q
Mohammed is a serial entrepreneur interested in social entrepreneurship and volunteering; besides Mawdoo3 he also founded Jordan Volunteers and Takaful. He studied medicine and surgery at the Hashemite University, Jordan. Rami has founded a number of initiatives including Mawdoo3.com; he is also on the board of the Holy Land ceramic & glass factory, vice chairman of the Jordanian Egyptian Company , and founder of Holy Land Gifts Centre, a series of large shopping malls for tourists to Jordan . Rami studied economics at the University of Sussex, UK. Mawdoo3.com is a new platform that aims to enrich the internet with unique and high quality Arabic media content. Its core advantage is a unique keyword-analysis algorithm that allows the team to analyze online Arabic search queries, filter them, and extract from them the top topics that attract the Arabicspeaking audience.

Kimola Enterprise Solutions
Mustafa Savas, Founder
http://444.kimola.com/ http://player.vimeo.com/video/49742051
Mustafa now leads the core technology development of Kimolas cloud services and is responsible for the companys future plans and strategies. Previously he studied mechanical engineering at university and worked as a software developer and software trainer for 4 years. Kimola provides enterprise search solutions that support text enrichment and text summarization and offers middleware search products, cloud search services and consultation. The technology analyses large sets of text content and identifies contextually important key phrases that have a high probability of being searched by users, automatically creating hyperlinks in the documents.
ICT, Jordan
ICT, Turkey
Natali Ardianto, Co-founder & Network Relationship Developer

http://www.tiket.com http://www.youtube.com/embed/ZX9DdULW4SM
Natali is a technologist and one of the founders of the biggest startup community in Indonesia, #StartupLokal. With 16 years of programming skill, he is often asked to co-found and become CTO of new startups, some of which have received investments from Singapore, Japan and Indonesia. He is also a member of the board at Project Eden, a startup accelerator. Nuniek has been recognized as a connector in Indonesia digital industry by InfoKomputer 2011 and she is also one of the founders of #Startuplokal. Tiket.com is an online travel & entertainment gateway based in Indonesia where you can buy flight, train, hotel, concert events and movie tickets all in one convenient place
Tiket.com
25trends
Karim Ouda, Founder

http://25trends.me http://www.youtube.com/embed/duD_IqdGaLM
Karim is an entrepreneur and software engineer at heart with 8 years of experience in IT. After spending a portion of his life at IBM he decided to quit and start his long journey of innovation, research, improvement, challenge and bringing more value to the world. 25trends is an Arabic Social Media Analytics service, which handles and understands Arabic conversations, it can be considered a 24x7 market research, 25trends continuously analyzes data on social media channels (Facebook and Twitter) and provides users sentiment, competition analyses, statistics, charts, and insights about a business brand, product or services.
ICT, Egypt
ICT, Indonesia
Kactus
Rachid Harrando, Co-founder and CEO
COREvidence by NETpeas
Bassam Seif and Nadi Chemali, Co-founders

http://www.kactusapp.com http://player.vimeo.com/video/52489057
Bassam obtained his B.E. in Computer and Communications Engineering from the Lebanese American University in 2011, where he distinguished himself through projects using artificial intelligence and facial recognition. Nadi earned his B.E in Computer Engineering from the American University of Beirut, and after that he decided to become an inventor. With one of his creations, the Movement Controlled Smart Music Composer, he reached the semi-finals of the Stars of Science tech competition in Qatar. At Kactus, Bassam is the absolute technical reference and Nadi is responsible for all the operations. Kactus reinvents the to-do list for the 21st century by making it interactive and social. As a communitygenerated collection of to-do lists, Kactus aggregates and organizes the steps needed to complete any procedure in the simplest and most reliable way available.
http://www.netpeas.com http://www.youtube.com/embed/5v95JErcw58
Rachid is the CEO of NETpeas where he is really enjoying the opportunity to start from scratch and raise money from VCs, build a team, develop a solution and promote it worldwide. Before that he worked at Texas Instruments for 12 years in R&D and customer support for their electronics & telecommunication business. COREvidence by NETpeas is a fully-automated and comprehensive evaluation of all registered vulnerabilities to an IT ecosystem. Its threat analysis offers customers who need the highest level of security an efficient and accurate assessment tool that can be run as frequently as is required without the high costs and potential mistakes of human auditors.
ICT, Lebanon
ICT, Morocco
14
GIST Initiative is a partnership led by the U.S. Department of State and CRDF Global GIST Initiative is a partnership led by the U.S. Department of State and CRDF Global
15

Alp Sayn, Co-founder
http://www.woutique.com http://www.youtube.com/embed/i_9TiyACkQM
After Alp completed his Bachelor studies in Electrical and Electronics Engineering Department of Bilkent University, he moved to Sweden to study in KTH Royal Institute of Technology. Although he studied Electronics Engineering, he also has a real talent for programming, specifically in network and embedded programming. Woutique is a social sharing platform focusing on fashion gamification. Users share their items and gain points to compete with others and level up as they share more and hang out more around Woutique. Progress in Woutique is measured in Style Points and users gain levels after acquiring a certain amount of style points which are acquired by adding and tagging new clothes and accessories, commenting on the style of others, and following more friends and connecting over Facebook.

Assly Original
Tamer Ahmed and Sally Elghazouly, Co-founders
http://www.youtube.com/embed/kI248eG3lkM
Tamer has a passion for entrepreneurship and technology with a focus on socio-economic aspects with over 17 years of experience in the ICT field, including work for many R&D organizations, both local and multinational organizations, and with several startups he founded in Egypt. Sally has 17+ years of experience in managing health care medicine with speciality in Quality control. She is adept at customer relations and has great ability in business development. Assly Original is a mobile service with SMS based authentication to enable the end customer at any store to confirm that goods are original, authentic and have a valid expiration date. This solves a problem with counterfeit products that circulate in many parts of the world.
Woutique
ICT, Turkey
ICT, Egypt
Mubstar
Anteeca Company
Alaa Qattan, Founder
http://www.anteeca.com http://player.vimeo.com/video/52410260
Alaa has over 10 years of experience in international marketing for small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in Jordan. She holds an MBA from Brighton University in the UK with a concentration in International Marketing. Anteeca.com is a bilingual (Arabic/English) e-commerce website specialized in selling quality traditional Arabic handicrafts and offers extensive collections of handmade jewelry, apparel and home dcor from Arab artisans.
Ahmad Al-Mubiden, CEO

http://mubstar.com http://www.youtube.com/embed/Hue0VoQAvRw
Ahmad is a student working towards his Bachelors degree in computer science from the Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST). Since 2010 he has been researching new methods of indexing and information management, particularly how to extract information media such as Flash, PDF, and images. He developed a system to pipe information to search engines and expects to launch Mubstar as a complete search engine in 2014 as his final project at university. Mubstar is a search engine company working on developing algorithms to enhance the quality of results and to provide a better user experience by returning direct answers to queries.
ICT, Jordan
ICT, Jordan
Nanocides
Saman Khan, Founder and CEO & Syed Irteza Ubaid, Head of Operations
http://autosanitation.blogspot.com/ http://player.vimeo.com/video/50004955
Saman is a postgraduate student at Institute of Environmental Science and Engineering, NUST continuing six years of collegiate study in the same subject. Simultaneously she is interning for NEMS (Nouveau Energy Management Services) on different projects in Pakistan with a special focus on oil and gas farm-in opportunities and gas flaring projects. Syed is a leader in the ecosystem of entrepreneurship, and he has helped organize efforts for the Pakistanis Prime Ministerss Entrepreneurship Challenges, TEDx and StatrtupWeekend. Syed is also Vice President of Business Development for Coeusol Inc. Nanocides is a custom self-sanitizing surface which reduces the spread of infectious diseases by decontaminating the surrounding environment. Self-sanitizing surfaces technology uses normal daylight to eliminate nearly all microorganisms on medical devices and high-touch, near-patient surfaces.
Zeeshan Ahmad, Co-founder

https://www.dsomni.com http://player.vimeo.com/video/50052711
Zeeshan is a young student at the National University of Computer and Emerging Science-FAST in Lahore, Pakistan where he is studying for his Bachelors degree in Computer System Engineering. DS Omni is an online shopping venture initially showcasing products related to apparel and gradually expanding to include all other products. DS Omni will provide at least four different payment options to facilitate customers from all walks of life.
DS Omni
Health, Pakistan
16
ICT, Pakistan
17
GIST Transformer Alumni

Perihan Abou-Zeid, Communications Director of Qabila Media Productions
Thanks to her twin brother and a long tradition of family involvement in politics, Perihan became interested in public affairs from a young age, but she did not realize how important it was to have a voice until she studied abroad in Canada. She returned to Egypt with a sense of civic duty to offer an alternative to the official government-controlled media message, founding Qabila in 2010 with 14 of her acquaintances as a collective effort to challenge the system. Seizing the momentum of the January 25 revolution, the organization has flourished as a major source of TV programming to educate the Egyptian public about political issues and processes, which has in turn galvanized Perihan with the realization that she not only can, but is, in fact, changing the world. Qabila Media Productions is a media content creator. It uses crowd sourcing and digital media to provide clients with cost-effective content in order to reach their target audience in the most effective way. Ms. Abou-Zeid serves as Co-Founder and Communications Director. She also works with Google as an Account Strategist where she builds and optimizes online advertising strategies for clients. Perihan holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from the American University in Cairo.
GIST Transformer Alumni

Ali Raza Randhawa, Founder & CEO of PAK-Energy Solutions
Ali was in the first class at his university that had the opportunity to study entrepreneurship, which he embraced wholeheartedly in his efforts to alleviate need and improve quality of life in rural Pakistan. Despite tremendous skepticism and incredulity from outsiders, Ali channeled his deep faith, his familys encouragement, and his sheer stubbornness into a successful environmental ventureturning agricultural waste into domestically consumable fuel. PAK-Energy Solution is a portable and affordable natural gas digester for domestic use. It generates clean gas for cooking, heating, lighting and generates fertilizer as a by-product. Mr. Raza is the Founder & CEO and has an electrical engineer from University of Engineering & Technology, Lahore, Pakistan. He is highly interested in renewable energy and social entrepreneurship. He has also worked with Chemical Engineering Department at the University of Engineering & Technology Lahore for evaluating feasibility of biogas industrial units in Pakistan.
Hind Hobeika, Founder, CEO and Lead Engineer of Butterfleye

Since she was a child, Hind has always been an active athlete, and she has also always been curious about her own physical health and wellnessgoing so far as to keep track of her personal fitness data in a spreadsheet. As a collegiate swimmer, she realized how difficult it could be to accurately determine ones heart-rate while in the water, so she entered a pan-Arab scientific invention contest. She ended up coming in 3rd place on a regionally televised contest, turning her heart-rate monitoring goggles from just an idea to an actual prototype. Hind started her company in Beirut to prove that scientific development and tech entrepreneurship are not antithetical to the Middle East, and hopes her company will go on to manufacture other types of health monitoring as well. With Butterfleye, Hind has had the enviable opportunity to turn her hobby of tracking personal physical fitness into her professional career! Butterfleye is a heart rate monitor which can be mounted on any type of swimming goggles to seamlessly measure a swimmers heart rate and give real-time visual feedback. Ms. Hobeika graduated from the American University of Beirut with a degree in Mechanical Engineering and founded the Quantified Self Beirut chapter.
Muhammad Saimum Hossain, Managing Director, Greenovation Technologies

Saimum is studying Finance and Investment Management at University of Dhaka with the goal of obtaining the necessary expertise to formulate corporate level business policy and analyze investment opportunities for his company Greenovation Technologies. Raised in different areas of his home country Bangladesh, he came understand differences in peoples cultures, habits, and socio-economic situations at a very early age; his international travels to the U.S., Qatar, UAE, India, and Malaysia have helped sharpen his leadership, communication, and interpersonal skills. Greennovation Technologies is a company based in Bangladesh that uses an innovative process to transform the natural jute fiber and polymer resin into sophisticated corrugated sheets that produce an affordable and sustainable housing material called Jutin.
Ziad Sankari, CEO of CardioDiagnostics

After his father died suddenly from a heart attack when he was only 17, Ziad was determined to develop the technological capability to detect potential health problems before they happen-sparing other families from similar tragedy. A true entrepreneurial spirit, he started a biotech firm right out of college, and sold it after only a few years to pursue his dream of building a heart monitor in his home country of Lebanon. Cardio Diagnostics is a health device that monitors patients heart rate 24/7, with the purpose of detecting irregularities that can be life-saving in the event of a heart attack or other cardio abnormalities. After Mr. Sankari completed his bachelor of engineering in Computer Engineering with high distinction, he received a Fulbright Scholarship to study at the Ohio State University in the U.S. where he earned two masters degrees and gained experience with health technology.
Rumaisa Mohani, Founder, E-Aid

Rumaisa has been a Business & Accounting teacher for the IGCSE and GCEs for the last 15 years in the UAE; she has been dedicated to teaching since she was a young girl helping her mom at her small private school in Karachi. She is a graduate in Commerce from Karachi University and completed her MBA in 2007 at Preston University, Islamabad. As the granddaughter of Hasrat Mohani, Rumaisa is a trustee of Hasrat Mohani Library and Hall in Karachi which provides free reading services to students and scholars. E-Aid is a private educational service, based in Karachi, Pakistan, providing online face-to-face tutoring lessons, mainly focused on exam preparation, for a wide variety of subjects to high school and college students from all over the world, with the convenience of flexible timing and space.
18
19
Speakers, Mentors & Judges

Sadaffe Abid, Social Entrepreneur, Microfinance Specialist and Women & Youth Leadership Practitioner
Sadaffe is a social entrepreneur with rich experiences in financial inclusion, women empowerment and building start-ups. She was the COO and later CEO of Kashf foundation, a micro-finance institution inspired by the Grameen Bank, leading its growth to serve over 300,000 women from low-income backgrounds in Pakistan impacting nearly 1.8 million individuals. She was also the co-founder and CEO of Buksh Foundation, a startup social venture to enhance financial access for youth and micro entrepreneurs. Sadaffe has mentored MIT Legatum Fellows and Acumen Fund entrepreneur

Adil Al Zarooni, CEO, Al Zarooni Investments; SVP, Global Sales-Jafza
Adil has 11 years of experience in executive management and sales, investments, and IT security, including 2 years in Saudi Arabia. His expertise spans multiple industries in investment and operations of family owned businesses, industrial/business zones and logistics, UAE government-owned entities, and software and IT development. Adil is currently SVP for Global Sales at Economic Zones World (Jafza), and the CEO of Al Zarooni Emirates Investments. Previously, he was director of business development at Titan Holdings and worked in IT security at Mobily and Etisalat.
Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi, Columnist, The National (UAE)

Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi is a UAE based journalist whose columns have appeared in publications in the Gulf and around the world including The Gulf News, The National, The Financial Times, The Guardian, The Huffington Post, The New York Times, Foreign Policy, Open Democracy, The Globe and Mail amongst others. Sultan Al Qassemi is also non-resident Fellow at the Dubai School of Government, and an active presence on Twitter at @SultanAlQassemi.
Goulam-Raza Amarsy, CEO, Meydan IMAX theatre

Goulam has a total of 30 years of experience developing traditional shopping centers, entertainment centers and resorts in North America and the Middle East. He holds an MBA from Harvard and and has produced several IMAX films, including SuperSpeedway, Wolves, Lost Worlds: Life in the Balance Bears, and IndiaKingdom of the Tiger and has forged partnerships with such organizations as National Wildlife Federation, Discovery Channel, Texaco USA and Kmart Corporation. Goulam is not afraid of tackling difficult situations where value creation is not obvious at first glance.
Tariq Al Asiri, Co-founder at Argaam.com, Dubai

Tariq is General Manager of Argaam.com, the leading Arabic financial news portal covering company financial information, IPOs, and the oil and petrochemicals industries in the Gulf; Argaam was launched in March 2007. He has also worked with BNI international, DemoCamp Dubai, and Saudi Electricity Company. Tariqs expertise and interests lie in trends spotting, content creation strategies, especially for the financial community, online marketing, and community building and engagement.
James Andrews, Founder, Social People

James founded Social People, a strategic communications agency that aids brands in navigating social/mobile and web spaces to build better connections with their audiences. Before launching Social People, Andrews was Vice President of Ketchum Digital. Andrews has been working in the area of interactive/new media and non-traditional marketing for 20 years holding senior titles at Urban Box Office, Columbia Records, Ecko Unlimited and Isobar/Carat. His experience with the worlds largest brands, personalities and organizations places him in a unique category of entrepreneurs that understand the convergence of new media, content, social activism and digital lifestyle.
Khalid Al-Khudair, Chief Operating Officer, Markets, KPMG in Saudi, Kuwait & Jordan
At KPMG Khalid has developed the marketing, communication, and PR departments, as well as working with CSR, event management, and branding. He previously worked at Deutsche Gulf Finance to establish their presence in the Saudi market. Khalid has also founded Glowork.net, a womens empowerment initiative and was a Young Global Shaper for Saudi Arabia at the World Economic Forum. Khalid writes for national and regional publications and authored the book Communicating Effectively in the Work Place. He has received numerous awards in recognition of his efforts and he also sits on several advisory boards around the world.
Walid Aradi, CEO, Tahseen Consulting

Walid co-founded Tahseen Consulting, a research-driven consulting company in the Arab World that focuses on providing clients in the public, private and social sectors with strategic advisory on issues related to entrepreneurship, education and labor force development. Previously he was an economic and social policy advisor to the UAE Ministry of Cabinet Affairs and Director of the strategy and legal functions of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation. Walid helped create several online Arabic content platforms including an Arabic library and a pan-Arab hub for researchers and he also devised the development strategy for the Arab Incubator Network.
20
21

Muhammad R. Arrabi, Chief of Staff and Senior Investment Associate, N2V
Muhammad is Chief of Staff and Senior Investment Associate at N2V, an Internet Holding Group with offices in the Middle East and the U.S. Prior to that, Muhammad worked 6 years at Microsoft - both as Program Manager in the U.S. and Technology Evangelist in Jordan. Muhammad worked with startups in the Silicon Valley in California for 5 years as Senior Developer - focusing on Electronic Design Automation and Online Marketing fields.

Cathleen Campbell, President & CEO, CRDF Global
Cathy Campbell joined CRDF Global in 2002 as vice president for programs, and has served as president since 2006, bringing three decades of international science and technology policy and program management experience including work and travel in Eurasia, the Middle East, East Asia and Latin America. Prior to CRDF, Campbell held a number of distinguished positions at the Department of Commerce, the U.S.-Israel Science and Technology Commission, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), and the US State Department. Campbell is a member of a number of advisory groups and boards associated with international science and technology collaboration.
Jim Bagnola, President, The Leadership Group USA

Jim Bagnola is an international speaker, an executive coach and a corporate educator with expertise in the fields of leadership and body-mind management, focusing on how thinking patterns affect health, happiness, success, and the capacity to lead; his personal mission has been the coaching of young entrepreneurs and students on six continents for the past 20 years as chair of the board of Leaders Romania and traveling globally with AIESEC, the largest student organization in the world. Bagnola practiced numerous professions before becoming a Certified Speaking Professional in 2002.
Adam Chilcote, Vice President of Strategy and Business Development, Mobile Doctors
Adam brings over fifteen years of experience cultivating business opportunities by aligning business needs with leading technology, workflow and financial solutions. His background includes creation of business development and delivery programs, along with setting sales, delivery and post-implementation standards. Adam specializes in creating value by connecting stakeholders in new ways. His award winning model of ecosystem selling, built on solving tangible business and financial issues across multiple market segments simultaneously, enables any organization Adam serves to accelerate growth and market penetration.
Jason Best, Co-founder and Principal, Crowdfund Capital Advisors

Jason is very active in US crowdfunding initiatives; he helped lead the U.S. fight to legalize equity-based crowdfunding, speaks globally on early stage finance and crowdfund investing, and authored Crowdfund Investing for Dummies. Within CCA, Jason works with clients from governments and NGOs to angel groups and PE/VC investment firms. He co-founded the Crowdfunding Professional Association and CrowdFunding Intermediary Regulatory Advocates, as well as the UC Berkeley Program for Innovation in Entrepreneurial and Social Finance and also serves as an Entrepreneur in Residence at the UC Berkeley Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology.
Kia Davis, Associate, Jigsaw Group, Contributor to Wamda

Kia Davis is an advisor, mentor, and operating executive in entrepreneurship, with a special interest in entrepreneurship ecosystems. Originally from the United States, Kia uses a diverse background in corporate strategy to increase value of startups by helping them with go-to-market plans, customer analysis, revenue growth, fundraising, and scalability. Kia works on global startup projects, and has conducted projects in countries including Ecuador, Kenya, the US, and the UK. Kia holds a BA in consumer psychology from Yale University (USA) and an MBA from Insead (France/Singapore).
Burak Buyukdemir, Lecturer, Istanbul Technical University; Founder, Etohum

Burak started his career in the banking industry, working for Interbank on internet banking and in their technology department. After that he coordinated the market leader ISP Veezy-go internet project, ecommerce and content sites for 3 years. Burak has produced technology and internet programs on national television and radio and he wrote a book about internet start-up stories and entrepreneurship. Since 2005 he has served as part-time lecturer at Istanbul Technical University on ecommerce and e-marketing. He is also founder of Etohum, a startup venture capital catalyzer.
Karim Djerboa, Director, Dubai Office of Endeavor Global

Drawing upon his extensive experiences abroad, Karim has served over 17 years in business development leadership positions, including successful tenures with high-profile companies like the Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company and international firms such as Cisco Systems. Karim directs the Dubai office of Endeavor, a global nonprofit that is leading the High-Impact Entrepreneurship movement. He has given numerous key note speeches and conducted several workshops on the topics of Business Development, Business Operations, Sales Management for SMBs, and CSR, and has also been interviewed for television programs for his expertise on entrepreneurship.
22
23

Ahmed El-Alfi, Founder & Chairman, Sawari Ventures
Sawari Ventures is a Cairo based VC that help transform Egyptian and MENA region economies through creation of high impact businesses. In 2011, Sawari created Flat6Labs, its own startup accelerator. During 2006 he served as the CEO of EFG-Hermes Private Equity. He has extensive experience in creating and nurturing early stage companies, as well as structuring international M&A transactions including several IPOs on the NASDAQ. He is or has been a member of the Board of Directors and Advisors of Waqf Endowment, Polytechnic School Pasadena, Claremont Graduate School of Religion, several for profit corporate boards and is also an avid collector of Islamic coins.

Yousef Hamza, Associate, Envestors MENA
Yousef is currently with Envestors, one of the few Business Angel Networks in the Middle East and part of a larger UK network. He has screened over 1,500 SMEs and has advised dozens of high-impact companies as a result. He is a member of several mentor networks and company boards, and a frequently requested speaker on entrepreneurship. He has also built strategic relationships with investors, organizing several fundraising events for entrepreneurs.
Rony El-Nashar, Founder & Managing Partner, SeedStartup

Rony is the Founder & Managing Partner of SeedStartup, an international startup accelerator and seed-stage venture capital fund that invests in web and mobile startups. Prior to launching SeedStartup, he headed the direct investments function at Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development where he provided funding for over 300 early-stage startups with a total portfolio value of over USD 117m. Rony has also launched a U.S. based internet startup which was acquired in 2007, after 5 years of growth and worked with Citrix Systems and later Shomiti Systems, a VC funded tech startup based in Silicon Valley.
Walid Hanna, Managing Partner, Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP)

Walid has been active in venture capital and in new venture development for 15 years. Prior to founding MEVP, Walid was the CEO of Dubai International Capitals venture arm, the Arab Business Angels Network (ABAN) and before that he was on the investment-management team of Abraaj Capital. Walid has also co-founded, invested in, and led several startups in the MENA region, spanning a range of industries including new media, technology, consumer finance, and hospitality. Walid is a member of Young Arab Leaders and Lebanese Business Angels, and a founding board member of the World Business Angels Association.
Scott Gillespie, Commercialization Partner, Technology to VC (T2VC)

Scott is currently the Founder and Managing Partner of the Jigsaw Group, an early stage investment and advisory group as well as the Commercialization Partner for T2VC, a team that manages a technology venture fund and architects innovation ecosystems in emerging markets. Scott shares his insights and experiences at conferences, seminars, networking events, angel groups, universities and non-profits where he lectures on innovation & entrepreneurship, strategic marketing and management, risk management and environment management. Scott also supports Yacht Aid Global (YAG), a nonprofit that transports education and medical supplies to regions struck by disaster using mega yachts.
Kamal Hassan, President and Chief Excitement Officer, Innovation 360

Kamal is a serial entrepreneur and a 20-year veteran of the business world with expertise in corporate strategy, innovation management, performance excellence and business development and growth. Kamal leverages his real-world experience to advise Innovation 360s enterprise-level and government clients on business and innovation transformation, innovation strategy to execution, and sustaining innovation gains. He is also an active supporter of regional SMEs and startups, helping them become more competitive using business model innovation, and contributing time and financial support to local educational and entrepreneurship programs.
Prashant K. (PK) Gulati, Founder, The Smart Start Fund; Trustee, The Indus Entrepreneurs Global (TiE)
PK is a serial entrepreneur, angel investor, mentor, idea accelerator, and writer with interests in innovation, startups, entrepreneurship, technology, mobility, wireless, intelligent buildings, online media and more. He considers himself an international citizen, living in Dubai and traveling often to India, the Middle East, the US, and other countries. PK has served in numerous leadership capacities including as CEO of Optimistix Ventures, Dubai, Chairman of GulfCom Group, UAE-India, Chairman of ProKraft Group, India, and Board Member of Fame Eduserve Pvt. Ltd.
B. Berrak Kutsoy, Advisor to the Chairman, Pegasus Airlines; Young Entrepreneurs Board Coordinator, TOBB (Union of Chambers and the Commodity Exchanges of Turkey)
Berrak started her career as Foreign Operations Assistant in 1999 at BNP-AK-Dresdner Bank of Turkey. After earning her MBA in London, she returned to Turkey in late 2002 and served in a number of positions including project manager at Denizbank A.S., export manager at UNSA Packaging, and export manager at Mitterteich Porcelain. Since May 2009 she has been advisor to the chairman of Pegasus Airlines as well as Young Entrepreneurs Board Coordinator of TOBB, a large Turkish NGO with 6,500 members from 81 provinces.
24
25

Barry Lee Cummings, Founder and Owner, Maximum Net Gain
Barry worked for 10 years in the Sales and Marketing field of IT business solutions before being made redundant in 2009. This opened the door to his entrepreneurial spirit and after a very steep learning curve, Barry founded Maximum Net Gain to offer his insight and experience to other companies to allow them to establish and optimize their web presence to truly dominate their chosen niche area. He has been in and out of the Middle East for 15 years and for the last 5 years has called Dubai his home.

Christos Mastoras - Director of Business Development, Yahoo! Middle East
Christos is the Director of Business Development at Yahoo! Maktoob, where he leads strategic partnerships, M&A and corporate ventures for the company across the MENA region. Prior to joining Yahoo!, Christos was an Engagement Manager in the Communications, Media & Technology practice of Booz & Company in Dubai. Previously, he held operating and managerial roles in high-tech ventures in the US and Europe, as the Commercial Director of Upstream and govWorks. Christos is very active in developing the digital media ecosystem in the region and is the co-founder of Mobile Mondays Dubai.
Evangelos Lianos, Vice President of Operations, Etisalat Telecom Group UAE

Evangelos has partnered with numerous companies throughout the years, advising them on investment opportunities. He has extensive executive-level experience working for companies in the TMT/ICT, Energy, Pharma, and Commodities sectors and serves on several advisory groups and boards. His passion is to support and mentor entrepreneurs, starts-ups and companies in growth-mode with special interest in new and very advanced technologies (internet and applications), in economics of technologies in different areas/sectors, also in advanced fossil & alternative energy ecosystem, water/food & basic resources production.
Leith Matthews, Founder, MAKE business hub; Founder, restronaut.me

Leith, an Australian expatriate, is the founder and managing director of Dubais first co-working and entrepreneurial hub that is playing a crucial role in the development of the startup community in Dubai, and has seen a number of success stories emerge already. MAKE business hub takes the best of both caf and office to serve the specific needs of the mobile worker, from the young entrepreneur in the early stages of a new project to the creative freelancer looking for an inspiring location to complete a job.
Eswar Mani, Investment Manager, Masdar Capital

Eswar has been a part of the finance industry for over ten years with a specialization in M&A, corporate finance, equity-linked structuring and private equity with deal experience in Europe, Middle East and Asia. He is currently an Investment Manager in Masdar Capital tasked with analyzing investment opportunities globally in a wide variety of industries related to clean technologies, in addition to raising funds from Japanese investors. Previously, Eswar consulted for the World Health Organization and was a Senior Associate in the equity-linked origination team at Credit Suisse.
Aman Merchant, Executive Chair & Co-Founder, HUB Dubai

Aman is a Dubai-based serial entrepreneur passionate about creating better futures through the power of ideas & disruptive thinking. With an entrepreneurial journey that began in 1991 even before he attended university, he brings nearly two decades of experience to the various ventures he is associated with, having launched eight & led three others in markets across the Middle East & Asia regions. In two of his most recent entrepreneurial pursuits, he has set up Future Leadership Academy (FLA) as the Chief Emagination Officer as well as 10x Futures as the Chief Disruptive Thinker.
Dr. Jonathan Margolis, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Science, Space and Health in the Department of States Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs
Dr. Margolis currently oversees policies and programs in the areas of international science & technology cooperation, space & advanced technologies, and international health and biodefense at the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs (OES), the latest position of his distinguished career within the State Department working in a number of divisions including: the Bureau of International Information Programs, the Office of the Director of Foreign Assistance, and the Office of Science and Technology Cooperation. He has also conducted courses at American University and the Foreign Service Institute on environmental policy, negotiations, and international organizations.
Klaus Miserra, Managing Director, KM Transformations

Klaus has over 25 years of experience in Consulting, Leadership, Coaching and Training throughout Europe, US, Far East, Africa and in the GCC region with a vast range of clients in every business sector. His industry experience includes IT, Airlines and Financial Services. Using experiences gained as an IBM Business Transformation Consultant, as Sales and Business Development Manager in the IT Industry and as Executive in the Financial Service industry, Klaus brings a depth of knowledge and experience when working with teams to align business strategy with business performance.
26
27

Ramez Mohamed, CEO, Flat6Labs
Flat6Labs is a startup accelerator based in Cairo and it is the first member of the Global Accelerator Network in Africa. Before managing Flat6Labs, Ramez was responsible for building and managing the mobile apps unit at Sarmady - a Vodafone Company. Prior to that, he initiated and led the product design team at eSpace, the leading software house in Alexandria. Ramez holds a B.Sc degree in Computer Engineering from Alexandria University.

Nader Sabry, Managing Director, McGill Consulting Group
Nader is a strategist advising governments and multi-national corporations on a wide range of strategic issues helping shape their future growth plans. He has successfully secured venture capital to start-up his own firms, helping create and build several high-growth companies. Nader has also advised governments on their national strategies and policies, economic development and reform programs. Previously he has served as head of innovation and thought-leadership at A.T. Kearney, director of strategy for the Dubai Foreign Investment Office, and chief strategist for the Dubai Economic Development Department.
Maria Pearson, Executive Director, Grow.ME

Maria has 20 years of training & development experience across the MENA region, in diverse sectors such as Aviation, Education, Construction, Health & Safety, Retail, Customer Service, Hospitality, and Oil & Gas. Her passion is for culture and how it influences everything we do. As a fan of Action Based Learning she has created real results that impact the bottom line for a broad range of clients. Grow.ME is a specialist learning & development consultancy that partners with clients to create learning, build skill and align attitudes to increase the effectiveness of employees in their business.
Imran Sayeed, Chief Technology Officer, NTT Data, Inc; Senior Lecturer, MIT Sloan School of Management; Global President, Organization of Pakistani Entrepreneur
Imran is the CTO for NTT Data, Inc. which is part of NTT Group, the largest telecommunications company in the world, where he helps define the technology strategy and direction for the organization. He had been leading Keane, large technology consulting organization, before it was acquired by NTT. Previously Imran founded netNumina and Open Environment. Sayeed is also part of the Entrepreneurship and Innovation faculty at the MIT Sloan School of Management and is the President of OPEN, an entrepreneurship and leadership organization with over 4000 executives and entrepreneurs worldwide.
Dr. Wissam Rabadi, Executive Director, iPARK Technology Incubator

Dr. Rabadi has over 15 years of experience in technology development, start-up support and early-stage investment. Prior to his current position, Dr. Rabadi held several positions including the Director of Entrepreneurship Program at the Arab Science and Technology Foundation (ASTF), Director of Research and Business Development at King Abdullah II Design and Development Bureau (KADDB), a Professor of Engineering at the American University in Dubai and a Strategic Business Development Manager at Texas Instruments Inc. in the US.
Dr. Christiane Schloderer, Co-Founder, MindTalk

Christiane has ten years of experience in multinational corporations, in Europe and in the Middle East. She was a member of a Middle East leadership team, worked in corporate finance, and as a turnaround manager to bring projects back to profitability. Christiane mentors, coaches and advises small businesses and start-up companies during the formation and growth phase. Christiane is also a co-founder of MindTalk (www.mindtalk.ae), an Emirati led initiative to provide virtual events and conferencing solutions for Emirati and later MENA women.
Dominique Liana Russo, CEO, M2 Strategy

Dominique Liana Russo has over 15 years of experience within the management consulting and financial services industries, working for firms such as Booz & Company and Merrill Lynch, advising businesses in the financial services, investment, insurance, and health care industries, as well as Middle Eastern government entities and charitable foundations. In addition, Dominique has gained years of operating experience from her passion, entrepreneurship, founding multiple ventures in the professional services and hospitality fields, with four currently active activities and a number of successful exits. Dominique has an MBA from the M.I.T. Sloan School of Management with a focus on Strategy and Entrepreneurship and a BA degree in EconomicsPhilosophy from Columbia University.
Christopher M. Schroeder, Advisor & Angel Investor, Polaris Venture Partners

Christopher is an internet entrepreneur and early stage investor. He co-founded and served as CEO of HealthCentral, a leading health and wellness interactive platform; previously he was the CEO of washingtonpost.newsweek interactive. Christopher supports start-ups in the U.S. and emerging markets, particularly in the Middle East, advising and investing in numerous ventures and sitting on the boards of the American University of Cairo School of Business, the Jordanian incubator Oasis500, and Middle East online entrepreneur network Wamda. His book on Arab start-ups titled, Upstarts: The Entrepreneurial Revolution Thats Remaking the Middle East, due out September 2013.
28
29

Faysal Sohail, Venture Capitalist, CMEA Capital
Faysal Sohail has over a decade of senior executive experience in engineering, marketing, business development and building startups, helping to secure venture capital funding for several key startups in both the energy and technology sectors. Before joining CMEA, Mr. Sohail helped to build three companies all of which became successful through IPO, merger or acquisition. Sohail is a member on the board of American Pakistan Foundation, an organization that engages the diaspora and the private sector and by building partnerships with key stakeholders in the U.S. and Pakistan.
GIST Advisory Group Members

Rashid Al Ballaa, CEO, National Net Ventures (N2V)
Rashid Al Ballaa is the founder of National Net Ventures (N2V), one of the largest internet holding companies in the MENA region which invests capital in web ventures and offers essential infrastructure services to help accelerate their growth; he is also a board member of National Technology Group (NTG), the regions largest ICT conglomerate and key provider of Financial Technology and Services. Before N2V, Al Ballaa spearheaded regional business development efforts of Mubasher, the first e-trading solution in the MENA region and founded Direct Broker for Financial Services (DBFS), the UAEs first STP e-brokerage company.
H.R.H. Prince Saud Bin Khalid Al-Faisal, Deputy Governor for Investment Affairs
Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority HRH Prince Saud K Al-Faisal heads the Investment Affairs department, which is responsible for managing the investment environment and competitiveness agenda of Saudi Arabia; he has been the President of the National Competitiveness Center since 2010 and he is on the board of: Saudi Industrial Property Authority (MODON), King Faisal Foundation, the Global Federation of Competitive Councils, and several other government commissions and regional investment councils. Previously he worked as a financial analyst with Saudi Aramco in the treasury, internal auditing, new business development, and related financial departments.
Novel Tjahyadi - Managing Partner, Gulfware

Novel is the Co-founder and Managing Director of Gulfware International, a Dubai-based Enterprise Mobility company with customers in 10 countries. His brainchildren include hardware-based SMS Encryption and Textello, a customer engagement solution using SMS, USSD and Twitter. With 15+ years of cross-disciplinary professional experiences in the Oil & Gas and IT industries, Novel has lived and worked in 8 countries across the Middle East, Asia, Europe and Australia. Networking, innovation and coaching young entrepreneurs are passions for Novel, who has served as a mentor and a judge for a number of prestigious startups and entrepreneurship events in the region.
Dr. Pat Dinneen, Managing Director, Siguler Guff & Company

Dr. Pat Dinneen has focused on emerging markets for most of her 36-year career with responsibilities in due diligence, selection and monitoring of funds and co-investments, performance benchmarking, research, and client advisory work. Before beginning her current position at Siguler Guff & Company in 2004, managing their $2 billion BRIC private equity investments, she worked with Cambridge Associates, British Telecommunications (BT), and Hughes Communication to expand their business ventures into emerging European and Asian markets.
Jeff Hoffman, Co-Founder & Former CEO, Priceline.com, Founder, ColorJar & GIST Advisory Group Member
Jeff Hoffman is an accomplished entrepreneur and innovator in the fields of Internet, e-commerce, and entertainment; since launching his first software company while still in university, Hoffman has founded, grown, and exited a series of successful startup companies throughout his career, including Enable Holdings, Black Sky Entertainment, and Priceline. Hoffman dedicates significant time to mentoring other entrepreneurs and is an accomplished professional and motivational speaker; he has presented in over 40 countries worldwide and can be seen on Fox News, CNN, NBC, and other major media outlets.
Ali smail Sabanc, Chairman and Director, Pegasus Airlines

Ali . Sabanc has built his successful career in international finance, joining Esas Holding Corporation in 2004, the same year advancing to his current position at Pegasus Airlines when it was purchased by Esas; he is also on the board of Esass partner companies Izair Corporation and Air Berlin as well as being a member of TYD, TSIAD, ISO and TAIK. Since 2009, Sabanc has also been a director of Air Berlin PLC & Co. Luftverkehrs KG and Air Berlin Plc, and of AFM Uluslararasi Film Produksiyon A..
Dr. Roger Wyse, Managing Director & General Partner, Burrill & Company
Dr. Roger Wyse has led the development of agriculture, nutraceuticals, health & wellness, and industrial biotechnology projects at Burrill & Company, a leading life sciences company managing $1 billion in venture capital. Dr. Wyse chairs or serves on the boards of 11 private companies and has over 30 years of experience as an internationally recognized scientist and dean at two major research universities; he speaks globally about biotechnology applications and policy in food, agricultural and bio-cleantech and the use of venture capital as a component of an open innovation strategy for emerging economies.
30
31
CRDF Global GIST Team

Natalia Pipia, Associate Program Director, Innovation & Entrepreneurship, CRDF Global
Natalia Pipia develops and oversees all Innovation Programs at CRDF Global, and she is responsible for developing outreach strategies to external partners and funders. She manages programs that promote strategic partnerships between technology entrepreneurs and businesses, build innovation ecosystems in countries where programs are being implemented, and facilitate U.S. market access. Pipia has 10 years of experience working in economic development and executed various initiatives in coordination with numerous associations, companies, technology transfer groups, governmental, and non-governmental organizations in Eurasia, Middle East, Africa, Central and Southeast Asia. www.linkedin.com/in/nataliapipia
U.S. Department of State GIST Team

Dr. Jeffrey Margolis, Foreign Affairs Officer, U.S. Department of State
Jeffrey Margolis serves at the U.S. Department of States lead for a number of technology commercialization programs that promote economic development through innovation and entrepreneurship, including the GIST Initiative. Dr. Margolis is an infectious disease specialist by training earning his Ph.D. from Stanford University, and has worked at Baxter Healthcare, Pfizer, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory before joining the Department of State in 2010. As founding VP of Development, he also helped start CollegeSpring an education NGO that provides support for underserved communities in California.
Ovidiu Bujorean, Manager, The GIST Initiative, Vice chairman MIT Enterprise Forum of Washington DC & Baltimore
Ovidiu manages and directs the GIST Initiative, an exciting initiative that is a partnership led by the State Department and CRDF Global that is building a unique entrepreneurial ecosystem in 44 countries across the Middle East, Central and South East Asia, and Africa.Previously, Mr. Bujorean was the Senior Associate at Rudyard Partners, a private equity firm focused on investing in consumer technologies. Mr. Bujorean serves as Chairman of the Board of Advisors of AIESEC DC. Mr. Bujorean founded LEADERS, an organization that impacted the lives of approximately 10000 young leaders and entrepreneurs in Romania and Southern-Eastern Europe and is a graduate of the MIT Sloan School of Management (MBA) and Harvards Kennedy School (MPA). www.linkedin.com/in/bujorean
Kathryn Pharr, Foreign Affairs Officer, U.S. Department of State

Kathryn Pharr works at the U.S. Department of States Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs (OES) in the Office of Science and Technology Cooperation where she supports programs that use science and technology to develop solutions to global and local challenges, including the GIST initiative. Pharrs previous experience includes providing on-the-ground support to USAIDs international development efforts in Egypt, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Indonesia, and using her chemistry background to help a startup sustainable natural care company obtain a worldwide exclusive patent from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Yuritzi Acosta, Associate Program Manager, GIST Initiative

Since April 2011, Yuritzi Acosta has worked for the GIST initiative on projects that empower entrepreneurs to commercialize their innovative ideas through the coordination of skill development activities and facilitation of access to relevant information. She boasts significant experience in the fields of education and advocacy, having coordinated a number of programs funded by NeighborWorks USA, USAID, the Florida Department of Education, and the Department of State and her personal experiences living in countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Europe give her a uniquely global vantage and adaptability. www.linkedin.com/in/yuritziacosta
Dr. Anna Quider, Foreign Affairs Officer, U.S. Department of State

Dr. Anna Quider is currently working on the GIST Initiative in the Office of Science and Technology Cooperation through an AAAS Fellowship; her interest in the intersection of science and business emerged while she was a 2011 APS/ AAAS Congressional Fellow in the Office of Rep. Russ Carnahan where she covered issues including education, science, telecommunications, and innovation. She completed her Ph.D. in Astronomy at the University of Cambridge as a Marshall Scholar and a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow.
Fidan Karimova, Associate Program Manager, GIST Initiative

Fidan Karimova joined GIST in October 2012 with her focus on media messaging and communications, but she has been on staff at CRDF Global for three years already, working on client relationship management, website development, and promotional materials. Fidan has traveled extensively including time spent living abroad in China, Italy, and Spain and working for a summer at the UN in Azerbaijan; she also brings her entrepreneurial spirit to GIST, having started her own painting business and dabbled in environmental fashion design in college. www.linkedin.com/pub/fidan-karimova/27/7a6/648
Cole Donovan, STEP, U.S. Department of State

Cole Donovan joined the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs in May 2012 working in the fields of global engagement and science policy while he pursues his masters degree at St. Johns College in Annapolis. Donovan previously worked as a creative at Apple, as a press intern for Maryland Governor Martin OMalley and some of his past projects include work on the communication satellite PCSAT-1 at the U.S. Naval Academy and social science research at the University of Maryland.
Amanda Gant, Associate Program Manager, GIST Initiative

Amanda Gant joined GIST in March 2012 where she works with international partners to organize startup boot camps and virtual mentorship programs. Amanda has long had the entrepreneurship bug, selling bracelets on the beach of her hometown since middle school, and it was this experience which inspired her to study international development, hoping to empower others to realize their dreams by starting their own businesses. Amanda supports her local community by organizing the annual Glover Park Day showcasing local area businesses and non-profits; she also leads service-oriented ecotourism trips to Nicaragua to promote travel and cultural exchange. www.linkedin.com/in/amandalynngant
32
33
Innovation and Entrepreneurship Programs

CRDF Global is a private, nongovernmental organization committed to promoting peace and prosperity through science and technology. Its innovation and entrepreneurshipfocused programs develop technology commercialization capabilities and sustaining networks abroad. Domestically, CRDF Global helps to create more viable investment, partnership and collaborative opportunities for American businesses and scientists who gain access to top international research and expertise.
BUILDING ENTREPRENEURIAL ECOSYSTEMS BUILDING ENTREPRENEURIAL ECOSYSTEMS Innovation and Entrepreneurship Programs
CRDF Globals Impact
CRDF GLOBALS IMPACT

Transforming Technology Transfer in Russia
CRDF Global has trained more than 300 technology transfer managers and assisted eight leading research universities with establishing technology transfer offices, which significantly contributed to the establishment of the local innovation ecosystem. The Programs include professional skills development seminars, workshops, academia and industry international conferences, and site visits to the United States for technology transfer professionals. Similar activities have strengthened the technology commercialization capabilities of more than 20 research universities of the Russian Federation.
Increasing Opportunities for Early-Stage Entrepreneurs

In the search for entrepreneurs with innovative technology ideas that can address a problem affecting their country or region, the Global Innovation through Science and Technology (GIST) Initiative has implemented the GISTech-I Competition, attracting close to 200 teams from the Middle East, Africa, and Central and South East Asia. Among them was CardioDiagnostics, a Lebanese startup founded by Ziad Sankari. Ziad lost his father at the age of 17 to a heart attack, which inspired him to create a medical device that monitors cardiac patients outside the hospital around the clock. This idea earned him a top prize of the competition awarded at the Second Global Entrepreneurship Summit on December 3-5, 2011 in Istanbul, Turkey. CardioDiagnostics has been given a strong start for a global success with $20,000 in seed funding, hands-on training with serial entrepreneurs and business mentors, global media exposure by MSNBC and Wired Magazine, an upcoming trip to Silicon Valley and participation in the MIT Global Startup Workshop.
Core Program Beliefs

Innovation. We believe strongly in the power of technology and innovation as drivers for sustainable growth.
into enterprises that generate value and create jobs. Our programs are designed with the individual in mind, as the nucleus and sole purpose of our mission. Strategic partnerships. We partner with like-minded local and regional organizations and corporations to leverage our resources and capabilities to build capacity for greater impact and avoid redundancy.
Accessing U.S. Markets

Since 2005, CRDF Global has implemented more than 20 U.S. travel programs for close to 90 participants representing dozens of universities, research institutes and technology companies from Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan and collaborated with such prominent U.S. organizations as MIT, Babson College, Garage Technology Ventures, Plug & Play Incubator, CleanTech Open and others. Based on the scalable and highly customizable format of the Innovation U.S. travel programs and existing cache of experience, best practices and partners, CRDF Global is able to design and implement results-oriented and cost-effective programs that perfectly fit the objectives and needs of a diverse range of partner organizations in emerging markets.
Entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs transform innovation
Innovation Ecosystem Development

CRDF Global believes in the bottom-up approach in building the local ecosystems and supports local entrepreneurship initiatives by identifying leaders, existing programs and the gaps in the system. Assisting with the formation of new technology commercialization offices and incubators Strategic planning Management training and educational outreach Comprehensive programs designed to enhance entrepreneurship culture Assisting with investment capital infrastructure development
Startup Support
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are the backbone of all economies and the source of growth and dynamism. CRDF Global offers a comprehensive suite of programs designed to nurture these early-stage companies. Identifying promising business opportunities, funders, partners and resources Designing and executing acceleration programs Comprehensive skill development training Access to sources of funding
Building Institutional Capacity

Since 2005, CRDF Global has partnered with the Enterprise Incubator Foundation (EIF), one of the most successful IT-focused technology business incubators and consulting companies in the Caucasus region, to implement its Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Program (STEP). With co-funding from the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Armenia, EIF implemented more than 15 STEP activities including the Business Partnership Grant (BPG) program, Innovation Forums, cluster seminars, business trainings for scientific community, legal and accounting seminars and matchmaking events. Through its partnership with CRDF Global, EIF strengthened communication channels between science and private sectors, gained broader access to the U.S. business network and scaled up its outreach and programs to non-IT sectorsbecoming one of the focal entrepreneurshipsupport organizations in Armenia and in the region.
Technology Acceleration
CRDF Global promotes business growth by supporting students, researchers and technology developers who believe that their product or service is viable commercially. Programs guide them through the process of commercialization by honing their skills and helping them to grow and realize their market potential. Identifying intellectual property with commercial potential in universities and corporations Hands-on training in technology transfer and intellectual property rights Online technology commercialization courses Technology valuation and market assessment
Ziad Sankari, CardioDiagnostics
Providing Access to Capital

The ecoFridge, a revolutionary refrigeration system used to transport perishable products, was developed by a team of Ukrainian scientists with a U.S. business partner who participated in a CRDF Global research and development grant competition. CRDF Global provided training and mentorship to the team to prepare them to effectively pitch the ecoFridge at a venture forum in Los Angeles, CA. As a result, the team obtained $2.2 million of follow-on capital investment to develop their business, and EcoFridge is now being adopted by companies around the world who appreciate its environmental benefits and cost efficiency.
1530 Wilson Blvd, 3rd Fl | Arlington, VA 22209 | www.crdfglobal.org
34
35
1530 Wilson Blvd, 3rd Fl | Arlington, VA 22209 | www.crdfglobal.org
GIST In the News

GIST Entrepreneurs Inspire Female Small Business Owner in Washington, DC
Mehrunisa Qayyum writes in her Small Business blog post Small Business Tips to Fight Holiday Stress, that she was encouraged by the GIST Transformers she met at a leadership seminar held at the World Bank in Washington, DC during the US Entrepreneurship Journey. Confronted by holiday pressures as the founder of a new Middle East affairs consultancy, she related to the insights of GIST speaker Jim Bagnola and GIST entrepreneurs in seeking innovative ways to successfully promote and build their start-ups in the crowded marketplace. Read more here: http://tiny.cc/duelow
GIST In the News

Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem: Ideas for Indonesia and Beyond
Startup Boot Camp Indonesia is a program run by the GIST (Global Innovation through Science and Technology) Initiative. GIST was established in 2010, with funding from the U.S. Department of State, to spur economic advancement through science- and technology-based innovation in countries across the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia. The idea behind GIST is that economically empowered people (aka entrepreneurs) provide the basis for political stability and economic growth. Read more at tiny.cc/GISTinX
Heart Attack Monitor Wins US Startup Contest for Middle East

Most Middle East entrepreneurs can only dream of a startup oasis such as Californias Silicon Valley that is filled with angel investors and venture capitalists. But a few entrepreneurs have begun receiving funding from a more unlikely source - the U.S. government. One of those entrepreneurs, Ziad Sankari, was just 17 when he lost his father to a heart attack. Today, the Lebanese engineer is building a startup based on a medical device that can monitor cardiac patients outside the hospital around the clock. His startup idea won a first place prize of $20,000 in the final rounds of the U.S.-sponsored GIST Tech-I Competition held in Istanbul last December. That funding from the U.S. State Department may help Sankari and his colleague, Najwa Sahmarani, develop a business plan for their Cardio Diagnostics startup. The competition also provided business mentoring by flying in experts from MIT and Silicon Valley. GISTech was our shortcut towards better connections and visibility and provided us, indeed, with some cash and unmatchable opportunities to visit Silicon Valley and possibly find a collaborator there, Sankari said. Read more at tiny.cc/msnGIST
Young entrepreneurs from NUST have made the nation proud.
Pakistans Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani extended his congratulations to entrepreneurs from Pakistans National University of Science and Technology. He commended the Sahara and Saltech teams for making it to the victory stand at an international business plan competition, titled Global Innovation through Science & Technology (GIST) -- Battle of Ideas World Cup 2011. Read more at tiny.cc/NUST
Meet the Coolest Next-Generation Science Entrepreneurs in MENA
At the second Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Istanbul recently, we at Wamda were tremendously inspired by the contestants in the Global Innovation through Science & Technology (GIST) Competition, who came from all over the Middle East and North Africa to showcase their carefully-honed scientific ideas that could transform our societies. Read more at tiny.cc/WAMDA
Indonesian Minister: We need four million entrepreneurs

They hosted a recent conference and business plan competition to inspire, educate and cajole young people into taking the plunge. Theres a real craving for this kind of knowledge here, according to Ovidiu Bujorean, program manager for Global Innovation through Science and Technology, the US-based agency that ran the event. Energy, drive, optimism the people Ive seen here are the ones who can take the Indonesian economy into the new global economy of knowledge, ideas and prosperity. [Disclosure: I spoke, judged and put together a panel discussion at this event, implemented by CRDF Global and funded by the US State Department.] Read more at tiny.cc/GISTinFORBES
Tech Startups in Africa

Scott Hartley describes his great experience lecturing, mentoring, and judging startups in Senegal and Algeria as a participant in two of the U.S. State Departments Global Innovation in Science and Technology (GIST)Initiative startup boot camps. Over four days, hundreds of West and North African technologists assembled, tweeted, pitched products, and exchanged LinkedIn invites, encouraging Hartley about the new emerging entrepreneurs from this regionhe hopes that the question what have you built, will become more important than where are you from? Read more at http://onforb.es/Qkcz4m
Road Trip! Founders Of YouTube, LinkedIn and Others Tackle Brain Drain in Malaysia
Malaysia has a very young population, 65% of which is under 35, as well as the need to create jobs quickly. Hwang says entrepreneurship can create alternatives to other activities. In many cases the government is responding to demand by the people, she says, like in Indonesia, where a grassroots movement began. The government recognized entrepreneurship to be a good cause to engage young talent and create alternatives to other activities.She observes that the U.S. government has been promoting entrepreneurship in Muslim-dominated countries with this goal. The GIST initiative is a partner of StartupMalaysia.org Read more at tiny.cc/BRAINDRAIN
36
37
GIST Mentor Highlight

Scott Hartley traveled to the GIST Boot Camps in Turkey, Senegal and Algeria Name: Scott Hartley Company Name: Mohr Davidow Ventures Short description: Mohr Davidow Ventures (MDV) is an early stage technology venture capital firm based on Sand Hill Road. Founded in 1983, MDV is investing out of its ninth fund, a $700 million USD fund. We are focused on partnering with brilliant entrepreneurs pursuing disruptive innovation in web, mobile, and digital health. Hometown: Palo Alto, California Website: www.forbes.com/sites/scotthartley Favorite hobbies/past-times: Running, triathlons, soccer, reading, traveling Languages you speak: Spanish, and a bit of Italian, French, and Hindi What inspired you to become an Investor? As someone who grew up surrounded by startup companies and innovation, I wanted to be in a position where I could work closely with entrepreneurs solving the biggest problems. I saw venture capital and investing as a way to partner with some of the best entrepreneurs and problem solvers in the world, and help them create. How did you get involved with mentorship? I have always mentored startups, for friends, classmates, portfolio companies, and for GIST. After working with 70 entrepreneurs in Africa for Google.org, and subsequently with entrepreneurs in Latin America as a graduate student, I became involved in mentorship with GIST, working in Africa and the Middle East. What is the best part about being a mentor? The best part about mentoring is seeing ideas from a high level, and working hands-on with an entrepreneur. As someone in venture capital, you get to see hundreds of ideas and learn what some of the best practices are for the highest probability of success, whether in business model, roll-out, or other strategies. Being able to add this value by working with entrepreneurs is personally rewarding, and hopefully helpful to the founder. How are the entrepreneurs that you have met at the GIST events different from the entrepreneurs in the US? One of my theses, and the topic about which I write for Forbes is that they are not different. Entrepreneurship and problem solving are global, not local phenomena. There are local inputs and relevancies that matter and add nuance, but at the core entrepreneurship is not an American phenomenon, it is a globally available method of problem solving that flourishes under certain circumstances, rules, freedoms, and incentives. What lessons do you believe entrepreneurs can get from GIST Startup Boot Camps? You can be an entrepreneur. People are willing to listen to your ideas, and give you feedback. If you listen to feedback and attempt to iteratively build a product that solves a large problem, you can create value. When youre not working on your business, what do you do to enjoy your life? I love to meet new people, travel, and counter stereotypes. I like to do athletics, and love playing beach soccer. Do you have any advice for young entrepreneurs? Dont be afraid to try. Trying something is better than waiting for perfection. But be open to input, feedback, advice, and to pivoting in new directions to solve the problems that people have. If people tell you something isnt a problem, dont invent a problem to fit your solution. Adapt to solve a problem that exists. What is the best part of being an entrepreneur? You get to be creative and solve big problems that help people and are accretive to society. Thats a net positive for the world, and likely has windfalls in the form of greater connectivity, empathy, and ultimately peace.
Calendar of Events
EVENT
GIST Startup Boot Camp Maghreb BPC* Entrepreneurship Workshop in UAE GIST Startup Boot Camp Turkey (jointly with MIT Global Startup Workshop) GIST Startup Boot Camp Indonesia GIST Startup Boot Camp Malaysia BPC Round III Award Ceremony GIST Startup Boot Camp West Africa GIST Startup Boot Camp Algeria GIST Tech Connect Pakistan GIST Transformers Journey Global Entrepreneurship Summit, GIST Tech-I Award Ceremony GIST Tech Connect - Pan Arab (TBC) Start of GIST Tech I Competition 2013 (TBC) GIST Startup Boot Camp Tunisia (TBC) GIST Startup Boot Camp Jordan (TBC) GIST Startup Boot Camp Three (TBC) GIST Startup Boot Camp Four (TBC) GIST Tech I 2013 Award Ceremony and Global Entrepreneurship Summit (TBC)
DATE
January 15-16, 2012 March 18-19, 2012 March 28-30, 2012 April 17-19, 2012 April 23-25, 2012 June 27-28, 2012 July 10-11, 2012 July 14-15, 2012 October 2, 2012 November 4-18, 2012 December 11-13 2012 2013 2013 2013 2013 2013 2013 2013
LOCATION
Marrakesh, Morocco Abu Dhabi, UAE Istanbul, Turkey Jakarta, Indonesia Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Dubai, UAE Dakar, Senegal Algiers, Algeria Washington, DC and 27 viewing sites around Pakistan Washington DC, Boston, San Francisco Dubai Washinton DC and viewing sites throughout Middle East Online TBD Amman, Jordan TBD TBD TBD
WEBSITE
http://bitly.com/PGPz2y http://bit.ly/RvoAnt http://bit.ly/Q6bOyO http://bitly.com/Q6bNLt http://bitly.com/IluZ1J http://bit.ly/M4NNoJ http://bit.ly/LEC2Gl http://bitly.com/YmZtqa http://bit.ly/RTKkNl http://bitly.com/QU7m37
38
39
Featured Events
GIST TECH CONNECT PAKISTAN
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
CoNX at the U.S. Department of State, Washington DC
GIST TECH-I COMPETITION FINALE - TURKEY

December 3-6, 2012
Istanbul - TURKEY
During The Global Entrepreneurship Summit hosted by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ERDOGAN
Resources
Entrepreneur and Business News
Entrepreneur www.entrepreneur.com News and resources for business, finance, technology, marketing, startups, etc. Inc.com www.inc.com News resource for business, finance, technology, leadership & management, sales, start-ups, etc. Red Herring www.redherring.com Technology news resources VentureBeat www.venturebeat.com News resource for technology and finances Afriqueitnews - www.afriqueitnews.com The leading West African website for tech startup news
Entrepreneurship, Values and Development: A Global Agenda December 3-6, 2011 Istanbul / Turkey
GIST Tech-I Competition Finale The Battle of Ideas
GIST Tech Connect PAKISTAN

Connecting Technology Entrepreneurs, Mentors & Investors Across Geographies Tuesday, October 2, 2012
CoNX at the U.S. Department of State, Washington DC from 9-10:30 EST / 18:00-19:30 Pakistan time
RSVP & More information: www.gistinitiative.org
GIST Tech-I Competition Finale The Battle of Ideas

Entrepreneurship, Values and Development: A Global Agenda December 3-6, 2011 Istanbul / Turkey
Non-Government Programs
http://gist.crdfglobal.org/about-gist/events/2012/08/31/gist-tech-connect-pakistan
implemented by CRDF Global
GIST TRANSFORMERS COME TO AMERICA

November 4-18, 2012
GIST STARTUP BOOT CAMP - WEST AFRICA

July 10-11, 2012
Dakar - SENEGAL
Entrepreneur Week - http://www.entrepreneurweek.net/ Entrepreneur Meetup - http://entrepreneur.meetup.com/ Global Community for Advancing Studies on Entrepreneurship - http://www.gcase.org/ 10,000 Women Initiative - http://www.goldmansachs.com/citizenship/10000women/about-the-program/index.htmlv Global Entrepreneurship Leadership Symposium - http://entrepreneurship.intel.com/community/gels-community Global Entrepreneurship Week - http://www.unleashingideas.org/ Microsoft BizSpark - http://www.mitef.org/ OPEC Fund for International Development - http://www.ofid.org/ Global Student Entrepreneur Awards - http://www.gsea.org/ YoungEntrepreneur.com - http://www.youngentrepreneur.com/about-us/
U.S. Government Programs

GIST Startup Boot Camp - West Africa
July 10-11, 2012 Dakar - SENEGAL
REGIONAL EVENT
A New Beginning: Entrepreneurship & Business Innovation http://anewbeginning.eonetwork.org/ Youth Livelihoods Alliance - http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2012/10/198490.htm TechGirls - http://exchanges.state.gov/youth/programs/techgirls.html TechWomen - http://www.techwomen.org/ The Global Entrepreneurship Program - http://www.state.gov/e/eb/cba/entrepreneurship/gep/index.htm Partners for a New Beginning - http://www.aspeninstitute.org/policy-work/new-beginning Global Womens Mentorship Program - http://exchanges.state.gov/citizens/professionals/fortunepartnership.html Center for Entrepreneurship and Executive Development - http://www.ceed-global.org/web/default.aspx The Entrepreneurship Toolkit - http://egateg.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/USAID_State%20Entrepreneurship%20Toolkit_0.pdf
Implemented by CRDF Global
Funded by the U.S. Department of State
40
41
GIST Partners
REGIONAL
Building local entrepreneurial ecosystems together JORDAN
Notes
TURKEY
INDONESIA
SENEGAL
MALAYSIA
BANGLADESH
PAKISTAN
EGYPT
TUNISIA
ALGERIA
NIGERIA
42
Notes
44
HOW TO GET INVOLVED WITH THE GIST INITIATIVE

JOIN THE GIST NETWORK
http://tiny.cc/JoinGIST
FOLLOW US TO RECEIVE NEWS ON NEW EVENTS

facebook.com/GISTinitiative @GISTinitiative tiny.cc/LinkedInGIST
GIST CRDF Global 1776 Wilson Blvd, 3rd Floor Arlington, VA 22209 www.crdfglobal.org; www.gistinitiative.org

2012 Gist Tech-I Brochure

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

2012 Gist Tech-I Brochure

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Entrepreneurs in Action

December 10-12, 2012 Dubai, UAE

Cathleen A. Campbell President and Chief Executive Officer CRDF Global

U.S. Department of State

Monday, December 10, 2012 Location: Theater 4

9:00-9:45 9:45-10:30 10:30-11:30 11:30-12:30 12:30-1:15 AFTERNOON 1:15-1:30

Monday, December 10, 2012 Location: Theater 4

Wednesday, December 12, 2012Location: Theater 4

Tuesday, December 11, 2012 Location: Theater 4

5:15-6:15 Open Session LOCATION: THEATRE 2

Wednesday, December 12, 2012 Location: Theater 4

Where Innovative Minds and Entrepreneurial Spirit Merge

CONNECT WITH GIST COMMUNITY

GIST Impact Highlights

Creating Innovation Ecosystems

Building a Global Innovation Community

Apply now at: www.gistinitiative.org

Join the GIST network today! facebook.com/gistinitiative

GIST Tech-I Competition Finalists

GIST Tech-I Competition Finalists

Mobile Augmented Reality Shop & Save

The Home Page

Khaled Shaheen, Co-founder & CEO

Hafiz Muhammad Ali, Founder and CEO

Joseph Ajao, Co-founder

GIST Tech-I Competition Finalists

GIST Tech-I Competition Finalists

Abedul-Azez Kasaji, CEO

Ahmed Saber, Co-founder

Mohammad Taha, Founder & CEO

GIST Tech-I Competition Finalists

GIST Tech-I Competition Finalists

Kai Feng Chew, Founder

Lana Haddad and Montaser Al-Majali, Co-founders

Khaled Wagdy, Co-founder

Motion Capture Systems

Laurent Liautaud, Founder

GIST Tech-I Competition Finalists

GIST Tech-I Competition Finalists

Natali Ardianto, Co-founder & Network Relationship Developer

Karim Ouda, Founder

Bassam Seif and Nadi Chemali, Co-founders

GIST Tech-I Competition Finalists

GIST Tech-I Competition Finalists

Ahmad Al-Mubiden, CEO

Zeeshan Ahmad, Co-founder

GIST Transformer Alumni

GIST Transformer Alumni

Hind Hobeika, Founder, CEO and Lead Engineer of Butterfleye

Muhammad Saimum Hossain, Managing Director, Greenovation Technologies

Ziad Sankari, CEO of CardioDiagnostics

Rumaisa Mohani, Founder, E-Aid

Speakers, Mentors & Judges

Speakers, Mentors & Judges

Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi, Columnist, The National (UAE)

Goulam-Raza Amarsy, CEO, Meydan IMAX theatre

Tariq Al Asiri, Co-founder at Argaam.com, Dubai

James Andrews, Founder, Social People

Walid Aradi, CEO, Tahseen Consulting

Speakers, Mentors & Judges

Speakers, Mentors & Judges

Jim Bagnola, President, The Leadership Group USA

Jason Best, Co-founder and Principal, Crowdfund Capital Advisors