Mentors
Huma Abidi is a Senior Director of AI Software Products & Engineering at Intel, where she leads a globally diverse team of engineers and technologists responsible for delivering world class products that enable customers to create AI solutions. Huma joined Intel as Software Engineer and has since worked in a variety of Engineering, Validation, and Management roles in the area of Compilers, Binary translation, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Deep Learning. Twice she has received the Intel Achievement Award - Intel's highest honor and thrice awarded with the Intel Software Quality award, for delivering quality SW. She is passionate about women’s education, supporting several organizations around the world for this cause, she was nominated for VentureBeat 2020 and 2019 (finalist) Women in AI award in Mentorship, She was listed as one of the 4 women shaping Intel’s AI business by the Silicon Valley Business Journal Category. Huma holds a BS in pre-med and chemistry and an MS in computer science from the University of Massachusetts. She has been delivering keynotes at several major conferences, recently at the O'Reilly AI conference in San Francisco, MIT PAN Arab conference in Lebanon and author of several technical and women in tech blogs. She has been interviewed by numerous widely popular podcast hosts and major publications throughout the world.
Matineh Eybpoosh is the CEO and co-founder of WattLearn, which is an AI software company for optimal dispatch of grid batteries. She led the company towards a successful acquisition in 2018 by an energy private equity firm, where Matineh and her team are now leading the deployment of WattLearn’s software to a fleet of utility-scale batteries. She has over 10 years of experience and leadership in building solutions to improve reliability, efficiency, and accessibility of clean energy. Before WattLearn, Dr. Eybpoosh was the Director of Data Science at kWantera, a Pittsburgh-based startup, where she developed and commercialized several market intelligence products for wholesale electricity price forecasting. She completed her Ph.D. at Carnegie Mellon University in CEE, where she developed machine-learning methods for proactive diagnosis of energy systems.
Mitra is a Partner at the South Park Commons Fund, an early stage venture fund based in San Francisco. She makes investments in pre-seed and seed stage companies with a focus on software startups. She joined SPC from Nava Public Benefit Corporation, the software company responsible for the improved healthcare.gov insurance marketplace. At Nava, Mitra spearheaded business development efforts and won contracts to build new VA benefit appeals and Medicare incentive payments systems. Prior to Nava, she led revenue analytics and international expansion efforts at Dropbox. Mitra began her career at Bain as a management consultant and is on the board of LeanMarket. She graduated from MIT.
Ahva Sadeghi is a passionate social entrepreneur and the Co-Founder and CEO of Symba. Symba is an all-female founded tech startup focused on designing the future of work. Using data-driven insights, Symba helps companies manage their contingent workforce. Symba has received multiple awards, funded by leading accelerators, and backed by prestigious organizations including the World Bank and US Department of State.
Prior to launching Symba, Ahva held multiple positions with the US Department of State, Peace Corps, and various nonprofits. She has been recognized as a US Department of State Global Entrepreneur Scholar and John Lewis Humanity in Action Fellow for her commitment to social entrepreneurship.
In her academic studies, Ahva pursued Economics and Human Rights. She completed her graduate studies at the London School of Economics where she served as President of the LSE Human Rights Committee. Ahva did her BA at the University of Arizona Honors College where she founded the University's first human rights student organization. In her spare time, she enjoys playing the cello.
Gelareh Taghizadeh is a Senior Data Scientist at CognitionX. She has extensive experience in applying advanced machine learning techniques on different natural language processing applications; and she has worked for different tech startups to shape their products. Gelareh holds a bachelor degree in computer engineering, master degree in artificial intelligence and she is a PhD candidate in computer science at Vienna University of Technology.
Anurag Agarwal is an Investor Director at Oman Technology Fund looking at early and growth stage deals in MENA. Prior to joining OTF, he was with another private VC fund – ArzanVC based out of Kuwait investing in early stage opportunities. At OTF, he is responsible for identifying interesting opportunities for investment, as well as conducting due diligence, business plan analysis, negotiating and executing deals. Post investment my time is spent helping portfolio companies tackle product, technology, and talent acquisition challenges. That responsibility also extends into helping our startups with fund raising by tapping into my network of angel investors and venture capital firms regionally and globally. Prominent investments include Careem, Swvl, Mejuri, Trukker, WrappUp, EON Board Member: eMushrif (Oman) Previously, Anurag has also worked with Baker Tilly international, J.P. Morgan and Standard & Poor's. He has completed his Bachelor's in Finance from St. Xavier's College, Kolkata, India. He has also completed his Chartered Accountancy from India and CFA from USA.
Dr. Soodeh Farokhi is a visionary technology entrepreneur and a proven strategic executive with over 10 years of experience in the enterprise software space as a technology and product leader. She is the founder and chief technology officer of C2RO, a VC-baked enterprise SaaS company in Canada offering Privacy-aware AI Video Analytics solutions. Among her achievements, she was recognized as the finalist of the 2020 RBC Canadian Women Entrepreneur Innovation Award; the finalists of ARISTA 2018 Young Entrepreneur in Quebec; and the top 750 Digital IT Innovators in the World by DataBird journal in 2018. In her 27, she co-founded the first research-industrial institute in the field of service-oriented architecture in Iran.
She serves as a business advisor for several tech startups and organizations and has been the executive team member of Women of MENA in the Technology Montreal since May 2018. She received her PhD. in computer science from Vienna University of Technology and has an M.Sc. and a B.Sc. in software engineering.
Bahar Sateli is a Manager and Senior Data Scientist at PwC AI & Analytics practice in Montreal, Canada. She has more than a decade of experience in advanced software engineering practices and building large-scale and adaptive solutions. With a doctorate in computer science from Concordia University, she holds an in-depth knowledge of development and operationalization of various AI solutions. In addition to her data science role, she is specialized in building explainable, robust AI models, and helping businesses understand the ethical implications of their use. Bahar is the co-founder of Knowlet Networks, a Montreal-based startup creating AI-powered personal research assistants that aid researchers in scientific tasks.
Recently, she was recognized as one of the ‘Top 30 Influential Women Advancing AI in 2019.’
Saleema Vellani is an award-winning serial entrepreneur, keynote speaker, a professor, and the author of Innovation Starts With “I”. At the age of 21, Saleema co-founded and launched Brazil’s largest and #1 language school to finance an orphanage and social development programs, which has taught several thousands of students to date. Shortly after, she co-founded and ran a leading online translation agency in Italy to help companies expand their digital presence globally, while generating hundreds of jobs in the gig economy. The business was acquired in 2012. For over 12 years, Saleema has led 100+ international organizations, nonprofits, and Fortune 500 companies to their next stage of growth and innovation.
As an intrapreneur, Saleema has been co-leading award-winning, groundbreaking research with the World Bank on solving food insecurity in conflict-affected countries through climate-smart technologies since 2016. Given her experience with running businesses online, in 2013, Saleema was hired by Upwork (formerly Elance) to train Washington DC-based organizations and business owners on how to hire and manage remote teams.
Currently, Saleema and her team at Ripple Impact educate, advise, and connect entrepreneurs and hybrid preneurs who are seeking to increase their influence and maximize their impact. She also teaches Design Thinking and Entrepreneurship at Johns Hopkins University and is a frequent guest lecturer at business schools.
Saleema is the Chair for the Global Conference for the Association for Human Resources Management in International Organizations (AHRMIO) in Brussels, Belgium. She is an advisor to several startups and impact-driven organizations, including Net Impact, SXSW Pitch, Startup Africa, Wonder Women Tech, and the World Bank Youth-2-Youth Community.
Saleema holds a Bachelor's degree in International Development from McGill University and a Master's degree in International Economics and International Relations from Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. She is fluent in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Italian. Born and raised in Canada, she is proud of her multicultural upbringing as a Toronto native with East African and Indian roots.
Entrepreneur/Founder of Two Startups, Having Raised Over $100 million In Venture Capital, Turned Investor, And Advisor, Joy Ajlouny Is Considered To Be A Maverick. Born And Raised In California To Palestinian Refugees, Ajlouny Has Built A Reputation For Her Success In Startups And Ventures Worldwide, All The While Disrupting The Status Quo Of Women In Business. Belonging To The Top One Percent Of Female Entrepreneurs, The Self-Made Entrepreneur Has “Gamified Rejection” And Carved Her Space In The Business World. In 2015 Ajlouny Co-Founded Fetchr, The Silicon Valley-Backed Tech Company That Was Created To Tackle The Middle East’s “No Address” Issue, Which Has Been Long Been A Hindrance To Growth In Emerging Markets. She Facilitated $11 Million In Initial Investments In Fetchr,As Well As $41 Million In A Series B Round In 2017. The Company Now Successfully Operates In Five Countries With A 4500-Person Staff, And Was Dubbed The Number One Startup In The Middle East By Forbes. In 2019, Ajlouny Demonstrated That She Was Beholden To Nobody When She Resigned From Her Position At Fetchr To Follow Her Passion Of Mentoring and Funding Entrepreneurs with Innovative Ideas. Ahead Of Founding Fetchr, Ajlouny Was The Driving Force And Sole Entity Behind The E-Commerce Luxury Fashion Platform Bonfaire. Acquired By Moda Operandi––A Fashion E-Commerce Giant Owned By LVMH And Condé Nast––In 2013, Just Two Years After Its Launch, This Was Only The Start Of What Would Develop Into A Long-Lasting Relationship Between Ajlouny And The Fashion Industry. Ajlouny Is Regularly Hired As A Consultant For Fashion Startups, As Well As For Venture Capitalists. Over The Last Decade, Her Unmatched Knowledge And Expertise In Funding And Investment, Startups And Marketing Strategies Has Compounded Into What’s Known As The “Joy Effect,” A Term That Refers To The Ripple Of Her Influence On A Multitude Of New And Once Suffering Companies. Considered An Expert In Emotional Marketing, She Follows The Rule Of Thumb That In Order To Be Successful, You Have To “Fall In Love With Your Customer.” With Less Than Three Percent Of Venture Capital Funding Raised By Women, Ajlouny Has Successfully Raised Multiple Rounds Of Funding For Her Two Startups, Acquiring Investments From Some Of The Most Prestigious Silicon Valley Venture Capital Firms. As A Self-Made Woman In The Industry, Ajlouny Is Passionate About Encouraging And Investing Knowledge Into The Young Women Of Tomorrow. Ajlouny Is Regularly Invited To Speak At Forums And Events Across The World And Most Recently Took The Stage At The World Economic Forum In Jordan And BoF VOICES In The UK. Her Talks Are Not Only Centered Upon Her Businesses, But On The Realities Of Being A Female Entrepreneur, The Double Bind And The Relentlessness It Takes To Secure A Position That Counters The Traditional Roles Allocated For Women.
Parsa Hosseini is a senior data scientist at Tesla focusing on the machine learning initiative. He works towards developing machine learning and deep learning algorithms for innovative applications. He has been an adjunct lecturer and faculty member with several universities since 2009 and currently is with Santa Clara University. His research focuses on machine learning, deep learning, signal and image processing. He received the PhD degree in electrical and computer engineering with research in computer science from Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, the USA in 2018. He has served on the scientific committees and review boards of several national and international conferences and journals. He is a senior member at IEEE.
Dr. Taniya Mishra is the founder and CEO of SureStart. She has been an AI scientist for over 10 years, with many peer-reviewed articles, 48 awarded patents, and featured press articles in MIT Technology Review, NBC Learn and The Atlantic.
Taniya is deeply passionate about increasing AI workforce diversity through opportunity equity. This passion led her to create Affectiva’s very popular EMPath AI training program while serving as Affectiva’s Director of AI Research. Now through SureStart, Taniya’s goal is to make this same type of program available to other innovative AI companies who prioritize DEI, so that together they can raise up a new generation of diverse young tech talent.
May Samali is passionate about investing in people and ideas that can change the world.
As a trained leadership and personal coach, May works with executives, entrepreneurs, and professionals to unlock their purpose, power and potential, and to unleash the career and life of their dreams. May is also the CEO, Ventures at High Resolves, where she is building and incubating a portfolio of technology ventures in the education sector. In addition, she is a Venture Partner at NextGen Venture Partners, a network-driven venture capital firm.
May's primary areas of interest include impact investing, entrepreneurship, leadership and wellbeing. She is published on these topics in multiple outlets, including TechCrunch, Forbes, VentureBeat, Stanford Social Innovation Review, and San Francisco Chronicle. She is also a regular speaker at conferences and industry events.
May holds a Master in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School, and Bachelors of Laws and Economic & Social Sciences (First Class Honors & University Medal) from Sydney University. She is a John Monash Scholar and an Australian American Young Leadership Dialogue Fellow. She was a Gleitsman Leadership Fellow and a Social Enterprise Fellow at Harvard's Center for Public Leadership.
May has extensive experience advising startups and CEOs across the US and Australia. She was formerly an investor at the Urban Innovation Fund, a venture capital firm investing in entrepreneurs shaping the future of cities. Prior to that, she was a Director at Tumml, an urban ventures accelerator in San Francisco. She has also worked as a strategy consultant at an advisory firm and as an attorney in Sydney.
In addition, May has worked for the President of the Court of Appeal of the New South Wales Supreme Court. She has also provided strategic advice to Australian governments on innovation policy.
May also has non-profit management experience. She previously serves as a Member of the Board of Advisors for Women of MENA in Tech, an organization supporting Persian and MENA women in STEM, and is a Facilitator and Advisor at Nalukai Summer Startup Camp for high school students in Hawaii.
Shahrzad is a public health strategist and a women's rights advocate. She has over 10 years of experience designing programs in the global health sector with a focus on technology and innovation. As a Program Director, Shahrzad has launched and scaled a health technology program in more than 20 countries. Shahrzad advises nonprofit organizations that want to use technology to overcome global challenges focusing on health.
Tara Akhavan, Ph.D. is a visionary award-winner technology entrepreneur and pioneer in the field of Perceptual Display Processing for the consumer and automotive industry. She is the President and CEO of Faurecia IRYStec Inc. (formerly known as IRYStec Inc.), an innovation center that got acquired by Faurecia in April 2020. Tara founded IRYStec in 2015 and served as CTO for 5 years introducing eye-friendly display technology to the automotive industry. She has raised and has helped with raising over $8M in Angel and VC funding. Prior to founding IRYStec, she was awarded for scaling an Operations and Maintenance Center (OMC) product in the Telecommunications industry, all the way from analysis and design to deployment in a 3GPP mobile network with 20 Million subscribers. Tara obtained a bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering, a master’s degree in Artificial Intelligence and a Ph.D. in Image Processing and Computer Vision from Vienna University of Technology. Tara is the Canadian Committee member for International Committee for Illumination (CIE) and the Marketing Vice-Chair for the Society of Information Displays (SID). Tara has been recognized as an Entrepreneur of the Year in 2019 by EoY Canada as well as the founder of top 20 Innovative start-ups in Canada in 2018 by CIX, the Canadian’s Largest Investor Conference.
Xanyar Kamangar is a Founding Partner at Griffon Capital, a frontier market focused Asset Management, Venture Capital and Investment Banking group. Xanyar graduated with an MBA from London Business School.
Prior to Griffon Capital, Xanyar spent 8 years as a Director in the Telecom and Technology investment banking team of Deutsche Bank in London advising some of the largest tech players in EMEA.
Before that, Xanyar founded Tehran Computer, a leading provider of computer telephony solutions in the Middle East. Xanyar is also an active angel investor in tech companies in the MENA region.
Faz specializes in the unique talent needs of startup organizations from seed stage through on-going funding rounds. Earlier this year, her employer, Entangled Group was acquired by Guild Education.
At Entangled, she led the expansion of the team over 300% in 3 years by building talent systems for rapid and sustained growth. She is passionate about skills-based hiring and growing diverse teams geared for impact and innovation.
Prior to joining Entangled, she managed operations for tech startups at SkyDeck, UC Berkeley’s startup incubator. This experience has helped her deeply understand what it takes to identify the right high-impact individuals for each company and determine how they can be best utilized to grow thriving businesses.
Khashayar is a Director of GQR, an award-winning search specialist organization uniting the most talented people from STEM backgrounds with pioneering organizations throughout Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. After graduating from the University of Surrey with honors in Management, Khashayar joined GQR in London where he leads their EMEA practice and is responsible for GQR’s global growth strategy across the Banking & Finance, Life Science, Technology, and Energy & Engineering sectors. Born in London to a third-generation Iranian family in the UK, Khashayar has maintained a passionate connection to Iran and the success of the community across the globe. Khashayar is a Tech enthusiast having previously studying Software Design & Development and is now involved with some crowdsourcing platforms focusing on technology start-ups."
Meri Birhane is a Gates Millennium Scholar, holds two master's
degrees and has a wealth of experience in IT sales. Ms. Birhane has
been successful at building strong partnerships and leading
organizations such as the National Society of Black Engineers. Ms.
Birhane is a pioneer on social media leveraging her 12,000+ followers
on LinkedIn to sell over $1M in products and services. In 2017, she
founded Meri Consulting Services, a Black owned and woman led
consulting firm, helping IT providers and early stage startups improve
productivity, book more meetings and increase sales.
Ms. Birhane is a rising star in her field and has received recognition
for her leadership in sales working with companies such as PIH
Health, Crow Holdings, PopChips, Pacific Premier Bank, and San
Diego Girl Scouts. Moreover, Ms. Birhane is frequently requested to
coach and mentor sales teams.
Prior to launching Meri Consulting Services, Ms. Birhane received a
full academic scholarship to attend the University of California, Los
Angeles. While there she received her undergraduate degree in
Psychology and graduate degree in Public Health. Ms. Birhane later
attended San Diego State University receiving a Masters degree in
Business Administration.
In her spare time, Ms. Birhane is the President of MCS
Empowerment Coalition for Leaders of Color, where she hosts
monthly networking events and provides resources to minority
founders and business professionals. To learn more visit Meri
Consulting Services.
Negin Karami is a strategic HR leader who has worked in sales&makreting, manufacturing, and aviation industries. Negin is a progressive thinker with a passion for innovative HR solutions. She translates her deep understanding of business priorities into HR strategies that align with the business. In her current role, Negin leads the transformation of Filter’s people strategy, focusing on employee experience. She partners closely with the executive team to support and drive business results, foster manager and employee success, and ensure a high performing, engaged, diverse workforce. Negin holds a Master’s degree in Human Resources and is a SHRM Senior Certified Professional (SHRM_SCP). In her free time, Negin likes to paint, read, take care of her plants, and explore the world with her boyfriend.
Fatemeh has more than 16 years of experience in Energy industry. Currently she is the Director of New Low Carbon Business Development at Air Products where she works with a range of customers across the energy value chain on topics related to the Energy Transition. Prior to this role, she was the Venture Owner of Carbon Capture Technologies at Siemens Energy Incubator where she pitched the business to potential investors to raise sufficient fund to take the venture to the next level up to the “Exit/Lanuch” phase.
Fatemeh’s background is Mechanical Engineering, she has Masters in Energy from Heriot-Watt university and PhD in Low Carbon Energy Technologies from the University of Leeds in collaboration with the University of Texas at Austin where she conducted research and provided strategic advisory on developing new solutions for green and low carbon energy businesses suitable for the future of Energy and Oil & Gas industries.
Angela M Solomon is the co-founder of Jaleesa, an award-winning social impact business in Lebanon that uses technology to help women from low-income households gain employment as child carers. Angela has also founded two restaurants and a communications strategy company. She served for ten years as a British diplomat, working in New York, Istanbul, Damascus, and Beirut. Angela currently consults for global children’s charity Theirworld, creating innovative education programs in the Middle East and Africa.
Virtual Mentorship Lunch 2020
Virtual Mentorship Lunch gives ticket holders an opportunity to sit and connect at a virtual session with a mentor. Mentorship and access to mentors is an important part of a successful career development. To speed up the process of connecting people and maximizing what one can get out of mentorship, we bring you ‘Mentorship Lunch’ sessions at our conference. We’ve put together four (4) topics at our mentorship sessions; Lunch Mentorship with Investors, with Entrepreneurs, Intrapreneurs, and Career in Tech.
Virtual Mentorship Lunch with Entrepreneurs, Recruiters (Careers in Tech) and AI/Robotics professionals - Open to all conference attendees for fueling inspiration, growth and mutual interests amongst participants, provided each of them have a purchased conference ticket. Seats for our Mentorship Lunch Sessions are limited to 10 per mentor and it's on a first come first serve basis on the day of the event so hurry and get your tickets!
Virtual Mentorship Lunch with Investors - open and limited to Founders of startups at the stage of funding and would like to get advice and connect with investors. Seats for our Funding Mentorship Lunch Sessions are limited to 10 per mentor and on a first come first serve basis on the day of the event so hurry and get your tickets!
Interested to sign up as a mentor?
Get in touch with us and let us know what are your areas of interest and we’ll get back to you.
Previous Mentors
With extensive international experience in developing science-based new businesses from both Industry and academic setting, Maryam Atakhorrami has structured numerous innovative commercial research
deals across the healthcare R&D cycle, ranging from proof of concept and seed-funding to high-value strategic partnerships with Large Pharma, biotech and Medtech companies. Maryam is highly skilled in building and managing complex public- private partnerships across Healthcare ecosystem todeliver on variety of R&D programs in open innovation as well as competitive setting.
In her current role as COO of London in HDR UK, she is leading the strategic implementation and operation of Health Data Research Partnership between five world leading Universities in London
(UCL, Imperial College London, Kings College London, Queen Marry University London and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine) with NHS, Government and Industry to establish London as a world leading destination for Health Data research and innovation at scale. This is to create and enable revolutionary technologies that will transform Healthcare sector and improve lives of patients and populations.
After completing her PhD in biophysics from VU- Amsterdam, Maryam joined Philips Corporate Innovation in 2006 and held variety of corporate functions in Innovation, Strategy and new business development. She joined UCL in 2013, where she led the creation of Business & Innovation Group in Translational Research Office. Her group advised academic entrepreneurs on understanding the funding landscape, working with key-stake holders and developing value proposition for academic-led industrial collaborations.
Maryam has a strong multi-disciplinary scientific track record in basics and translational research, published extensively in high profile journals and holds a portfolio of IP in diagnostic, medical technologies and digital health. She is expert evaluator of European commission in setting up new centres of excellence across Europe.
Yasmine El Baggari, a native of Morocco and San Francisco based, is the founder and CEO of Voyaj, an online platform that connects people from around the globe for one-on-one meaningful exchanges to foster global understanding. Yasmine is committed to creating a safe environment where the exchange of ideas will result in mutual respect and our ability to embrace our differences, to empower each other to become citizens of the world committed to a healthy, peaceful planet.
For the past four years, Yasmine’s reach includes research at Harvard University, and the U.S. State Department as an Youth Moroccan Ambassador to the United States. She has spoken at international conferences, including the World Economic Forum, the Middle East Studies Association, and Obama's Global Entrepreneurship Summit. Her work has appeared in National Geographic, NPR, Forbes, and the Huffington Post. Yasmine has also received the Royal Air Maroc Award from the African Studies Association, Glamour Women of the Year Microsoft's Made Achieving Award, Hampshire College’s $60K Award for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, The Entrepreneurial Spirit Award, the Sander Thoenes Research Award, and two Ingenuity Awards. Recently, she was invited to the White House as one of the 100 Most Influential Travel Bloggers, and on Forbes 30 Under 30's list as one of of the most inspiring and promising entrepreneurs in Africa.
Manju Mude is an industry Security leader with nearly 20 years of experience in building information security, risk management frameworks and vulnerability reduction programs. She is a “Paranoid” Security Leader at Oath, where she helps lead an essential CyberSecurity team defend against adversaries to protect billions of users. Prior to joining Oath, Manju held several leadership positions, including Chief Security Officer of Splunk, Security Leader at Apple, RSA, and Bank of America. She has also spoken at many industry events, including the Security Executive Women’s Forum, Santa’s Clara Law Ethics Center, ISACA Silicon Valley.
Khashayar Shahmiri is a Director of GQR, an award-winning search specialist organisation uniting the most talented people from STEM backgrounds with pioneering organisations throughout Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific.
After graduating from the University of Sur rey with honours in Management, Khashayar joined GQR in London where he leads their EMEA practice and is responsible for GQR’s global growth strategy across the Banking & Finance, Life Science, Technology, and Energy & Engineering sectors.
Born in London to a third-generation Iranian family in the UK, he has maintained a passionate connection to Iran and the success of the community across the globe.
He is a Tech enthusiast having previously studying Software Design & Development and is now involved with some crowdsourcing platforms focusing on technology start-ups.
Amir is energized by being creative, and tapping into the opportunities for people and brands. He attended the prestigious Art Center College of Design in Pasadena and the graduate program in interaction at NYU. His career began in the entertainment industry where his name is credited in television and feature films. As a designer, Amir has had the chance to conceive, design, plan and build digital products and experiences for the world's biggest brands, including Microsoft, Chanel, Proctor & Gamble, Paramount Pictures and Chase.
Amir has a passion for making ideas real and creating products that solve authentic human needs. Amir has helped lead efforts to align brands & products with leading roles in experience design, brand strategy, creative direction, as well as corporate branding and advertising. Most recently he conceived and executed designs for a digital directory at the World Trade Center in NYC. Currently, Amir is a Director of UX at Walmart E-Commerce, helping create innovative experiences at the convergence of physical and digital retail. Amir is also a prolific photographer, painter and facilitator of design thinking, a process for creative problem solving.
Faranak Farahmand Pour, currently lives in Dubai and works at SAP’s Global Strategic Initiatives, a high performing sales organization responsible for the strategy, structure and negotiation of highly complex partnership and opportunities.
Faranak joined GSI in 2015 initially located in The Netherlands focusing on SAP EMEA North region (Great Britain, Ireland, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and the Baltic countries) and moved to Dubai in August 2016 focusing on SAP EMEA South region (Africa, Middle East, South Europe: Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Turkey). Faranak is a key member of the GSI team successfully leading the strategy, structuring and negotiation of large complex opportunities with our customers in EMEA. Faranak has demonstrated the ability to engage with customers in various countries and cultures. Faranak is also the Chapter Lead for the SAP Business Women’s Network in the United Arab Emirates.
The business women’s network (BWN) is an employee-driven network at SAP to help women advance their careers and the company’s business. By sharing professional insights, best practices, education and experience, we help one another develop skills and career advancing opportunities to drive SAP’s success. More information can be found on https://news.sap.com/2017/07/ten-years-business-womens-network-sap/ Between August 2013 and July 2015, Faranak headed the Legal Department for SAP in The Netherlands, managing all legal matters for SAP Nederland B.V. including drafting and negotiating agreements (software licensing, Cloud Services, Consulting Services, (IT) outsourcing, purchasing and sales). Prior to joining SAP, Faranak was part of the Legal Depart of Philips International B.V. providing legal support for the divisions of Philips IP&S, “Philips Corporate IT”, “Philips Forwarding and Distribution”, “Philips Group Purchasing” and “FINOPS”(Finance Operations) worldwide. Faranak has a Master of Law in International Business Law and a Bachelor of International & European Law from Tilburg University in The Netherlands, both graduated Cum Laude.
Shanna Nasiri received her B.A. in Business Marketing from the University of San Diego in 2011 and a Master of Science in Social Entrepreneurship from the University of Southern California, Marshall School of Business, in 2016. Shanna is passionate about opportunities for technology to accelerate social welfare and create sustainable impact. She values bold ideas that disrupt the status quo, collaboration, and risk-taking.
Early in her career, Shanna gained experience in market research, corporate communications, and event planning while working at technology companies, Qualcomm and InvenSense. Shanna also serves as a Board Member for Wishbone.org and GreatNonProfits.org and a mentor for Fast Forward Accelerator. Aside from her work in philanthropy, Shanna is currently a Product Marketing Manager at an AI-technology start-up in San Francisco.
Alison Sonderegger is an Engineering Manager at Oath, where she oversees engineering teams focused on Video and Display Advertising. She is the Global Lead of the Women’s Inclusion Network ERG, which champions female advancement at Oath and provides an open forum for employees to discuss the realities of women’s experiences in the workplace. Alison is an advocate for inclusion and diversity in hiring as well as managerial practice. She has spoken to a number of underrepresented groups about issues they may face in the tech industry.
Prior to Oath, Alison spent over 18 years working as a ftware gineer across various technology industries, including e-commerce site Nextag/WizeCommerce, mobile computing at Danger, Inc. (acquired by Microsoft and the precursor to Android), IP/trademark company NameProtect, not-for-profit health insurance company WEA Trust, and the early portals Excite and Snap.com. Alison holds a BS in Computer Science and a BA in Religious Studies from the University of California at Santa Barbara.
Mia Bennett is a recovering management consultant with a passion for building businesses and products. Companies she founded serve millions today, where she is now a board member. More recently, she set up and led PwC's Emerging Technologies practice and has been the Entrepreneur in Residence at Citi Ventures and Zinc, a mission-driven program.
Godmother of Silicon Beach, Expert Speaker with US State Department, 3x founder, and single mom of twin boys, Cam has worked with 4000+ Entrepreneurs and 700+ startups. She is on a mission to humanize business and her vision is a global economy that thrives on WE, not ME.
Today, Cam is on to her third company, COACCEL: The Human Accelerator, a unique 3- month program, 1-1, that focuses on building powerful, mindful leaders. COACCEL: The Human Accelerator specializes in Female Founders, though are open to Humans. Learn more at COACCEL.com.
Previously, Cam cofounded the first co-working space in Los Angeles for technology startups and entrepreneurs in 2010, Coloft, which was infamously referred to as groundzero for the LA tech ecosystem. During her four years there, Coloft had over 1400 alumni, including Uber LA, Instacart, Fullscreen and so many more.
Zanoon Nissar is the Founder of Women4Good, a network of women who have a passion for social impact. Zanoon has held various roles at Google and Microsoft in Corporate Social Responsibility, and scaled Google's Giving Week into a multi-million dollar giving initiative. She advises social impact startups and mentors women in Silicon Valley. Ms. Nissar is an Alumni of University Of Waterloo and Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
Ali Tehrani has founded two venture-backed AI startups. He is the co-founder and CEO of Astroscreen, which has raised $1m in funding and detects disinformation campaigns on social networks. Prior to Astroscreen, Ali founded Contactable, a news analytics company which was backed by Techstars and was acquired. Ali holds an Economics and Geography degree from University College London.
Dr. Sepideh (Sepi) Chakaveh, is a Senior Associate Tutor & Departmental Lecturer in Data Science & Artificial Intelligence at the University of Oxford and the CEO & Founder of Pixsellar Technologies a Big Data Video Analytics Start-up company. Sepi has worked both in the UK and Germany as Senior Scientist/Academic at Imperial College London, Max Planck Institute in Heidelberg, Fraunhofer Society & the University of Southampton where she was the co-founder & the former Director of Southampton Data Science Academy, the first UK on-line Data Science academy.
After completing her doctorate working on Giotto Mission to Halley’s Comet, Sepi spent the first several years of career working as an Astrophysicist. Then in 1995 she moved to the Fraunhofer Society (Inventors of MP3 & Voice Over IP) where her first post was the project manager to build the first ever Internet in 5 Eastern European Countries & her last position was the chief technical architecture of the European Citizen Media Project. Sepi holds a PhD in Astrophysics & Space Sciences from University of Kent at Canterbury and a BSc in Electronics & Electrical Engineering from Nottingham Trent.
Sepi is a member of the Open Data Institute, associated researcher of the Fraunhofer Society and was recently titled Persian Woman in Tech Data Science Thought Leader at a ceremony in Google HQ London.
Aida Mashkouri, Senior Data Scientist - Expedia Aida is a Senior Data Scientist at Expedia. Her main focus is on application of deep learning in Computer Vision and Recommender Systems. In her team they use Machine Learning and Data Science techniques to improve the content of their website leading to enhance customers experience and ease out their journey in booking holidays.
She has a MSc in Technical Mathematics and Statistics. Her deep passion for learning new topics and technologies has helped her as a data scientist to be effective and impactful in facing challenging problems in industry.
Coming from mathematical background, Aida loves the fact that in the data science world you can use both theoretical and practical aspects of the science for delivering meaningful products and better decision making.
May is an Investor at the Urban Innovation Fund, a venture capital firm that provides seed capital and regulatory support to entrepreneurs shaping the future of cities. The Urban Innovation Fund invests in high growth startups in industries such as transportation, financial services, and the future of work. 73% of its portfolio companies have a woman or person of color on the founding team.
Previously, May served as a Director at Tumml, an urban ventures accelerator, where she managed the accelerator program and worked closely with the organization’s portfolio companies. During the last four years, Tumml incubated 38 startups, which created $190M in enterprise value and launched products and services for over 3.6M people.
May has a background in law and public policy. Before Tumml, she worked as a strategy consultant at a boutique venture firm in Sydney, as a corporate lawyer at an international law firm, and as Deputy CEO at the world’s largest volunteer consultancy. In addition, she has provided strategic advice to Australian governments and corporations on digital innovation and startup policy.
May earned her MPP from the Harvard Kennedy School and her economics and law degrees from the University of Sydney. She is also an Australian John Monash Scholar, a Gleitsman Leadership Fellow at the Harvard Center for Public Leadership, and an Australian American Young Leadership Dialogue delegate.
May’s writing on entrepreneurship has been featured in numerous press outlets, including TechCrunch, VentureBeat, the Stanford Social Innovation Review, Philanthropy News Digest, and the San Francisco Chronicle, among others.
Sharif El-Badawi currently serves as Partner at 500 Startups, the most active venture capital firm in the world. In his role, he manages 500 Startups' MENA fund, focusing on seed stage investments in the Middle East and North Africa. In addition, Sharif is the Chairman of the Board and Head Mentor at TechWadi, where he leads the TW100 mentors and helps bridge MENA startups with Silicon Valley. He also serves on several advisory boards for startups in the MENA region and Silicon Valley.
Previously, Sharif was the Partner Lead to VCs and Startups at Google where he worked with top tier VCs and their most promising startups on strategies that bring all of Google to their businesses. Joining from AdMob almost 7 prior, he led performance advertising strategy for Google's largest customers in North America covering Mobile, Search and Display ads. Before AdMob, Sharif was a technologist and serial entrepreneur having founded or co-founded several companies in the Consumer Internet and B2B space over twelve years. Sharif earned his MBA from UC Irvine Merage School of Business and his BS in Neuroscience from UCLA. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and three children.
Roxana is Chief Strategy Officer at Blend Network, peer to peer property lending platform. Prior to this, Roxana was a Vice President at Morgan Stanley and responsible for the design and implementation of fundamental-based and tactical commodity trade ideas. She started her career at Barclays advising institutional investors and pension funds on their commodity investment strategies. Most recently, Roxana founded the ‘Uber of Beauty’, leading UK mobile beauty platform Zeebba. Roxana holds an MSc in Financial Economics and Econometrics and a BSc in Quantitative Economics.
Roxana is a volunteer outreach worker engaging with homeless people across London. She hosts a monthly Ladies Pampering Day for women and girls living in the streets in partnership with local homeless day centres.
Soso Sazesh is the CEO and Founder of Growth Pilots, a leading digital marketing agency that partners with best-in-class technology companies to scale their paid advertising channels. He is also the Founding Partner of Tempo Ventures, an investment firm that helps portfolio companies with growth and marketing challenges.