Accelerate MENA Speakers
2021 Keynote Speakers
Haifa Fahoum Al Kaylani is President & Founder of the #ArabInternationalWomen’sForum and a development economist recognised in #Arab and international government, private sector and NGO circles as a high-impact change agent focussed on women’s leadership and youth empowerment, working for progress, peace and prosperity in the Arab region and internationally.
Mrs. Al Kaylani’s work for the last two decades has centred on economic empowerment for women and youth, having founded AIWF in 2001 as a development organisation supporting women’s leadership in social and economic growth in the MENA region and globally and serving as its Chair for nearly 20 years. She is a Fellow of the Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative 2017 and was the only Arab Commissioner to serve on the ILO Global Commission on the Future of Work.
She is a Board Member of the Arab British Chamber of Commerce in London, a Member of The Stimson East West Council on Track 11 Diplomacy, and a Member of the Women’s Leadership Board at Harvard. She has received numerous regional and global awards for her exceptional efforts to enable and advance women and youth through education and economic engagement in the #MENA region and beyond.
Somaya Farqui is 19 yrs old and from Herat, Afghanistan. She is a member and spokeswoman of the Digital Citizen Fund’s Afghan Girls Robotic team. Somaya has won several awards, including a silver medal for Courageous Achievement at the FIRST Global Challenge - in recognition of science and technology - in the US; a Benefiting Humanity in AI award at World Summit AI; the Janet Ivey-Duensing's Permission to Dream Award at the Raw Science Film Festival; and the Entrepreneurship Challenge at Robotex in Estonia, Europe's biggest robotics festival. Last year, she was named one of BBC's 100 women in 2020. This year she and her team were featured in Forbes 30 under 30.
Somaya Faruqi
Afghan Girls Robotic Team Member
18 years old
From Afghanistan Nimroz
A member of the Afghan Girls Robotics Team
Mechanical engineer
Nahid Rahimi
Afghan Girls Robotic Team Member
Saroj Kumar Jha is the Regional Director of the Mashreq Department (Lebanon, Iraq,
Syria, Jordan and Iran) at the World Bank Group. He assumed the position on July 1,2017. Jha brings to the region a vast experience in a critical period of
transition.
Jha’s top priorities in his new role are: (i) maintaining a dialogue with all
stakeholders to provide overall strategic leadership for the Bank’s engagement in
line with the region's emphasis on job creation, sustainable growth, inclusion and
governance; (ii) developing a strong analytical program that can inform policy and investment choices;
and (iii) building effective, integrated country teams to ensure efficient and high quality support to the
client focused on results.
Before this, he was the Senior Director for the Fragility, Conflict and Violence (FCV) Global Practice at the
World Bank Group since February 2016. He provided strategic leadership addressing the challenge of
fragility, conflict and violence, working across the World Bank Group and in close collaboration with
partners.
Earlier, Mr. Jha was the World Bank’s Regional Director for Central Asia based in Almaty from February
2012 until January 2016 where he led the Bank’s strategic engagements in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic,
Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan in cooperative management of water and energy, and regional
action on climate adaptation and mitigation.
Also, Mr. Jha worked as the Bank’s Global Manager for the Disaster Risk Management Practice and served
as Head of the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery(GFDRR), which he founded in 2006.
GFDRR is now the world’s largest global fund for disaster prevention and post-disaster recovery
operations.
Mr. Jha, an Indian national, joined the World Bank in 2005 as a Senior Infrastructure Specialist in the
Sustainable Development Network, after working for the Government of India (1990-2005) and the United
Nations agencies (1999-2004) as a senior executive in the field of public sector management,
infrastructure financing, natural resources management, natural disaster prevention, and environmental
sustainability.
18 years old
From Afghanistan Herat
A member of the Afghan Girls Robotics Team
Game developer
Sadaf Hamidy
Afghan Girls Robotic Team Member
Dr Anino Emuwa is the Founder and Managing Director of Avandis Consulting, a strategy and financial advisory firm in France. A former corporate banker with Citibank, she sits on the board of several organisations including Nottingham Trent University. A global women’s leadership expert, she is the founder of 100 Women@ Davos and Africa Women CEOs Network.
Anino is an international speaker on entrepreneurship, fintech, and D&I, Anino has been invited to speak at prestigious institutions including Forbes, Reykjavik Forum, Facebook, University of Cambridge, London School of Economics and the French National Assembly. She has received several awards including the Women in Fintech Award from TechPark Davos (2020). Anino chairs the African Women in Fintech and Payments Network (AWFP) Nigeria, and is a goodwill ambassador for the European Women in Payments Network (EWPN).
Dr Emuwa holds a Doctorate in Business Administration from Nottingham Business School, an MBA from Cranfield School of Management and a BSc Economics from the London School of Economics. Anino is a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute and a member of the Institute of Directors.
16 years old
A member and programmer for the Afghan Girls Robotics Team
Ayda Haydarpour
Afghan Girls Robotic Team Member
2021 MCs
2021 Moderators
Parissa Behnia coaches C Suite and Senior leaders who are high will-high skill and have a growth mindset. In other words, they're badasses like you who go 80MPH in a 45MPH zone. These days,
leadership is full of complexities whether you’re navigating from an audacious goal or trying to avoid that iceberg up ahead. In either case, Parissa's clients choose her because she's either sat in those seats or next to those seats often enough to know how it can feel to be alone in a crowded leadership room.
She's unafraid to speak truth to power to help propel you forward.
With over two decades of corporate, consulting, coaching and – let’s be honest – real life experience, Parissa’s key strategic difference is Empathy. Empathy in business is more than being nice to one
another, it’s a strategic imperative. It means that leaders create context and understanding so that they do a better job of serving their customers AND engaging their teams. She’s so passionate about the
application of empathy in business that she’s developed the Sixense Empathy Model for her clients to employ. And, she wants all of us to put empathy at the forefront of how we engage with everybody.
One of Parissa’s favorite things to do is to stand in front of a whiteboard – real or pretend – to help clients imagine what the world could look like and then propels them as they navigate to that vision of
success. This work enables clients to put together pieces of the puzzle to create the “A-Ha!” or “Eureka!”
moment that ignites action. She leans into the discomfort of the unknown and invites her clients to embrace all of their talents (even ones they don’t recognize or value fully) to create their own paths out of the unknown.
Parissa Behnia is a Certified Professional Coach, holds a BA from Northwestern University and MBA from NYU’s Stern School of Business.
Roni Sharabi, is co-founder of MENAco community, a professional networking platform for women entrepreneurs from across the Middle East and North Africa (the MENA region).
Additionally, she is the pedagogical manager at QueenB, a non-profit organization that teaches coding to young girls, and learning and development manager at Playstudios. Roni’s main goal is to create equal opportunity for the underprivileged and to promote collaborations through real human connections.
Sara Hamdan is a former Merrill Lynch banker, New York Times journalist and editor at Google. She is currently a podcast host, with an Instagram blog (@holidaysinheels) that has nearly 20,000 organic followers.
She regularly writes pieces for Arab News, Conde Nast Traveler, and Travel + Leisure. Sara frequently appears on the radio and has moderated high level panels, including Harvard's ACH Conference 2021 and the World Economic Forum's Women in Leadership panel.
A Berkeley and Columbia graduate, Sara has spent the last two years writing her debut novel. When she's not in front of her laptop, she's running around after her two kids.
Jennifer Tacheff is an award-winning leader and strategist, who helps companies and founders grow and scale their impact. She’s launched global products, programs, and campaigns with world-renowned brands like Twitch, Sony, Twitter, Nike, etc and has helped to build some of the biggest, inclusive programs and communities in the tech industry.
As Founder & CEO of Manifest Advisors, Jennifer has led her clients to become recognized brands and industry thought leaders in virtual culture, inclusion and talent, gaming, and technology. Jennifer serves on the SXSW Advisory Council and is a Board Advisor at Women 2.0, Onramp.io, Kijiji, Mothercoders and more.
She’s been featured in Inc, GeekWire, BizTech, UN Women, Women in Silicon Valley, Women Transforming Tech, and Radius as well as How to Be an Ally, Adventures of Women in Tech, Leaders of Growth and is an Associate Producer of the award-winning film, "The Divisible."
Nour Moghrabi is a seasoned leader and manager with around 20 years of combined experience in leadership and management, workforce development, youth and gender integration, gender training, gender responsive budgeting, gender sensitive value chains and human resources management. She is a senior gender consultant with the World Bank Mashreq Gender Facility. She started her career in the ICT sector in the United States and then in Jordan, where she supported the establishment Cisco's first Technical Assistance Center in the region. Sourcing women to serve the center and expand in the region was part of her tasks, where she sought qualified and motivated technical engineers. Realizing the challenges women face in the tech industry, she supported mentoring projects for young women and girls in STEM, led partnerships with ICT and Telecom companies to institutionalize gender diversity management practices, twinning them with European peer companies, and developing pioneering case studies about business benefits of hiring female talents. As well, she fosters collaboration with ICT business association and initiatives to enable experience exchange and prompt higher rates of female market entrants to the labor force.
2021 Speakers
Afnan is the Director of Women Entrepreneurship & Social Entrepreneurship department in SMEA, where she tirelessly works to increase women contribution to the economic and social growth of the Saudi Arabia.
She has developed the national strategy to grow and enable women entrepreneurs through programs and initiatives such as Women Accelerator, the National Network for Women in Business, as well as making sure of women inclusion in national transformation projects.
Prior to SMEA, Afnan had been the Executive Manager at Prince Sultan Fund for Women Development, leading programs to empower women and youth to develop their skills or start their own businesses. She led the team to build and operate the first and largest women incubator in Saudi Arabia. Afnan has also helped non-profits to develop and implement their strategy and programs, including public awareness campaigns and awards.
Afnan is also a member in the Board of Trustees of Eastern Province Council for Social Responsibilities, and Nourah University in Society Service and Continual Education. Also a member of women committee in family committee. a Board member in women Spark . a member in the National Supervisory Unit of the Non-profit Sector
Melinda Briana Epler has more than 25 years of experience elevating brands and developing business innovation strategies for startups, Fortune 500 companies, and global NGOs.
As CEO of Change Catalyst, Melinda is a strategic diversity, equity, and inclusion advisor for executives, entrepreneurs, investors, and activists around the world. As part of her changemaking work, she is an inclusive leadership coach, trains executive and management teams, and builds learning and development solutions for clients.
Melinda is the author of How to Be an Ally (McGraw-Hill) and the host of the popular "Leading With Empathy & Allyship" podcast. She is also a TED speaker, award-winning documentary filmmaker, and former marketing and culture executive. She speaks and writes about diversity and inclusion in tech, allyship, and empathy.
Caroline works with UNICEF at global level and is based in Geneva. She is part of the Gender-Based Violence in Emergencies (GBViE) team and oversees the portfolio on Gender-Based Violence Innovations and Service Delivery. She is a GBV Specialist with over 12 years of experience working on GBV Information Management, GBV programming and fight against immunity of sexual violence mostly in Africa and the Middle East. She has been leading on the development of UNICEF’s GBViE portfolio which includes the Virtual Safe Spaces (VSS) online platform for women and girls and the digital GBV referral pathway app (eRPW).
An international banking veteran and serial financial literacy entrepreneur, Dina Shoman brings almost two decades of experience to her role as Co-Founder of Verity, the Middle East’s family banking app that teaches kids and teens how to make smart money management decisions.
Verity is Dina’s third financial literacy-focused venture, having previously founded inherQuests, a New York-based startup that offers subscription boxes with games and activities, built on a curriculum that empowers young girls to begin their financial journey, and Nahji, a Jordanian social enterprise that teaches basic financial concepts through a range of engaging resources. By working closely with educational and child development experts, both startups successfully integrated experiential and play-based learning with relevant content and programs, encouraging kids to start building their personal finance skills.
Before starting her entrepreneurial journey, Dina was Executive Vice President and Head of Branding at Arab Bank. During this time she also served as a Board Member for Arab Bank Plc, Arab Bank Switzerland, Arab Tunisian Bank and Arab Bank Australia, as well as a number of non-profit organizations based in Jordan.
Dina holds a Bachelor’s degree in Finance, and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Bentley University. In addition, she has completed continued educational certificates in Organizational Design and Change Leadership from Georgetown University, and in Design Thinking from INSEAD. Adding to her cohort of achievements, Dina was nominated as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2012, and ranked third out of the ‘Top 100 Most Powerful Arab Business Women in Listed Companies’ by Forbes Middle East.
When she’s not exploring new and fun ways to teach kids the importance of saving and spending responsibly, Dina can be found whipping up her favourite dishes in the kitchen, traveling the globe, spending time with friends and family (especially her niece and dog), and singing karaoke every chance she gets.
Ramy is the founder of 1984 Ventures, a seed fund focused on startups tackling antiquated industries. Before 1984, Ramy was the founder and CEO of Snip.it (Acquired by Yahoo where he served as a product executive under Marissa Mayer) and was one of the earliest engineers at Tellme Networks (Acquired by Microsoft). Ramy started his investing career at Khosla Venture working closely with legendary investors Vinod Khosla and Pierre Lamond on a number of investments including Square (NASDAQ:SQ), Groupme (acquired by Skype) Storify (acquired by LiveFyre) and Ness Technologies (acquired by OpenTable). Ramy holds a Bachelors and Masters in Computer Science from Harvard and an MBA from Stanford where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar.
Mitra Kashanchi is the Vice President of Chevron Chemicals, a position she has held since October 2020.
Ms. Kashanchi began her career with Chevron 30 years ago as a chemist in El Segundo Refinery. Previously, she served as Salt Lake Refinery General Manager, Refinery Business Manager for the Richmond Refinery Hydro Processing Business Unit. In 2012, she was the Operations Manager at the Chevron refinery in Burnaby, British Columbia. From 1991 to 2012, she worked at the El Segundo Refinery in various roles in technical, Oils planning, M&R and operations roles.
Mitra earned a bachelor’s degree in Applied Chemistry from Iran National University. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering and a master’s degree in Physical Chemistry, both from California State University, Long Beach.
Mitra has two daughters. One graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles and now works in the field of Human resources Los Angeles Area. The other is currently studying for her Ph.D in Chemistry and Materials Science at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her husband of 32 years, Ryan, is with Remax Premier-Realty.
Diane El Hachem is a marketing thought leader who embarked on her marketing career 17 years ago. She’s best known for her track record of successfully translating plans into execution. Diane has been active in different industries including IT, Retail, Media, Telcom, F&B and Entertainment. And now she is the co-founder of Related, heading Strategic Partnerships at the company.
Before Related, she worked with Seagate Technology for more than 8 years. As their Channel Marketing Manager for Europe, Middle East & Africa, she handled some of the most challenging markets and successfully led projects with top players like Amazon and Best Buy.
At Related, Diane succeeded in designing and implementing an award winning unique coalition program including 150+ different brands for one of the biggest Real Estate companies in the region. When it comes to partnerships in the loyalty industry, Diane strongly believes in the power of experiential rewards that help brands move from a transactional connection to an emotional interaction with customers.
She’s also part of WiiN Global - Women In Incentives Network, a space for top female leaders, female founders, and entrepreneurs in the global Incentive and Loyalty industry, as well as Dubai Business Women Council (DBWC), the UAE’s leading platform for the personal & professional development of business women.
Sepideh Nasiri is the CEO and Founder of Women of Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in Technology (previously known as Persian Women In Tech). She is an award winning serial entrepreneur with over 16 years of experience in the Tech Industry, and a life-time advocate for women, diversity and inclusion.
Sepideh is responsible for the strategy and oversight of Women of MENA in Tech programs and global operations across 17 cities. As the CEO, much of Sepideh’s work is focused on connecting communities, companies, and individuals to bring change in how we should invest in minorities and immigrants.
Sepideh’s leadership is recognized globally for advancing women’s careers in STEM, and developing scalable mentorship and community driven programs. Currently, Sepideh advises global initiatives such as WeMENA, a program by the World Bank, and TechWomen, an initiative of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA). Sepideh mentors many female entrepreneurs and founders in technology around the world, and serves as an advisor to many early stage startups.
Prior to Women of MENA in Tech, Sepideh started her career as a Co-founder and Managing Editor of a digital and print Los Angeles Magazine, and later as the Vice President at Women 2.0.
Sepideh has received several awards from government officials including David Chiu, the Assembly member of California, John Tory, the Mayor of Toronto, Scott Wiener, the Senator of California, and London Breed, the Mayor of San Francisco. In 2014, she was recognized by San Francisco Business Times/Journal “40under40” and Diversity Journal’s 2014 “Women Worth Watching”.
Enas Siam is the Co-founder and COO of Flextock, a tech enabled end-to-end fulfillment solution. She started her Career at Nestle gaining experience in channel sales development and distribution before moving to Careem where she became the GM of Careem Bus in Egypt.
Lateefa Alwaalan, is an inventor, and a serial entrepreneur. She started her first company at the age of 16. She earned her bachelor degree in computer science from King Saud university and later gained experience in information technology from working at different companies. In 2011, Lateefa earned a Technology management MBA from University of Washington.
Her passion for Arabic coffee drove her to reinterpret how Arabic coffee drinkers consumed it. She started her first steps in (Yatooq) by manufacturing readymade Arabic coffee blends, and the first automated Arabic coffee machine. Yatooq sold thousands of coffee machines across the GCC countries and the world. She also recently co-founded Aroom a company focused on developing technology for coffee vending machines.
Her passion for women empowerment drove her to co-found CellA+ in 2012. A Saudi professional women's network, which has about 3000 members. Lateefa acted as president of the network during 2015.
Lateefa received Arabs Women Awards Entrepreneur of the year 2014, and in 2015 she received EY entrepreneur of the year for Saudi Arabia. Forbes magazine listed Lateefa in the Kingdom's most innovative leaders for 2013/2014/2015. More recently, Harvard Business School published a case study about Yatooq in Nov 2018.
Currently, Lateefa is the managing director for Endeavour Saudi, which is part of Endeavor's global network. Being an Endeavour entrepreneur her self since 2014, she is driven by her believe of how endeavor supports high-potential companies can impact local economies positively.
Lateefa has also been appointed as board member to the Riyadh chamber of commerce.
Nora Bavey, General Partner at Unconventional Ventures, a Nordic VC that focuses on impact tech companies founded by diverse founders. She is the the award-winning brand strategist who became a tech entrepreneur only to become an investor who focuses on diverse founders and sees ownership and entrepreneurship as the strongest tools for equality. With her understanding and focus on Sustainability, DEI and future trends, she is building ecosystems in the Nordic region to take advantage of the potential she sees being lost today. "
Rama is a seasoned Global Tech Executive with over 20 years of experience in the technology sector with diverse experience in sales & distribution, operations and business transformation in high growth and M&A scenarios.
As former Andela's Country Director- a technology company that’s solving the global technical talent shortage - Rama built and launched Andela Egypt, while positioning it as a Tech company leader in the Tech ecosystem as well as the home to great tech talent. Before joining Andela, Rama led teams at IBM, Lenovo, and Dell working across different continents, moving from Cairo to Dubai to Paris.
She recently moved back to Egypt to act on her long-time desire to help build the future of technology in her home country. Her energy and passion for building a great organization in Africa and the region are contagious.
In her own words, ""dare to dream, believe in yourself, follow your passion and help build a better world"". Rama holds a BSc in Computer Science from The American University in Cairo and an Executive MBA from HEC Paris in General Management and Entrepreneurship.
Rama El Safty
Global Tech Executive
Katie Partridge is the CEO of Saphira Group, a private investment office headquartered in London with a presence in the US and the Middle East.
The group is responsible for the management of ultra-high net worth individuals &global assets. Saphira Real Estate is the real estate advisory arm of the business and Saphira Technology Partners focuses on private equity investments.
Katie is also the Founder and Chairwoman of Al Johara, a social enterprise organisation that fosters female leadership and cross-cultural understanding between the East and the West via tailored leadership, social entrepreneurship and mentorship programmes. The Four Pillars of the initiative also offer bespoke content on Education, Philanthropy, Entrepreneurship and Wellbeing through a digital platform and live events.
Her institutional investment career includes working at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, Credit Suisse First Boston and Caledonia Investments plc. Prior to setting up Saphira, Katie was responsible for the real assets investment arm of WMG Advisors, a multi-family office. Before that, she served as a Managing Director at Hannam & Partners (previously Strand Partners), a privately owned merchant bank that specialises in corporate finance and M&A transactions.
Katie believes in making a difference at grassroots level and is a Founding Trustee of The Childhood Trust, a charity that supports the alleviation of childhood poverty and early development struggles of children in London. CHT raises millions of pounds in funds every year, and distributes grants supporting projects that assist in the practical, emotional and inspirational needs of over 250,000 disadvantaged children in the capital.
Katie graduated from Queen Mary University of London with a Bachelor of Science Honours in Economics and Politics.
Neda Tabatabaie is Vice President, Business Analytics and Technology for the San Jose Sharks of the National Hockey League. In her 6th season with the Sharks, she is responsible for devising, developing, implementing and guiding the overall business strategy initiatives for the organization through the use of technology, data, and analytics.
Tabatabaie has over 15 years of experience in the professional sports and entertainment industry. Prior to joining the Sharks, she served as Vice President, Best Practices at KORE Software where she was responsible for their Consulting Services.
Prior to KORE, Tabatabaie spent 9 years at Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (MLSE) overseeing CRM, email marketing, research, analytics and digital for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Toronto Raptors, Toronto Marlies and Toronto FC as well as other MLSE properties.
Tabatabaie earned a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Toronto.
She serves on the boards of Sharks Foundation, San Jose Downtown Association, and is an advisor to Women in Sports Technology (WiST). She was selected as one of the 100 of Women of Influence 2019 by Silicon Valley Business Journal and Sports Business Journal Game Changers class of 2019.
Hanane Benkhallouk is an award winning senior consultant with a broad scope of expertise and exposure to international markets.
She counts 20 years of a diverse thriving career journey that started in New York city before moving to Dubai in 2005. Her multi-industry working experience included being in charge of innovation and entrepreneurship programs across the Arab World, at the Mohammed bin Rashid AlMaktoum foundation, which was the turning point in her career shift, Hanane works today as the Executive Director of Sustain Leadership consultancies.
A culture change and certified innovation strategist, Hanane supports corporates, government
institutions, NGOs and SMEs, in building human centric business models, and creating cultures of innovation to remain relevant in an ever-changing world.
Hanane pioneered a multitude of initiatives which stemmed from her passion to accelerate the gender balance in the region: Lean in Arabia, the first lean in chapter in the GCC that she co-founded in 2014, the Link women to women mentoring program, she was also a founding VP of the first chapter in the GCC of the 80 year old women and girls empowering global organization, Soroptimist international.
More recently, Hanane founded Tawazoun, the first think-do tank and platform in the Middle East that aims at accelerating the gender balance discussion in a fundamentally different way.
Hanane is recognized as a thought leader, a global conference speaker, and a published author, with 2 co-authored book, and the first book coming up soon, some of her articles were also published on Harvard business review Arabic, and Forbes Middle East to name a few.
Khawla is the founder and CEO of Takalam L.T.D, an online counseling platform that supports mental well-being. Takalam was founded in early 2020 to ease access to mental health services in a convenient, private, and affordable way, catering to individuals and organizations in a one-stop-shop digital solution. Takalam’s mission is to promote a state of well-being and the pursuit of a healthy mind by breaking the cultural stigma around seeking mental health care and create a social impact for a greater community benefit.
Before devoting her work fulltime to Takalam, Khawla held several positions in various Abu Dhabi based government entities, including Emirates Foundation & twofour54 where she utilized her skills and expertise in Business Development, Strategic Partnerships, Media & Communications. She also worked as an independent consultant for startups between the UAE & the US while she was based in Washington DC. Khawla holds a Master’s degree in International Business from Georgetown University in Washington DC and a Bachelor’s degree in Media & Communication Sciences from Zayed University in Abu Dhabi.
Dina Saoudi is the mother of Hashem and Hamzah, who define her purpose to help better the
world for all children as much as her own. She co-founded Seven Circles, an investment and consulting agency focused on establishing strategic partnerships, creating new revenue streams, and building sustainable, impactful solutions. She is also the co-founder of its philanthropic arm, Seven’s World.
Dina co-founded and heads Empowering throughTM (EtTM), a new breed of social enterprise with the purpose of empowering ecosystems to enable individuals economically and socially. EtTM's publications, platforms and events are based on a measurable and scalable model that identifies and connects stakeholders — aid agencies, private and public sectors, academia, impact funds,
and civil society — to work together to enable and celebrate individuals. Since 2017, EtTM has been
creating impact in more than 10 countries with a portion of the proceeds committed to giving back.
Dina proudly serves two of Her Majesty Queen Rania’s initiatives as a member of the board of directors of The Children's Museum and the board of trustees of the Royal Health Awareness Society.
Payam Zamani is the founder, chairman, and CEO of One Planet Group.
Born in Tehran, Iran, Zamani was denied an education due to his following of the Baha’i Faith, a peaceful religion that focuses on the equality, love, and unity of people of all races and backgrounds. At the age of 15, Zamani was forced to flee Iran ultimately receiving asylum from
the United States and arriving in San Francisco in 1988.
After graduating from UC Davis with a degree in environmental toxicology, Zamani founded
Autoweb in 1994 along with his older brother, Frank Zamani. The first online car buying service, Autoweb made its stock market debut on March 23, 1999, ultimately changing the way people bought and sold vehicles. Within a day of its debut, Autoweb’s valuation reached $1.2 billion.
In 2001, Payam launched Reply.com, a lead exchange and marketplace in automotive, real estate, and home improvement, that was relaunched as Buyerlink in 2015. Today, Buyerlink is the leading online auction marketplace for the generation and monetization of locally targeted
and category-specific consumer demand.
In 2015, Zamani also founded One Planet Group, a hybrid tech firm that owns and operates a portfolio of businesses and funds seed and early-stage startups, including Buyerlink, Quite Remarkable, California.com, BahaiTeachings, One Planet Media, One Planet VC, and One Planet Studios. Infused with Zamani’s deeply held religious beliefs, One Planet Group supports
strong business ideas while also building an ethos that helps improve society and gives back to communities. Beyond trying to implement best business practices, One Planet Group tries to cultivate an environment that consciously thinks about how “innovation x intention” authentically translates to every aspect of the company, from culture, policies, and governing values to the
companies’ impact on the surrounding community and on humanity as a whole. In 2020, One Planet Group was named a ‘Best Place to Work’ by the San Francisco Business Times and the Silicon Valley Business Journal, and also received the Better Business Bureau’s
Torch for Ethics Award. Zamani was also honored as a ‘Best CEO for Diversity’ in 2020 by Comparably, was granted the Tahirih Justice Center’s ‘Hope Award’ (2016), and is a recipient of the University of California, Davis Award of Distinction (2018).