List of Speakers

Roland Najm

Enthusiastic, knowledgeable, and insightful are the words that describe Roland Najm and his speaking style. He speaks with conviction, honesty, and excitement concerning the infinite possibilities of success for both individuals and their organizations. His innate business instincts enrich his messages on both people and business skills, and he turns that knowledge into plans for action, leaving audiences inspired and ready to achieve.

Roland has now given more than 400 workshops and seminars and worked with more than 100 companies in many industries.

He has an impressive capacity for achievement, and a special passion for interacting with people motivating them. In leadership, experiential learning, customer service, change management, teambuilding, sales, time management and much more, Roland’s charismatic presentations go to the heart of business issues.

Holder of a Master’s degree in marketing and a DEA in management from the Saint-Joseph University in Beirut, Roland has joined STARMANSHIP & Associates, in 2001 as a co-trainer and a co-facilitator in public and in-house workshops.

Shadi Banna is the Managing Partner of Potential, a human capital development organization based in the Knowledge Village. Shadi co-founded Potential after having worked in Fortune 100 organizations across the region addressing various industries including the IT, Financial, Telecommunications, Government and Retail Sectors. This exposure allowed him discover the untapped Potential that exists within these markets and what needs to be done to unleash it. He is a Computer and Communications Engineer from AUB with an MBA from the UK and an executive Entrepreneur Certificate from Carnegie Mellon University, US.

Potential’s mission is to “develop STARS!” by helping business executives realize their Potential, through integrated consulting, training and coaching programs and in doing so supporting organizations to move into the Next Generation of Business.

 

Mrs. Myrna Baroudi Makhlouf, life coach
Myrna has a major in journalism, and has worked in various local and regional medias before starting a career in communication and publicity.

Feeling the growing need for coaching in both the corporate world and personal life, Myrna has graduated form the Coaching Academy in Paris, and is making others benefit from the tools of coaching to achieve their goals and abjectives and a sense of self-accomplishment.

Tarek Kettaneh is senior lecturer at Olayan School of Business, at the American University of Beirut (AUB). Until 1987, he acted as CEO of the Kettaneh Group. From 1988 to 1996, he was a venture capital investor in the USA. From 1996 to 2000 he was in charge of Lebanon Holdings operations, a $50 million private equity fund in Lebanon.

Since 2000, Tarek is a consultant on financial strategies, on top of his work as full time lecturer at AUB.

Tarek Kettaneh has a B. Engineering from AUB, 1970, a M.Sc. Engineering from MIT, 1972, and an MBA, from Harvard Business School, 1975.

Tania Saba Mazraani, Director, Berytech Technology & Health.
A communication graduate of the Lebanese American University (LAU), Tania has a seven-year communication experience within Saatchi & Saatchi, Beirut. In 1998 she co-founded a technology wholesale business in California, handling the administrative and financial aspects. In 2001, upon returning to Lebanon she co-founded a cable TV guide in Beirut within a large publishing group. She joined Berytech in 2004 and is now Director of Berytech Technology & Health. Tania is an accredited Business Advisor from the Institute of Business Consulting (UK) and accredited Assessor by the Oxford Cambridge & RSA Examinations (OCR) and a Certified Trainer by the Micro-Enterprise Acceleration Institute, Switzerland.

 

Sami Beydoun, Managing Partner, Berytech Fund

Sami spent most of his career with major US investment banks in Beirut, New York, and London. After obtaining his diploma in Law & Economics from Saint Joseph University (USJ) in Beirut, he worked eleven years with Merrill Lynch out of which five years were in Beirut, one in New York, and four in London where he was Vice-President, Manager of the international managed futures accounts department. The next three years he was the Managing Director of SB commodities, a British asset management firm which he created, and subsequently, still in London, moved to what became Lehman Brothers (E.F.Hutton, Shearson American Express), where he spent eleven years as Senior Vice-President and General Manager of London Retail.

Salim Hajje


His experience is the result of over 25 years career in key positions at senior level of international consultancies and as an entrepreneur.

He earned his Ph.D. degree in Strategy Management from the University of Michigan.

A leading international multicultural expert in the field of franchising, management, marketing, communication and organizational relationships.

He is a member and expert with many professional bodies such as; LFA, IFA, MECSC, ICSC,ELCIM, AMA, IRCA, SHRM, ICMCI, CMC,IMC. He has contributed to many publications among which “The Handbook of Management”, and written articles in numerous business magazines and web sites. He has also published several eBooks series such as “The Secret Guide Series”, “Becoming an Entrepreneur Series” and “Franchise Success Secrets”.

His business acumen was internationally recognized several times and won many titles, certificates and awards.

 

Samer Chidiac is the Developer & Platform Evangelist Covering the Eastern Mediterranean Region for Microsoft Corporation, working closely with Startups, Partners, Community, Academia & Influencers with main focus on Developers & Designers Relations Management.

Samer has more than 7 years of Experience in Both Technology Development & Marketing; Samer was formerly the General Manager of HBPRO How To Be Professional SARL (http://www.hbpro.net), a Media & E-Business Solutions Provider, where his main role was to manage overseas contracts along with following up on day to day tasks with Designers, Developers, Media Analysts and other roles inside the company.

Winner of more than 7 Local & International Awards, including Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP), Golden Web Awards, International Who’s Who of Professionals Award, Best Mobile Internet Business Model for the year 2002, Microsoft Customer Excellence Award
 

Stéphane B. Bazan is the Director of the New Educational Technology Unit (UNTE) at Saint-Joseph University. He graduated in Information Science at Sciences-Po Paris in 1993 and was in charge of Web projects for North America at AUF-Canada until 1999. At USJ since then, S. Bazan is also  lecturer in Web Projects Conception, E-Commerce strategy and digital culture.

 

Raja Haddad
Raja is an MBA Graduate from Morehead State University, Kentuck - U.S.A

After his graduation in 1980, he held a marketing and sales management position at one of the largest groups in Lebanon and the Middle East - INDEVCO Group (Sanita, Lebanon - Napco, KSA).

After 10 years, he joined group Abou Adal Leaders of international brands' distribution as marketing and commercial director for 6 years.

During his 16 years of work, he was given the chance to teach at the American University of Beirut, St Joseph University And Notre-Dame University.

His love for teaching and with the dramatic changes facing our markets, Raja decided in 1995 to start his own company Starmanship & Associates which has become on of the most reputable training organizations in Lebanon and the Middle East.

In addition to his strong academic background and international affiliation, Raja has a solid practical experience in the field - thus combining both the academic with the practical experience in his training.

 

Constantin Salameh
Constantin Salameh is the Chief Executive Officer of the Abu Dhabi-based Al Masaood Group, a diversified private family business with operations in the automotive, industrial, construction, hospitality and services sectors.

Mr.Salameh has over 25 years of senior executive experience with family businesses and multinational companies. He is a director on the board of several entities including the Micro-Enterprise Acceleration Institute, Young Enterprise Switzerland and the AUB Graduate School of Business.

He is a graduate of King's College (B.Eng.), MIT (M.Eng) and Stanford University (MBA).

Habib Haddad
Habib Haddad is behind the original idea Yamli, and today drives Yamli's vision of empowering the Arabic language and users on the web. Prior to Yamli, he worked as a senior engineer at ATI (later acquired by AMD); and before that he was part of the early engineering team at Mok3 (now Everyscape), a startup out of the MIT CSAIL lab. Habib was recently selected as a Young Global Leader for 2009 by the World Economic Forum.

In 2005 he co-founded INLET (International Network of Lebanese Entrepreneurs and Technologists), an organization geared towards promoting entrepreneurship and leadership for the Arab world in general and Lebanon in particular. He also founded Relief Lebanon, a grass roots effort aimed at supporting the relief operations in Lebanon during the July 2006 war. Relief Lebanon was featured by the "101 Stories to Tell" initiative by the UNDP in February 2009.

Habib often speaks about early stage development and entrepreneurship, and has spoken at venues such as the Harvard Business School, Boston College and the American University of Beirut. He currently sits on the advisory board of Meedan, a non-profit startup that aims to enable cross-cultural dialogs online.

Habib holds a Bachelor of Computer and Communication Engineering from the American University in Beirut and a Masters in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California.

Henri Asseily
Henri Asseily is Chief Strategist and CTO for Telnic Limited, the registry operator for the new communications-focused .tel domain. Prior to his position at Telnic, Henri founded Shopzilla, Inc. (formerly BizRate.com) in 1996, where he successfully raised 3 rounds of funding totalling $77M. Shopzilla was acquired by Scripps in 2005 for $569M.

He graduated in the The Wharton School MBA class of 1996 from the University of Pennsylvania and also holds a BA in Mathematics and Economics from the same institution. His hobbies include kitesurfing and kiteboarding in Southern California

Ziad Ferzli
Managing Director, Cedarwood Advisors Mr. Ferzly is a trusted advisor to venture capital and private equity firms, banks, and large institutions as they decide where, when, and how to invest. He also works with investors on launching and growing new ventures. He advises emerging companies on strategic planning, expansion tactics, and capital raising issues for more than 20 years.

As a mergers and acquisitions banker, Mr. Ferzly advises public and private companies as well as investment groups on a wide variety of transactions. He is also a recognized turnaround and restructuring expert who has revived distressed companies and brought them back to profitability.