Up to 30 mentors (technical, agri-food industry, business, and UI/UX design) are available throughout the Agrytech Hackathon to support you in delivering amazing prototypes and business decks. Meet some of them here:
Racha Ghamlouch | Senior Program Manager, ArabNet
Racha Ghamlouch holds a BS in Multimedia Design from the American University in Sharjah, UAE. After graduation, she joined Diwanee as a community manager handling client social media accounts from strategy to execution. In 2011, Racha joined the ArabNet team to spearhead the development of content and competitions for ArabNet conferences across the MENA region. A geek at heart; she is passionate about digital and its potential power to levitate the regions youth and economy.
Rita Makhoul | Managing Editor, ArabNet
Rita Makhoul is the Managing Editor of ArabNet’s website as well the magazine the ‘ArabNet Quarterly.’ The ArabNet website is a leading reference for digital businesses in the Middle-East, featuring news, analysis, expert advice, interviews, and a vibrant community of startups, developers and entrepreneurs. The ‘ArabNet Quarterly’ is the first print release for growing digital enterprises and leading companies with insights and special stories covering the latest e-business, technology, media and entrepreneurship news in the MENA. She has a wealth of strategic experience from her 15 years in the marketing and communications industry having led key accounts across industries and finding her passion in the digital, tech, and startup industry.
Gabriel Deek | General Manager , OmniSystems sal. – President, Internet Society Lebanon Chapter (ISOC)
Gabriel Deek is the General Manager of OmniSystems sal. an affiliate company to OmniTech Holdings and MIDIS Group. He is also a founding member and the President of LebKnoC, the Lebanon Knowledge Network and the President of the Internet Society Lebanon Chapter.
As founder and CEO of multiple companies related to digital media and eBusiness solutions for the past 25 years, he was involved in numerous projects related to eGovernment Infrastructure, multimedia, advanced collaboration, video production, post production and news-room automation systems. While keeping a close relationship with the Academia, he chaired the PCA (Professional Computer Association) from 2003 to 2007 acting on public initiatives that aims at developing the internet infrastructure and the legal framework.
Co-founder and President of the Internet Society (ISOC) Lebanon Chapter since 2016, he founded in 2012 the Lebanon Knowledge Network (LebKnoC) an initiative aiming to open knowledge centers in various remote areas in order to promote local economy and bridge the digital divide.
He is a member of Confideo, the MIT Mentoring Program that aims to mentor and support young entrepreneurs in the early phases of their growth.
Nabil Bukhalid | Advisor, Lebanese Canadian Tech Hub – Board Member, Internet Society Lebanon Chapter (ISOC)
Is an Internet evangelist who made many significant contributions to the introduction and development of the Internet in Lebanon. Nabil have served since 1993 as the .LB Administrator and Registrar. Nabil is also the co-founder of the Lebanese Broadband Manifesto Support Group (LBSG) and BeirutIX. He is also a co-founder and ex-officio president of the Internet Society Lebanon Chapter (ISOC-LB), co-founder and CEO of the Lebanese Internet Center (LINC), advisory board member of the Lebanese Canadian Tech Hub (LCTechHub) and COO of Northern Investment Partners (NIP). He served for thirty years as the director of computing and networking services and chief enterprise architect at the American University of Beirut. Nabil attended AUB, where he earned both his BEE (1981) and EMBA (2006).
Nicolas Rouhana | General Manager, IM Capital
Nicolas is currently the General Manager of IM Capital, a $15M program funded under USAID MENA Investment Initiative, providing Matching Capital, Equity Guarantee and Technical Assistance to early-stage businesses and investors in Lebanon. Between 2002 & 2015, Nicolas was the Executive Director of Berytech Technological Pole, a Business Innovation & Incubation Center in Lebanon, counseling and mentoring Lebanese entrepreneurs in their startup ventures. Nicolas is also Board Member ISOC-Lebanon Chapter, Berytech, and LINC (Lebanon Internet Center), and was the administrator of Beirut Internet Exchange Point. He was also Associate Professor at the Saint-Joseph University (USJ) in Beirut, lecturing computer networking and entrepreneurship courses to undergraduates and graduates students at the Faculty of Engineering (ESIB).
Walid Karam | University Professor – Board Member, Internet Society Lebanon Chapter (ISOC)
Father & husband (already full time). Techie. Lebanese. Computing & Telecom Engineer. Professor & researcher at the University of Balamand since 1993. (where I teach and learn) Former ICT Advisor to the Lebanese Minister of Telecommunications. (where I learned to dance with wolves) Founding member of LINC (the Lebanese Internet Centre) Founding member of LERN (the Lebanese Education & Research Network) Internet Society board member, Lebanon Chapter. IEEE senior member; chairman of IEEE Computer Society – Lebanon section. Graduate of Georgia Tech (Bachelor of Electrical Engineering) and Telecom-ParisTech (PhD in Telecommunications)
Abed Halawi | Tech Lead, Vinelab
Abed Halawi is a software developer, open source evangelist and contributor, tech speaker with emphasis on scalable software development, data management, high availability and continuous delivery. He’s been a mentor in numerous Hackathons and always finds it a pleasure to participate and lend a helping hand. Leading the tech team at Vinelab presented the opportunity to expand his skills beyond technology and into the lifecycle, business aspects and planning the product.
Ali Issa | Software Engineer, Vinelab
Ali Issa is a Software Developer interested in working on scalable applications, code optimization and architecture. He is considered a full stack developer having worked on both backend and frontend projects, currently he’s a software engineer at Vinelab
Ayman Farhat | Technical Lead, Wamda
Ayman is a Full-stack Software Developer. Passionate about building web products, team building and product management. He also enjoys writing articles related to programming and web development on his blog The Code Ship.
Basem Dghaidy | Technical Director and Lead Instructor, SE Factory
Bassem Dghaidy is the Technical Director and Lead Instructor of SE Factory. Before that, he led the implementation of numerous enterprise systems in the transportation and logistics industries in Boston MA, Saudi Arabia and Beirut. Bassem was also the head of an R&D division in a Beirut based digital agency that was involved in natural human interfaces, computer vision, human computer interfaces and machine learning research and their applications within the financial sector among other verticals. He is a founding member of LambaLabs, Beirut’s first hackerspace, and MENA Devs one of the largest active communities of Software Developers and Technical Managers in the EMEA region. Bassem, a polyglot Software Developer and a generalist, is well versed in an large array of Languages and Technologies.
Ibrahim Hobeika | Software Engineer, CIMS-Cardinal Health
Ibrahim Hobeika is a Software Engineer at Cardinal Health’s CIMS department. After graduating university, he underwent a full summer intensive coding bootcamp on Full Stack Web Development at SE Factory, and now works as a full time Java Developer.
Marwan Ghamloush | Co-founder & VP of Hardware, KwikSense
An extremely curious maker of things, experienced in open-source hardware. Co-founder & VP of Hardware at KwikSense. Geek and Pizza Lover.
Mustafa Baalbaki | Senior iOS Engineer, Born Interactive
Mustafa Baalbaki is a Senior iOS Engineer at Born Interactive. After graduating as a Civil Engineer 6 years ago, he switched careers to follow his passion of iOS development. He worked for KnowledgeView Ltd. developing iOS apps for major MENA newspapers and magazines for 4.5 years. He then joined the startup Saily, a marketplace app for a US based market for around a year, building and maintaining the next generation of the product. He attended Apple’s WWDC 2012 and WWDC 2016 in San Francisco and got featured by Apple in the latter in “The New Beginnings” video for the first app he developed, Beirut Electricity. Mustafa also attended Apple TV tech talks in New York. He is also an instructor at New Horizons, DAC summer camp at AUB, TeensWhoCode and a mentor at Speed@BDD startup accelerator.
Okay Maleh | Senior Android Programmer, M&C Saatchi
Oday works as a senior Android programmer at M&C Saatchi. He has given talks at several local tech events and regularly hosts Android programming workshops at AltCity Hamra. Oday has a YouTube channel dedicated to providing Android app development tutorials.
Saeid Al-Wazzan | Software Developer, Invigo
Saeid builds backend systems at Invigo. He likes to think about databases, types, and how we talk to computers.
Jamil Corbani | Founder & CEO, Green Studio
Jamil started his career in 1998, in the field of agriculture technology in Beirut during which he collaborated with the UN on several environmental projects for the markets of Lebanon, Syria and Egypt. In 2009, he co-founded Green Studios with Marc Abi Haila. Green Studios designs manufactures ships and supports hydroponic green walls and roof gardens installations all over the globe. Green Studios is headquartered in Beirut and its team is spread between Beirut, Dubai, Cairo and Los Angeles. Owner of several patents and patent pending inventions related to hydroponic farming technology in Lebanon and the United States. In 2011, Green Studios was the winner of the MIT Enterprise Forum Competition of the pan-Arab region for its innovation in the field of green walls and roof gardens. Green Studios was also the winner of Lebanon Best Business of the Year in 2012 and Jamil was selected as Endeavor High-Impact Entrepreneur in 2014. in 2015 Dubai Municipality awarded the company for its achievements in the field of environmental technologies.
A passionate economist and ag-tech specialist , Jamil is all about making green architecture and high tech farming technology available to anyone anywhere in the world.
Igor Scarcia | International project Coordinator, UNIDO
I come from a background working for the United Nations in the field of economic development, poverty reduction and diplomacy and became interested in how new business ideas can generate value, foster social innovation and change the world we live in. As a result, I decided to pursue an MBA in San Francisco to further my global business knowledge and to deepen my understanding in strategy, operations, start-ups and investments.
I am an outgoing professional, driven by a strong entrepreneurial personality – I have 2 start-ups experience in my pocket. I believe in sustainable business models and social innovations that can affect system-wide changes. I look forward to advancing in my career as a thought leader and agent of change.