Marcel Dumont

Marcel Dumont is currently the CTO of Keygames Network, a casual gaming company in the Netherlands, where he manages a large number of nearshore and offshore development teams creating next generation of MMO Games
He is also Commercial Online Services Advisor of the Digital Media Unit of Gulf News, Dubai.

Active within the internet industry since 1998, he has created a number of high-traffic classifieds, social and gaming websites for publishers like: News International, Boston Globe, Al Nisr Publications, Evening Standard, Loot and Archant. In May 2002 he co-founded Schoolbank.nl, the largest social networking site for classmates in the Netherlands and in 2005 he was a founder of the AdsML consortium.
In 2007 he sold Schoolbank (along with its parent company Rosetta) to Ilse Media, the largest online publisher in the Netherlands and in 2009 he left Ilse Media and Schoolbank to start a consultancy focusing on high traffic websites.

Novel Tjahyadi

Co-founder and Managing Director of Gulfware International, an enterprise mobility solution company based in Dubai. His brainchildren include Textello, an interactive audience response system via SMS and Twitter. With 15+ years of cross-disciplinary professional experiences within Oil & Gas and IT industries, he has lived and worked in 8 different countries in the Middle East, Asia, Europe and Australia. Family, racket sports, music, networking and coaching young people are some of his passions.

Nader Sabry

Nader Sabry is a strategist advising, governments and multi-nationals on a wide range of strategic issues helping shape their future growth plans. He has successfully secured venture capital starting-up his own firms, helped create and build several high-growth companies. Sabry, has also, advised governments on their national strategies and policies, economic development and reform programs. He is the former head of innovation and thought-leadership at A.T. Kearney, director of strategy for the Dubai Foreign Investment Office and Chief strategist for the Dubai Economic Development Department

Amal AlMutawa

Amal comes from technology background where she started working as a Network & Security Engineer to managing IT related Projects. Then she moved into the communication field where she was heading the eCommunication Department in the Government Communication Office. Currently, she is working for the Government Innovation Department.
On a personal note, Amal lived in many different communities attended many different schools. She has friends across the globe which as a whole she considers home. She loves meeting new people and enjoys the company of intellectuals. Amal's passions include educating the youth and helping those in need of guidance.
She believes that positivity & smart work is what will keep our society growing in the future.

Tarek Amin

Founded the first online recruitment and career development portal in the MENA region CareerEgypt.com (later became CareerMidEast.com) in 1999, successfully selling the business and becoming a shareholder in Egyptian ICT powerhouse, LINKdotNET.
He then took the responsibility of establishing Connect Ads the first regional online media house. Tarek later joined alkarma edutainment a leading content development and media Production Company, became a partner and served as Managing Director of the company. While with alkarma he started Zanad.tv, a design studio specialized in concept driven commercial animation.
Currently, Tarek is Group Head of Digital in Adline Media Network one of the biggest independent media-marketing networks with strong local operations in all major Arab markets.
Besides his experience in founding and managing traditional and digital media companies he is also the Executive Producer and Show runner of the first Arab youth drama series “Aljami3a – The University” and the first thriller drama series “Abwab El Khof – Doors of Fear” both acquired by MBC for regional airing.
With a passion in creating and nurturing a vibrant ecosystem for entrepreneurship, Tarek served as a mentor, advisor and speaker in numerous events and networks including Seedstartup.com, startupweekend.org (Cairo/Dubai), and arabnet.me amongst others, and continues to mentor startups and founders from different parts of the world every day.

Mohammed Reda Zahrani

Information Technology (IT) Specialist with more than eight years experience in website design, software development and enterprise computer systems management. Prior to joining Innovation Machine, he managed Netflow, an IT and Internet solutions firm, in addition to working with a variety of organizations in the financial and retail industries.With a Masters in Networks & Information Systems engineering, along with expertise in Web 2.0 technologies and graphic design, Reda is a versatile and valuable member of the the Innovation Machine team. As Director of Awesome, he is in charge of the company’s online presence and corporate network, as well as providing assistance in the area of Innovation Technology Enablers for clients.

Michael Andersen

Osama Ghanim

A Senior Innovation Strategy Consultant with accumulative experience of 23 years out of which 15 years in Senior Business positions with extensive involvement in Innovation, Strategy Consultation and Strategic planning Strategies. Originally achieved sound achievements in the Information Technology & the eBusiness fields.
Professional and passionate trainer since 1983 in various technology and management subjects yet selective to suite the time we live in. Always ahead of time to bring what the future hides to our market.
Developed the “Innovation Climate Model”, a universal new and brave attempt to gather all spectrum of Innovation of all types for any organization.
Author of the book “Building Innovation and Creativity atmosphere”.
Main participant in EBTIKARNA (The First Regional INNOVATION Index). EBTIKARNA is the official name for the first regional innovation index for both the private and the public sectors. Basically it measures the level of Innovation readiness, practices and accomplishments and brings the result through an index that reflects and measures the Innovation through scientific means. The index was developed over years of hard work of many experts in the field of Systematic Innovation and after looking at all similar experiences and initiatives internationally and after tailoring to suite the status of the regional organizations.
B.sc Electronic Engineering from Kuwait University in 1985. MBA from Phoenix University in USA. Preparing Phd. In Innovation Management field.

Dr. Christiane Schloderer

Christiane has 10 years of experience in multinational corporations, in Europe and in the Middle East. She worked in corporate finance on large debt transactions and was member of a Middle East leadership team where she evaluated business cases. Currently, she is a turnaround manager, bringing projects back to profitability, improving processes and developing teamwork and communication. Christiane is also a co-founder at MindTalk, an Emirati led company started at Startup Weekend Dubai, October 2011, offering live events through the internet. Furthermore, with her company myidea-campus she offers support for entrepreneurs and SMEs with coaching, consulting and enabling programs. She has a diploma in business administration and a doctoral degree in creativity, innovation and change management.

Jon Karlsson

The Entirety. The complete picture. From the moment an idea is born until it is realized and put into production. This is the journey that Jon loves to do, over and over again.
"I want to be involved in the Board room, talking with the client, helping them to formulate and concretize their vision and their goals and then including them on the journey that will transform their ideas into a finished product," says Jon. "Design and User Experience is present in all aspects of a project so it is important for me to me to be present where these discussions take place – be it with the steering group, designers, developers, testers, marketers or end user.”

During his years as Designer and Strategist Jon has helped clients in a variety of industries to create successful solutions for everything from mobile phones, international e-commerce sites, customized internal systems to interface for TVs.

Jon is often seen as a lecturer or key note speaker in seminars and various conferences. Recently, he has spoken at various locations on "Designing for mobility - how to succeed with your mobile applications”.

Yousef Hamza

Yousef is an associate with Envestors and has advised over 1,000 entrepreneurs, assisting in legal, strategic and local aspects and as a key liaison within the firm. Envestors is a regional Business Angel Network which has advised and raised finance for 7 start-up/growth companies for just over $10 Million, with a further $6 Million offered to four additional companies in the last 6 months alone. They have also actively advised on larger M&A deals, including the raising of finance for projects totaling over $150M.

Yousef Hamza was educated in Kuwait and the U.A.E, followed by a law degree from the University of Cardiff in the U.K. Having interned with several multinational legal firms working on a portfolio of projects, he then worked for one of the top 3 local law firms with a 40 year history in Abu Dhabi, where he helped further develop Sukuk structures, assisted companies in gaining the Sheikh Khalifa Excellence Award and as part of a team within the firm gave strategic advice on weathering the current financial crisis from a business development and strategy angle.

Yasser Al-Jundi

Yasser Al-Jundi is currently the Manager of Google Technology User Group in Dubai (Dubai-GTUG) . Dubai GTUG was the first GTUG in the GCC region. He is also a senior Software Engineer at Technolous, a promising startup founded in 2011 in Dubai. He graduated in 2009 from the American University of Sharjah (AUS) with a Computer Science degree, where he was the Chair of the IEEE Student Branch at AUS. Google APIs, Java, Python and Android are some of his passion and interest.