1)
Ali Ahmad,
PhD, MPhil, MSc, SFHEA, FEEUK
Associate Professor
WMG, University of Warwick, United Kingdom
Ali is an Associate Professor at WMG, University of Warwick, a Senior Fellow of the HEA and a Fellow of Enterprise Educators UK. He has an MSc in Information Systems from the London School of Economics, an MSc in Management Research from University of Oxford's Said Business School and a PhD in Entrepreneurship from Dublin City University. He has a decade's worth of experience in teaching and scholarship in the areas of entrepreneurship and innovation. His articles on technology and business incubation, social innovation and entrepreneurship are regularly published in reputable international journals. Sage recently published a teaching text titled "Entrepreneurship in Developing & Emerging Economies" with him as lead author.
His teaching, research and consulting activity is spread across Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and India. He has supervised over 100 final year student projects, has co-supervised 2 PhDs to completion and is co-supervising two PhDs presently in the areas of research commercialization mechanisms in developing and emerging economies. He also started up three ventures in Pakistan as CEO, and prides himself on having first-hand experience of doing entrepreneurship in a developing country context.
2)
Bachir EL MURR,
PhD
Full professor
Lebanese University, Lebanon
Holding a Doctorate in Economic Sciences from Montpellier University-France, actually professor at the Lebanese University, Faculty of Economic sciences and Business, Section II, member of the Scientific Committee of the Doctoral School of law, political, administrative and economic sciences at the Lebanese University, and member of the Academic Technical Committee in the Lebanese Ministry of Education and Higher Education.
Occupied the responsibility of director of the business department for six years at the AL-Kafaat University (founder of the Business faculty), and teacher’s representative for four years, and lately head of the economic sciences department at the faculty of Economic Sciences and Business - Section II - at the Lebanese University.
Worked on several statistical projects and economical studies with national (Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Social Affairs) and international organizations (NGOs, UNESCO, World Bank).
Team Leader of many projects, particularly related to the implementation of the VAT in Lebanon, education finance reform, youth policy, Arab universities curricula valuation, the value added of the industrial and services sectors, monetary and budgetary policy, banking strategies and economic growth, profitability and commercial margin of the imported goods, education and employment markets, human resources management in the Lebanese firms, financial literacy and individual performance, housing policy,...
Has large experience in energy and environment domain and participated in a research work developed in CREDEN Laboratory, France. Familiar with models set up and testing, technical and statistical tools, survey implementation process, database treatment, statistical analysis, and several database software.
3)
Jassem Ahmad,
PhD, FRSA, SFHEA
Associate professor
Middlesex University London, United Kingdom
Jas Ahmad is Associate Professor at Middlesex University Business School in London (UK). He is an internationally experienced academic, executive and consultant with cross-industry experience in sectors such as transportation/logistics, oil & gas, financial services, pulp & paper, business services and FMCG. He is a non-executive director in the UAE and acts as trusted advisor to early stage enterprises in the UK.
Jas has been a visiting lecturer in Hungary, Malaysia, Netherlands, Pakistan, and the UAE and sits on the editorial board of the International Journal of Business Performance Management. He is currently engaged in business-level strategy; two-way industry-academia knowledge transfer; governance and managing the intersection of innovation, learning and entrepreneurship.
4)
Naji Sfeir,
PhD
Assistant Professor
University Saint Esprit Kaslik, Lebanon
Dr. Sfeir is the executive manager for Lamedina Hotel and I.C.U Trading Marketing consultant. He has an extensive experience in the hotel management industry being it at a national or regional levels. He is as well an established academic where he served as a president for LCU, head of department and lecturer at various higher education institutions in Lebanon, Paris, Cyprus and Brussels. He is a member of the Syndicate of Tourism Associations.
5)
Nicholas O’Regan,
PhD, FAcSS, FBAM
Associate Dean, Research
Aston University, United Kingdom
Conference Keynote Speaker
Nicholas is Professor in Strategy at Aston Business School, and Associate Dean- Research for the College of Business and Social Sciences. After completing his Phd in Strategy and Leadership at Middlesex University, he has held appointments as Professor of Strategy at Middlesex University, Professor of Strategy, Enterprise and Innovation, and Associate Dean for Research and Innovation at Bristol Business School. Prior to a career in academia, Nicholas was the youngest local authority Town Clerk & Chief Executive in Ireland followed by a number of senior and chief officer position in UK Local Government.
Prior He is an experienced strategist, bridge builder, business broker and entrepreneur, comfortable in both academic and business environments and with a depth of experience of operating in a fluid, complex and challenging environment. Throughout his career, he has inspired, led and managed teams of all types and sizes. He is adept at working with all levels of management and able to upload and download information key to the smooth running of an organisation with discretion, understanding and gravitas. Throughout he has adhered to a constant objective; to be a catalyst for revelation, actions and results through finding solutions and thinking laterally.
6)
Pedro TEIXEIRA,
PhD
Associate Professor - Faculty of Economics
Director - CIPES - Centre for Research in Higher Education Policies
University of Porto, Portugal
Director of CIPES - the Center for Research in Higher Education Policies and Professor at the Faculty of Economics at the University of Porto. He has served as an adviser on Higher Education and Science to the President of Portugal since April 2016. He was Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs at the University of Porto (2014-208) and was also a member of Portugal’s National Council of Education (2014-2018). He has also served on the evaluation panels for the European University Association (EUA) and the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA). He is also a member of the Board of Governors and Secretary General of the Consortium of Higher Education Researchers (CHER), a Research Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), and an Associate Researcher of the Program for Research on Private Higher Education (PROPHE).
7)
Zaher Sharara,
DBA, CSCP
Assistant Professor
Notre Dame University, Lebanon
After receiving a BS degree from American University of Beirut, Zaher received a Master of Science (Polymer and Food Science) from University of Florida in 1987 and an MBA in International Marketing from University of California at Irvine in 1996. Worked for ten years in USA (1989-1999), first at Dow Chemical Company in Research & Development, and then at ConAgra Foods in Market Research. From 2000 to 2003 worked in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait in Marketing Management.
From 2004 to present, taught at leading universities in Lebanon the following topics: Marketing Management, Business Strategy, Supply Chain Management, and Operations Management. Also provided training to professionals and managers in the same topics (in Lebanon and Gulf region). In 2012, became a Certified Supply Chain Professional (CSCP) from APICS Association in Chicago, USA.
Received a Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA) from Grenoble Ecole de Management in 2019, where the research topic was: Supply Chain Visibility as Strategic Dynamic Capability (the case of Zara).