List of Speakers

Maroun Chammas - Opening Ceremony: Invitation to an entrepreneurial journey

Maroun N. Chammas is an established entrepreneur. He is Director and Deputy General Manager of the Chammas Group of companies, one of the largest privately owned industrial and service oriented groups in the Near East with interests in downstream petroleum activities and services. He is co-founder and Director of Teleinvest Holdings which has equity interests in several telecom companies of which Inconet-Data Management (IDM), Netlink, Triband and Netcommerce. He is Chairman and CEO of Berytech and Chairman of the Berytech Fund. He is also the President of theAssociation of Petroleum Importing companies (APIC).

Nabil Itani - Opening Ceremony: Invitation to an entrepreneurial journey

Born in 1953, Mr. Nabil A. Itani is Chairman and General Manager of Investment Development Authority of Lebanon (IDAL), Lebanon's national investment promotion agency. His career spans over three decades of professional achievement, significant contribution to the architectural profession, and diligent service to his native Lebanon. An accomplished architect and architectural consultant, his professional experience is wide-ranging and far-reaching, encompassing design and supervision of landmark projects in Lebanon and the Arab World, as well as prestigious affiliations, academic posts, publications, and conference presentations. His valuable contributions in official committees and in the drafting of major proposals have had positive ramifications on investment, architectural, and administrative practice in Lebanon.

Jihad Azour - Opening Ceremony: Invitation to an entrepreneurial journey

Former Finance Minister to Lebanon, Mr. Jihad Azour has witnessed wide-ranging and effective implementation of reforms in Lebanon. Azour has also been a passionate promoter of youth empowerment initiatives and spearheaded several initiatives in the field and he is currently partner at Booz & Co. Mr. Azour obtained his PhD in International Finance from the "Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris (IEP)" in France in 1996. While completing his PhD, he served as post doctoral fellow at Harvard University's Department of Economics researching the integration of emerging economies in the global economy. Mr. Azour also holds a post-graduate degree in International Economic and Finance and a Master's in Applied Economics from Dauphine University, Paris, France.

Joseph Hage - Entrepreneurship and the Public Sphere

Joseph Hage, is the managing Director of NavLeb s.a.l. Graduate of California Polytechnic University in Pomona with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Mr. Joseph Hage has worked in the US till 2006, starting as a Design Engineer and progressing to roles as Vice President of Engineering and Acting Vice President of Sales. NavLeb, a company specialized in GPS Navigation, GPS Tracking and GIS services for doing business in the Middle East and Africa, was established in the US with the help of two other engineers in 2006; it was later incorporated in Lebanon in 2008 and currently has a presence in both countries.

Tony Bury - Entrepreneurs Jam:"What makes an Entrepreneur"

Tony Bury is a social entrepreneur who has built successful businesses in the Middle East, Canada, Australia and the UK including 18 start ups within his career. He is on the board and maintains a group of minority shareholdings in fast growing companies employing in excess of 5,000 people. He started his first charitable organization, Mowgli Foundation for mentoring entrepreneurs. Tony is furthermore a governor of Prior Park Educational Trust.

Fouad Zmokhol - Entrepreneurs Jam: "What makes an Entrepreneur"

Dr. Fouad Zmokhol has a Doctorate in Business Administration from New Port University (USA) and he is the General Manager of Zimco Group (a holding that includes a printing press, a leather factory, a diary publishing house, and an advertising agency). Dr. Zmokhol is the President of the Lebanese Businessmen Associations (RDCL), President of the Corporate Governance Task Force, Member of the Board of the Forum Francophone des Affaires (FFA), Member of the Board of the Lebanese Transparency Association (LTA), Member of the Lebanese Management Association (LMA), as well as Professor at Saint Joseph University. Dr. Zmokhol is the author of various publications on corporate governance, business ethics, industrial management, international marketing, strategic management, Lebanon economic revival, and speaker at several national and international conferences.

Michael Tolan - Leadership is a Journey, Master the Challenges

Michael J. Tolan has been an entrepreneur for the past 20 years in 15 countries including Lebanon, UAE, Cyprus, Russia and many Central European and Asian countries.
He has entertained audiences throughout Europe and Asia over the past 15 years, delivering his wry humor and wit to make positive impact on over 10,000 attendees to his events.
Mr. Tolan heads a multi-national charity group, while balancing several business interests in a variety of countries and since 2008 he is directly involved with Potential on different motivational speaking events, Leadership boot camps, consulting and training activities for private and government sector in the MENA region.
Mr. Tolan has spoken at forums in 15 countries. He has a passion for sharing, and a zeal for delivering action packed messages that matter in the lives of everyone.
A quintessential entrepreneur, Tolan thrives on business challenges and creating positive solutions . Through his pioneering spirit, has developed multi-million dollar businesses and sold them.

Joumana Mattar - Break the Ice & Expand Your Network

Joumana has a background in graphic design and design management and enjoys trans-disciplinary collaboration. Coming from a multi-cultural background, she is used to juggling different requirements, whether linguistical or logistical; to create a process that yields the best results. With an intensive experience with NGOs and facilitation, she strongly believes in engaging people internally and externally while creating longterm commitment over shared visions.
Previous projects include brand engagement workshops, process design, and brandstrategy development.

Riccardo Musolesi - Break the Ice & Expand Your Network

Riccardo comes originally from the interior design field, but soon after he moved towards more innovative areas, such as food design and design management.
A strong believer in the bigger picture inside every project, he has experience working in consultancies in both Italy and Spain. Entrepreneur himself first, he is commited to keeping a project on track and achieving optimal results with his partner and clients, preferring to establish long term relationships rather than spot projects.
Professional experiences include project management in food design, consultancies, and international liason.

Roland Najm - Entrepreneurship at the Core

As a holder of a Master’s Degree in Marketing from the Saint-Joseph University of Beirut, Roland was well equipped to begin his journey into the business
world. The core of his education, however, comes from his 8 years of experience as a professional trainer in Lebanon and the Arab countries.
His long-standing relationship with many of his clients has given him a strong grasp of the business challenges they face on a daily basis.
He has also gained a deeper understanding of the most effective resources to overcome these challenges: People.
From leadership, team building and change management to communication, behavioral psychology, body language, customer service
and sales (only to name a few), Roland’s charismatic presentations go to the heart of business issues.
Roland has delivered over 550 training days and has worked with over 100 companies in many industries.

Dany Mezher - Become a Technopreneur in Just 30 min

Mr. Dany Mezher is Associate Professor and Director of the Electrical Department of ESIB. He has a Computer Engeneering degree from ESIB, and a PhD in High-Performance Computing Systems from IRISA, France.

Elie-Grégoire Khoury - Become a Technopreneur in Just 30 min

Elie-Grégoire Khoury graduated in Engineering from the Ecole Centrale in Paris and holds an aggregation in mathematics. He started his career in the field of videogames, and was head of R&D at Ubisoft Entertainment. He met Elias Khoury, a bright student and major of his promotion in the academic realm and they formed a successful partnership.

Marc Dfouni - Innovate your Online Marketing Strategy

Marc Dfouni holds a Bachelor and a Masters degree in Management Information Systems and Knowledge Management from Concordia University. Marc has worked in various fields including Business Process Coordinator, Inventory Coordinator, as well as Y2K Consultant at Microcell Solutions, Canada. After one year as a Project Manager at BlueSponge Inc, a leading Canadian interactive solutions company, Marc was promoted to General Manager and Chief of Operations. Amongst his biggest accomplishments at BlueSponge, Marc has created an SEO department in which he formed and trained a team. He has also managed high scale projects that have won numerous awards including South by South-West, Canadian New Media Awards, Vidfest, Webby Awards, Gemini Awards, New York Festivals, Boomerangs, BIMA (British interactive media awards), Bell Fund 10 year anniversary award, Moebius United Nations Design award, Digital Marketing award, Prix Media and the most prestigious Cannes Lion d'Or. In 2006, Marc moved to Lebanon where he co-founded Eastline Marketing of which he is presently the CEO and Managing Partner. For Marc, every problem has a four-minute limit, after that...