Sherif Wahby
Chairman, RISE Egypt
Founder & CEO, Capital Executive Solutions

Omar Fateen
Founder & CEO, IBT Global

Mona Mowafi
Founder & President , RISE Egypt
Visiting Scientist, Harvard University

Hisham El-Khazindar
Co-founder & Managing Director, Qalaa Holdings 

Shehab El-Nawawi
CEO, Giza Systems 

Hania Sholkamy
Associate Research Professor, Social Research Center, AUC 

Moustapha Sarhank
Chairman Emeritus, Sarhank Group for Investment 

Amr Abdallah
Former CEO for Telecom, Raya Holding

Mona Mowafi
Founder & President
RISE Egypt

Wael Fakharany
Co-founder, RISE Egypt;
MENA Business Leader, Google X
 

Michael Megalli
Founder & CEO, Indie.Biz; Founding Co-Director, RISE Fellowship Program

Sherif Wahby
CEO
Capital Executive Solutions

Azza Fahmy
Chairwoman & Chief Designer
Azza Fahmy Jewelry

Sherine Mishriki
Executive Management Consultant
 

Sherif Kamel
Former Dean,
AUC Business School

Tarek Mansour
Senior Partner
PriceWaterhouse Coopers Egypt

Shereen Allam
President
AWTAD

Amr Helmy
Chairman
Amr Helmy Designs

Ayman Ismail
Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship AUC Business School

Ihab Ismail
 Managing Partner
Enovio Consulting

Mona Mowafi
Co-founder & President

Mona Mowafi is Founder and President of RISE Egypt. She was born and raised in the Washington, D.C. area, and holds Bachelors degrees in Biochemistry and Middle East Studies from the University of Virginia, a Masters in International Health from Johns Hopkins University, and a Doctorate in Social Epidemiology from Harvard University, where she remains affiliated as a Visiting Research Scientist. With over 15 years of experience living and working in the Arab region, Mona saw first-hand the role innovative, people-driven development (i.e. social entrepreneurship) can play in transforming society, alleviating poverty, and creating sustainable opportunities for long term growth and impact, and she was inspired to establish and grow RISE Egypt to leverage the immense strategic talent of the global diaspora community and its networks to invest in entrepreneurship for development in Egypt. Mona has published numerous articles and book chapters in her area of research, including co-authoring one of the first texts on Social Entrepreneurship in the Arab World. She has also received numerous awards for her nonprofit and research work, including recognition as an emerging leader in global health research by the Global Health Council (2011), the Judith O'Connor Award for emerging nonprofit leaders from Boardsource (2013), as well as a National Service Leadership Award by Americorps Alums (2014) in recognition of her leadership and commitment to global development and service-learning.

Sally Mansour
M&E / Impact Manager

Sally Mansour is M&E/Impact Manager at RISE Egypt. With a corporate background working in various industries, Sally’s primary experience was in the telecom industry, with particular knowledge and skills in marketing, product management and analysis. She joined the telecom operator Etisalat within its first year of operation in Egypt and helped formulate a number of organizational processes within the geo-marketing function and launched a number of telecom products within the international service function. Combining her love for writing and travel, she has also established herself as a travel blogger and freelance writer, producing articles and digital content covering local and international destinations, travel tips and trip planning advice. 

Prior to joining RISE Egypt, she completed her Master’s Degree in Entrepreneurship from Lund University in Sweden. During her stay, she co-founded two Swedish based startups: one specialized in heritage travel and another operating within the second-hand items business. Sally completed her Bachelor’s degree in the American University in Cairo with a major in Business Administration and minor in International Relations.

Engi Gamal Eldin
Data Scientist & Research Associate
for Impact Evolutions

Engi Gamal Eldin is a Data Scientist and Research Associate for Impact Evaluations at RISE Egypt. Engi obtained a Masters in Development Policy on full scholarship from the KDI School of Public Policy and Management in South Korea and a Bachelors in Economics with minor in Statistics from the Faculty of Economics and Political Science at Cairo University. Engi has over 10 years of experience in research design, implementation and data analysis using different econometric methods and statistical analysis techniques. Engi was awarded a model mentorship training programme funded by the Ford Foundation to the Social Science Research Council SSRC's Middle East and North Africa on Higher Education and Social Inequality: Models, Tools and Transfers in Comparative Perspective (The U.S. and Egypt). She published her research findings in a chapter titled "The Impact of Cost Sharing on Quality of Education in
Egypt's Public Universities" in the Handbook of Research on Quality Assurance and Value Management in Higher Education in Advances in Educational Marketing, Administration, & Leadership (AEMAL) Book Series, IGI Gobal. Engi also received an award for the best ten policy briefs competition announced by the Economic Research Forum (ERF) in July 2015 for her policy brief entitled “School-based Management: An Approach to Improve Learning Outcomes in Egypt.” She also received a research award from the Arab Families Working Group (AFWG) to fund the research project "The Impact of Preschool Education on Reading Literacy in Egypt" (Oct 2016 – Present). Engi is passionate about finding evidence-based solutions to scale effective education programs in Egypt.

Sarah El-Nashar
Senior Research Associate

Sarah El Nashar is a Senior Research Associate at RISE Egypt. Her focus is on reforming education systems towards more holistic learning with an emphasis on youth empowerment. She previously consulted for various Egyptian and international NGOs including Teach For Qatar and Education Above All on issues ranging from education strategy and curriculum development to teacher professional development.

Before joining RISE, she worked with SPARK as an Education Manager facilitating higher education opportunities for Syrian refugees in their host countries. Prior to this experience, she worked for three years at the American University in Cairo (AUC). At AUC she was the Student Life Coordinator for a group of 55 Egyptian students who were awarded the Leadership for Education and Development (LEAD) scholarship. As an advisor, mentor and coach, Sarah worked with each of her students on their academic, personal and professional development. Prior to AUC, Sarah was part of the Cairo-based IIE (Institute of International Education) team where she was a Student Advising & Development Manager for the KAUST Discovery Scholarship program. Sarah’s previous experience also includes working at Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar (WCMC-Q) and heading up several student and youth development programs. Sarah has an Ed.M. in International Education Policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She also holds a M.Sc. in Family Studies and Human Services with a specialization in Youth Development from Kansas State University and a B.A. in Business Administration from Ain Shams University.

Noran Abdou
Research Associate

Noran Abdou is a Research Associate at RISE Egypt. Trained in architecture, integrated urbanism, and sustainability, she holds a dual degree MSc in Integrated Urbanism and Sustainable Design (IUSD) from University of Stuttgart in Germany and Ain Shams  University in Egypt. In IUSD, Noran had the chance to work on the ground in both Egypt and Germany on a wide spectrum of projects including refugees’ integration in Stuttgart, local economic development of slum areas in Cairo, and ecological adaptation and mitigation of flood risks in Alexandria. Prior to IUSD, Noran graduated from the American University in Cairo (AUC), Egypt, in 2014, and graduated with the highest honors at the top of her class with a BSc in Architectural Engineering and a minor in Business Administration. She received scholarships from both USAID and DAAD to support her undergraduate and graduate studies, respectively. Noran was also an exchange student at Drexel University, USA. She has worked as a teaching assistant for urban planning at AUC and also worked as a landscape architect at Sites Interrnational. Noran is passionate about integrated urban planning and interdisciplinary research. She also has strong interest in arts and recycling and has worked on recycled art projects for street children in Ethiopia and in Egypt.

Wael Mahran
Egypt Operations Manager

Wael Mahran is Egypt-based Operations Manager for RISE Egypt. Wael earned his BSc in Electrical Engineering from Cairo University, then received his MBA with a specialty in Marketing from the Arab Academy of Science & Technology, graduating with honors. Wael worked as Media & Communications Coordinator with Egypt NEGMA, a nonprofit annual conference and social innovation competition based at MIT that focused on early stage social ventures from Egypt; he later stayed on as a board member. Wael was an Egyptian taekwondo national team player, then moved to become a certified international coach from the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF). He has coached many Egyptian players to achieve world class trophies, crowning his coaching career by taking part in the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympic games.

Rowaida Abdelaziz
 Communications Associate

Rowaida Abdelaziz is a reporter at HuffPost, focusing on Islamophobia and social justice issues within the Muslim community. Prior to joining HuffPost as a reporter, she led their social media on similar topics. She joined RISE Egypt part-time to help build a social media presence to link activities on the ground to the RISE global community.

The legal team at Akin Gump have provided superb legal services to RISE Egypt as a pro-bono client. The team at Akin has not only been meticulous, but working with them has also been a tremendous pleasure.

Thebes Legal Consultancy  continue to help us understand the legal and regulatory environment in Egypt so we may better serve social entrepreneurs and the innovation ecosystem to make greater impact.

Through this partnership, Executive MBAs from the Cornell Johnson School of Business partner with RISE Fellows to implement pro-bono business consulting services in the areas of strategy, accounting, management, operations, and other areas that may help the entrepreneurs scale their enterprises.