Michel has held field positions in North Africa, the Middle East, India and more recently in Nairobi, whilst with the International Finance Corperation. Throughout Michel’s career, and in his current position as FCS Manager for Africa,  he has focused on developing tailored advisory proposals to help IFC’s clients deepen relationships with the local economy, improve governance and increase compliance with IFC’s Business Standards.

Dr. Obay Said Al-Dewachi is the University President of Mosul University in Iraq. Dr. Al-Dewachi holds a Master degree in Agricultural and Food marketing from the Newcastle upon Tyne University, England. Furthermore, he has a Ph.D. in Marketing from Clermont Fd. University, France. Dr. Al-Dewachi has been leading Mosul University during the past years and managed to keep the education going in alternative places because the university was taken in by the Islamic State.

Wissam fled Syria and arrived in the Netherlands in 2014. Wissam has a graduated degree in fine arts – artist/painter and graphic designer. He possess 17 years’ experience as Creative Director/Art Director and TVs’ Director in advertising and marketing. Furthermore, Wissam has 8 years management experience in advertising, marketing and PR. He shares his knowledge and talents to facilitate change for newcomers in the Netherlands.

Prof. Tilman Brück is the Founder and Director of International Security and Research Center (ISDC) in Berlin and Team Leader of Development Economics at Leibniz Institute of Vegetable and Ornamental Crops (IGZ), Germany. Brück is also the Co-Founder and Co-Director of the ‘Households in Conflict Network (HiCN)‘, a global research network studying the intersections of conflict and development at the micro-level.

Amina is the Director of Capabel & Imko Educations. Amina has years of experience in management and started her carrier at Capabel & Imko eight years ago. Capabel language has successfully participated in over 20.000 language projects. Furthermore, Capabel initiates vocational educations with extra focus on language and training. Amina her passion lies within (language) education because it enables people to follow a path towards a better life.

Eefje is a storyteller and co-founder of the journalism production company Prospektor. She is also one of the initiators of De Asielzoekmachine (The Asylum Search Engine) – a cross-media project that investigates the complex world of Dutch asylum policy and offers citizens an opportunity to participate. It consists of a series of events and meetings, exhibitions, an online documentary, a TV documentary and a three-part radio documentary.

Fathi Al Mudaris is Senior Advisor of Economic Relations at the Kurdish Ministry of Trade and Industry. He holds an education in English Language and has previously worked as an English translator in KLA – A British NGO in Erbil. Fathi participates regularly in workshops where he shares his experiences. During the IGNITE Conference, he will clarify why higher education and job creation in Iraq/KRD is currently highly needed.

Marc is the Regional Director for Eurasia and South Asia at the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) in Washington, DC. He oversees field offices in Ukraine, Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as projects across Eastern Europe, the Balkans, Eurasia, and South Asia. He has particular expertise in the areas of anticorruption, entrepreneurship, women’s economic empowerment, and corporate social responsibility, among others.

Nataliia Zhuhai is the Program Officer at the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) Representative Office in Ukraine. She possess over fifteen years of working experience in the areas of public policy, SME development, and journalism. She managed a range of technical assistance projects in Ukraine focused on small and medium-sized businesses development including those who were displaced by the conflict in the East of Ukraine.

Jean-Michel is CEO of Investisseurs et Partenaires (I&P), an impact investing and private equity firm, which focuses on small and medium-sized enterprises and microfinance institutions in Africa. He now works on implementing the theories developed in his book, Africa’s Moment, which he co-authored. Jean-Michel also serves as a member of the UN General Secretary’s eminent persons’ panel on the post 2015 agenda.

Valentina holds a PhD in Public Policy from the University of Chicago. She is a First Economic Affairs officer, in the Division for Conflict and Emerging issues of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UN ESCWA). Before joining ESCWA, she worked as a Consultant for UNICEF in New York and the World Bank in Washington DC. Her research focuses on the impact of conflict and displacement on development at the micro level.

Fernado holds a PhD in Econometrics from the University of Geneva. He is a First Economic Affairs officer, in the Division for Conflict and Emerging issues of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UN ESCWA). He has written a number of papers quantifying the neighborhood effects of conflicts, and its policy implications.

Stephanie Deubler has been working for Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) since 2009. After two years working on private sector promotion in rural areas in Cambodia, she joined the Sector Project Migration and Development at GIZ headquarters in Eschborn in 2011, where she is focusing on diaspora entrepreneurship. Since 2015 she has also been working for the GIZ Global Programme Refugees.

Barthout is a Managing Partner at XSML, a frontier market fund-manager active in DR Congo, Central African Republic and Uganda. Barthout works with entrepreneurs in portfolio companies to grow and improve their businesses. Since 2011, XSML has invested in 40 small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in sectors including healthcare, education, retail and services, so far creating about 500 jobs and returning some 30% of capital of the first fund to investors.

Alban started working as a researcher at Riinvest Institute in 2006 after spending some time in the banking sector. Since 2010, Alban holds the position of Research Director at Riinvest Institute. He also lectures economics at the university. He holds a graduate degree in economics from Prishtina University and post-graduate and doctoral degree in economics from Staffordshire University in the UK.

Aki is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Bremen. In her research activities, she focuses on various aspects of entrepreneurial activities by migrants, diaspora and refugees in transnational settings. In the previous years, she has been offering research seminars on diaspora entrepreneurship at the University of Bremen. She is also a co-organizer of the International Conference on Migration and Diaspora Entrepreneurship (MDE).

Abouzkeh is Director-general of the Libya Enterprise for Small and Medium Enterprises, and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Committee on Capital Markets Authority in Libya. He worked formerly the financial advisor to the Minister of Economy in Libya. He holds a BA and MA in Accounting and a PhD in Philosophy in Accounting & Finance.

Dia, holds a PhD in Nuclear Engineering, and currently works as  GIZ Libya Country Representative. He oversees the support of municipalities on the migration route and supporting Libya in Economic Integration, Diversification and Sustainable Development. Dia is also Deputy Director of Alyrad SME Fund Board of Directors, Advisor to Libya Enterprise (SME authority of Libya) and a Consultant to Renewable Energy Authority of Libya.

Sascha is working at Cordaid Investment Management BV (CIMBV) as Manager Responsible Investment & Social Impact. For 15 years she has worked in the international development sector, with a special focus on responsible investment and impact investment during the last 8 years. In 2008, Sascha joined Cordaid and played a leading role in formalising social performance and impact evaluation in its investments process.

Dr. Ahmed Dezaye is the University President of Salahaddin University in Erbil, Irak/KRD and the former general director of Scholarship and Cultural Relations at the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research. He succeeded various educations of which an awarded PHD in Chemistry in Sydney. Furthermore, Dr. Dezaye has published over 14 papers concerning subjects within education and development.

Dr. Ahmed Dikhil is professor at Tikrit University in Irak/KRD and has a PHD in Public Law with a special major in Financial Law. Furthermore, he published various articles about his Financial Law and wrote two books, ‘Racial of Legal Rule in the Taxable Legislation’ and ‘Public Finance from a Legal perspective’. Ahmed will focus on his experiences of working at a university in times of conflict during the ‘Universities in the Centre of War’ workshop.

Nasser Al Faqih is a UNDP advisor and program designer for economic recovery in crisis settings around the world.  Nasser has experience in the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) and the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committee in the areas of agricultural revitalization, youth and women economic empowerment and entrepreneurship.

Warda Dirir is the co-founder of Innovate Ventures, the leading start-up accelerator and technology fund in Somaliland and Somalia. She and her team have been running coding camps, incubator and accelerator programmes in the region for the past few years. She has an MBA from Imperial College London and over eight years’ experience working as a Project and Product Manager with blue chip clients in the UK.

In 2015 Rasheed founded the Yemen Mocha Coffee for Exporting to support Yemeni farmers access business opportunities in the domestic market. Rasheed’s business brings Ismaili coffee (a type of coffee that is difficult to source) into the variety of coffee shops in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa. It was through attending SPARK’s business support programmes that Rasheed’s business vision became a reality two years ago. He now hopes to reach out to international markets.

Tarek el-Ghyriane is one of Libya’s leading professionals supporting youth entrepreneurs in eastern Libya. As Libya Enterprise Manager of Benghazi University Incubator, he has acquired much experience and regional knowledge dealing with opportunities and challenges confronting local entrepreneurs seeking to get their businesses operational. As a Tatweer associate, Tarek also leads a solar energy project proposal competing for MIT consulting and funding. Tarek el-Ghyriane is a well-recognized member of Benghazi society with a strong political, business and social network.

Heleen Cousijn is a Project Officer at Diversion, an organization that provides social innovation throughout the Netherlands. Diversion develops successful programs to encourage discussion of taboo subjects and sensitivities, particularly in educational settings.

Dr. Eri Park is Assistant Professor of Psychology at University College Roosevelt. Together with Dr. Marcin Sklad, Dr. Park developed a 7 workshop teaching program for middle and high schools based on the TERRA Toolkit (a community approach to Radicalization) to tackle radicalization.

Mohamed Baban has been the Chief Technology Officer at Asia Cell in Iraq for over four years. Before this, he worked as Operations Director and Regional Technical Manager at Asia Cell. Mohamed Baban holds a Bachelor degree in Electrical & Communication Engineering from the University of Technology in Baghdad. Furthermore, Mr. Baban participated in ‘Baghdad Mobile Network’ project, building the first mobile network in Baghdad. Ten years later, he participated in the ‘3G Network’, building the first 3G network in Iraq.

Dr. Thomas Hill is a clinical associate professor at the Center for Global Affairs at New York University’s School of Professional Studies, where he is director of the Initiative for Peacebuilding through Education. He oversees the peacebuilding concentration within the Master of Science in Global Affairs (MSGA) program. Dr. Hill is a peacebuilding practitioner and researcher with more than a decade of experience focusing on Iraq; since 2003, he and has made more than 35 visits to Iraq and has overseen design, development and implementation of a series of inter-related research and educational projects focused on increasing levels of peacefulness in Iraq.

Dr. David Connolly is Head of Research at The Hague Institute for Global Justice. He oversees a wide range of policy-relevant research projects, and specializes in the local governance of war-torn contexts. Dr. Connolly is a specialist in local governance and has extensive experience working with the United Nations and other entities on education, urban security, and political reform in preventing violence and reconstruction after conflict. He has worked extensively in Africa, the Middle East and Central and South East Asia.

Ayman Tabbaa is a founding member and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Syrian Economic Forum. Mr. Tabbaa is a businessman was based in Damascus, Syria, where he owned a property development company. Mr. Tabbaa received his bachelor’s degree in business administration in the United States. Prior to owning his property development company, he managed several finance and property development companies. He has spent time living in the United States and Dubai.

Agnese is a Researcher at The Hague Institute for Global Justice. She is involved in a number of projects looking primarily at the role of education in conflict prevention and peacebuilding, urban violence and local governance. She also specializes in economic sanctions and Iran-U.S. relations. Agnese previously worked at the Secretariat of the Knowledge Platform Security Rule of Law as Project Officer and Researcher.

Farooq Burney is the Executive Director of Al Fakhoora, a programme of Education Above All in Doha, Qatar, which works with partners to offer access to higher education for marginalised youth by providing scholarship and empowerment programmes.  EAA are also involved in the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the education sector in Gaza. Mr. Burney has over 15 years of experience in the NGO sector.

Dr. Fady Yarak has been the Director General of Education at the Lebanese Ministry of Education since 2007. He has vast experience in the field of social and economic development, particularly relating to education, health and social services.

Nada Charara is an Assistant Director for Development at the American University of Beirut (AUB). She works closely with various faculties and centers across the university, and helps in building partnerships with alumni, community leaders, institutions, and donors, who share AUB’s mission of creating leaders through transformative education, and creating opportunities for communities across the Middle East. She is involved in several projects related to higher education for refugees, and is a member of the AUB for Refugees committee focusing on outreach and innovative holistic approaches to support education, entrepreneurship, protection, and health services for refugees and marginalized communities.

Kurdo Mohamed fled on age of five from Kurdistan to the Netherlands. 25 years later, Kurdo is an experienced advisor in entrepreneurship. He practices this within Eigen Werk at Municipality of Amsterdam as an expert, guiding refugees who are interested in starting an enterprise. In the past, he has been active in various projects in multiple municipalities in the Netherlands.

Ahmed Altaleb is a second year Civil Engineering student at Gaziantep University, Turkey. When the war started, Amhed was studying at Aleppo University, and had to drop out. Due to the hardships he endured, it took him four years to get back to studying. In 2015, he was awarded with a SPARK Scholarship and started studying again in Turkey. Ahmed chose to study civil engineering because he believes that this will give him the chance to reconstruct Syria soon after the war ends.

Thomas Loudon is the CEO and co-founder of VJ Movement and Cartoon Movement, both organizations that pioneer in online journalism. The beating heart of these media platforms is a global network of professional journalists, who work in line with the company’s motto “There is more than one truth’. Previously Loudon served as Middle East correspondent working as a video journalist, but also contributing to radio, online and print-media in four different languages. He was the first Dutch journalist to be based in Iran after the revolution.