Amal Dokhan

Amal is a design thinker and a passionate professional in creating customer centric experiences. She guides established corporates and startups to create innovation & commercialization opportunities through customer focused creative solutions. Amal offers multiple workshops and lectures on Design Thinking following the Stanford d.School methodology and applying IDEO’s practical learning’s as she has experienced it in Stanford with an adaptation to the local market and a customized offering for the organization requirements and needs. Throughout her career Amal gained a diversified range of experience in management and marketing related roles particularly in education and consultancy. Currently, Amal is part of the Entrepreneurship Center in King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in a number of roles including the New Ventures Accelerator & Hikma IP Startup Accelerator & REVelate Corporate Innovation program. She is an internationally sought after inspirational speaker in Design thinking for Startups, Social Innovation & Female Empowerment and Education related conferences like the Spring Board Initiative and Islamic Development Bank Conference in Mozambique & in Startup Istanbul, leading Eurasian Startup Event. Prior to her relocation to the Entrepreneurship Center Amal worked in KAUST Early Stage Seed Fund; where she developed the marketing plan and coordinated the outreach activities, while providing a range of services to startup clients. Amal has previously managed an educational organization; where she designed programs and started several innovative initiatives to be implemented by the educators to improve the mindsets in order to foster creativity in the work place and the educational tools. Amal is also an entrepreneur, who started her own businesses, She was part of a joint venture with a startup in Dubai focused on creating media and production services for clients like Starcom Dubai, Yahoo Dubai and many others. Education: Amal has a Masters in Strategic Marketing from the University of Wollongong in Australia and a Bachelor’s degree in Education from King Abdul Aziz University. During her Masters studies in the University of Wollongong, she was exposed to large organizations and built marketing strategies for several entities such as the Dubai Government, the Kempinski Hotel, Infiniti Cars. Amal also has an executive certificate in Design Thinking from the D-School in Stanford University and she co-authored & published business articles in business books.

Carl Nablo

Carl V. Nablo is the Managing Partner of Ascendency Global and Bison Holdings. The firm is engaged with both Domestic and International Entities in Strategic and Tactical Business Consulting. Mr. Nablo also consults to numerous clients and serves on multiple boards assisting extensively on consulting models, finance, sales, marketing and business development. Mr. Nablo is a lead entrepreneurship mentor at Arizona State University. In addition, Mr. Nablo is a Thought Leader at MAC6 Incubator in Tempe, Arizona and has championed the advocacy of technology and innovation with the recent opening of the MAC6 Manufacturing, Innovation and Technology Center. Mr. Nablo has extensive senior P & L leadership in both public and privately held corporations and entrepreneurial environments. He has lead as CEO, President and COO numerous global industrial, technology and process organizations through strategic change and rapid growth. He has a long-term experience with the acquisition and integration of companies to maximize shareholder value. Mr. Nablo is the co - founder of the Arizona Industrial Manufacturing Group (AMG) whose members support the development of industrial platforms to the state of Arizona. He was recently asked by the White House Urban Economic Forum to serve on a panel on manufacturing. Mr. Nablo holds a B.A from the College of Arts & Sciences at Bucknell University. Industry Areas: Energy, OEM, Industrial goods

Charlie Lewis

Prior to his venture fund experiences, Charlie was vice president of sales and marketing for Tritium Technologies. There he developed the marketing plan and managed the sales process for the company’s digital vibration attenuation products. He also served as International Director for Distribution for ANVT, Inc. In that role, he formulated the North American and European distribution plans and gained key insight into international trade relations. Charlie was a founding partner of Midas Computers in 1984 after graduating from Arizona State University with a B.S. in computer science. The company designed software tools for small retail businesses and was acquired by POS Systems in 1993. Bio: Charlie Lewis manages the creation and growth of new ASU spinout companies for AzTE. Charlie brings 20 years of entrepreneurial and private equity experience to AzTE. Prior to joining AzTE, he served as general partner for two Arizona venture capital funds, Arris Ventures and Paradise ’94. He directed the investment committee responsible for analyzing due diligence findings and appropriating more than $25 million in private capital with an emphasis on early-stage technology companies. During that time, he was involved in the acquisition of three portfolio companies, one by a public corporation (NYSE: IDR).

Frank Devitt

Dr. Frank Devitt has worked over thirty years in technology businesses in Ireland and Europe as engineer, engineering manager, general manager, marketing and sales director, CEO and entrepreneur. He has founded a number of technology businesses and remains a director of some. Most of his business development career has been directed towards European and US markets, in industrial automation and military sectors. Frank is currently at National University of Ireland Maynooth where he is Head of the Department of Design Innovation and also Director of the EDEN Centre for Entrepreneurship Design and Innovation. Previously, Frank was Head of the Department of Electronic Engineering, having earned his PhD in the 1980s for novel motor design for robotic systems. Frank’s expertise is on how to stimulate radical innovation and entrepreneurship in small and large businesses, based on principles of design thinking. This emphasises experimentalism, purposive creativity and user focus. He lectures, researches and consults in these areas.

Gordon Mcconnell

As Head of the Entrepreneurship Center in KAUST since May 2014, Gordon has grown the activities of the center including the development of Teaching & Learning programs, startup accelerators such as the HIKMA IP-based and the REVelate corporate innovation program.

Prior to Saudi Arabia, he was the Associate Vice President of Arizona State University’s Entrepreneurship & Innovation Group (EIG) and Principal Investigator of the Center of Excellence in Technology Transfer, which was funded by the US department of defense, and an Assistant Professor of Practice. During his time in ASU, his group was ranked in the top 10 in the US for university incubators according to the UBI Global Index. While in ASU he developed several new innovation initiatives including the Furnace Technology Transfer Accelerator, which won the U.S. award for Most Promising Technology Based Economic Development in 2013. Previously, Gordon was Deputy CEO of the DCU Ryan Academy for Entrepreneurship in Ireland where he developed new programs such as the Business Innovation Program (accredited) in 2011 and was the founder of the Propeller startup accelerator in 2010.

Hattan Ahmed

Hattan currently leads the Entrepreneurship Center at KAUST, delivering the university’s entrepreneurship vision. He believes in young people as change agents of the future and that universities play a key role in creating national economic impact. In his role as an advocate for innovation, Hattan works across the entire entrepreneurship ecosystem in the Kingdom, delivering entrepreneurship training, creating corporate innovation programs, and accelerating startups that will contribute to the national transformation agenda. Hattan has a diverse background in industry, startups and academia. As a startup co-founder, he brings a successful entrepreneurial background to his role, having navigated early stage growth to acquisition. He has received multiple entrepreneurial awards on both a national and international scale. He also brings a rich background in Information Technology to his role, with experience in system design development and implementation within industries ranging from oil and gas, travel and retail.

Jay Connor

Joseph “Jay” Connor, JD/MBA, is the Founder/CEO of Learning Ovations, Inc. LOI is the commercialization/technology transfer resulting from his partnership with the US Department of Education, National Institutes of Health, Florida Center for Reading Research, and Arizona State University. LOI is an ed-tech company delivering a research-based SaaS to school districts across North America that uses student assessment to recommend individualized instruction activities to achieve significant improvement in reading achievement across the economic and ethnic spectrum. This recognition of the need to develop evidence-based tools in order to achieve transformative outcomes in our community systems – most notably education – was a driving consideration in his founding of The Collaboratory for Community Solutions. The research findings from over 75 communities are found in his book, published spring 2003 (second edition 2005) by Wilder Press, Community Visions, Community Solutions: Grantmaking for Comprehensive Impact. It is the most extensive discussion available on the leadership art of linking sectors, initiatives, technologies and systems in achieving community solutions. Jay has 20+ years of experience in senior business management at the multi-billion dollar corporate level. He was a Regional President of ADT Security Systems, where he oversaw a $150 million unit with 1100 employees and offices in 35 communities. During this period, he also commuted from California to NYC where he served ADT as Senior VP, Marketing and Field Support. He has also been a Group Vice President for Johnson Controls, a $10 billion company. Industry Areas: Education, Energy, Security, Social Responsibility, Philanthropy & NGO Functional Areas: Strategy, Marketing, Finance, C-Level Roles, Sales, and Startups

Robert Green

Title: President/CEO, EndoVantage & Chairman/CEO, Integrated Biomolecule Corp. Bio: Robert is an accomplished entrepreneur and attorney with a unique perspective gained practicing law at a major law firm, founding and operating eight successful companies and leading Arizona’s bioscience trade group. As a lawyer he specialized in major corporate transactions and represented numerous celebrities. For his first business venture he reorganized and sold a bankrupt bioscience instrument company. He then went on to form his flagship company, Integrated Biomolecule Corporation. Started in his garage, in 2008 he sold the bulk of the company including its science center to a major pharmaceutical company. His other ventures specialized in biotechnology; investment and management; diagnostics and testing; laboratory development and construction; and novel medical devices. Robert is a frequent media commentator and author of business articles. In 2001, he was named an Entrepreneurial Fellow by the University of Arizona Eller College of Management, and in 2003 he received an Arizona Spirit of Success Award from then Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano. Robert is an initial member of the Arizona Bioscience Roadmap Steering Committee, the group implementing a plan for Arizona to become a significant bioscience region (Vice-Chair during 2004-2006) and is the past president of the Arizona BioIndustry Association. Robert graduated City University of New York Magna Cum Laude and Fordham University School of Law with honors. He holds several patents. Industry Areas: Medical, Healthcare & Biosciences Functional Areas: Business models, Venture Capital, Strategic Partnerships, Startups