Arya Sitara Bhardwaj

Founder of Krypto for Kids has been with Women Investing in Women Digital for over 7 years, since its inception. She has travelled across Asia, the Middle East, Scandinavia, The Caribbean, and North America attending international conferences and summits where she has been both an active observer and participant. Arya was also involved in over 100+ radio productions for Women Investing in Women Girls Radio Show on The State of Women Radio Network that are now featured on Voice America Kids, ACAST, and iTunes. Moreover, she was the youngest participant last year in the Code-a-Bot: AI and Robotics Summer Camp with ID Tech at the University of California Irvine where she learned how to program her own Cozmo. She will be leading the LIVE Bitcoin Rig Construction YouTube Video Demo during our global launch of Krypto for Kids along with Max Sindall who will be joining us from The Sultanate of Oman. Little Miss Bhardwaj is a ballerina/hip-hop dancer, crypto enthusiast, chess player (somewhat competitively), enjoys Nintendo Switch, surfing, and is a black diamond, downhill skier when not being a super funny second grader.

Shaikha Dr. Alia Humaid AlQassimi

Social development Expert – Community Development Authority

Obstetric & gynecologist specialized in aesthetic gynecology – AlGarhoud Private Hospital

Shaikha Dr. Alia Humaid AlQassimi, is a social development expert at the Community Development Authority. Her main duties consist of providing expert leadership & direction by articulating Dubai Gov. vision to CDA strategic business units and creating actions towards the achievement of CDA corporate goals. Prior to that, Al Qassimi was the Acting CEO of the Social Care & Development Sector in Dubai’s Community Development Authority (CDA).  She led a core sector represented by five main departments: Family Cohesion, Elderly, Social Cohesion, Disability and the vulnerable groups by developing high standard programs that ensure availability and access to services in the community.

AlQassimi   joined CDA in 2014 as Director of the Social Care & Inclusion Department, with a Bachelor Degree in Medicine and Surgery from Dubai Medical College (DMC) and Masters in Healthcare Management from the Royal College Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI), she has also been certified as a Chief Innovation Officer (CCIO) by Boston College. In addition to her position, AlQassimi is an Obstetric Gynecologist practicing in Al Garhoud Private Hospital in Dubai and is the first emirati as a senior member in the European Society of Aesthetic Gynecology delivering innovative techniques.

AlQassimi’s efforts and hard work was the reason she was appointed for several renovation and development projects nationally and internationally. She has recently been appointed by H.H Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum – crown prince of Dubai- to the board of directors of Dubai Autism Center. She is a founding board member of Friends Of Cancer Patients(FOCP), and a founding board member of the Royal College Of Surgeons in Ireland Alumni Dubai chapter where her portrait has been chosen as the first to be raised on the College “Leaders with an impact” wall.  She was selected amongst women leaders to participate in the Women Leadership Exchange Program between UAE and Sweden, and was an elected board member of the Women for Sustainable Growth (W4SG)-an International NGO.

Dr. AlQassimi -in addition to being a public figure and mother of five- has won “Inspirational Woman of The Year 2016” by the Arab Woman Award, and “Woman Leader in community Development Excellence Award” category of the 17th Middle East Women Leaders Excellence Award in 2017. Shaikha Dr.Alia AlQassimi is a graduate of Mohammed Bin Rashid Centre of Leadership Development  Impactful Leaders Program & an assessor of Mohammed Bin Rashid Government Excellence Award 2018.

Anousheh Ansari

Anousheh Ansari is a CEO of the XPRIZE Foundation, the world’s leader in designing and operating incentive competitions to solve humanity’s grand challenges. Ansari, along with her family, sponsored the organization’s first competition, the Ansari XPRIZE, a $10 million competition that ignited a new era for commercial spaceflight.  Since then, she has served on XPRIZE’s Board of Directors.

Prior to being named CEO of XPRIZE, Ansari served as the CEO of Prodea Systems, a leading Internet of Things (IoT) technology firm she co-founded in 2006, and continues to serve as the executive chairwoman. She captured headlines around the world when she embarked upon an 11-day space expedition, accomplishing her childhood dream of becoming the first female private space explorer, first astronaut of Iranian descent, first Muslim woman in space, and fourth private explorer to visit space.

Ansari serves on the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Future Council and has received numerous honors, including the WEF Young Global Leader, Ellis Island Medal of Honor, and STEM Leadership Hall of Fame, among others. She is a UNESCO Good Will Ambassador and serves on the board of Jabil and Peace First, as well as several other not-for-profit organizations focused on STEM education and youth empowerment.

Ansari also co-founded The Billion Dollar Fund for Women, announced earlier this month at the Tri Hita Karana (THK) Forum on Sustainable Development in Bali, Indonesia, with a goal of investing $1 billion in women-founded companies by 2020.

She published her memoir, My Dream of Stars, to share her life story as inspiration for young women around the world.

Ansari holds a BS in electronics and computer engineering from George Mason University, an MS in electrical engineering from George Washington University; and honorary doctorates from George Mason University, Utah Valley University, and International Space University.

Vera Futorjanski

Innovation Director, 500 Startups

Vera is the Innovation Director for the global Venture Capital firm 500 Startups and is in charge of the Middle East region and Russia. She advises Corporates and Governments on Innovation and helps them build thriving ecosystems. Vera is also a strong female empowerment supporter and a social impact advocate. Vera serves as a Global Ambassador and Mentor for Vital Voices, a Hillary Clinton and Madeleine Albright NGO that works with women leaders. She is a founding member of the Dubai Future Accelerators, an initiative of Dubai Government to accelerate innovation. Prior to that, Vera was the Founder of a tech startup for one of Rocket Internet’s tech ventures in MENA. Before that Vera ran the global communications for Rocket Internet during the IPO, the largest tech IPO in Germany in a decade. Before her career in the tech and innovation world, Vera completed her MSc at the London School of Economics and worked as a political consultant in the European Union in Brussels. Vera has lived in 10 countries and is fluent in five languages.

Danielle Kayembe

Danielle is a female futurist and serial entrepreneur who works on projects at the intersection of women, tech and social impact. Through her company GreyFire, she advises female founders on scaling their businesses and raising capital, and connects companies to ecosystems of underrepresented founders. Danielle was a founding partner in Tour of Tech: Lagos, an initiative to bring investors from Silicon Valley (TechStars, 500 Startups, Wingpact) to tour growing tech hubs in Africa. Danielle is an advisor to social impact startups and a mentor to Columbia University’s business accelerator, she has lectured at Yale School of Management, Barnard College's Athena Program and Princeton University. Danielle is an Ariane de Rothschild Fellow for 2018, awarded to 20 Global Social Impact Entrepreneurs each year. She is a frequent speaker on topics related to women, social impact and technology on CNBC, at the United Nations, TEDx, Google, General Assembly and other events, and has been featured in Forbes and Refinery29. She is also the author of "The Silent Rise of the Female-Driven Economy" a white paper on women and the future of business and innovation.

Hoda Abou-Jamra

Founding Partner

TVM Capital Healthcare

Hoda Abou-Jamra has forged a successful investment career in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, driven by her previous experience in U.S. and European pharma and life science business development, as well as fundraising for U.S. and European life science investment firms. She was the driving force behind the establishment of the firm in the MENA region from 2007 onwards and co-founded TVM Capital Healthcare in 2009. TVM Capital Healthcare, Dubai and Singapore, is a globally active specialist investment company, investing in healthcare companies that transform the way how healthcare is delivered to make healthcare better, more cost-effective, faster and more accessible. She currently holds a board position at Manzil Healthcare Services, a dedicated provider of professional home care and home nursing services headquartered in Abu Dhabi. She is the Group CEO of Bourn Hall International, a chain of fertility clinics in the UAE, the international arm of renowned Bourn Hall Clinic in the UK, who invented the IVF procedure.

Hoda is a regular speaker and commentator in the regional private equity and healthcare arena and an advocate of and passionate about social impact investing and promoting diversity. Hoda’s earlier career focused on business development in the life science and healthcare industry in the U.S. and Europe. Before co-founding TVM Capital Healthcare, she was the CEO of Boston BioCapital, a Boston based company that provided strategic advice, due diligence services, business plan conception, business development and fundraising services for start-up and spin-offs from the U.S. and European biotech industry. In 2005, Hoda opened Boston BioCapital Dubai to support U.S. and European life science and healthcare investors to raise capital in the Middle East. This company went on to be the nucleus around which TVM Capital Healthcare emerged from 2007 onwards until its formation in 2009. She graduated from the Bouve College of Health Sciences, Northeastern University, Boston, with a degree in Pharmacy.

www.tvmcapitalhealthcare.com

Ebba Charlotta Mantell

Ebba Charlotta Mantell, a Swedish entrepreneur CEO and Founder of Studio Heartbear. She invented  Myheartbear a teddy bear that you with your own heartbeat. The vision is to make children in the world to feel more secure and loved.

Adrianne WEIR

Connector and passionate champion for female founders, Adrianne co-founded Medolac in 2009 with her serial entrepreneur mother Elena Medo after she spent more than a decade in healthcare. Having previously developed a national network of human milk banks, Adrianne has strong market instincts with a focus on innovations with a global market reach. She is driven to improve access and expand use of lifesaving human milk products. Adrianne participated in The Circular Board and Cindy Whiteheads’s Pinkubator business accelerators, and has been consistently recognized for her entrepreneurship in the media and through participation in events like The Circular Summit, Dell Women’s Entrepreneurship Network (DWEN) and Silicon Valley Comes to Oxford. As an early innovator in the human milk market, Adrianne was one of the first employees at Prolacta Bioscience, founded by Elena Medo. Prior to human milk banking, Adrianne worked in product development and manufacturing for leading companies in the apparel industry.

Amanda J. Parkes, PhD

Dr. Amanda Parkes is a fashion scientist with over 13 years of experience in wearable technology, interaction design, robotics, smart materials and fashion innovation spanning research, development, and product commercialization for start ups and major tech and fashion companies. She is currently the Chief Innovation Officer of Future Tech Lab, a hybrid experimental lab, investment fund and agency focused on the future of sustainable and interactive fashion and material design. As an academic, she servers as a Visiting Scientist at the MIT Media Lab and an Adjunct Professor in the Columbia University Department of Architecture. She received a PhD & M.S. in Tangible Media from the MIT Media Lab and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and a B.A. in Art History from Stanford University. She is an international speaker & lecturer including TED, DLD, PSFK, the World Economic Forum and the New York Times International Luxury Conference. She has been named to the Business of Fashion 500 People Shaping the Global Fashion Industry, Vanity Fair’s 8 Wildest Women of Silicon Valley, The Glossy 50: Fashion’s Digital Front Runners, a Verizon Pioneer of Humanability and as one of Alleywatch’s 10 Most Influential People in Fashion Technology.