Agenda and Speaker Biographies for our first Global Technology Forum of 2010, held on March 18, 2010 at the PlugandPlayTechCenter incubator in Sunnyvale, California.

1.
Global Technology Forum
2010
March 18, 2010
Sunnyvale, CA

2. Conference Agenda
8:30 Registration and breakfast
9:00‐ Opening remarks and conference objectives
9:15 Youssri Helmy and Dina Ibrahim (TechWadi)
Incubators: Exporting the cutting edge of Silicon Valley
9:15‐
Saeed Amidi (CEO, Plug and Play; General Partner, Amidzad Ventures)
10:00
Hazem Abdelazim, PhD (CEO, Information Technology Industrial Development Agency)
MENA: Investor perspectives on tapping a new world of opportunity
Tarek Assaad (Managing Partner, Ideavelopers)
Emile Cubeisy (Managing Director, IV Holdings)
10:00‐
Hany Al‐Sonbaty (Partner, Sawari Ventures)
11:00
Walid Bakr (Partner, Riyada Enterprise Development)
Feroz Sanaulla (Director, Intel Capital META)
Discussion Leader: Karim Fahmy (Director, Intel Capital USA)
Networking break
Silicon Valley: VC trends and transplantation ‐ how can the model work in the MENA region?
Maha Ibrahim, PhD (General Partner, Canaan Partners)
11:15‐ Khaled Nasr (Partner, InterWest Partners)
12:15 Nadim Maluf, PhD (Entrepreneur‐in‐Residence, USVP)
Ramy Adeeb (Principal, Khosla Ventures)
Discussion Leader: Elie Habib (Co‐founder, LebNet)
Lunch
12:15‐
President Obama’s Global Technology and Innovation Fund: How you can make a difference
13:45
Ossama Hassanein, PhD (Newbury Ventures)
Success stories from MENA and Silicon Valley
Hisham Haddara, PhD (Founder & CEO, Si‐Ware Systems)
13:45‐
Ronaldo Mouchawar (Founder & CEO, Souq.com)
14:30
Mohamed Alzubi (Director, Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority)
Youssri Helmy (Founder & Chairman, IdealRatings)
Networking break
Spotlight on a new generation of Arab entrepreneurs
Tamer Hassanein (ZONG Mobile Payments)
14:45‐ Rony Chammas (Electronic Arts)
15:30 Ibrahim Almojel, PhD (Strategic Decisions Group)
Akram Benmbarek (Founder & CEO, Soovox)
Abdullah Assal (President, Stanford GSB E‐Club)
Trendsetters
Ali Diab (VP Product Management, AdMob)
15:30‐ Taher Elgamal, PhD (Founder & CEO, IdentityMind)
16:30 Maha Achour, PhD (Founder & CTO, RAYSPAN)
Belgacem Haba, PhD (CTO, Tessera)
Discussion Leader: Ghazi Benothman (Partner, Minah Ventures)
Networking break
Building blocks: Creating the new ecosystem
16:45 Ash Lilani (President, SVB India & China)
17:30 Naeem Zafar (President, OPEN; Partner, Concordia Ventures)
Bassel Ojjeh (Founder and CEO, nPario; lead investor, ArabCrunch)
17:30‐
Cocktail reception/Networking session
19:30
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3. Our Speakers
Ali Diab
Saeed Amidi Maha Ibrahim Ossama Hassanein Hazem Abdelazim VP Product Mgmt,
CEO, Plug and Play GP, Canaan Partners Newbury Ventures CEO, ITIDA AdMob
Bassel Ojjeh Taher Elgamal Belgacem Haba Maha Achour Youssri Helmy
CEO, nPario CEO, IdentityMind CTO, Tessera CTO, RAYSPAN Chairman, Idealratings
Hany Al‐Sonbaty Tarek Asaad
Khaled Nasr Nadim Maluf Emile Cubeisy
Partner, Sawari Managing Partner,
Partner, InterWest EIR, USVP MD, IV‐Holdings
Ventures Ideavelopers
Naeem Zafar Ghazi Benothman
Mohamed Alzubi Walid Bakr
President, Partner, Minah Karim Fahmy
Partner, Riyada
Director, DSOA OPEN Silicon Valley Ventures Enterprise Development Director, Intel Capital
Ash Lilani Abdullah Assal
Ramy Adeeb
President, President, Stanford GSB Hisham Haddara, PhD Feroz Sanaulla
Principal, Khosla Entrepreneurship Club CEO, Si‐Ware Systems
SVB India & China Director, Intel Capital
Ventures
Ibrahim Almojel Tamer Hassanein Akram Benmbarek Ronaldo Mouchawar Rony Chammas
Consultant, SDG ZONG CEO, Soovox CEO, Souq.com Electronic Arts
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4. Speaker Bios
In December 2007, Hazem was appointed as the CEO of the Egyptian Information
Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) after serving as the Minister’ senior
advisor for the Technology Development Sector. He is currently an Associate Professor of IT
at Cairo University. He is renowned for his teaching and research in the fields of pattern
recognition, artificial intelligence, Arabic NLP, and applications of Soft Computing in Financial
Trading of Securities. He has worked as a scientist for IBM as well as Sakhr Software, where
he rose up to the position of Executive Director until 2000. In 2001, Hazem cofounded
Hazem Abdelazim, PhD IMAGiNET (now CIT MOBiDIV), one of the world’s top players in Arabic technology on
CEO, ITIDA Windows Mobile devices.
Maha brings over 15 years of proven track record in design, development, manufacturing,
management and marketing of RF, Microwave, and Optical Communication systems and
subsystems. She held key management and technical positions in San Diego Research
Center, UlmTech, Optical Access, LightPointe, and Tiernan Communication. Dr. Achour holds
a doctorate degree in Physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and
completed the Master Degree Program in Wireless Communication Theory and Systems, at
Maha Achour, PhD University of California at San Diego (UCSD). She authored over 25 publications in
CTO, RAYSPAN engineering and physics and over fifteen granted and pending patent applications.
Ramy joined Khosla Ventures in 2009. Prior to Khosla, Ramy worked at Tellme Networks, a
voice application startup, where he led the enterprise engineering group until an acquisition
by Microsoft in 2007 for $800M. Ramy also had a brief stint at McKinsey&Company Dubai
advising clients in the Persian Gulf on sustainable real estate development. Ramy holds a BS
and MS in Computer Science from Harvard and an MBA from Stanford where he was an
Ramy Adeeb Arjay Miller Scholar. He is the author of a number of patents in VoiceXML application
Principal, Khosla Ventures development and the co‐founder of the Harvard Arab Alumni Association.
Mohammed Alzubi is a director at the technology investment group of Dubai Silicon Oasis
Authority (DSOA), previously Mohammed was a managing partner at Arab Seed Ventures, a
venture capital fund focusing on seed stage investments in the Arab region & Silicon Valley.
Mohammed was also the founder and CEO of Sulaf Solutions, an IT solutions provider based
in Silicon Valley. Mohammed has worked for a wide range of customers, including Cisco,
Wilson Sonsini, Sun, American Express, and Excite@Home. Mohammed is an Angel investor,
Mohammed Alzubi an advisor to VCs on business and technical matters, and an advisor to many entrepreneurs.
Director, DSOA Mohammed has a BS in Electrical Engineering from Brigham Young University.
Saeed Amidi is the President and CEO of the Plug and Play Tech Center in Silicon Valley. He is
a serial entrepreneur and a seasoned executive with over 20 years of experience in
founding, operating, and growing successful companies. In 1996 he co‐founded Amidzad
Partners, a seed and early‐stage investment firm focused on investing in emerging growth
companies. He has been closely involved with more than twenty new emerging growth
companies including PayPal and Preview Systems. Saeed co‐founded the Amidi Group, an
Saeed Amidi international conglomerate of privately‐held business enterprises with manufacturing,
CEO, Plug and Play distribution, trading, retail, and real estate holdings.
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5. Abdullah is a serial entrepreneur. He founded GlobalTelecom, a telecom infrastructure
services company in Egypt. Abdullah also co‐founded AMANT Antennas, a wireless design
firm. Prior, he worked for Alcatel‐Lucent Middle East, where he managed pre‐sales activities
for mobile wireless carriers across the region. Abdullah is currently pursuing his MBA at
Stanford’s Graduates School of Business where he is involved with the university’s
Abdullah Assal
President, Stanford GSB entrepreneurship activities through leading the Entrepreneurs Club. Abdullah holds a BS and
Entrepreneurship Club MS in Electrical Engineering from Cairo University and Virginia Tech respectively.
Tarek is Managing Partner of Ideavelopers. Prior to joining Ideavelopers, he was General
Manager of CID Consulting where he led the company’s aggressive growth and
establishment as one of the leading consulting firms in Egypt. Tarek’s consulting work
focused on strategic management issues for clients in the IT, Telecom and government
sectors. Tarek started his career in Silicon Valley where he worked in technology
Tarek Assaad development and later in management consulting. He holds a BSc in Electronics Engineering
Managing Partner, from Ain Shams University and an MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of
Ideavelopers (TDF) Business.
Walid is a partner and executive committee member with Riyada Enterprise Development, a
MENA region focused SME growth equity investment firm and member of the Abraaj Capital
group. He has enjoyed an international career having held senior management positions in
France and the US. Walid has also been involved in setting up and managing Egypt’s first ICT
VC fund (The Technology Development Fund), IDEAVELOPERS, The Kuwaiti Technology
Walid Bakr Entrepreneurship Center, and the Arab Business Angels Network. He is a frequent lecturer
Partner, Riyada Enterprise on the topics of business planning, business development, investment process, deal‐
Development structuring and investment valuation.
Ghazi Benothman is a General and Founding partner of Minah Ventures. The firm is focused
on making early stage investments in tech startups, looking to leverage the engineering
talent present in the MENA region. Ghazi began his career in the early '90s at Motorola,
working in marketing and business development in the RISC microprocessor division. Ghazi
then joined Dell Computer followed by Deutsche Banc Alex Brown where he participated in
Ghazi Benothman the IPOs of McData, VA Linux and other emerging technology companies. Most recently,
GP, Minah Ventures Ghazi was with Crosslink Capital, the old private equity arm of Robertson Stephens.
Emile currently serves as Managing Director of IV Holdings, a subsidiary of Accelerator
Technology Holdings, where he also serves as Vice President of Group Business
Development. Emile has more than 10 years of experience in technology and industry
development. He has previously served as director of ICT Promotion and Advisor to the
Minister on e‐initiatives at the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology of
Emile Cubeisy Jordan and was Program Director of the Jordanian Education Initative. Emile holds a
Managing Director, IV Bachelor degree in Economics and Political Science from the University of Southern
Holdings California.
At AdMob, Ali is responsible for the company’s product strategy, roadmap, and business
operations. Prior to joining AdMob, Ali co‐founded and launched Ripple TV, the World’s first
geo‐targeted and Web‐enabled out‐of‐home TV network. Previously, Ali held senior and
executive management positions at Microsoft and Yahoo!. Ali was formerly Founder and
CEO of BuildPoint.com, the world’s first online marketplace for the building materials and
Ali Diab construction industries. He is the author of nearly two dozen papers and patents in the data
VP Product Management, storage and information retrieval fields. He received his undergrad degree from Stanford
AdMob University and an MBA and MPhil from Oxford University.
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6. Taher has served as chief scientist at Netscape Communications from 1995 to 1998 where
he was a driving force behind SSL. He also was the director of engineering at RSA Security
Inc. before founding Securify in 1998 and becoming their CEO (now part of McAfee). In
October 2006 he joined Tumbleweed Communications as CTO, acquired in 2008 by Axway
Inc. He is an advisor to Onset Ventures, glenbrook partners, PGP corporation, Arcot Systems,
Finjan, Facetime, Simplified, and Zetta, sits on the boards of Vindicia and SignaCert, Inc., and
Taher Elgamal, PhD serves as Chief Security Officer of Axway, Inc. Taher has a BS degree from Cairo University as
CEO, IdentityMind well as MS and PhD degrees from Stanford University.
Karim Fahmy is Director for Global Business Development at Intel Capital. Prior to Intel
Capital, Karim was Worldwide Marketing Director at the Emerging Markets Product Group
based in Shanghai, PRC. Prior to his assignment in Shanghai, Karim was the territory General
Manager for Egypt, Levant and North Africa where he started up the Intel offices in Cairo,
Beirut and Casablanca. During his 15 years at Intel, Karim was based in North America, EMEA
and Asia. Prior to Intel, Karim worked at Schlumberger as an operations engineer. Karim
Karim Fahmy has a BSME from the American University in Cairo and a Master's degree in Engineering
Director, Intel Capital Management from North Carolina State University.
Belgacem Haba is a Tessera Fellow and CTO for the Interconnect, Components & Materials
(ICM) division. Haba came to Tessera from SiliconPipe Inc., a high‐speed Internet start‐up
company which he co‐founded. During his 20 year career, he has held management
positions in R&D at Rambus, NEC, and IBM. He has published over 100 articles, holds 100
U.S. patents and more than 140 international patents and patent applications. Haba holds a
BS with honors in physics from the University of Bab‐Ezouar, Algeria, MS degrees in applied
Belgacem Haba, PhD physics and materials science and a PhD in materials science and engineering from Stanford
CTO, Tessera University.
Elie has been consulting on strategy and business planning with numerous startups in the
Silicon Valley and is currently an executive consultant at Cradlepoint, a leader in 3G/4G
mobile connectivity solutions. In 2006, Elie co‐founded Vusion, a company developing
innovative HD‐streaming solutions, and served as CEO and President until Vusion’s sale to a
third party company in 2009. Prior, Elie held several senior positions within Nokia at the VP
and SVP level. Elie has also held executive positions at Ramp Networks (IPO NASDAQ, later
Elie Habib acquired by Nokia). Prior to that, Elie was VP of Products at Bay Networks (aq. Nortel). Elie
Co‐founder, LebNet holds a M.S. in Computer Science from University of Toulouse, France and Case Western
Reserve University. He has completed the Nokia and Stanford Executive Programs.
Prior to founding SWS in December 2003, he was with MEMScAP as President for Asia and
the Middle East. Dr. Haddara was co‐founder and general manager of ANACAD Egypt in
1994, until its acquiry that same year by Mentor Graphics Corporation (MGC), where Dr.
Haddara worked until May 2000. Dr. Haddara obtained his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in
Electrical Engineering from Ain Shams University and his Ph.D. in Microelectronics from the
National Polytechnic Institute, Grenoble, France. Dr. Haddara is a professor of
Hisham Haddara, PhD microelectronics at Ain‐Shams University, Cairo. He has authored and co‐authored two
CEO, Si‐Ware Systems books, several patents and more than 100 scientific publications.
Over the last 35 years, Ossama has managed $1 billion of international technology funds. He
co‐led the spinouts of 25 companies from Newbridge Networks and France Telecom. He was
chairman or co‐founder of eight successful startups including ACC (acquired by Ericsson),
Algety (aq. Corvis), HighDeal (aq. SAP), Highwave Optical (Listed Euronext), nCipher (listed
LSE), NetCentrex (aq. Comverse), BDNA, and Echovox. He served on the Boards of Advisors
of Harvard University Center for Middle Eastern Studies and of UCSF Dept of Ophthalmology
and lectured on international business at UC Berkeley, U of British Columbia, U of San Diego,
Ossama Hassanein, PhD
Santa Clara U., and the American University in Cairo. He also served on the Board of Relief
Newbury Ventures
International, focusing his efforts on social entrepreneurship and women’s development.
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7. Tamer Hassanein is an expert in social media, online games, and mobile payments. He has
been with ZONG since 2007, initially helping shape the product to the target market and
eventually shifting to a business development role where he became the leading salesman,
returning substantial value to his customers through the use of ZONG's industry‐leading
mobile payment platforms. Prior to ZONG, Tamer has worked with Rising Tide Fund, a multi‐
stage venture capital entity, as well as Robinson Helicopters, the world's largest
Tamer Hassanein
manufacturer of civil helicopters. He holds a BA in Economics from University of San Diego.
Monetization Guru, ZONG
Youssri is chairman of IdealRatings. He is an accomplished entrepreneur with more than 20
years experience bringing new technologies to market and growing companies. As co‐
founder of ITWorx, Mr. Helmy grew the company to become the Middle East’s largest
software outsourcing firm before a consortium of private equity investors acquired it in
2007. As the original inventor and co‐founder of Swan Labs Mr. Helmy capitalized on the
Youssri Helmy
then nascent network optimization segment, and the company was later sold to F5.
Chairman, Idealratings
Maha Ibrahim joined Canaan in March 2000 and focuses on digital media, networking and
wireless investments. Prior to joining Canaan, Maha held numerous executive‐level roles at
Qwest Communications, including VP of Business Development and VP of eBusiness and
Internet Operations. Earlier in her career, Maha was a management consultant with both
BCG and Price Waterhouse. Maha holds a B.A. in Economics and an M.A. in Organizational
Behavior from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in Economics from MIT. She has been
Maha Ibrahim, PhD awarded various honors, including being named one of Silicon Valley’s 40 most influential
GP, Canaan Partners business people under 40.
Ash Lilani is the president of India and China for SVB Financial Group. In addition, Lilani is a
managing director of the company’s India‐focused investment fund, SVB India Capital
Partners, and the CEO of SVB India Finance Pvt. Ltd., a non‐bank financial company serving
domestic, venture capital‐backed companies in India. Ash was named one of Silicon Valley’s
40 most influential business people under 40 in 2005 by the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business
Ash Lilani Journal. He holds a bachelor’s degree in finance and accounting from Bangalore University
President, SVB India & and has an MBA from Philadelphia University.
China
Nadim joined USVP as an EIR to leverage his operating experience in tech companies into:
clean and efficient energy, IT, and medical devices. Nadim’s technology experience spans
over 20 years in semiconductors, MEMS, materials, optics and lasers as applied into diverse
markets from healthcare to energy and telecom. Most recently, he was Executive VP and
Chief Commercial Officer at LumaSense Technologies. Prior to LumaSense, he held several
executive positions at New Focus. He also worked at NovaSensor, now part of GE. Nadim has
Nadim Maluf a BS from American University of Beirut and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford
Entrepreneur In Residence, University where he has also served as a Consulting Professor. He is fluent in English, French
USVP and Arabic.
Ibrahim’s professional interests are in energy, cleantech, and entrepreneurship. At SDG,
Almojel is working on cleantech investments. Prior to joining SDG, Ibrahim worked within
the consulting services department of the Saudi Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) to which he
will return in 2011. Ibrahim worked with two start‐ups in Silicon Valley, GenieTown and
Alzoa, where he helped start, fund and identify the best strategy. Ibrahim earned his BS in
Electrical Engineering from Vanderbilt University and his MS in EE and a PhD in Management
Ibrahim Almojel Science and Engineering focusing in Decision Analysis from Stanford University.
Consultant, SDG
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8. Ronaldo is the CEO of souq.com which has grown to be the largest eCommerce site in the
MENA region. He has a cumulative 15 years of experience in technology and business
management. He served as a technical and systems consultant with EDS. In 2000, he
spearheaded a consulting company that managed numerous, web and e‐commerce projects
in the Arab world. In 2005, he launched Souq.com, the first auction site for the Arab world.
Ronaldo Mouchawar holds a Master’s degree in Digital Communications and a Bachelor
Ronaldo Mouchawar
degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Northeastern University in Boston, MA.
CEO, Souq.com
Khaled Nasr joined InterWest’s IT group in 2005, focusing on investments in the
communications, enterprise and data center infrastructure sectors. Prior to joining
InterWest, Khaled invested in tech companies for Alta Partners. Prior to that, he spent 16
years with startups in the networking and telecom industries. He was president and CEO of
FlowWise Networks, GM and VP at Ipsilon, COO at Advanced Computer Communications
(ACC), VP of marketing and services with Premisys Communications, and VP of network
Khaled Nasr services with Newbridge Networks. Khaled received his B.A. and M.A. in mathematics and
Partner, InterWest Partners social and political sciences from Cambridge University.
Formerly Senior VP at Yahoo!, Bassel has been keeping busy as an active investor and
supporter to entrepreneurs. Bassel joined Yahoo! in June 2004 as a VP of the Strategic Data
Solutions group. Prior to Yahoo!, Bassel co‐founded and served as COO of DMX Group and
digiMine, Inc. (now Revenue Science, Inc.). Both companies delivered Business Intelligence
and Data Mining products and services to Fortune 100 companies. Previously, Bassel served
as Group Program Manager in the Internet Business Server division at Microsoft. Prior to
Bassel Ojjeh Microsoft, Bassel was one of the original developers at Fox Software, Inc., An RDBMS
CEO, nPario software maker.
Feroz’s investments span the Technology, Media and Telecoms (TMT) sectors. He founded
the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa (META) regional office in Dubai, UAE for Intel Capital.
Before joining Intel in 1997, Feroz spent six years as an entrepreneur and co‐founded
Santech Worldwide Inc., a trading company in Washington D.C. Feroz mentors emerging
companies in the region and maintains advisory board roles at the Arab Business Angels
Feroz Sanaulla Network (ABAN), the Business Ventures Improvement Group (BVIG) and the Dubai Venture
Director, Intel Capital Forum (DVF). Feroz holds an electrical engineering degree from The University of Maryland
(Dubai) and an MBA from University of Michigan.
Hany is one of the most experienced VCs in the MENA region. Prior to co‐founding Sawari
Ventures, he was a Partner at EFG‐Hermes Private Equity heading their TMT and Venture
Capital business. Whilst at EFG Hermes, he managed over USD 200 million of TMT related
investments and was involved with many of the region’s pioneering technology companies
including Maktoob.com and ITWorx. Hany was instrumental in the creation of IdeaVelopers
‐ EFG‐Hermes’ venture capital arm. Prior to joining EFG‐Hermes, Hany was a Development
Hany Al‐Sonbaty Engineer at Motorola’s distributor in Egypt. Hany holds a B.Eng. and M.Sc. in Electrical &
Partner, Sawari Ventures Electronic Engineering from Imperial College, London.
Naeem Zafar is a faculty member of Haas Business School at UC Berkeley, where he teaches
Entrepreneurship. He founded Concordia Ventures, which educates and advises
entrepreneurs on all aspects of starting and running a business. Naeem obtained an Sc.B.
degree in EE from Brown University (magna cum laude), and a MSEE from the Univ of
Minnesota. He has published 3 books on entrepreneurship. Naeem has been involved with
Naeem Zafar six startups and has extensive experience in mentoring. He was the president & CEO at Pyxis,
Partner, Concordia SDS and Veridicom. See www.NaeemZafar.com for more information.
Ventures
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