Abdulrahman Aljiffry

Abdulrahman AlJiffry supports a diverse portfolio of technology start-ups ranging from consumer electronics to education to clean tech in his capacity as part of the New Ventures team at King Abdullah University of Science & Technology (KAUST). Abdulrahman helped found KAUSTﾒs accelerator program during the early days of the Entrepreneurship Center and supported the KAUSTﾒs entrepreneurial efforts. KAUST was named as the best Higher Education Institution Supporting Entrepreneurship in the 3rd Global Entrepreneurship Summit December 2012 only 18months after the founding of the Entrepreneurship Center. During his time in KAUST, Abdulrahman created several initiatives including the Technology Angel Summit and Graduate Business Workshop that are at the intersection of technology and entrepreneurship. Before joining KAUST, Abdulrahman worked at Prince Sultan College where he was responsible for the institutionﾒs academic assessment and accreditation. Education: Abdulrahman received his BSc in Industrial Systems Engineering from King Abdulaziz University and his MBA from AlFaisal University.

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.

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.

Ozan Sonmez

Ozan Sonmez is an experienced entrepreneur, mentor and startup accelerator manager and is a certified Angel Investor Trainer. He helped form and advise various angel groups and startup accelerators globally. Ozan has spent most of his career in management positions in public and private companies and currently dedicates his career to strengthen and foster entrepreneurial ecosystems. His global efforts to build healthier entrepreneurial ecosystems and his passion for startup accelerators and angel investing led him to become a lead instructor at Angel Labs (based in San Francisco) to host education and training sessions all over the world and create two Startup Accelerators in KAUST. He serves as a mentor to startups in leading accelerator programs around the world and is a regular guest at various universities & entrepreneurship events speaking about venture & angel investing and startup acceleration. He started in Deloitte as a Financial Services Professional then served in Laureate Inc. (NASDAQ:LAUR) Turkish Subsidiary in various positions (Finance Manager, Vice Director of MBA Programs, Advisor to Graduate Business School) where he also instructed MBAs. He later worked with Dutch Based Angel Wings Ventures Istanbul Office.