Meet 21 of the Investors Speaking At MAIN's First Conference in El-Gouna

A batch of regional and global investors are gathering in Egypt’s first big-scale investment-focused conference, on November 1^st and 2^nd in the coastal town of El-Gouna. MAIN, short for Middle East Angel Investment Network, is an alliance of business angel groups, networks, funds and individual angels that aims to promote and raise awareness of angel investing across the MENA region. The alliance is set to provide a platform in Gouna’s TU Berlin Campus for syndication, training, mutual learning, exchange of expertise and best practices and to produce standardised investment documentation to facilitate investments.

“MAIN is a big dream that goes back to four years ago where the network was always keen to organise such an initiative,” Cairo Angel’s General Manager Zeina Mandour – who is responsible for organising the first MAIN conference – tells Startup Scene. “Through this conference, we aim to reach and lead a unified syndication protocol between all existing angel investment networks in the region aiming to boost the Egyptian and the regional startups ecosystem.” 

The first edition of the soon-to-become an annual conference on business angel investment conference has multiple discussion panels related to: fintech, cleantech, tranport tech and women and angel investment, with a selection of leading figures in every sector. From east to west, MAIN is putting together a stage for a diversity of key players in the investment sector. Here's a list of 21 speakers that have confirmed so far. 

1. Ahmed Huzayyin

Ahmed Huzayyin is an assistant professor at the Electrical power and machines department, Faculty of engineering, Cairo University. He is the founder of Cleantech Arabia that supported 150 startups; 110 of which are still operating. Through Cleantech Arabia's facilitation with its angel network, startups received up to EGP 20 million worth of investments since 2013. Currently, the 110 firms created about EGP 1.2 billion in revenue and more than 5,000 jobs in 2017.

2. Amir Barsoum

Amir Barsoum is the Founder and CEO of Vezeeta, the leading digital healthcare platform in MENA. Amir was a Management Consultant at McKinsey and Company advising Healthcare and FMCGs in Europe and MENA. He holds an MBA from the American University of Cairo, and an Executive Education Certificate from Harvard Business School about Scaling Startups. He is also on the Board of Directors of Endeavor Egypt and has been featured as one of the 17 most influential Egyptians in 2017.

3. Amr El Sawy

Amr El-Sawy is a tech-passionate problem solver, always looking for smart solutions to big challenges. He is the founder and CEO of Buseet, a transport-tech startup offering a premium schoolbus-like shuttle service for everyday commuters. Amr has a Bachelor of Science in computer engineering, an ex-Microsoft and Link Dev with eight years of experience in tech and business.

4. Asmahan Zein

Asmahan Zein went from being an Airline Executive to managing the Grand Hotel in Abidjan, to being one of the founding team members of Aramex Lebanon back in 1988 –where she is still their CSR specialist. During her 27 years at Aramex, Zein became the Country Manager for Lebanon, right before working on reengineering projects for UK and France stations and becoming the company's West Africa manager. Now, Zein is President of Lebanese League of Women in Business، Member of Angel Investors, Lebanese Women Angel Fund/LWAF & Seeders, Vice Chair of Ruwwad Altanmiya in Tripoli, Member of the Lebanese Steering Committee of UNGCL (United Nations Global Compact Lebanon), Board member of Rural Entrepreneurs. She held posts such as Vice Chair of Amideast Advisory Board as well as the Vice President of Injaz Lebanon for more than five years.

5. Claes Mikko Nilsen

Claes Mikko Nilsen is a Finnish-Norwegian known for his pitch moderator skills. He is the co-founder and first director of Finnish Business Angels Network (FiBAN), which is one of the largest and most active angel networks in Europe, inspiring private startup investing 

Currently, Nilsen is the managing director of Nordic Business Angel Network (NordicBAN), which is driven by active business angels and angel networks. NordicBAN represents over 10 Nordic and Baltic business angel networks, linking over 1,700 business angels, sharing angel investing best practices and supporting the matching of syndication ready startups. Nilsen has also guided startups at EnterpriseHelsinki, co-founded student entrepreneurship society BoostTurku, and Steering Board member the of Rising North fund.

6. Emily Renny

Emily Renny is the managing Director for Cairo-base fintech startup Accept Payment Solutions. She brings to Accept rich experience from Morgan Stanley investment bank in London and from co-founding PayMob, another fintech startup in Egypt. Renny holds a bachelor of arts in Arabic and French from the University of Durham and has passed all three levels of the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.

7. Hadeer Shalaby

Hadeer Shalaby is an angel investor while being Careem's Director of Category Management, innovation and streams of growth. She started as the General Manager in Careem in Cairo and was responsible for managing and overseeing all processes , in addition to providing and maintaining the quality of service while building Careem brand in the Egyptian market. Prior to joining Careem, Shalaby was the CEO of Taxi Al Sahel that offered car reservation service via phone for the first time in the North Coast, Egypt.

8. Hanan Abdel Meguid

Hanan Abdel-Meguid is an icon in the Middle East Internet world, she leads Kamelizer, a Cairo-based venture that aims to accelerate and energise the startup scene, leveraging her 25+ years of experience in the technology field. She serves as a mentor for incubators such as Flat6labs, Tahrir2, and Google’s Ebda2 initiative. She was the CEO of Orascom Telecom Ventures, as well as LINKdotNET’s software development spin-off firm, LINK Development.

9. Harry Tomi Davies

Harry Tomi Davies is co-founder of the Lagos Angel Network (LAN) and President of the African Business Angel Network (ABAN). Davies held leadership roles with global brands like Ernst & Young, Marks & Spencer, Elf Aquitaine, Sapient and the One Laptop Per Child project. Over the last decade TD has nurtured a growing portfolio of Africa-based tech-enabled early stage ventures as a business angel.

10. Tarek Fahim

Tarek Fahim is the Managing partner of Endure Capital, a cross-border Venture Capital fund and an early investor in many other leading startups in the US, Canada, UK, and MENA. Tarek serves as a board member of Endeavor Egypt, He is also a fellow of IVLP the US Department of State’s premier professional program for current and emerging international leaders. Tarek has also founded Alboraq, a Non-Profit Organisation in Egypt focusing on Hands On youth development.

11. Tarek El Kady

Tarek El Kady is the founder of KD Group. He shook up the technology world by hosting four episodes of Techne Summit in Alexandria. In 2016, he announced the launch of “Alexandria Angels”, the first Alexandria based Angel Network. In 2017, he launched the first of its kind nation-wide annual roadshow to empower entrepreneurs all over Egypt “Techne Drifts.” El-Kady is passionate about helping young people start their businesses, for which he founded Curator of the Global Shapers Community Alexandria hub.

12. Tarek Assaad

Tarek Assaad started his career as an engineer at Lucent Technologies then as a software developer for SAQQARA Systems, an internet startup in Silicon Valley. He later became General Manager of CID Consulting where he led the company’s high growth, helping it to become one of the leading local consulting firms in Egypt. Apart from his role at Algebra Ventures, Assaad is the Managing Partner at Ideavelopers where he has been managing $50 million of VC investments since 2009.

13. Sherif Samy

Sherif Samy is an investment and financial markets advisor, board member of Egypt Ventures, Orange Egypt, GB Auto and the National Investment Bank. He completed a four year term as chairman of Egypt’s Financial Regulatory Authority. In addition to leading the first micro-finance law and the first online secured lending guarantees register in the country. Sherif served on the board of the CBE, the National Payments Council, Banque Du Caire and the investment promotion agency (GAFI).

14. Mohamed Okasha

Mohamed Okasha is a co-founder, member of the Board of Directors and the Managing Director of Fawry Egypt. With over 20 years of experience in the corporate retail sales, marketing and operations management of both IT and telecom Industries, Okasha launched the retail operation of Fawry across Egypt and built the strong client base of Fawry billers.

15. Menna Abdel Rahman

Menna Abdel Rahman is Senior Associate at Endure Capital, a global VC firm investing in entrepreneurs across MENA and in Silicon Valley. Abdel Rahman was the General Manager of Cairo Angels over the past three years, has been working closely with entrepreneurs and investors; enabling investment opportunities, and contributing to a growing entrepreneurship ecosystem. She has been previously featured as one of the top 20 Women in VC in MENA and is the youngest fellow of the Middle East Leadership Academy (MELA - Class ‘18).

16. Leon Reiner

Leon Reiner is the founder and managing director of Impact Hub Berlin with his core responsibilities around business development and partnerships. He holds a master degree in international development and economics from the University of Vienna, previously worked for a consultancy in the social entrepreneurship sector and managed an incubator for social startups. On the side, Reiner founded the Social Entrepreneurship Education Network to connect educators in the field.

17. Khaled Ismail

Khaled Ismail is the Founder and Chairman of HIMangel, an angel investment fund focused on early-stage startups in the Middle East. Ismail has started seven companies in Egypt since 1992, with his latest venture, SySDSoft, being acquired by Intel in March 2011. Between 2011 and 2014, Ismail was the Chairman of Endeavor Egypt. He has also served as the Senior Advisor of the Egyptian Minister of ICT, and Member of the Egyptian Presidential Advisory Board on Economic Development.

18. Juan Alvarez de Lara

From Spain, Juan Alvarez de Lara enjoys over 20 years of experience in national and international financial management responsibilities .He is the Founder and CEO of Seed&Click, co-founder and general Partner of Origen Ventures Fund, Board Member of EBAN, VP of AEBAN, Member of the Board of Directors of the French Chamber of Commerce of Barcelona, board member of AED (Spanish Association of Director). He holds master degree in Business Administration, Master in Financial Advisory from Harvard Business School.

19. Loay El Shawarby

 Partner: Shehata, Attorneys-at-Law. Specializing in the areas of start-up structuring, governance, pre-growth and growth venture finance; international trade agreements – antidumping, subsidies, safeguards and countervailing measures; international business transactions; joint ventures; and competition laws.Angel investor: Invested in Nebras Technology, Abu Erdan Technology, Eventtus, PayMe, Insanyah, and Nawah Scientific, Untap, Techne Summit, Alex Angels, Barek of Real Estate Technologies, and VOO, among others.Member of the Cairo and Alexandria Angels Networks.

20. Aly El-Shalakany

Aly El Shalakany is the Chairman of the Cairo Angels, one of the MENA region's leading angel investor networks that invests in and supports start-ups and early stage, high growth businesses across the Middle East and Africa. Aly has invested, mentored and coached various startups globally across a number of different sectors.

21. Gamal Sadek

Gamal Sadek is the CEO and Co-Founder of OutKnight, a new global venture that is building the Future of Market Research and In-Store Technology Experiences. 
Prior to starting OutKnight, Gamal Co-Founded and was the CEO of Bey2ollak.com Egypt's mobile app for traffic with over 1.3 million registered users.