Focus: Business
Ricardo Terán
Ricardo Terán is a serial entrepreneur who believes in the power of business to change the world. He helps accelerate the growth of small- and medium-sized companies, advising them on business-model strategy, partnership and business development, team building, and venture funding. He is currently Director of Business Development for Avanti Way, one of the fastest growing and most disruptive real estate ecosystems in Florida. Ricardo is also Co-Founder and Chairman of the Board of Agora Partnerships, a non-profit social enterprise that provides access to investment capital, strategic consulting, and a global community of support to entrepreneurs looking to solve the world’s most pressing social and environmental challenges. He also co-founded…
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Ashraf Swelam
Ashraf Swelam is an Egyptian senior diplomat with more than 25 years of experience. He currently serves as an Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs for African Organizations and Communities. He concurrently serves as the Personal Representative of the President of the Arab Republic of Egypt to the African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD), Chairman of AUDA-NEPAD Steering Committee, and Egypt's Focal Point to the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM).  Before assuming his current roles, Swelam served as the Ambassador of Egypt to the Republic of Uganda (2020-22), and as the Director General of the Cairo International Center for Conflict Resolution, Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding (CCCPA) (2013-2020). He is the Founder of…
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Imane Rtabi
Imane Rtabi is a Moroccan information technology entrepreneur and has been instrumental in leading and developing the country's information technology infrastructure through her company, Maghrebnet. Initially founded to bring internet access to homes and businesses in Morocco, Imane restructured Maghrebnet to focus on the integration of communications solutions within large infrastructures, including network installations, perimeter security, electricity and green energy, establishing the company as a major solutions integrator in Morocco while expanding to neighboring countries. Imane co-founded and co-chairs INC Group, an investment company involved in renewable energies, light steel construction, and electrical panel building and distribution. She formerly served as vice president of AFEM in charge of International Relations (The Association…
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Jacob Ritvo
Jacob Ritvo is Head of Consumer Product Marketing at Facebook. He was previously Education and Policy Industry Marketing Lead at Twitter, serving as Twitter's primary expert on the education and politics verticals and working to align its value proposition with customers in those industries. Before that he lead marketing and operations at 2ndLine.tv, a performing arts technology startup that was acquired. Earlier in his career, Jacob served as Congressman Pete Visclosky's Director of Communications, as Congresswoman Grace Napolitano's Press Secretary and Legislative Assistant, and in Senator Chuck Schumer's press office, as well as a variety of political campaigns. Jacob has a BA in sociology from Cornell and an MBA in…
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Fares Mabrouk
Fares Mabrouk is Country Director and Fund Manager for Yunus Social Business (YSB) in Tunisia. Founded and led by Professor Muhammad Yunus, YSB helps create social businesses around the world by setting up incubator funds and providing services to companies, governments, foundations, and NGOs. Previously, Fares founded a number of for-profit and nonprofit organizations in North Africa focused on mobile banking and oil logistics. He is a co-founder of and advisor to HuffingtonPost Maghreb, a French language edition of the Huffington Post covering Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco. Fares has degrees from Pierre and Marie Curie University, ENSAE Paris, and Havard's Kennedy School of Government.
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Chude Jideonwo
Chude Jideonwo is Co-Founder of the media group RED | For Africa, and human flourishing company Joy, Inc. Chude's work centers on storytelling from across disciplines, to inspire new, human-centered narratives about politics, markets, faith, identity, and society in Africa. He is also host of #WithChude, a TV and podcast network syndicated across Africa, telling stories that enable and strengthen the mind, the heart, and the spirit. He also hosts #ChudeExplains with documentaries focused on social justice, true crime and culture from the Black African perspective. RED, one of Africa’s leading media content and consulting companies, has worked on national elections and social movements in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Sierra Leone…
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Saleh Barakat
Saleh Barakat is an expert in contemporary Arab art and founded the Agial Art Gallery in 1991 and Saleh Barakat Gallery in 2016, both in Beirut. As the executive manager of the two galleries, he has participated in building major collections of modern and contemporary Arab art. With a strong business background with decades of experience in the art sector, Saleh is deeply engaged in developing a healthy market environment for creative expression in the Arab world. He has curated several pan-Arab exhibitions including the IXth Francophone Summit in Beirut, the 2003 World Bank Summit in Dubai, and "The Road to Peace: Painting in Times of War 1975-1991" at the…
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Mohamed Baba
Mohamed Baba is Chairman of the Board of Haag Wonen, an Amsterdam-based non-profit organization helping to provide safe and affordable housing for vulnerable populations in the city. He previously worked as the Director of Strategy and Policymaking for the city of Amsterdam where he focused on the nexus between multiculturalism and economic expansion in the greater city area. Prior to working for the city of Amsterdam, in 2000, Mohamed co-founded Mexit Intercultural Management, a consultancy working to overcome cultural barriers and promote successful integration of immigrant communities in Europe with a specialization in intercultural change management. From 2011 to 2015, Mohamed served as Vice-Chairman of the international supervisory board of Rutgers…
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Srikumar Misra
Sri Misra is a serial entrepreneur shaping the future of decentralized finance through aarnâ protocol, an AI-crypto platform creating the next generation web3 asset management stack to democratize access to the rapidly evolving world of digital assets. As the founder of Milk Mantra, India’s first VC-funded agri-food startup, Sri championed a new-age ethically sourced premium dairy products, gaining recognition as a practitioner of conscious capitalism. His innovative work has earned global media attention and features in top business school case studies. Previously a key member of the Tata Group’s elite TAS, Sri gained international experience in London and Johannesburg and spearheaded M&A in the consumer food & beverage sector. He…
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Sarah Toomey
Sarah Toomey is an engagement manager at the Camber Collective, a strategy consulting firm helping clients navigate complex change. She graduated from Yale College in 2011 and from Yale's School of Management in 2017. Prior to Yale she worked as a Strategy & Research Analyst at the One Acre Fund in Nairobi, Kenya and as a Strategy & Operations Consultant at Deloitte Consulting in Washington, D.C. At the One Acre Fund Sarah led internal consulting projects to improve the livelihoods of over 300,000 smallholder farmers in East and Southern Africa. Sarah previously worked at Deloitte where she was a fellow within the Emerging Markets practice and provided technical assistance to…
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