Halim Choueiry is a design thinker, educator, process strategist and serial entrepreneur. During his professional span, Halim occupied positions such as ICoD Vice President and several times Chairperson of Arts and Design Departments at different universities. Most recently, Halim has taken part in the Bahraini Knowledge Bay endeavor which aims to design and build a human centered community system using strategic design thinking as a catalyst to simultaneously develop the process of growth, as well as adopt a common language among the various layers across the community. Halim has earned numerous awards for his work including the Distinguished Achievement Service Award from Virginia Commonwealth University (Qatar), Distinguished Award from Her Highness Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al Missed, and the Chairman’s Prize for Poster Design from the Communication Design Association of Korea. He has given lectures, participated in conferences, and conducted workshops in a variety of institutions of higher education as well as corporate settings all around the world, including Italy, USA, Canada, Brazil, Korea, USA, Peru, Qatar, Jordan and Lebanon.

After spending a number of years in a leading role in foreign financial markets investment, Bassem decided to dedicate the rest of his life to investing in global leadership multiplication for which he co-founded Aspire with a mission of: “Building Leaders, Transforming Nations”. After 10 years, Aspire now is one of the most successful training companies in Egypt having impacted the lives of more than 200,000 people and served more than 100 corporates and SME’s in the market. Before having the vision for Aspire, Bassem was the founder and CEO of a financial investment company which made huge profits between 2007 and 2010 in the local and international markets. As a part of his passion for developing future leaders, Bassem spends three months yearly since 2005 in South Africa leading an International Leadership School aiming at helping global leaders to discover their leadership potential and bring about holistic transformation for new generations of leaders in their nations. Since 2009, Bassem leads a global leadership movement in over 200 countries using the universal language of sport in transforming people’s lives and building influential leaders. During the last 15 years, Bassem has delivered training programs in different areas, such as strategic planning leadership development, team building, emotional intelligence and strategic management.

Melina is a social entrepreneur who in 2020 was one of the seven women globally that received the prestigious “SDGs and Her” award from the United Nations and the World Bank, for her work in the implementation of the Agenda 2030 for sustainable development. She is the founder of Earth & Co, a consulting company that has been leading SDGs and ESG projects from conception to implementation, supporting Fortune 1000 companies in the Agri-food, Renewable Energy, Technology, Media, Retail and Consumer Goods markets. As an Advisor on Corporate Social Responsibility and Equality Diversity and Inclusion, Melina is participating in ESG process improvement, evaluating ESG reports, forging strategies on stakeholder engagement and implementing programs on employee attraction and retention, while organizing workshops and focus groups directed at social sustainability. She is also managing sustainable development and ESG frameworks for corporate clients with the ability to articulate environmental, wellbeing, social value and governance perspectives. She is a faculty member of various Educational Institutes, such as the Institute of Sustainability Studies in Dublin or the Economic University in Athens, where she teaches courses on sustainability, entrepreneurship and social impact in undergrad and professional programs. She also organizes workshops on ESG for corporate executives in Europe and Middle East. Melina sits on the Board of multinational Organizations and she is a keynote speaker at international seminars on social entrepreneurship, women empowerment, Diversity and Inclusion, Sustainability, ESG and the SDGs. She is a TEDX Speaker, a BMW Foundation Responsible Leader, an IVLP Alumna in the program of Social Responsibility and Innovation funded by the US Department of State, a co-builder of the international World Human Forum, a Young Emerging Leader 2018 by the European-Australian Forum and a Young Innovative Leader 2019 (YTILI Fellow) by the German Marshall Fund. She co-founded a Marketing Agency in 2007 attracting nationwide accounts, before founding the social enterprise “Wise Greece” in 2013, which promotes top quality Greek products and uses the profits from sales in order to buy food supplies and donate them to people living under the poverty line. Today Wise Greece has received multiple prestigious awards, among which is the prestigious award from the President of the Greek Republic “Models of Excellence”, the European Social Challenge Award 2018, the Innovative Fundraising Award by the British Council and the BeMed Award by the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation. In 2022 Melina received the World of Difference Award by the International Alliance for Women in Washington DC for her contribution in the economic empowerment of women.

Mr. Tamer Issac is a co-founder of Aspire Training Solutions, a leading training and consulting company based in Egypt. He is a certified career coach with over 10 years of experience in the field of training and development. With his extensive experience in corporate training and development, Mr. Issac co-founded Aspire Training Solutions in 2007, with a mission to provide high-quality, customized training and coaching solutions to individuals and organizations. Aspire Training Solutions has grown rapidly under Mr. Issac’s leadership, earning a reputation for excellence in career coaching and training. As a certified career coach, Mr. Issac has helped hundreds of individuals achieve their career goals, from entry-level employees to senior executives. He is known for his personalized approach to coaching and his ability to help clients identify their strengths and areas for improvement.

Dr. Sally Shamieh is the Research Project Manager at the CRED Research Center at the ESA Business School, Lebanon. She holds a BA and an MA from the American University of Beirut, Lebanon, an MA and a DBA from the SBS Swiss Business School in Zurich, Switzerland, and has served as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Kansas in the U.S. With over 15 years of experience in the private sector, Dr. Shamieh conducts research, teaches, trains, and consults in the fields of business development, entrepreneurship, sustainable development, and gender issues. She is an advocate of continuous learning, growth, and development. Sally is also a champion of women’s empowerment and supporter of women’s entrepreneurship. She herself is an entrepreneur, having established the consulting and training firm Maverick Partners in Dubai, U.A.E. She is also the Founder and Director of the civic institution Heart of Rachaya, concerned with human, social, and economic development of rural areas in the Bekaa region of Lebanon.

Nader Ernest is the Corporate Department Head in Aspire Training Solutions and the Vice President of Emergentics International in Egypt. He is a management consultant, specializing in the training and consulting sector. Nader has more than 10 years of experience serving corporates in different areas related to training solutions, consultative facilitation, soft skills enhancement and team building exercises. Prior to joining Aspire, Nader worked for 360 Junkers factory for 2 years, where he worked as product line engineer for 3 different products, Hisense , York and GE ACs, Hisense refrigerators, and over water laid bridges. He was in charge of production line, quality, speed and efficiency as well as the skills enhancement process of the blue collars through a joint training program with the Chinese counter engineers. Nader graduated from the Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University in 2009. He completed the “MBA” from Maastricht School of Management in 2020 and in 2016 he completed his certification on both Emergenetics Profiling and ESP” Emergenetics Selection Program”.

Founder and director of “Dialectic”, an E-media research and training institution, researcher, freelancer writer at Al Jazeera media magazine specialized in the field of media and journalism; SDG council member at the UN Global Compact Network in Lebanon. Writer and speaker in the field of politics and journalism, media and sustainable development, speaker and trainer at local and regional conferences. Co-author of “Shireen Abu Akleh’s Journalistic Legacy” book by Al Jazeera Media Institute (the original Arabic version: شيرين أبو عاقلة: سيرة صحفية), Co-author of “Arab Women and Sustainable Development Plan 2030” book by the Center of Arab Women for Training and Research. University instructor in the field of media from 2011 till 2023, PhD in History and International Relations at Saint Joseph University (USJ)- Beirut, Lebanon (MA in international affairs and BA in Journalism from the Lebanese American University (LAU).

Richard Bshara is a man of several hats, aka a jack of all trades, being an entrepreneur and a creative strategist with a diverse background across several sectors. Richard has worked across CSR ecosystems, startups ecosystems, creatives production environments and the governmental sector with a focus on social impact and innovative strategy. Richard holds an architecture degree from LAU, Beirut, as well as a business strategy, disruptive innovation, diploma from Harvard Business School. In his free time, Richard is a photographer, VR enthusiast and a mountaineer on a mission to climb the 7 summits of the world

A physician, festival founder and co-programmer, filmmaker and a multi-talented actor with experience in film, TV, theater and Radio. Mina has just finalized a significant role in Rivo short series. Mina is also the founder of MedFest Egypt. MedFest Egypt is a touring international short film festival that bridges the gap between art, health and social problems.

Maggie Morgan is an Egyptian filmmaker, festival programmer, and film faculty at the American University in Cairo. She has directed both feature films and shorts. Her feature films include From Within Their Stories, Asham, and From Meir to Meir. From Meir to Meir received prize for best Egyptian film at Aswan International Film Festival 2021, Special Jury Prize at National Film Festival 2021, and the Ahmed Bakry Prize at All-Quds International Film Festival 2021. She is currently the director of the Short Film Competition at the Cairo International Film Festival 2022.

Isa Patist is a project coordinator at the WorldCoaches programme since one year. She has a masters degree in International Development Studies with a specialization in Sociology of Development and Change and Disaster Studies. Before she started at WorldCoaches, she was working in an organization that set up shelters for Ukrainian refugees in the Netherlands. In her work at the KNVB, she am mostly working on our activities in Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon.

Jesse Beesems is a project coordinator at the WorldCoaches programme and has been with the Royal Netherlands Football Association (KNVB) since 2016. My passion for football led me to do an internship in South Africa with a project that used football for social cohesion. After that, I knew this was the career I wanted to pursue. During my masters in Sports Policy and Sports Management I was an intern at the WorldCoaches programme, and I have stayed there since. I am tasked with managing the programmes that WorldCoaches is running worldwide. This includes working together with various stakeholders to create new programmes, design MEL-frameworks, creating visual content and of course, the implementation of the WorldCoaches activities.