Tim Draper founded Draper Associates, DFJ and the Draper Venture Network, a global network of venture capital funds. Funded Coinbase, Baidu, Tesla, Skype, SpaceX, Twitch, Hotmail, Focus Media, Robinhood, Athenahealth, Box, Cruise Automation, Carta, Planet, PTC and 15 other unicorns from early/first rounds.

Fadi Ghandour is the Executive Chairman of Wamda Group, a platform that invests, nurtures and builds entrepreneurship eco-systems across the Middle East and North Africa. Mr. Ghandour is also the Founder of Aramex, one of the leading global logistics companies. Mr. Ghandour spent the first 30 years of his work life as CEO of Aramex, building the company, making it the leading emerging market logistics company, employing over 15,000 people working in over 250 offices in 90 countries. He took the company public twice, first on Nasdaq making it the first company from the Arab world to do so, then on Dubai Financial market. He continues to be active on the Aramex board. Mr. Ghandour is a serial entrepreneur. In his career, he was involved with founding, investing and launching tens of companies and non-profits, ranging from digital tech, hospitality, fitness & wellness. Passionate about impact and social entrepreneurship, Mr. Ghandour founded and chairs Ruwwad for Development, a private sector led community empowerment platform that helps marginalized communities, across several countries in the MENA region, overcome marginalization through activism, civic engagement, education and financial inclusion. Mr. Ghandour also served and continues to serve on several global and regional boards of companies, education institutions and non-profits.

This year alone, she’s reached over 2.5 million people with her mission to reconnect our workplaces and world through empathy. Her charming, and utterly contagious, influence is growing daily with an organic audience that now reaches over 60,000 people. Currently ranked the #1 Workplace Wellbeing Leader in Malaysia and the #12 Female Influencer on LinkedIn, in the country, her impact on the world’s largest brands is rising – genuinely, consistently and ethically. Mimi is the world’s leading Empathy Advocate & Influencer, a full-time Keynote Speaker, and an internationally Bestselling Author of 3 books. She’s recently shared stages with Bill Gates, Steve Wozniak, and Steven Bartlett, and appeared on the BBC live to 85 million viewers as the leading voice in Listening-Led Leadership and the $9 trillion empathy gap. As one client put it, “Mimi is entirely in a league of her own.”

Wen Sang is the Co-Founder and COO of Genspark.ai, a Palo Alto-based AI company building agents for knowledge workers, which reached $50M in ARR within 5 months of launching, and became a unicorn within 7 months of launching. Previously, he was the founder and CEO of Smarking Inc., a Y Combinator and Khosla Ventures-backed SaaS company for parking analytics, which was acquired by JustPark in 2022. Wen holds a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from MIT and has received industry recognition for both technical innovation and entrepreneurial leadership.

“Noor is the Founder and Managing Partner of Global Ventures, a leading venture capital firm based in the UAE, investing across the Middle East and Africa (currently deploying from Fund III). Prior to launching Global Ventures in 2018, Noor was the Chief Investment Officer at The Dubai Future Foundation. Before her tenure at DFF, she successfully scaled two companies. The first was Depa, initially her family business and ultimately the world’s largest interior company, which she listed on the LSE and NASDAQ in April 2008 in a billion-dollar IPO. The second company was ZenYoga, the region’s first yoga studio, which became the largest yoga and wellness chain, and which she exited to a PE firm in 2014. Noor is frequently featured as an authoritative voice on venture capital in the region by Bloomberg, CNN, and Forbes. She has appeared on the covers of Entrepreneur ME and Womenpreneur ME and has been cited by Forbes as one of the “”World’s Top 50 Women in Tech”” and “The Middle East’s Top Venture Capitalists.” She has also been recognized by Arabian Business as one of the “”Top 100 Most Influential Arab Women”” and is a judge on Shark Tank Dubai. She is an MIT Sloan 2005 alumni, Aspen Fellow, Kauffman Fellow and YGL. Noor is the author of the book, ‘Coming of Age: How Technology and Entrepreneurship are Changing the Face of MENA’, and is a strong advocate for founders in the region, helping them scale their businesses into global success stories.”

Dany Farha is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of BECO Capital. Founded in 2012, BECO Capital is a Gulf-focused institutional venture capital firm, managing +$820M in AUM across five funds. The firm is a full-stack venture platform investing from inception to growth and has two $1B+ exits in its track record. With 30 years of experience in investing and entrepreneurship, Dany has successfully founded and exited several ventures. Since establishing BECO, he has led nearly 30 investments, including early backing of Kitopi, Property Finder, and Careem, supporting them on their journeys to becoming landmarks in the regional VC ecosystem.

-What you see: – Independant Board Member – Serial Investor – Restructuring Architect – Transformation Advisor The other Side of the moon – Storyteller – Knowledge seeker – Author: The future is young, Learning in the times of AI The Journey in Milestones – 2020 to date: Founder & Chairman, Fikratech (AI Everywhere) – 2006 to 2019: Founding CEO du, (Add life to Life) – 1998 to 2005: Founding CEO Mobinil, (A Mobile in the Hand of Everyone) – 1994 to 1997: President Questel Orbit Inc, (The birth of the Internet) – 1984 to 1994: Questel (Subsidiary of France Telecom), The Minitel, (The Ancestor of the Internet)

Sam Huber is the Global President of Enterprise and CEO of MENA at Napster. Previously, Sam was the CEO of Landvault, a metaverse infrastructure company acquired by Infinite Reality for $450m. Sam founded the company in 2018 under the name Admix, a gaming company pioneering product placement technology in games, which raised $40m and rebranded to Landvault in 2022. An early Bitcoin investor since 2013 and one of the first land owners in the metaverse in 2017, he has since invested in over 20 companies, mainly in Web3. Before this, Sam’s first venture was an indie game studio. In a previous life, he was an engine strategy engineer for Mercedes Formula One, responsible for Lewis Hamilton engine strategy following a degree in Physics and Engineering.

Parthi Duraisamy, Co-Founder and CEO at Alaan, brings 16 years of experience in banking and payments. With an engineering background, an MBA from Dartmouth, and lead roles at McKinsey, Barclays, and Airbus, he has global expertise in large scale transformation, mergers and banking.

Leila Serhan currently serves as Senior Vice President and Group Country Manager for the North Africa, Levant and Pakistan (NALP) region – a region which serves 15 countries from five regional offices. In this role, Leila and her team are focused on driving Visa’s business growth in the region with key clients and partners from financial institutions, partners, and government in support of Visa’s mission to help individuals, businesses, and economies to thrive. In support of national digitization agendas, Leila and her team are committed to making Visa a partner of choice, while unlocking growth opportunities for new and existing clients and partners across the NALP region. Leila brings more than two decades experience of leadership positions, including 20 years gained at Microsoft prior to joining Visa

“Rawan Baddour is the Co-Founder of Zest, a digital transactional infrastructure company streamlining private market execution through integrated SPV, escrow, and licensed distribution modules. She oversees Zest’s compliance, governance, and risk frameworks. These are central to Zest’s differentiation and ensure that every transaction on the platform meets global regulatory standards and regional best practice. Rawan brings more than 12 years of experience in strategic advisory, banking, and finance. She previously led a Dubai based investment banking subsidiary and invested across both public and private markets, building deep expertise in regulatory structuring, operational oversight, and investor governance. At Zest, Rawan is focused on creating trusted and transparent transactional infrastructure that removes friction, increases confidence, and ensures institutional-grade integrity across alternative asset classes in emerging markets.”

Kate King is an International Executive Coach, Author, and Founder of The Team Coach. With over 20,000 hours of coaching experience, she has worked with CEOs and leadership teams across the globe to elevate performance, culture, and consciousness. Her clients include LVMH, Aldar, Al Tayer, Jumeirah, Kempinski and Hugo Boss. Her upcoming book, Highest You: A Coaching Playbook for Leading with Soul in the Age of AI, explores how leaders can upgrade their humanity in an artificially intelligent world. Known for her blend of strategic insight and spiritual depth, Kate guides leaders to connect with their authentic power and lead from purpose, presence, and intuition – what she calls soul-led leadership.

Melissa C. Guzy is a Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Arbor Ventures. Melissa is a member of the Board of Directors of the Hong Kong and the Singapore Venture Capital Associations and a former member of the advisory counsel to the Hong Kong SFC on Innovation. She serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of Jackson Labs. Melissa’s expertise in Fintech has earned her recognition as a Top 100 Influencer in Fintech (NxBnk), AlwaysOn Fintech Power Player, as well as One of the Most Influential Women in Tech in Asia. Her current board seats include Paidy, TrueAccord, InCountry, Fundbox, Tabby, EverC and Planck Re.

“Armineh is a Managing Director at Partners for Growth, serving as Head of Europe, Middle East, and Africa and Co-Head of Global Fintech. She leads the firm’s efforts in sourcing and structuring new transactions and working closely with portfolio companies across EMEA. Armineh launched PFG’s strategy in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and, under her leadership, PFG closed its first deal in the region in 2020 and has since become one of the most active structured credit lenders to leading technology and fintech companies in the region. Armineh joined PFG in 2017, bringing more than two decades of experience across technology operations and investment. Prior to PFG, she spent 12 years as a CEO, COO, and Co-Founder of several global technology companies headquartered in the Bay Area. These include Solinea, a consulting firm serving Fortune 1000 enterprises; Treq Labs, which she helped lead through a successful acquisition by Sonus Networks; and Vello Systems, where she managed global finance and operations. She also has prior investment experience from her earlier career in growth equity. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Columbia University and is a board member of Lamsa, a leading EdTech company in Saudi Arabia and the UAE. She also serves as an advisor to funds, startups, and women in technology.”

Natasha Hannoun is a Founding Partner at Tenami Capital, an innovative alternative asset manager backing entrepreneurs and SMEs in the GCC. She was formerly Head of Debt and Venture Debt at Shuaa Capital in Abu Dhabi, where she structured one of the region’s earliest venture debt deals and sat on the Board of Pure Harvest Smart Farms. With over a decade of experience in private equity and debt, Natasha has led $7B+ in financings across asset classes, including last mile and mezzanine transactions. She began her career in Corporate Finance and Debt Advisory at Deloitte in Dubai and holds an MSc in Physics and Mathematics from the University of Bristol.

Sara Rona is a managing director of Global Gateway for Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and is the head of UK/Europe and Middle East North Africa for the bank. Sara manages an expansive global portfolio of tech startups and venture capital firms who are expanding stateside and need cross-border banking services as they scale. Additionally, Sara brings 17 years of global experience and strives to provide value beyond banking by helping clients with their international strategy and being a bridge into the US. Sara joined SVB in 2018 and has been in finance for the last 15 years at a variety of different financial institutions including HSBC, IFC-World Bank and Deutsche Bank. She is half French and half Afghan, has an MBA in international business and has spent time living in Dubai, Bangkok, Paris, London, and the US with volunteer work in Afghanistan and Kenya.

Managing Director at Bloofusion. 20+ yrs in GTM strategy and client acquisition. Investor/partner connecting founders + funders. I scale startups with smart marketing that drives growth and funding.

Andrew is driving Blockdaemon’s global growth strategy as Chief Revenue Officer (CRO). In this role, he is responsible for driving and aligning all revenue generating processes across the organization. Previously, Andrew was VP and GM at APAC, where he has successfully led regional growth, forged strategic partnerships, and expanded market presence in the Asia Pacific Region. Prior to joining Blockdaemon, Andrew has held leadership roles in Amazon Web Services (AWS), Cisco Systems and Singtel/Optus. In AWS, Andrew built out the teams focussed on Startups, Digital Natives, Crypto/Fintech and AWS’s partnerships with the Venture Capital and Private Equity community. In Cisco, Andrew led sales and Business Development for several acquisitions and internally built software solutions, most notably the GTM in APAC for an acquisition, tail-f systems. In Optus Business, Andrew led and owned the P&L for the Data Centre and Cloud Practice.

Anil Joshi is the Founder and Managing Partner at Unicorn India Ventures, a leading Venture Capital Fund focusing on early-stage investments in tech companies. With over two decades of experience in the field, Anil pioneered angel investments in India as the head of operations and President at Mumbai Angels, one of the most reputable and prolific Angel Investment forums in India. As an early mover in early 2000 in this segment, Anil was investing in budding companies even before venture investment had taken any formal shape in India. Within the start-up ecosystem, Anil has been at the helm of over 100 venture-financing deals. He serves on the board of several companies in the field of Fintech, Robotic, Meditech, IOT, Bigdata, SaaS and is involved with multiple incubation centres as a board member and mentor in India as well as internationally. Additionally, he also advices the government and industry bodies on start-ups regarding policy. Young entrepreneurs draw upon his vast experience for guidance and strategic direction for their own start-ups.

Asad ur Rehman is a versatile board qualified global business and transformation leader with a career spanning multinational corporations, advertising agencies, and listed media networks across the Middle East, South Asia, and Europe. He brings a distinctive blend of enterprise discipline, digital and data fluency, commercial acumen, and organisational transformation capability, accumulated over two decades. Most recently, Asad served as CEO-Designate of HUM Network Ltd, one of South Asia’s largest publicly listed media groups. In this role, he led a full leadership agenda to reposition the organisation for long-term growth. His mandate encompassed corporate governance, operating model redesign, P&L management whilst driving digital revenue diversification, digital transformation and modernisation of IP/Content frameworks. He drove strategic changes across the backbone such as cloud migration, AI-enabled production workflows, and agentic AI led transformation. His leadership spanned entertainment, news, sports, events and international distribution operations. Prior to HUM Network, Asad founded So&So Partnerships, a Dubai-based advisory working with start-ups, government entities, and corporates on digital product strategy, organisational transformation, emerging technology adoption, and AI governance. Asad’s majority of the career includes 20 years of senior global and regional leadership roles at Unilever and WPP’s GroupM. At Unilever, he served as a regional board member for MENA, Turkey, and Russia, where he led digital and media transformation across 23 markets, strengthened e-commerce and analytics capabilities, and built fully integrated digital operating models that were later adopted globally. His work accelerated growth, delivered operational efficiencies, and reshaped how brands engaged consumers across a diverse set of markets. At GroupM, he held leadership roles in Pakistan, Vietnam, and the global London headquarters, where he helped establish and scale agency operations, manage complex multinational portfolios, and contributed to GroupM’s work across a plethora of markets on client relationships and business growth. These roles grounded him in market-building, operational leadership, commercial growth, and client-side strategic transformation. Asad has consistently been recognised for his industry leadership. He served as Founding Chair of The Marketing Society Middle East and was awarded its UK Fellowship, in addition to being named Effie MENA Marketer of the Year. He is a qualified Non-Executive Director (Financial Times Diploma) and a qualified AI Governance Practitioner. Beyond the corporate arena, Asad serves on the Board of the GEMS Jumeirah School System and advises multiple start-ups in communication technology and AI.

Amit Grover is the Founder and Managing Partner of Grover & Company and CEO at Grover Impact Ventures, where he actively backs intangible asset classes, particularly intellectual property (IP), with over 27 years of corporate and entrepreneurial experience spanning marketing, management consulting, and venture capital, including senior positions at ITC Ltd, Lavazza Coffee, and Pernod Ricard. Amit offers deep industry expertise and holds a full-time MBA from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Amit’s leadership extends to serving as a board member for C3 Companies Creating Change, a steering committee member for in5 Tech in the UAE, a mentor at the Founder Institute in the UAE, and as the former Chairman of ANZIBC (Australia, New Zealand, India Business Chambers) in New Zealand.

Dr. Abdul Malik Al Jaber is a Palestinian-Jordanian business leader and investor known for leading Paltel, Zain Jordan, and founding MENA Apps and MEPS while driving digital growth in the region.”

Arvind Ravishunkar is the Founder and CEO of Lenz AI Innovation Studio, a Silicon Valley–based venture studio pioneering Agentic AI systems for strategy and innovation. Through its flagship platform ASTRA, Lenz is building intelligent “strategy twins” that help enterprises move from insight to execution with unprecedented speed and clarity. Before founding Lenz, Arvind spent over 15 years driving innovation and growth strategies for global enterprises. At Wipro, he built and led the Emerging Technologies Think Tank, the GenAI Startup Accelerator, and multiple innovation programs that bridged frontier technologies with real-world business impact. Educated at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, Arvind combines human-centered design, systems thinking, and data-driven strategy in his work. His current focus is on bridging innovation ecosystems across Silicon Valley, Dubai, and Bangalore—creating a global corridor where AI, design, and entrepreneurship intersect to shape the next generation of business and technology.

Serial entrepreneur who’s passion about building amazing products, founded Drahim, Saudi’s first YC Company, which now is top growing robo-advisory in the region.

Nuha Hashem is the co-founder of Cozmo AI, a VC- and YC–backed startup building AI workforces for regulated sectors like banking and insurance. She leads product and engineering, helping enterprises automate complex voice operations with real-time, compliant AI agents. After two years of pursuing her PhD in the US, she dropped out to build her startup full time.

Manar Alkassar is a German-Syrian serial entrepreneur with a strong track record of building and scaling ventures across Europe and the broader MENA region. He is the Co-Founder of multiple companies including Kaso AI, Helpling, and qlub – each addressing unique challenges in B2B Supply Chain, F&B, and home services. An alum of Y Combinator, Manar is also a former Managing Director at Rocket Internet, where he helped launch and expand ventures across global markets. He is passionate about digitizing traditional industries, scaling sustainable business models, and investing in early-stage startups. Top 3 awards/achievements: Y Combinator Founder. Ex-Rocket Internet MD. Co-founder Kaso, Helpling, qlub.

Basil Moftah, Key Capital MP, invests in 70+ ventures ($200M+) across MENA, Europe, and Asia. Formerly co-founder of Reuters VC and President of $1B IP & Science unit. Harvard MBA

Zubair writes about technology and internet trends in emerging markets. He runs Termsheet, a leading newsletter on startups and venture capital in the Middle East and North Africa. Before this, he built MENAbytes, one of the region’s most widely read platforms on tech and startups, and founded Flare, a video-first ecommerce platform for Pakistan.

Mohammad is a Corporate Venture Capitalist and innovation strategist specializing in open innovation. He drives organizational growth by connecting direct venture investments with structured startup–corporate partnerships, enabling institutions to validate, co-build, and scale solutions with early-stage founders. His experience as a former founder gives him a practical lens on what it takes to build from zero, shaping his approach to value creation inside large organizations. Mohammad holds a master’s degree in Global Strategy and Innovation Management from the University of Leeds and is an alumnus of the Kelley School of Business. He has also contributed to regional and global ecosystems and has been recognized by the World Economic Forum, Stanford University, Dubai Expo and other leading platforms.

Khaled Talhouni is the Managing Partner and co-founder of Nuwa Capital, a VC firm investing in early-stage startups across the MENAPT region, based in Dubai and Riyadh. He has managed over 150 early-stage deals with a total AUM exceeding $300M and has successfully exited 15+. With deep expertise in venture investing and portfolio management, he plays a key role in shaping the region’s startup ecosystem.

Murat is a seasoned professional specializing in open innovation programs and startup ecosystem development. With a background in engineering, an MBA in Strategic Marketing & Brand Management, and expertise in Experiential Design Strategy, he brings a unique combination of technical depth and strategic insight to both startups and corporates. Beyond his corporate role, Murat is an active community builder and trainer, focusing on behavioral science, communication strategy, and innovation methods. His mission is to bridge startups and corporates through meaningful programs that create real-world impact in the aviation industry and beyond.””

MP Oliveira is the SVP, Venture Investments at NeoVentures, Mashreq’s corporate venture capital fund, and Chairwoman of AI Salon, a global community of AI professionals. She has held senior roles at Mastercard, EY, and Experian, securing large clients, launching products, and expanding into new markets. MP established innovation hubs in LATAM, APAC, and MENA, and managed M&A deals worth over $1B. As an entrepreneur, she co-founded two Silicon Valley startups and graduated from 500 Startups and Plug & Play accelerators. Her expertise spans financial services, professional services, and payments, with a global reach across Latin America, US, APAC, and MENA.

Miku Jha is a distinguished AI technologist and executive leader known for translating breakthrough innovations into enterprise-scale outcomes. At ServiceNow, she founded and leads the Applied AI Forward-Deployed Engineering (FDE) organization — where AI meets execution. Her team bridges the gap from proof-of-concept to production, driving co-innovation on Agentic AI solutions that deliver measurable business impact and shape ServiceNow’s AI-native product flywheel. Previously at Google Cloud, Miku led Global AI/ML Partner Engineering, pioneering the Agent2Agent (A2A) interoperability protocol and launching an AI Agent Marketplace with 1,000+ solutions. A serial entrepreneur and Forbes honoree, she has led three successful startup exits and continues to mentor emerging AI talent and women in STEM.

EMEA advisor in TMT. Former MBC GROUP spokesperson. 20+ years in Media & StratComm. Known for strategic insight and quiet, discreet, under-the-radar counsel.

Tamara Pupic holds the position of Managing Editor of Entrepreneur Middle East magazine, a division of Dubai-based BNC Publishing officially licensed by the US-based publication Entrepreneur. She is a seasoned journalist and legal expert with a deep passion for exploring the intersection between law, technology, and finance. With a master’s degree in international law and economics (M.I.L.E.) from the World Trade Institute in Bern (Switzerland) and more than a decade’s long experience in business journalism in the UAE, Tamara Pupic focuses on incisive analysis and engaging storytelling around complex regulatory issues, business growth, and emerging technologies.

Grace Gong is the founder of Smart Venture Media and the host of two well-known VC podcasts: Smart Venture Podcast (SVPpro.com) and Venture with Grace, a daily show. She is an angel investor in the AI sector, a super angel & venture scout for Alumni Ventures, Advisor at Berkeley SkyDeck.

Racha Ghamlouch is co-founder and GM of Digital Digest (DD), a strategic communications agency serving technology companies and innovation-focused organizations across the MENA/GCC region. With 16 years of experience in market research, program development, and innovation consulting, Racha specializes in brand positioning, media relations, and integrated communication strategy. She previously held senior roles at ArabNet and BECO Capital, where she developed deep expertise in the regional digital economy landscape. The Digital Digest combines agency services with a curated news aggregator and newsletter covering the region’s digital economy.

John R. Woodward is head of the School of Mathematics and Computer Science at Heriot Watt University, Dubai. His expertise in AI and machine learning and optimization techniques. He holds a BSc in Theoretical Physics, MSc in Cognitive Science, and a PhD in Artificial Intelligence. He has worked on application domains including combinatorial optimization problems, airport scheduling, and automatically fixing software bugs. He regularly contributes to The Conversation, BBC, podcasts & other public engagement activities. He has 100+ peer-reviewed publications and has given over 100 presentations at international conferences and as an invited speaker at international universities. He has worked on four continents and has been employed in industrial, military, educational and academic settings, by organizations as diverse as EDS, CERN and RAF and 5 UK Universities.

Based in Dubai, Dana Alhanbali is a strategist, storyteller, and speaker whose work lives at the intersection of business, culture, and creativity. She is the founder of Bark & Berg, a story-led studio developing strategy and original IP for film, television, and podcasts. A serial entrepreneur and award-winning creative, Dana’s career spans global brand building, media, and storytelling—earning recognition from Cannes Lions and shaping some of the region’s most resonant narratives. As the host of Something to Consider, winner of the Best Podcast for Social Change, she continues to explore the ideas, people, and conversations shaping our time.

Dr. Shadab Khan is a Senior Scientist at ADIA Lab, where he leads the computational sciences and AI research in Health Science. Previously, he was the SVP of AI and Applied Sciences at M42, where his team of scientists and engineers developed AI models such as Med42 (LLM), Gene42 (Genomics LLM), AIRIS-TB (Imaging AI), amonth others. Before M42, he was a Healthcare AI researcher at Inception (G42) in UAE. At Inception, Dr. Khan was a founding faculty member at the Mohamed Bin Zayed University of AI. Prior to moving to UAE, Dr. Khan was a Fellow in Radiology at Harvard Med and Boston Children’s Hospital. He holds a PhD in Engineering Sciences from Dartmouth College, and Master’s in Public Health (MPH) from Harvard University.