Mina Al-Oraibi is editor-in-chief of Abu Dhabi’s The National newspaper. Mina was previously assistant editor-in-chief of the international daily pan-Arab newspaper, Asharq Al-Awsat and, before that, the paper’s Washington DC bureau chief. As senior fellow at the Institute for State Effectiveness she led the institute’s Middle East discourse program.

Mitsuhiro Furusawa has been a Deputy Managing Director with the International Monetary Fund since 2015. Prior to joining the Fund, he was Special Advisor to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Special Advisor to the Minister of Finance. Mr. Furusawa formerly held several senior positions in the Ministry of Finance of Japan including as Vice Minister of Finance for International Affairs and Director-General of the Financial Bureau. He holds an LL.B. degree from the University of Tokyo and also graduated from the École Nationale d’Administration in Paris.

Ahmed Al-Bader is the cofounder of SihaTech.com, which leverages technology to connect GCC healthcare actors and which won the Best Arab Startup Championship in 2017. He introduced microfinancing for healthcare procedures to Saudi Arabia and has founded other online portals. Mr. Al-Bader was previously advisor to the Saudi Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Chief Strategy Officer of the Saudi Industrial Property Authority “MODON,” acting director for the National Industrial Strategy, and an advisor to the King Abdul Aziz Center for National Dialogue and to other private public and private institutions. Mr. Al-Bader holds a master’s degree from Oxford University.  

Ola Doudin is cofounder & CEO of BitOasis, a digital currency consumer platform focused on Middle East’s emerging market. Previously, she worked in Technology Advisory at Ernst & Young, and on various tech entrepreneurship and support initiatives across MENA.

Sherif Kamel is professor of management and founding dean of the school of business at the American University in Cairo, where he established the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation and the Venture Lab. He has long experience with the government and the civil society in Egypt in building and managing executive development institutions addressing information technology, management, entrepreneurship, and leadership.  His research is broadly published in information systems and management journals and books. He is an Eisenhower Fellow and a founding member of the Internet Society of Egypt, and was a board member of the Egyptian American Enterprise Fund.