Mentor Network | cewas Middle East

Kareem Hassan

(BENAA)

Kareem Hassan is an international innovation expert and sustainability entrepreneur. He is currently the managing director of “BENAA Foundation” which aims at building the capacities of the youth in order to buildup sustainable WASH projects in Egypt. He is also a lecturer and researcher at Zewail University for Science and Technology.

He got his Bachelor of Agricultural and Biological Engineering at Ain Shams University (Egypt), M.Sc. of Environmental Engineering at the American University in Cairo, and Project Management Program in the field of sustainable development at Cewas (Switzerland).

He worked as a researcher in the field of environmental engineering at King Saud University (Saudi Arabia), the University of Duisburg-Essen (Germany), The American University in Cairo, and Eawag – the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Switzerland).

Kareem has initiated and led more than 40 projects, including knowledge production, capacity building, and participatory innovation. He established Egypt’s first national research and innovation center for appropriate technologies of energy, water, and environment (NEWEC). In addition to, founding and leading 4 enterprises in the fields of water, agriculture, sustainable architecture, and waste recycling.

Ala'a Abdulla

(Jordan Green Building Council)

Eng. Ala’a Abdulla, Executive Director of the Jordan Green Building Council, named climate champion by the World Green Building Council, and the youngest Director of the Green Building Councils worldwide. She has a back ground in Mechanical Engineering, starting off as a service engineer at Kia motors, and making her way up with impressive speed, touching upon many fields and industries within her professional career, and her work ranging from training, planning, staff development, service and human resources development, and capacity building.

Eng. Ala’a has gained solid expertise in integrating business and organizational processes all within the past 14 years, evolving from her volunteering work with different entitles as a board member, core team member and a mentor. She has proven her brilliance in communication and negotiation skills, an epitome of essence and an inspiration to many that she has spread among hundreds of avid individuals whom she has trained over the years as a certified trainer, producing strong leaders of this generation.

It is the success and achievement, derived from her vision of improvement and growth of institutions that make Eng. Ala’a a unique player amongst young leaders of this modern world. It is her belief in each individual around her and the uplifting support she provides, that translates her values and quality, bringing about fantastic management and quality, resulting in the accomplishments that she has always sought.

Lara Nassar

(SuSanA)

Regional Coordinator – the Sustanable sanitation Allience – WANA Chapter

Alex Miller

(BORDA Wesca)

Regional Director – BORDA Wesca

Samer Talozi

(Jordan University of Science and Technology)

Associate Professor – Jordan University of Science and Technology

Research Gate

Ruba Zubi

(Abdul Hameed Shoman Foundation)

Ruba Al-Zu’bi is leading the Scientific Research Department at Abdul Hameed Shoman Foundation. Through this post, Ruba oversees Scientific Research Support Fund, Arab Researchers Award as well as science-based Innovation support. Prior to joining Shoman Foundation, Ruba served as the first Policy Director at the Ministry of Environment and as the Chief Executive Officer of EDAMA Association for Energy, Water and Environment – the first Jordanian business association in the green technology sector. She also led the Clean Technology Sector Development component at USAID Jordan Competitiveness Program that aimed at enhancing private sector’s competitiveness, creating jobs and increasing exports in the clean energy, solid waste and water management clusters. Al-Zu’bi is active in the NGOs field locally and internationally. She is a founding member of the Jordan Green Building Council and a Plus Social Good Connector with the United Nations Foundation. She was Jordan’s Eisenhower Fellow for 2012 and continues to advocate for green innovation and entrepreneurship throughout her journey. Ruba is a staunch advocate for mainstreaming environment into all development sectors, a strong communicator and change agent, and an engineer who is passionate about linking science to development.

Blog

Kevin Negoro Kasih

(Blackforest Solutions GmbH)

Founder of Blackforest Solutions

Layla Zibar

(BORDA Wesca)

Layla Zibar is a Project Consultant at BORDA-Wesca Iraq Team. She supports Iraq team with different activities related to spreading and activating their knowledge and implementation of Sustainable Decentralised Wastewater Systems in the region . She also supports communication with International and Nation Organisations for joint ventures. She is also responsible for mapping and advising for upcoming opportunities, assistance to administrative and reporting, co-coaching and managing events . Layla got her BA in Architectural Engineering in Syria, MSc. in Architectural Engineering and community building in Egyptt with a focus on refugee camps as temporary cities. Duration her studies, Layla has worked different initiatives, specially related to participatory design and community empowerment. Working in different countries and context, allowed Layla to have a deeper understanding of capacity mobilisation & activation, and develop dialogue platforms between different stakeholders. Her long term goals build on empowering those who take active steps towards betterment , in supporting out the box ideas in the urban development sectors, specially refugee & vulnerable communities, in the MENA region and the world. Layla believes in action research as a multi-faced steps to activating real positive change in challenging environments. In addition to her work at Borda, Layla is also consultant for different initiatives that project-based socio-spatial development and support education for cultural responsibility promotion activates . She is currently PhD researcher/Teacher assistant in architecture & Urban Planning in a dual degree agreement between Germany & Belgium, where she researches refugee camps as urban seeds in Kurdistan of Iraq.

Ramy Boujawdeh

(Berytech)

Ramy Boujawdeh is the Deputy GM of Berytech, leading the Incubation and Entrepreneurship Business Development arm that supports Innovative Lebanese Startups and SMEs, providing Business Support, Mentorship, Coaching, Hosting, Networking and Internationalization and part of Innovation and Entrepreneurship regional programs. He is behind the Agri-Food Innovation Hub: Agrytech Program, focused on sustainable future using tech and innovation. Between 2000 & 2014, Ramy amassed a diversified knowledge in the fields of change management, quality management, operations, as he filled roles in General and Regional Management in Operations, Quality and Change Management in different industries across 3 continents. He is keen on mobilizing his knowledge and connections to the best interest of the people he supports. He advises startups in Lebanon and is an Angel Investor with SEEDERS. Since his return to Lebanon Ramy has been active supporting social causes such as education, agriculture, environment, gender equity and economic development in rural areas. Ramy is also the Vice President of a Lebanese NGO, Rural Entrepreneurs, a Board member on The UNDP’s Together towards Sustainable Development [T2SD] and an Ambassador for the Global Compact Network Lebanon focusing on the SDG #9. He is also a member of the council of representatives at the order of Engineers and Architects. Ramy holds a bachelor’s degree in Agriculture Engineering from AUB, and a Master’s degree in Business Management and Economics.

Tracy El Achkar

(Eco-Sustainable Development)

Civic Awareness and Eco-Sustainable Development

Jamil Moauwad

Past District Governor

Naila Saba, FCIM

(Avoid.Agency)

Passionate about profit for good, and a strong supporter of youth and women entrepreneurs, Naila is a Co-founder and the Chief of Strategy at Avoid, a virtual agency that provides Startups, Entrepreneurs and SMEs with marketing and communication solutions curated by industry experts and is the Program Manager for Entrepreneurship at The Nawaya Network, an innovation and entrepreneurship training for out-of-school and unemployed Lebanese and refugee youth as part of UNICEF Lebanon’s GIL project.

A seasoned mentor specialized in idea and early stage startups, she is a trainer, coach and mentor across the Lebanese ecosystem and is one of The Next Society mentors tasked with supporting entrepreneurship in the Mediterranean.

As part pf her pro-bono commitments, Naila is the Director of Development for Mishwar, an NGO that provides creative programs for refugee youths in North Lebanon.

Lina Tayara

(London based Orient Consulting Services)

Lina Tayara is helping build communication capacity for change makers in the MENA region. She delivered the “Fundamentals of communication” program to 8 cewas companies at Berytech during the summer 2019.

She brings a combination of experience and abilities gained in major corporations in the media, business intelligence and communications practicing in English, Arabic and French.

She is Founder and CEO of London based Orient Consulting Services. She provided marketing communication services to, amongst others: Alta Partners VC, Silicon Valley; Future Media Architects, Kuwait; KAUST, Thuwal; BroadGroup/Institutional Investor, London.

She gained substantial communication cross-disciplinary expertise as:

Mentor delivering an expert’s program to raise awareness on communication practice and guide the planning and preparation of effective activities guided by clear purpose and objectives.
Project Director for WPP @IMCTC Riyadh
Senior Advisor, Corporate Communication for M&C Saatchi World Services @Adaa Riyadh
PR, Reputation & Content Manager @averda, London
Senior Manager, Group Corporate Communication @Qatar Airways, Doha
Director @Kroll, London
Producer @ MBC, London.

Lina participated in numerous training in London with, amongst others, BBC Media Action, Social Enterprise UK and Public Sector Communications Academy.

She gained valuable knowledge and contacts as member of The Institute of Environmental Management & Assessment, Chartered Institute of Public Relations and the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Lina read towards an MA in Film & Television at the University of Westminster. She holds a BA in Business Administration from the American University of Beirut.

Dr. Johannes Heeb

(seecon)

Dr. Johannes Heeb is executive director of seecon international GmbH, based in Switzerland. He is also co-director of cewas, lecturer at the Universities of Basel and Lucerne and has extensive experience in the fields of resource management, Sustainable Sanitation and Water Management (SSWM), development cooperation, as well as regional development. In all fields he has launched lighthouse projects worldwide.

Salam Alkhatib

(African Leadership University )

As a Sustainability Consultant, Salam is working with organizations and industries to build sustainable strategies and monitor their sustainability reporting through compliance with the GRI (Global Reporting Initiative). And conducting Social Impact Assessment for their programs.

Salam also is a Business Mentor with Cherie Blair foundation for
empowering entrepreneurial women globally. One of eco-start-ups which he
worked with, was nominated for the UN-sponsored 3S Award (Sustainable
and Socially-responsible Sourcing) in 2017. And been selected to be a leading Mentor withMowgli Foundation in North Africa.

Dr. Nidal Salim

(GIWEH)

Dr. Nidal Salim is the director and founder of the Global Institute for Water Environment and Health (GIWEH) in Genève, Switzerland and member of the steering committee of Swiss Water Partnership (SWP). Prior to joining the University of Geneva in September, 2002 he worked as a director at the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA), which involved many separate hydrological projects at local and regional scales. Nidal has an extensive bibliography of publications and participates actively in international conferences and workshops.

Dr. Abdelrahman Tamimi

(PHG Palestine)

Dr. Abdelrahman Tamimi is the Director of the Palestinian Hydrology Group for Water and Environmental Resources Development in Palestine.

Mostapha Raad

(Newsweek)

Mostapha Raad is a Lebanese journalist with nearly a decade of experience covering social and environment-related issues. In October 2018, he won 1st place in the International Water Open Eye Award, and received it in the AMWAJ FORUM in Barcelona. He is currently the online editor of Newsweek Middle East’s Arabic website as well as the assistant editor/lead writer for the weekly print magazine, since 2015. Prior to joining NWME, Mr. Raad was the Editor in Chief for “mo5tar.com” for 2 years.

Dr. Maher Abu Madi

(Birzeit University)

Dr. Maher Abu Madi is the Director of the Institute of Environmental and Water Studies (IEWS) at Birzeit University in Palestine.

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