IGNITE Conference 2015
- Introduction
- Speakers
- Workshops
- Photos
IGNITE 2015
THANK YOU for participating in our third IGNITE conference, on November 11th in Amsterdam. It was a delight to welcome so many distinguished guests from all over the world. SPARK is proud to have been able to share an international and leading conference programme with you. With this conference we aim to create a better understanding of doing business in fragile and conflict affected environments, and how we, as development organisations, academic institutions, government bodies and private companies, can better support entrepreneurism and help facilitate a more inclusive business environment in these regions. We look forward seeing you again in 2016!
Schedule
08:15 – 08:45
Registration
08:45 – 09:00
Welcome by Bart Krull – host of the day
09:00 – 09:10
Opening speech by Yannick du Pont
09:10 – 09:25
Keynote by Thierry N’Doufo
09:25 – 09:40
Keynote by Melissa Johns
09:40 – 10:00
Break
10:00 – 11:20
Workshop Round 1
11:20 – 11:35
Coffee Break
11:35 – 12:00
Debate Trade & Aid with Roelof van Laar and Joost Taverne
12:00 – 12:20
Keynote by Christiaan Rebergen
12:20 – 12:40
Presentation Research Competition Winners
12:45 – 13:45
Lunch
13:45 – 14:00
Research Competition Pitch
14:00 -14:20
Keynote by Hania Bitar
14:20 – 14:40
Keynote by Aiad Koudsi
14:40 – 15:00
Keynote by Chid Liberty
15:00 – 15:20
Coffee break
15:20 – 16:40
Workshop Round 2
16:40 – 17:00
Closing Ceremony
17:00 – 18:00
Drinks
Speakers of IGNITE 2015
Thierry N’Doufou
Thierry N’Doufou is an entrepreneur from the Ivory Coast. Thierry is the creator of Qelasy – Africa’s first educational...
Melissa Johns
Melissa Johns is an Advisor in the World Bank Group’s Development Economics, Global Indicators Group. She serves on the...
Christiaan Rebergen
As Director-General for International Cooperation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Rebergen works for the minister for Foreign Trade and...
Aiad Koudsi
After gaining 30 years experience in IT Aiad Koudsi founded MenaScope Consulting, an organisation which provides IT, HR and Consultancy services....
Hania Bitar
Hania Bitar is the founder of the Palestine Youth Association for Leadership and Rights Activation (PYALARA) which supports...
Chid Liberty
Chid Liberty is the co-founder of Liberty & Justice, Africa’s first Fair Trade Certified apparel manufacturer. Chid returned to...
Pieter Feith
Pieter Feith is a Dutch diplomat and crisis management expert. Mr Feith was an International Civilian Representative in...
Mohammed Skaik
Mohammed Skaik is a Senior Entrepreneurship Expert at SPARK. He works on business development in the Middle East fragile...
Roelof van Laar
Roelof Peter van Laar has been a Member of Parliament for the Labour Party (PvdA) since 2013. Van Laar graduated from Miasmal College in Wijchen and continued to...
Toby Abbott
Toby Abbott spent the first half of his career in renewable energy, and the second half in corporate...
Achim Wennmann
Dr. Wennmann of The Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies is an expert in economic perspectives on violent conflict,...
Michael Grimm
Michael Grimm is a Professor of Development Economics at the University of Passau and a Research Professor at...
Eva Morales
Eva is a consultant at The Power of Nutrition, a foundation investing in the prevention of stunting. Prior to...
Ayman Tabbaa
Ayman Tabbaa is a founding member and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Syrian Economic Forum. Mr....
Christopher Sveen
Christopher Sveen is an entrepreneur with a focus on innovative technologies within clean-tech and hi-tech. He is the...
Bart Krull
Bart is a Business Developer at Social Enterprise NL. He has been instrumental in uniting entrepreneurs, researchers, and officials...
Egbert Pos
Egbert Pos is the Burundi and Zimbabwe Programme Manager at the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy and a central figure for NIMD’s...
Lindsey Crouch
Lindsey’s career has focused on facilitating entrepreneurship in challenging contexts. As Mentoring Programme Manager at Virgin Unite, she supports...
Mirwais Momand
Mirwais Momand is founder and CEO of Mido Dairy, which aims to create a sustainable regional dairy chain in...
Roxana and Bogdan Romanica
Roxana and Bogdan Romanica are the winners of IGNITE! 2014’s research competition. They are Project Managers, and both...
Sithabile Mangwengwende
Sithabile Mangwengwende is dedicated to empowering women by connecting female entrepreneurs with the resources to integrate them into...
Andrej Kirn
Andrej Kirn is the Senior Community Manager in the International Organisations and Government Affairs in the World Economic Forum. Mr...
Nasser Al Faqih
Nasser Al Faqih is a UNDP advisor and program designer for economic recovery in crisis settings around the world. Nasser has...
Teddy Kaberuka
Teddy Kaberuka has extensive expertise as a professional consultant working towards the implementation of economic growth in Africa....
Watipaso Mkandawire
Watipaso has over 25 years of experience working in international development in both general and private sector development,...
Richard van Hoolwerff
Richard van Hoolwerff is the Country Manager of SPARK Ivory Coast. He has studied Psychology, Cognitive Science and...
Bernedine Bos
Bernedine Bos is the manager for government and society at MVO Netherlands; a Dutch organization which advocates for CSR....
Mark van Dorp
Mark van Dorp works in the Multinational Corporations in Conflict-Affected Areas programme and the Food and Land programme...
Joost van Engen
Joost co-founded Healthy Entrepreneurs in 2011, establishing a successful franchise concept, with 900 micro-entrepreneurs providing health products and information to...
Emmely Benschop
Emmely Benschop is programme manager at The Hague Academy. Emmely’s area of expertise covers topics such as decentralisation, leadership,...
Budyang Emmanuel Bugga
Budyang Emmanuel Bugga is the founder and director of the first vegetable oil mill factory in South Sudan...
Karst Kooistra
Karst Kooistra is the Sourcing Development Manager at Tradin Organic; which supplies the international food industry with globally sourced...
Michel Botzung
As Manager of Fragile and Conflict Affected Situations of Africa, Michel helps IFC growing its business in these...
Jasper Spikker
Jasper Spikker is SPARK’s Ignite Fund Investment Manager in Rwanda. His main responsibilities include deal sourcing, due diligence and portfolio...
Gemma van der Haar
Gemma is a development sociologist specialising in conflict and post-conflict dynamics. From 2009-2015 she helped manage the IS Academy...
Khaalid Hassan
Khaalid is SPARK’s Country Representative in Somalia / Somaliland. He specializes in facilitating access to finance and private...
Sladjana Ćosić
Sladjana is a Social Development Specialist at the European Investment Bank and has led the development of the EIB’s approach...
William R. Dennis
William is Director of the Business Start-up Center Monrovia, which supports SMEs and Entrepreneurship Development. He received training from Foundation BiD and...
Abrahim Miro
Abrahim advises governments and international organisations on counter terrorism financing and early recovery. He established and managed the Syrian Interim Government’s financial...
Ambassador Musa Kulaklikaya
Musa Kulaklikaya is the Director General of SESRIC and the former Turkish Ambassador to Mauritania. He was formerly president...
Abdelsalam Hajhamed
Dr. Hajhamed is General Director of International Agriculture Cooperation Office (IACO) at the Ministry of Agriculture of the Syrian...
Coen van Haeringen
Coen van Haeringen is a senior expert at PUM, working as country coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Jordan,...
Ben White
Ben is the founder of Venture Capital for Africa (VC4A), an online platform and networking organization connecting the...
Tom Buitelaar
Tom Buitelaar is a Researcher under the Global Governance Program of The Hague Institute for Global Justice, where he...
Oliver Jütersonke
Dr. Oliver Jütersonke is Head of Research for the Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding (CCDP) at the Graduate Institute of...
Raheil Aziz
Raheil Aziz is SPARK’s Country Representative in Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KR-I). He aspires to help economically rebuild the...
Donato Kiniger-Passigli
Donato Kiniger-Passigli is the head of the Fragile States and Disaster Response Group at the International Labour Office (ILO). He...
Aissatou BA
Aissatou is in charge of Advisory Services and Technical Assistance for inclusive private sector development at the AfDB. Aissatou...
François Lenfant
François Lenfant has extensive experience in the conflict transformation sector, having worked previously with Catholic Relief Services, Cordaid, and Oxfam Novib....
Aminata Maiga
Aminata Maiga is Director of the ILO in the DRC, which supports a tripartite constituency in Central Africa (governments, employers’...
Mokhtar Alkhanshali
Growing up as a Yemeni American, coffee was always a part of Mokhtar’s identity. After studying and researching...
Mustafa El Sagezli
As General Manager of the Libyan Programme for Reintegration and Development at SESRIC, Mustafa has overseen Libya’s ex-combatant reintegration programmes, which...
Dr. Eleonora Nillesen
Eleonora is a research fellow at UNU-MERIT in the Netherlands, and holds a PhD in development economics from Wageningen University. She...
Sacha Rwamibango
As Heineken-Brarudi Corporate Affairs Advisor, Sacha is responsible for planning, implementing and monitoring sorghum production as part of...
Lauren Servin
Lauren is SPARK’s country manager in South Sudan, since 2012 and has been managing its Agri-Business Creation programme focused on...
Jörn Fritzenkötter
Jörn is a Carlo Schmid Fellow at the ILO‘s Fragile States and Disaster Response Group. Jörn focuses on post-conflict reconstruction and is...
Gonne Beekman
Gonne Beekman is a development economist at Wageningen UR. She completed her PhD research on the role of local...
Nicola Armacost
Nicola Armacost is a Board Member of MISFA Afghanistan and the Managing Director of Arc Finance, which works to join practitioners,...
Marc de Klerk
Marc works at Oxfam Novib, as part of the Innovation Team, where he is setting-up an investor network for impact companies that are supported by Oxfam’s BDS programmes....
Michael Newson
Michael is a Labour Mobility & Human Development Specialist for MENA in the IOM. Michael has former work experience...
Annemarie van Mossel
Annemarie van Mossel is senior advisor at BiD Network, preparing SMEs in emerging markets for finance. Her experience is...
Johan Te Velde
Johan te Velde is the co-founder and senior consultant at Double Loop Advisors. He conducts capacity building, baseline studies...
Anas Rajab
Anas Rajab is the founder and CEO of ElMzad, an online marketplace for trading domain names and websites....
Karen Reijner
Karen Reijner is a consultant/trainer specialising in M&E large development programmes, and held the position of Interim Director...
Machiel Spuij
Machiel Spuij is an agri-business development specialist, with extensive experience in capacity building and value chain development in...
Alain Prenat
Alain Prenat has over 20 years experience in education and capacity building sector designing, organising and facilitating training...
Dieter Kohn
Dieter Kohn works as Senior Consultant in Sustainable Business Practices at Enculde. Dieter designs and implements large-scale entrepreneurship programmes...
René Kim
René Kim is a founding partner of Steward Redqueen. He has extensive experience in private sector development and socio-economic impact...
Arjen Berkvens
Arjen Berkvens is director of the Foundation Max van der Stoel (FMS), a political foundation based in The Netherlands. The...
Siatta Gardiner-Lewis
Siatta Gardiner-Lewis is the founder of Elohim Printers Inc. a Liberian paper product manufacturer and printing solution provider....
Hervé Berger
After working as a technical specialist and project manager in the private sector Hervé Berger moved into the...
Ghaith Taraben
Ghaith Taraben is Head of the Qatar Red Crescent Society’s Mission in Turkey, working to provide disaster response and...
Shadi Saleh
Shadi Saleh is the founder and managing partner of Caspian Holdings Co., a Liberian company operating in waste...
Marjolein Lem
Marjolein Lem is a managing consultant at Berenschot International. She is an economist, specialising in strategies for international business...
Robert C. Kloosterman
Robert C. Kloosterman is Professor of Economic Geography and Planning at the Universiteit van Amsterdam. He is head of...
Annemiek Stijnen
Annemiek Stijnen works as a consultant in the development of medicines with a focus on pharmaceutical development, manufacturing,...
James Holmes
James Holmes is a passionate believer in impact investing and education for all. He has built companies in...
Bojan Mladenovic
Bojan Mladenovic is the founder of Herc International Doo, a media, internet, cable and VOIP provider based in...
Dr. Abouzkeh Abdalnaser
Dr. Abouzkeh Abdalnaser is Director-general of the Libya Enterprise for Small and Medium Enterprises, and is a member...
Anette Hoffmann
Anette is a Research Fellow in Private Sector Development and Peacebuilding at the Conflict Research Unit of Clingendael. Anette...
This years workshops
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What Businesses Can Do to Support Refugees
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Halmachu! How to Prevent Violent Extremism
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No Internet: Mobile Solutions for Entrepreneurship
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Reconstructing Syria with Vocational Education
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Migrant Entrepreneurship Matters
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Road to Success: Student Services
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Bridging the Gap: Graduation to Employment
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Unlocking Investment for SMEs in Fragile States
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Data for Education and Entrepreneurship
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Watch & Discuss: Global Migration Film Festival
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Selling the Value Chain Story
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New Stories: Syrian Entrepreneurs outside Syria
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Sustainable Development Zones: The Libyan Case
Video
Watch the IGNITE 2015 video
Photos of Ignite 2015
Doing Business in Fragile States