Mr. Feng Deng founded Northern Light Venture Capital (NLVC) in 2005. He currently manages approximately US$ 1.7 billion in committed capital with 4 US$ funds and 4 RMB funds. He has led and backed over 200 companies, focusing on 4 main sectors: TMT (technology, media and telecom), clean technology, healthcare and consumer.
Javier Soltero is Corporate Vice President of Outlook at Microsoft. He leads the team responsible for the vision and strategy of the Outlook client and cloud service on all platforms. A serial entrepreneur, Javier joined Microsoft in 2014 through the acquisition of mobile email startup Acompli, which he co-founded and led as CEO
An Arab Venturesome Investor and Innovator. Roula started at a very young age right after her graduation from the engineering school as an entrepreneur and turned challenges of being a Woman in Tech into opportunities. She founded Netways the pioneer of internet technologies and innovation in the MENA region and successfully grew the company by acquisitions and joint ventures to achieve global reach.
Prashant K. Gulati (PK), is a technology innovator, angel investor, mentor, idea accelerator, and commentator with interests in innovation, startups, entrepreneurship, technology, mobility, wireless, intelligent buildings, online media and more, and is a respected voice and trendspotter for leading edge technological innovation.
Gemma joined Change.org in January 2016, assuming responsibility for the company's General Management globally. She was previously Executive Director of Crisis Action, having joined as the second member of staff in 2006, and led the organization to receive the 2012 MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions and the 2013 Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship.
Rahama Wright is a social entrepreneur working to innovate the shea butter supply chain in West Africa. Her social enterprise Shea Yeleen markets and distributes high quality skincare products, while providing living wages to cooperative members in Northern Ghana. The line of shea butter products is being distributed through 100+ Whole Foods Markets, Amazon.com, and SheaYeleen.com. Shea Yeleen has been featured in various publications and media outlets including O, The Oprah Magazine, Forbes Woman Africa, Voice of America, and CNBC Africa.
John Doerr is a Silicon Valley venture capitalist who knows well you’re only as good as the entrepreneurs you serve. John and his partners at Kleiner Perkins strive every day to find, fund, and accelerate the success of truly disruptive entrepreneurs. John has backed the best – including Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and Eric Schmidt of Google; Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com; and Scott Cook and Bill Campbell of Intuit.
Before the age of 21, Chase traveled, worked, or studied in more than 20 countries around the world. He spent time in private sector intelligence in Washington, helped start a national health program in Haiti, and served in the Peace Corps in Costa Rica. He’s rarely the smartest person in the room, but he’s usually pretty good at figuring out who is.
Tariq Fancy is founder of Rumie, which today brings affordable digital education to remote, underserved communities worldwide ranging from Indian villages to Syrian refugee camps. Prior to founding Rumie in 2013, Tariq spent a long career in finance, starting as an investment banker in the Silicon Valley based group that led the IPOs of Amazon, Google, and Cisco, and later as the youngest partner at a New York Private Equity firm.
I am co-founder of Farmerline, a company that provides improved information access and communication pathways for smallholder farmers and agricultural stakeholders. As a software developer, I have thought through several problems and made choices on workable solutions by leveraging my past experiences in building location-based/GIS and GPS applications, SMS and voice applications, for the agricultural ecosystem in Ghana and beyond.
Aileen is the founder of Cowboy Ventures, a seedstage focused fund that backs tech entrepreneurs reimagining life and work, what they call “life 2.0”. Cowboy Ventures works with a diversity of consumer and enterprise oriented companies including Area1 Security, August, Dollar Shave Club, Lending Home, StyleSeat and Textio.
Leila Janah is the Founder and CEO of Sama and Laxmi, two companies recently highlighted on Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies list that share a common social mission to end global poverty by giving work to people in need. She is also the co-author of America's Moment: Creating Opportunity in the Connected Age, a book by Rework America: A Markle Initiative.
On September 26, 2013, Evan Ryan assumed her position as Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA). In this capacity, she oversees a wide range of academic, cultural, private sector, professional, youth, and sports exchange programs to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries and promote peaceful relations.
Paul Brest is Former Dean and Professor Emeritus (active), at Stanford Law School, a lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, a faculty co-director of the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, and co-director of the Stanford Law and Policy Lab. He was president of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation from 2000-2012.
Mark Walsh is the Office of Investment and Innovation’s new Associate Administrator. Mark has over 30+ years of experience as a technology entrepreneur, manager and investor. Prior to SBA, Mark was executive chairman of Homesnap.com, a “prosumer” platform/app for residential real-estate backed by Revolution Ventures and CEO and Co-founder of GeniusRocket, a leading provider of crowd-sourced marketing for major brands and global non-profits.
Yves Moury is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Fundación Capital. He has spent his life working for the elimination of poverty in Africa and Latin America, utilizing a wealth of expertise in finance, banking, development economics, anthropology and sociology, as well as his on-the-ground experience working with low-income families.
In 2012 Abiodun Afolabi's company started a revolution in Nigeria. A revolution that is spreading from Nigeria to the the rest of Africa as a whole. SB Telecoms and Devices Limited has taken on a very herculean task of challenging and fighting the menace of “AFRICAN TIME” which in Afolabi's opinion is largely responsible for the under development that Africa is plagued with.
Zafer Younis is a partner at 500 Startups, the world's most active early stage tech investor. Previously, Zafer cofounded of The Online Project where his team developed and executed social media strategies for Fortune 500 companies and high profile organizations operating in the Middle East and North Africa.
