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EG: +20 115 400 6995
Strategic Partner
Dr. Samy Saad Zaghloul
Dr. Samy Saad Zaghloul has devoted his three-decade career to public service transformation holding several senior key local and international posts. He is the former Executive Director representing Egypt & Djibouti at the Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group and former Dean of the Board.He served as the Secretary General of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Egyptian Government for 8 years where he was responsible for day-to-day decision making of the Cabinet of Ministers and managed all coordination between the Prime Minister, the Ministries and all institutions across the Government.
Dr. Zaghloul was the Vice President for the Egyptian National Defense Council’s Data Processing Center, where he instituted new innovative research and development activities related to improving Egypt’s data processing capabilities and institutional performance in areas ranging from security to Public Policy and management.
Before joining the Government of Egypt, Dr. Zaghloul served as Chief Technical Officer and Member of the Board of Nile Online, where he designed and implemented nationwide data networks for internet service provision. Dr. Zaghloul also worked as Chief Consultant for other countries in the region where he developed and implemented information system master plans for decision support system, business process reengineering, and human resource development.
In addition to his long-standing professional career, Dr. Zaghloul sat on the Boards of many distinguished organizations, including Chairman of the Board of the National Fund for Youth and Sports; Board Member of the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA); Board Member of the Egypt Telecommunication Company; and Board Member of the Social Fund for Development (SFD).
His accomplishments include awards and fellowships from the World Bank and Harvard University in the areas of urban planning, public administration and public policy.
Dr. Zaghloul received his PhD from Harvard University in Urban Planning. He holds three distinct masters’ degrees: a Master Degree in Public Administration from Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government; a Master Degree in Computer Science from Harvard University; and a Master Degree in Computer Science from Cairo University, Faculty of Engineering. He received a Bachelor of Science in Engineering with a major in Computer Science, where he graduated with honors and ranked first in his class.
Senior Scientific and Nanotechnology Advisor
Dr. Zakya Kfafi
Dr Zakya Kfafi is Adjunct Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department of Lehigh University,USA, where she launched a joint research program on Plasmonic Nanostructured Organic Photovoltaics. This effort led to several good publications and invited talks, as well as training Ph.D. students who have gone on to develop their own academic and industrial careers.
Dr Kafafi managed a budget portfolio close to one billion US Dollars, and oversaw the funding of single investigators, interdisciplinary research teams and centers, instrumentation and major facilities. She served at the USA National Science Foundation (NSF) as the Director of the Division of Materials Research. She was the first woman to lead the largest and unarguably the most complex Division at NSF.
Dr. Kafafi is the Founding Editor-in-Chief of the SPIE (International Society of Optics + Photonics) Journal of Photonics for Energy and the Inaugural Deputy Editor of the online, open access AAAS (American Association for the Applied Science) journal, Science Advances. She serves on the Advisory Boards of IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering) Photonics Journal and the Conference on Spin in Organic Semiconductors. She is the Chair of the Materials Research Society (MRS) Award Nominations Subcommittee.
Dr Kafafi organizes and chairs the annual SPIE Symposium on Organic Photonics and Electronics, and the Conference on Organic, Hybrid, and Perovskites Photovoltaics (OHPVs). She is also the Chair of the new SPIE Conference on Women in Renewable Energy (WiRE). Dr. Kafafi is a member of the American Chemical Society and Sigma Xi. She is a Fellow of AAAS, MRS, OSA (Optical Society of America) and SPIE.
Recently, Dr. Kafafi received the Hillebrand Prize, the ACS (American Chemical Society) Chemical Society of Washington’s highest honor, for her pioneering contributions in organic optics and electronics technologies through innovative physical chemistry and materials chemistry research. She was also honored with the Kuwait Prize in Applied Sciences in the field of Renewable and Sustainable Energy for her research on the uses of organic solar cells to generate clean and sustainable energy, and to improve their performance and efficiency.
Dr Kafafi was a Visiting Scholar/Professor in the Departments of Electrical & Systems Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania and, Chemistry and Material Sciences & Engineering at Northwestern working with the groups of Professor Chérie Kagan and Tobin Marks, respectively. She served as the President of the Spectroscopic Associates, Inc. in Houston, Texas where she designed a cryogenic link that rotates and translates in vacuum for which she won an R&D (Research & Development) IR 100 Award. She received an NRL Edison Award for inventing a simple two-step, cost-effective method to pattern conducting polymers for flexible optoelectronic devices.
She received her B.Sc. (cum laude) from University of Houston and, her Ph.D. from Rice University.
Senior Finance Advisor
Karina Godber
Karina Godber is a senior finance and investment banking professional working in business development, direct investments, digital, fintech and energy technologies space. Over the course of her career, Karina advised corporate clients, private equity funds, state owned companies and HNW individuals on a wide range of M&A, joint ventures, partnerships and financing transactions as well as driving investments in a private investment fund.
Prior to moving to direct investments and advising fintech and energy technology start-ups Karina held senior positions at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch in their M&A team with focus on metals & mining and energy & power responsible for origination and execution of the M&A transactions, and HSBC in their energy & power investment banking team. Karina previously worked at Schroders Salomon Smith Barney in their industrials and infrastructure team and Credit Suisse First Boston in their emerging markets M&A team. Karina started her career in Arthur Andersen in financial institutions restructuring.
Additionally, Karina trains investment bankers in financial analysis, all things corporate finance, M&A and financial modelling.
Karina holds an MBA from the London Business School, an MSc in Economic Theory from the Moscow State University, she is a graduate of the London School of Economics and have completed a course on Fintech: Future Commerce at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Senior Environmental Advisor
Waheed Salama
Waheed Salama is a senior environmental advisor with more than 25 years of local and international expertise. He worked for the Egyptian Government where he joined the Ministry of Environment (MSE), and became the Director of central Protected Areas. Mr Salama has been working in the field of protected areas and nature conservation and was responsible for Egypt National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan to 2030. Mr Salama participated in many national, regional and international events, conferences and seminars. He has also published several researches in the field of nature conservation and protected areas.
IT expert
Hadeel Dohair
Hadeel Dohair is a professional IT expert with more than12 years experiences in developing and operating digital platforms. She is an experienced Team Lead with a demonstrated history of working in the education, urban development and social services. Hadeel Joined Egyptian Government part of Sinai Development authority (SDA) and served at the IT Directorate of the Egyptian National Social Insurance Organization.
Hadeel holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree focused in Computer Science from Helwan University Cairo.