Rady Fahmy
Montreal, Canada

Rady has over 18 years of diverse professional experience in creating and launching successful enterprises and organisations that quickly become sustainable and successful. As Executive Director and CEO of the African Business Aviation Association (AfBAA) he has been integral in launching this innovative new association on to the international business aviation landscape. He works closely with the Board of Directors to continuously develop this highly dynamic not-for-profit Association and has helped position it as a familiar, respected and recognised organisation within the Business Aviation community.

He has an MBA from the University of Colorado, with specialization in Entrepreneurship and Finance and MA in Economics from the American University in London (UK). 

Update: Rady sadly passed away in fall 2020. He will be dearly missed by the RISE family, where his spirit, good nature, and contributions live on.

Azza El-Bakry
Toronto, Canada

Azza is a medical doctor, graduated from Alexandria University, Egypt. She has a doctorate in Public Health, Major Parasitology and Medical Entomology.  Moving to Montreal in 2007, she worked at the Tropical Diseases Centre, McGill University as a medical scientist, running the Reference Malaria Lab of Quebec, while teaching and working in quality assurance. It was here she discovered her real passion: urban agriculture. She joined an internship in Concordia University for urban agriculture, discovering the beauty of nature and how it brings people together. 

After a move to Toronto and working on a research project on Soil-transmitted parasites at Peter Gilgan Centre for Research and Learning, Sickkids Hospital, Azza has undertaken a shift in her career driven by her love for nature and humanity. She is now studying for the evaluating exam of Medicine (MCCEE) in preparation to join the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine (CCNM).

Her aim as an Ambassador is to search for a way to aid her fellow Egyptians in need of help. She is a person who believes in the power of people, and that if any change will come, it will only come from the people.

Hanan Gewefel
Cairo, Egypt

Hanan is the founder of and senior breast imaging consultant at the Women and Fetal Imaging center (WAFI), a center that provides a new vision for women’s and fetal health by combining a holistic evidence-based approach to fertility, breast imaging, cancer screening menopause and female endocrine problems with the most up-to-date technology. For the past sixteen years, Dr. Gewefel has worked as a dedicated radiologist in breast imaging. For the past ten years she has worked with the mammography unit she helped build and personally manages. She is a founding member of the Breast Cancer Foundation of Egypt and has diagnosed thousands of cases of breast cancer.

Dr. Gewefel is a big believer in raising women’s awareness of the importance of early detection. She has spoken about this topic at numerous conferences on breast cancer, both nationally and internationally. She also manages the campaign Pink for a Week, that offers women free mammograms at WAFI.

Ahmed Salim
Minya, Egypt

Ahmed teaches English as a second language in STEM schools in Egypt. He has a lot of experience in both teaching and technology, with a bachelor degree in TESL, as well as two years of post graduate diplomas in teaching for students with special needs. He is now pursuing his Masters in Special Education at El-Minya University, Egypt.

He has been involved in a number of international educational programs and projects in Egypt and abroad, and believes technology is a magical tool for teaching. Currently, he helps many nongovernmental organizations in Egypt in the field of education and food delivery.

Ahmed's main objective in teaching is to make positive changes in the learners’ characters, while building a rapport with both learners and parents to achieve learning objectives. His philosophy is that 'happy kids learn'. Students learn best in a supervised, safe and facilitated atmosphere, through the use of games and interactive learning activities.

Working with RISE Egypt, he is looking forward to helping his students participate in international fairs with their great projects. He is in the process of aiding their participation in the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF).

Samer Sarofim
North Dakota, USA

Samer is an award-winning marketing scholar and educator. He has 13 years of professional experience, working in healthcare, pharmaceuticals, and business consulting. Additionally, he is a certified professional trainer with a successful track record in training corporate employees and managers. 

Sarofim’s research was honored by the Best Paper Award in Consumer Behavior Track at the American Marketing Association Summer conference (2016). He also received Pearson Education Michael Solomon Consumer Behavior Track Best Paper award and Retailing Track Best Paper award at Society for Marketing Advances (SMA) conference 2016.  In recognition to his innovative and impactful teaching methodology, Samer has been a winner (2016) and a finalist (2015) of the Marketing Management Association Outstanding Teaching-Scholar Doctoral Student annual competition. He focuses in his research on consumer financial decision-making and the effects of emotion in consumers’ reactions to advertisement. Additionally, he investigates the dynamic branding environment within Sports marketing. Recently, Sarofim co-authored a peer-reviewed book chapter entitled Islamic Marketing: A conceptual framework for political, cultural and religious interrelatedness” in Islamic Perspectives on Marketing and Consumer Behavior: Planning, Implementation, and Control. His research attracted competitive grants and appeared in conferences of major academic marketing organizations such as American Marketing Association, Association of Consumer Research, Society of Consumer Psychology, and Sport Marketing Association. 

Sarofim is currently at the final stage of acquiring his Ph.D. in Marketing from The University of Kansas. He holds an MBA from the American University in Cairo, including a semester at George Washington University in Washington DC. His Bachelor degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences was granted by Ain Shams University.

Mohammed El-Kalash
London, UK

Mohamed is a director at Julius Baer, a leading Swiss private banking group with a focus on servicing and advising sophisticated private clients and a premium brand in global wealth management. He is responsible for managing clients’ portfolios on behalf of them. Prior to Julius Baer El Kalash spent two years working as an analyst at Stanhope Capital London, a global Investment office overseeing over $10 Billion on behalf of wealthy families, Charities and other institutions around the world. As a member of the private equity funds department El Kalash helped Stanhope to raise USD 150 m to structure its new private equity fund. Before Joining Stanhope, he was an analyst in the budget and finance department at Oracle LTD. El Kalash holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the American University in Cairo with a minor in Finance.

Teymour E-Derini
New York, USA

Teymour has been an Equity Sales Trader for the last ten years trading MENA Equities in Egypt. During the Egyptian Revolution in 2011 Teymour and his partners launched Pastweesy & Pizza La Bomba --two local food chains in Cairo, Egypt. This is where Teymour learned first-hand about the impact of food waste on the balance sheet. Teymour moved to New York City in 2014,  to pursue his Executive MBA at the Stern School of Business at New York.

Teymour is launching a startup called Grabz, an on-line farmers market for farmers and wholesalers to sell excess inventory. Our vision is to help prevent the waste of food products in local communities by connecting businesses with farmers. In the United States, approximately forty percent of all food produced is wasted, equating to a value of $165 - $200 billion in wasted food each year. Grabz will try to be be part of the solution to reduce waste.

Ahmed Osman
Texas, USA

Ahmed Osman is a Principal Negotiator and Commercial Leader in Statoil, a Norwegian oil and gas company working across 35 different countries. He is based in Houston, Texas and is currently working on business development projects in the USA, Canada and Mexico. Ahmed has more than 15 years of experience in the oil industry and held managerial positions in the fields of environmental engineering, strategy and portfolio management and business development. Before joining Statoil in 2008, he was working with BG Group in Egypt in their upstream projects. Ahmed has a MSc degree in Chemical Engineering from Cairo University and finished the International Management Program with the Chartered Management Institute in the UK. He is an active member in the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators and the Society of Petroleum Engineers. Ahmed has lived and worked in Cairo, London, Alaska and Houston.

Tarek Sadek
Toronto, Canada

Tarek is currently the Director of the entrepreneurship education programs at the faculty of Engineering and Architectural Science FEAS at Ryerson University. In his new role, Tarek is responsible for the curricular and extracurricular entrepreneurship education at the faculty, with a focus on the implementation of the new undergrad specialization in entrepreneurship and the new Masters of Engineering Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Prior to that, Tarek was the Director of the Launch Zone at Ryerson University, the student focused space of the DMZ. Tarek took the lead in creating a collaborative, multidisciplinary space with robust entrepreneurship/ innovation programming for students wishing to engage in entrepreneurial learning and/or starting up their own ventures. His interests include establishing academic-private sectors-government partnerships to the build the ecosystem needed to support early stage technology start-ups, as well as research about academic entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education with a focus on how to promote entrepreneurial mindset among youth. Tarek received his PhD from McMaster University in establishing entrepreneurial ecosystems around Canadian universities.

Farah Osman
Cairo, Egypt

Farah has an established track-record in successfully managing organizations towards their growth and expanding their client and donor portfolios, as reflected in her career progression at Education For Employment Egypt from 2012 to 2016, where she joined as Program Associate, ultimately becoming Operations Manager. During her time at EFE|Egypt, Ms. Osman spearheaded in-house research projects, increased operational efficiencies, and led the growth of EFE’s donor portfolio allowing for the organization to expand outside of Greater Cairo. Ms. Osman currently serves as the Business Development Officer at CID Consulting, where she heads to firm’s business development efforts in the areas of marketing communications, management, and community development consulting services. 

Farah’s commitment to social work has led to her recognition as a World Economic Global Shaper and a member of the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) Global Working Group on Youth Employment. She has also participated as a speaker, panelist, and chair in an array on conferences including the ILO Youth Employment Forum, the African Development Bank's Workshop on Youth Employment Schemes in Africa, the Swedish Institute in Alexandria's Youth in Policy workshop on Employment Prospects in Europe and the MENA region, the U.S. Embassy's Global Entrepreneurship Week event, and the Cairo Symposium on Employability, Skills and Opportunities for Young People in the Arab World hosted by the British Council and the League of Arab States.. 

Farah holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from the American University in Cairo, with a double specialization in International Relations and International Law.

Ahmed El-Aassar
Virginia, USA

Ahmed is the Vice President & Noise and Air Quality Manager at Gannet Fleming, Fairfax, Virginia. An environmental engineer by training, he is a published expert in noise, vibration and air quality, and responsible for business development and all phases of acoustical analyses including noise and vibration monitoring, impact and mitigation analyses, and noise barrier design.

He has completed a wide variety of environmental noise and vibration projects that included freight and passenger rail, light rail, highway noise, noise barrier design studies, and National Environmental Policy Act documentation. In addition, designed and adapted the new innovative audiovisual tool 'Sounds of Transit' for use during public involvement meetings.

Mohamed Samy
Dubai, UAE & Alexandria, Egypt

Samy is a financial auditor and the co-founder of Nutellopia, Egypt’s first Nutella bar. While earning his degree in Accounting from Alexandria University, Samy was an active board member of AIESEC Alexandria. Having worked at the international auditing firm BDO in Alexandria, he moved to Dubai in 2015 to continue his career in auditing at the international company Paris Gallery. An active and ambitious personality, Samy is always looking for new opportunities. Last but not least, he is also a passionate handball player. Most of all, Samy sees himself as a world citizen who dreams of impacting the youth of Egypt.

Mohammed Seyam
Virginia, USA

Mohammed Seyam is a Computer Science PhD candidate in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech, USA. Seyam received his Bachelor’s degree in Information Systems from Mansoura University and his Master’s degree in Information Systems from Cairo University, both in Egypt. His work is focused on Software Engineering, Computer Science Education, Usability Research, and Mobile App Development.

Before travelling to USA, Seyam co-founded made-in-domiat.com, an initiative that won several awards in different national competitions. He also participated in the 2012 MIT Enterprise Forum as the mentor of a semi-final team.

Among Seyam’s achievements, he has served as member of both the Computer Science Graduate Council and Center for the Arts International Advisory Board. As a participant in the Global Perspectives Program, Seyam travelled with the Graduate School to France, Switzerland, Italy, and Ecuador to study different higher education systems around the world. 

In March 2015, Seyam was appointed as the 2015-16 Graduate Student Representative to the Board of Visitors. in this position he worked as the primary liaison between the graduate student population at VT and the governing authority of the university.

Joyce Rafla
Massachusetts, USA

Joyce is committed to education in developing countries with a special focus on early childhood education, literacy and assessments. Her experience includes working with Egyptian teachers, consulting on USAID-funded projects and being a member of the Presidential Specialized Council for Education & Scientific Research. Joyce is a Masters Candidate of Education in Language and Literacy from Harvard Graduate School of Education and has a Master of Arts in Human Development from Teachers College, Columbia University and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the American University in Cairo.