Demet Mutlu, Founder & CEO of Trendyol.com

Demet  Mutlu is the Founder & CEO of Trendyol.com, Turkey’s leading fashion e-commerce site. With over 5 million members, Trendyol.com has become one of the biggest fashion sites in the world shortly after opening its doors in March 2010. Trendyol has raised $50 million dollars from Kleiner Perkins (their 1st investment in Turkey) and Tiger Global. Demet is also founding partner/investor of Peak Games, which became the top 5 biggest social gaming company in the world less than one year after it was founded and an investor in Doktorsitesi.com, the leading health portal in Turkey. 
Demet was named as Fortune Most Powerful Women Entrepreneur in 2011, World Economic Forum- Global Shaper and attended Davos 2012, and mentors many young entrepreneurs. She has been featured in CNN, WSJ, FT, Vogue, Wired UK, Fortune,Harpers Bazaar, and other leading publications.

Henri Asseily, Co-Founder Shopzilla, Bizrate, Telnnic

Henri Asseily is a serial entrepreneur, whose current position is Chief Strategist of Telnic Ltd, the registry for the new .tel top-level domains. In 1996 he co-founded BizRate.com, one of the world’s largest and best-known consumer feedback platforms, surveying tens of millions of buyers each year and providing store ratings and customer feedback to help hundreds of millions of online shoppers buy more confidently. In 1999, he expanded the platform to online comparison shopping and created Shopzilla which today is one of the largest shopping sites in the world, facilitating billions of dollars in gross merchandise sales and consistently ranked in the top 50 overall sites worldwide.  In 2005, Shopzilla was acquired by E.W. Scripps for $569 million dollars. A 17-year veteran of the Internet, Mr Asseily invests and mentors companies in sectors as broad as online media, digital intelligence gathering and green industries. Mr Asseily holds an MBA in Entrepreneurship from the Wharton School, and a double Bachelor in Mathematics andEconomics from the University of Pennsylvania.

Bassel Ojjeh, Co-Founder and CEO of nPario 

Bassel Ojjeh, co-founder and CEO of nPario is a data practitioner and evangelist who harnesses the power of data to drive revenue and audience engagement. Ojjeh served as SVP of Strategic Data Solutions at Yahoo after the company acquired his data mining startup, DMX Group. Before that venture, Ojjeh co-founded and served as COO of digiMine (now Audience Science). Prior to that, he spent 10 years with Microsoft in Redmond and was an original developer of Fox Software.

Melih Ödemiş, Co-Founder and CIO of YemekSepeti.com

Melih Ödemiş is one of the pioneer Internet entrepreneurs in Turkey. Born in Istanbul - Turkey  (1976), he studied Computer Engineering and MBA at Bosphorus University. After one year of professional experience in Citibank, Melih founded yemeksepeti.com with his partners in 2000, which is the online food delivery giant in Turkey, active in +40 cities, processing +45000 orders every day. Also active in Russia (izrestorana.ru) and UAE (foodonclick.com), their aim is to be the leading online food delivery company in the region.
Melih has been selected Endeavor Entrepreneur in 2007. Since then he has been observer to many Endeavor ISPs. Melih also is an active Angel Investor in Internet and technology companies. He is one of the co-founders of Galata Business Angels, one of the first business angel networks in Turkey.

Martin is a highly accomplished business leader with a track record of success over 15 years. He joined Maktoob group in 2005, then the largest Arab Online Portal, as head of marketing for the CashU division. The success of the Maktoob portal drove the company to start new online businesses. CashU was founded to address the issue of electronic payments in the region. Martin joined CashU in 2009 as a CEO and Director with the overall responsibility for establishing CashU as the leading online payment service in the region. He is credited with bringing innovative alternative payment solutions to e-commerce business in MENA region. Martin holds a Bachelors degree in International Marketing and Trade from University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

 James Chan, Co-Founder & Principal at Neoteny Labs

James Chan is co-founder & Principal at Neoteny Labs, which manages an early stage venture fund that invests between $50K and $500K in consumer Internet startups in Asia and the US. James works closely with General Partner Joichi Ito on the fund and its portfolio companies and runs investment and fund operations out of Singapore. Since May 2010, Neoteny Labs has made 24 investments in the US and Asia Pacific. James is a Charter Member of TiE Singapore and is also co-founder of Startup Roots Singapore, a non-profit grassroots organization focused on matching elite software engineering talent with tech startups. 

 Isam Bayazidi, CEO of Ikoo

Isam Bayazidi is the Chief Executive Officer of ikoo, the largest online advertising network in Middle East and North Africa. Prior to moving to ikoo, Isam was in Maktoob Group, house of the largest arab online community. While in Maktoob, Isam initiated and lead Araby.com, the Arabic Search Engine company in Maktoob Group, as well the Product Director in Maktoob.com where he worked on in several projects and initiatives.
Isam, 32 years old, holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science & is an MBA Student in Warwick Business School in UK. Isam had been a speaker in a number of events advocating Open Source and Open Content projects, as well a volunteer contributor and a leader in some of the open source projects such as Wikipedia, and Arabeyes.

Stephen Leeds joined Visa in July 2011 as the eCommerce Business Leader within the Middle East region, covering the GCC, Levant, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Based in Dubai, he is responsible for continuing to build Visa’s eCommerce business across the region, working closely with partners to integrate solutions in each market.
Stephen has over 10 years of eCommerce and payments experience. He joined Visa from PayPal’s merchant services division in the UK, where he was responsible for developing strategic channel relationships to enable eCommerce and promote online acceptance.
Prior to PayPal, Stephen worked at Fexco in the UK in a business development capacity, working with key acquiring banks and focussing on travel, entertainment and education sectors. Stephen began his career at wishlist.com.au, Australia’s largest online retailer. 
Mr. Leeds holds an MBA from the Melbourne Business School, Australia.

Pamir is a Partner at Hummingbird Ventures where he focuses on digital media and e-commerce. Pamir serves on the board of Peak Games, MarkaVIP and On Device Research. Dubai-based, Pamir speaks fluent English, Turkish and French.  Previously, he co-founded Flytxt, a pioneer in mobile marketing technology in Asia, Europe and the US. Prior to that, he worked at Morgan Stanley Capital Partners, D.E.Shaw and Juno Online Services. 
Pamir received his BS in Electrical Engineering Summa Cum Laude from Duke University and a Master of Science in Operations Research from Columbia University. 

Elie Habib is Country Manager of Lebanon Growth Capital Fund a member of the Abraaj Group. He established and leads an experienced team targeting equity investments in small and medium enterprises with significant growth potential, proven products or services and the capacity to expand regionally. Prior to joining RED in April 2010, Mr. Habib co-founded a VC-funded startup called Vusion in Silicon Valley US in 2007 and served as its CEO and President until it was acquired in early 2009.  Earlier in his career, he held executive positions at Bay Networks (acquired by Nortel Networks). Mr. Habib has been an active angel investor, consultant and board member with several technology and media startups in the US and Lebanon. Mr. Habib co-founded and served as President of Lebnet (1999-2010), the premier network of Lebanese and Lebanese high-tech professionals in the Silicon Valley and San Francisco Area.

Hassan Mikail is the E-Commerce Services Manager of Aramex, the global logistics and transportation solutions provider which is currently listed on the Dubai Financial Market (DFM: ARMX).
Hassan obtained his BA in Marketing from Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) in 1990. He started his career with Aramex in July 2008, as the Regional Online Services Marketing Manager, and was later appointed as the E-Commerce Services Manager, in addition to running Shop & Ship within the Aramex network.
Prior to joining the Aramex team, Hassan held a number of managerial positions, specifically in the marketing communications industry, where he managed the teams of internationally renowned agencies such as Grey Advertising, Bates PanGulf and LOWE MENA, among others.
He is an active member of the company’s Global Management Team and offers a wide knowledge of the online, E-commerce industry and in depth understanding of current and future markets trends.

Mona Ataya, Founder and CEO of MumzWorld.com

Mona Ataya is the CEO and Founder of mumzworld.com, the Middle East’s First and Largest shopping site for all things Mother, Baby and Child. Mona started her career at Procter & Gamble, Cincinnati, USA, at age 20 after graduating with a dual honors degree in marketing and finance.  Mona spent 5 years at P&G working on leading brands in P&G’s Soap Sector. After Procter & Gamble, Mona moved back to the Middle East region working with another FMCG giant, Johnson and Johnson MENA followed by Johnson and Johnson Europe managing a broad portfolio of leading global brands.
It was in 2000 that Mona’s Entrepreneurial appetite surfaced.  She left Johnson and Johnson Europe and joined a startup team as the VP marketing and Co-founder of Bayt.com. After becoming a mother of 3 boys, and experiencing first hand the challenges parents face in shopping for their children, in 2010 Mona launched a second startup Mumzworld.com. This is a concept that is well positioned to revolutionize the way moms shop in the Middle East / North Africa region. 

Iyad Kamal, COO at Aramex

Iyad Kamal is the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Aramex, one of the leading logistics and transportation companies in the Middle East and South Asia, and the first company from the Arab world to go public on the NASDAQ stock exchange. The company now trades on the Dubai Financial Market.
Mr. Kamal obtained his first degree, a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, from the University of Jordan in 1989. In 1991 he received his Masters of Arts Degree in Economics from Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio.Since he joined Aramex in 1991 as OEC Coordinator, Mr. Kamal has worked in several capacities including Vice President - Logistics and Ground Services, General Manager Logistics, and Express Product and Quality Manager; reaching the position of Chief Logistics Officer in 2007 and his current position of COO in 2010.
Mr. Kamal is an active member of the company’s Global Management Team and offers an extensive knowledge of the logistics and transportation industry. Mr. Kamal is also the president of Al Riyadi Club, a prominent basketball organization in Jordan.

Ahmed AlKhatib, Founder & CEO at MarkaVIP

Ahmed AlKhatib is the Founder and CEO of MarkaVIP, a private sales website focused on the Middle East. After living and working in Silicon Valley for 10 years, Ahmed moved to the Middle East in early 2010 and founded MarkaVIP in Jordan in November of the same year. Earlier in his career Ahmed was fortunate to work at a number of exciting e-commerce businesses, including eBay, Amazon and Zazzle.com where he developed worldwide content delivery of Zazzle.com’s e-commerce application platform. Ahmed brings a wealth of expertise in developing business and technology solutions, and applying them to augment, improve, and transform e-commerce environments.

Abed Agha, Founder of Vinelab

Zafer Younis, Co-Founder & CEO at The Online Project 

Zafer Younis is a marketing specialist who is paving new ways for companies to connect with their consumers in the digital space. He is the co-founder and CEO of The Online Project where his team develops and executes social media strategies for Fortune 500 companies and high profile organizations operating in the Middle East and North Africa.
Zafer co-founded his first company: Modern Media, LTD, a Jordanian media house that owns and operates two popular radio stations, including the award winning radio station Play 99.6, which received recognition from the US-based National Association for Broadcasters in 2007. Modern Media offers consulting services to regional radio stations, and designs direct marketing promotions for advertisers.
Zafer hold a BA (Business Finance) from London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and a BA (Engineering) from the University College London (UCL)

Dan Stuart, Managing Director ME at Living Social

Dan Stuart is the CEO and Founder of GoNabit.com, the first group buying website in the Middle East, and the first globally in Arabic. GoNabit expanded from the UAE to Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt and was acquired by LivingSocial in June 2011. Previously Dan was Chief Possibility Officer at Bayt.com where he oversaw strategy, product development, user experience design and new initiatives, as well as strategic and emerging business development. Dan was also founder and director of Intilaq - Bayt's corporate venture capital arm. Dan holds a Masters Degree in Curriculum, Theory and Learning from the University of Toronto in Canada. He also has an English Literature & History Degree that he quickly followed with an early retirement, spent as a ski and snowboard instructor and a mountain bike guide.

Omar Christidis, Founder & CEO of Arabnet

Omar Christidis is the Founder & CEO of ArabNet, the hub for Arab digital professionals and entrepreneurs. Every March, ArabNet organizes its annual Digital Summit, the region's biggest event for the web and mobile industry; in 2011, the Summit brought together more than 1,000 attendees from 22 countries, featured 100 speakers in 40+ sessions, and showcased 20 pitches from promising entrepreneurs.  Omar is also the Vice President of the family-owned business, IBAG, which has 15 years experience in organizing corporate events, and which manages the Digital Summit.
Omar is the Co-Founder of the Yale Arab Alumni Association, a community of over 200 Yale alumni and affiliates with an interest in the Arab world, and was Director of Development for the organization from 2007-2011.  Raised in Lebanon, Omar holds a BA and MBA from Yale University, and has a background in consulting (at Booz & Co) and finance (at a private family office in New York). 

Cyril Zimmermann, Founder and CEO at Hi-Media

Cyril Zimmermann, founded Hi-Media S.A in 1996 and took it public on NYSE-EURONEXT Paris in 2000. Hi-media is now one of the top Internet publishers in the world. With an audience of 50 million non-duplicated unique users, including 29 million in Europe and 3 billion page views per month, the company now ranks in the top 100 global Internet media groups. Hi-Media publishes 20 websites mainly focusing on the sphere of entertainment. It services digital media with a leading Ad Market Place, Hi-Media Ad eXchange, and a leading Payment Solutions Market Place : Hi-Pay & Allopass.
Mr. Zimmermann is a graduate of the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Paris, the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris, and has a degree in history.

Elie Habib, Co-Founder at Anghami 

Ronaldo Mouchawar, CEO at Souq.com

Ronaldo is the co-founder and CEO of souq.com, which has grown to be the largest online retailer and marketplace in the Arab world. Recently souq.com acquired the private shopping club Sukar.com as well as invested in Run2sport.com; which offers sporting goods and apparel online.
The company is part of the Jabbar Group, the leading player in e-commerce and payment provider in the Arab world.
Ronaldo Mouchawar holds a Master's degree in Digital Communications and a Bachelor degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Northeastern University in Boston, MA.
He has accumulative 15 years of experience in technology, and business management. He served as a technical and systems consultant with EDS in the US. In 2000, he spearheaded a consulting company that managed numerous, web and e-commerce projects in the Arab world. In 2005, he launched souq.com the first auction site for the Arab world.

Habib Haddad, CEO at Wamda

Habib is a serial entrepreneur and CEO of Wamda. He is also the founder of Yamli.com and YallaStartup. In 2009, the World Economic Forum recognized Habib as a Young Global Leader and the ArabianBusiness named him one of the most influential Arabs under 30. He currently serves on the Global Agenda Council on fostering entrepreneurship, and advises several startups and non-profits. He holds a Bachelor of Computer and Communication Engineering from the American University in Beirut and a Master's in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California.

James Gosling, Business Development Director at The Entertainer

James Gosling is Business Development Director at The Entertainer. James heads up the corporate loyalty division, focusing on developing relationships with major brands throughout the MENA region and implementing corporate loyalty and customer acquisition programmes for these clients. Companies that have used the Entertainer for their loyalty programs include HSBC, Unilever, Tang, Etihad, Pepsi and Royal Jet.  James also helped move the Entertainer from a purely paper based product to a paper and digital product.  Theentertainerme.com is now a fully functioning E Commerce site with further development of that coming in the next 6 months.

Christopher Schroeder, Serial Entrepreneur & Angel Investor

Christopher M. Schroeder is a leading entrepreneur and investor in interactive technologies and social communications. He writes and speaks extensively on the internet and consumer behavior, and has written on entrepreneurship in the Middle East and North Africa in TechCrunch, Fortune, The Wall Street Journal and Washington Post.
Schroeder recently served as Chief Executive Officer and Board Member of HealthCentral, the highest quality collection of condition and wellness-specific interactive experiences focused on people finding and sharing real-life experiences related to their health needs. HealthCentral, which was acquired in December, is backed by leading venture capital firms, including Polaris Ventures and Sequoia Capital.
A veteran of online media, Schroeder also served as CEO and Publisher of Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive. During his tenure, the Company more than quadrupled in revenue and audience. Previously, Schroeder was CEO and President of LEGI-SLATE, INC, a leading online B2B provider of information on federal and state legislation and regulation, which he sold. 

If you have seen Steve Jobs’ commencement speech then you undoubtedly tried to connect the dots of your life. Looking back, seeing a Sinclair ZX80 for the first time (look it up if you are under 35 ;-)) ignited a love of computing that led to a Software Engineering degree in Imperial College in the UK. Obtaining the degree made me realize I preferred being around people rather than machines in a lab. That realization led to several years in tech and management consulting companies such as Andersen Consulting (now Accenture), Arthur D. Little and Booz Allen Hamilton (now Booz & company). A new friendship at Booz led to the new career path in media at LBC and Abu Dhabi Media where I started six television channels, a pay-tv business, and two radio stations. I credit my father, a self-made man, for planting the entrepreneurial seed firmly in my timeline. That led to joining a consumer internet startup in the UK in 1999, several retail businesses in Lebanon in 2005, and a media consulting company in 2007.
Today, the combination of technology, media and entrepreneurship combine in Sync Media, a company creating content at the intersection of television, web and mobile. 

Paul Kenny, Founder & CEO at Cobone

Michael Trueschler, Co-Founder at Citruss TV

As Co-founder and Managing Partner of the premier Arabic shopping network in the region, Michael Truschler is putting his entrepreneurial expertise and experience to work, expanding Citruss TV’s scope and range of penetration. Before co-founding the highly successful network, Truschler worked for the Delegation of the European Commission, the Financial Services Industry Group at Deloitte Consulting GmbH, and was a member of the Investment Banking Technology Group of WestLB Panmure.
Michael holds a MBA degree from the University of Cologne in Germany.

Paolo Zambonini is the Executive Vice President for Product and Marketing at Network International, where his responsibility is to ensure that the organisation develops and brings to market products that anticipate and reflect global and regional trends within the payments sector. Zambonini heads a team that supports the business development and client management divisions to raise awareness of Network International’s product portfolio among new and existing clients.
Zambonini’s career spans consulting and retail banking experience in various countries including South Africa. He holds an MBA (cum laude) from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, in addition to an EMBA from TRIUM - New York University (USA), London School of Economics (UK) and H.E.C. (France).

Fares Akkad, Senior Manager of BD for Digital Content at MBC

In his role at MBC, Fares looks after the digital portfolio for MBC and is responsible for helping define the digital strategy for MBC group.  Fares is an experienced digital strategist, having founded several successful internet startups both in the US and the Middle East.  He also has extensive experience in management consulting having advised global and regional clients on a variety of technology and digital issues.  Prior to MBC, Fares was with Booz and Company where he focused on the Media Technology and Communications industries.  Fares Hold a BS in Biotechnology, an MS in Information Systems and an MBA from the USA.

Nina Curley, Editor in Chief at Wamda

Nina [nine-uh] works as the Editor-in-Chief of Wamda to cover stories about entrepreneurs throughout the region who are making change in society. She has a background in psychology, specifically the neuroscience of economic decision making and learning, and she has been studying Arabic since 2009. She holds a B.A. with honors in Humanities from Stanford and an M.A. from New York University in Cognitive Neuroscience.

Burak Büyükdemir, Founder at Etohum

Burak is the founder of Etohum a seed accelerator that aims to bring entrepreneurs well versed in the new economy, who want to establish their own internet startups with investors. He is angel investor and Etohum invested 25 seed internet startups in last 3 years in Turkey. He was graduated from Istanbul Technical University from Management Engineering, got his first Master degree from Bogazici University. He is part-time lecturing in Istanbul Technical University on ecommerce and emarketing.

Muhannad Ebwini, is co-founder and CEO Gate2play, Muhannad has over 11years of experience in the online, gaming, and payment industries, having successfully grow the business of OneCard, a leading regional alternative payment mechanism between 2004 and Feb 2010. During his tenure at OneCard, Muhannad has spearheaded the development of the online payment and eCommerce industry in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), working successfully with international and regional players, provide alternative payment solutions for them, assist and provide support in localizing them and adapting them to the MENA culture, as well as providing them with a suite of value-added services such as support centers and marketing.Prior to joining OneCard, Muhannad worked at Maktoob, the leading regional portal recently acquired by Yahoo as the Business Development Manager of Mazad Maktoob, an online auction service that later morphed into Souq.com, and remains the leading online auction service in the MENA region. Prior to Maktoob, he held sales and marketing management positions at eSolution , a local web development company in Amman, Jordan.Muhannad is a he is a certified eCommerce Consultant “CEC” and Project Manager eBusiness (PME), and holds an MBA in Management and International Business from NYIT.

Nour Khrais, Founder & CEO at Maysalward

Alfonso de Gaetano, Industry Head for the Gulf Region at Google

Alfonso de Gaetano works at Google as Industry Head for the Gulf Region. In his role, he is in charge of Sales activities and supporting business development activities for Google Gulf across all sectors (E-Commerce, Telecom, Media, Technology, FMCG, Financial Services, Government) excluding Travel.
Before Google, Alfonso was a Principal at Booz & Company in Dubai. He spent more than 7 years in Management Consulting and he was part of the Telecom practice of Booz & Company, specialized in Corporate Finance, Investment Strategy, Business Development, Strategic Alliances and Partnerships
He lead one of the largest Synergy Program of a large Telecom conglomerate and was responsible of several successful Due Diligence and Acquisitions of Telecom operators in Asia, Middle East and Africa.
Alfonso also spent almost 2 years as Vice President of the SWF Dubai Group, mainly focusing on M&A and post acquisition activities for Financial Service companies 
He holds a Materials engineering degree from Federico II University in Napoli, and a MBA from Stoa’ Business School in Napoli

Roy Zakka, Founder & CEO of Ubanquity Systems Ltd