Peter Haas

 Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Economic Affairs

Peter Haas is the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Economic Affairs. He previously served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Trade Policy and Negotiations. Mr. Haas has also served as Chargé d’Affaires and Deputy Permanent Representative at the U.S. Mission to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the U.S. Consul General in Mumbai, India, and Economic Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia. Other diplomatic postings include London, Rabat, Washington, Port-au-Prince, and Berlin. Mr. Haas holds a BA in International Studies and German from Illinois Wesleyan University. He attended the London School of Economics as a Marshall Scholar, where he earned MSc (Econ) degrees in both the Politics of the World Economy and Comparative Government.

Beeta Ehdaie

Senior Advisor on women’s economic issues to the Assistant Secretary of Economic and Business Affairs and Special Assistant to the Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment at the U.S. Department of State.

Dr. Ehdaie serves as Senior Advisor on women’s economic issues to the Assistant Secretary of Economic and Business Affairs and Special Assistant to the Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment at the U.S. Department of State. She led in the conception and now the development of the Economic Bureau’s “Providing Opportunities for Women’s Economic Rise” (POWER) initiative. She also advises on U.S. policy and programs aimed at fostering economic inclusion, supporting entrepreneurship, innovation and sustainable economic growth. In her role as Special Assistant to the Under Secretary, Dr. Ehdaie works on foreign policy matters pertaining to the science, environment and global health, which entails organizing and shaping the Department’s engagement on economic and health responses to global pandemics and climate change.

Zehra Vahanvaty

Economic Associate, U.S. Embassy, Abu Dhabi

Zehra covers Space Cooperation, Food Security, Cybersecurity, Artificial Intelligence, 5G and Telecommunications, Entrepreneurship and Women's Economic Empowerment for the U.S. Embassy in Abu Dhabi. Prior to her work for the State Department, Zehra practiced law in Silicon Valley and is a member of the California State Bar. 

HE. Sarah bint Yousef Al Amiri

  UAE Minister of State for Advanced Technology and Chairwoman of the UAE Space Agency 

In her role as Minister of State for Advanced Technology, her Excellency spearheads the UAE Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology’s efforts to empower the adoption of Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies and promote research and development in the advanced science and technology sector, in order to create new industries that drive the shift towards a knowledge economy. This, in turn, contributes to the overall mandate of the Ministry to strengthen the UAE’s industrial base, ensure in-country value, and raise the competitiveness of local industries. As Chairwoman of the Space Agency, Her Excellency is responsible to oversee the Agency’s mandate of guiding the space sector, ensuring its contribution to the national economy and to the UAE’s sustainable development.

Her Excellency is also the Chairwoman of the Emirates Scientists Council, Chairwoman of the Fourth Industrial Revolution Council, Chairwoman of the Dubai Future Academy Board of Trustees, and she served as the Deputy Project Manager and Science Lead of the Emirates Mars Mission (Hope) at the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) before going on to be appointed Chairwoman of the UAE Space Agency.

HE. Dr. Rania A. Al-Mashat

Minister of International Cooperation, Arab Republic of Egypt

Dr. Al-Mashat is Egypt’s Minister of International Cooperation, in December 2019. Prior to this appointment, she was the first woman to serve as Egypt’s Minister of Tourism between January 2018 and December 2019. Previous positions included Advisor to the Chief Economist of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Sub-Governor for Monetary Policy at the Central Bank of Egypt, and Senior Economist at the IMF. The Ministry of International Cooperation oversees an active partnerships portfolio exceeding USD25 billion and is mandated to strengthen Egypt’s inclusive multilateral, regional and bilateral engagement with development partners, governments, global policy makers, the United Nations, private sector and civil society to deliver the National Economic Agenda, consistent with the UN SDGs, aimed at achieving a circular economy.

HE. Hala Mohamed Jaber Al-Ansari

Secretary General of the Supreme Council for Women, Bahrain

Salim Abid

Developer Ecosystem Regional Lead: MENA - Middle East and North Africa, Google

My mission is to build the Ecosystem in MENA by enabling developers, empowering Women, through grassroot community based efforts & DevRel programs (GDGs, Startup Launchpad Acceltator, WomenTechmakers) while ensuring self-sustainability and scalability. Salim drove programs and teams in the USA, as well as Asia, Europe, Africa, and now drives programs across the globe. Salim is a vivid advocate for community based collaboration, Agile Software development processes, and passionate about new technologies: ML, IoT, and Connectivity.

Lino Cattaruzzi

Managing Director Middle East & North Africa, Google 

Rana Abdelhamid

  Global Marketing and Partnerships Lead, Women Techmakers 

Rana Abdelhamid is the brand marketing and partnerships lead for Women Techmakers, Google's women in tech brand. She's based in Queens, NY

Rania Atef

Founder of I Make This

Rania is the founder of I Make This! A social media platform that she created for women with small businesses to be able to introduce and market their businesses for free. The platform started as a Facebook group end of 2019 and helped over 4000 women introduce their businesses and boost their sales. Today the platform has more than 250k followers in different social media outlets. Rania is a mother of three children aged 13,7,and 3. Creating the platform was inspired by wanting to support other women like her who are trying to balance their careers/businesses and families by making their marketing easier for them. She worked as Child and Family Photographer and before that was a full time researcher working on child rights. 
She is now becoming an entrepreneur herself and turning I Make This into an e-commerce platform and hoping to support more women boost their sales and expand their small businesses. Rania has a social research Masters from London School of Economics. She has lived and worked in Cairo, London and Moscow.

Rola Fayya

Founder & CEO of ViaVii

Rola Fayyad is the founder & CEO of ViaVii. The company, ViaVII, is a regional community brand and an AI-powered travel experience recommendation engine. Starting her career at a young age, she successfully managed to gain over a decade of commercial management experience in the travel industry. As for her leadership experiences, Rola previously co-founded MICEit, an events booking engine for the MENA region. Furthermore, she served as a founding member for Girls in Tech –Jordan Chapter, which focuses on empowering, engaging and educating women in the technology sector. Rola is also a fellow with Open Hands Fellowship & IVLP US State program

Rayan Al Zahab

Google Developer Expert & CEO of BambooGeeks

Rayan is the Founder and CEO of BambooGeeks, a Google Developer Expert and women techmakers Ambassador with a huge passion to empowering youth and women in technology. She is the leads= Trainer for the Design Labs

Mariam Dabboussi

Product Marketing Manager, Consumer Apps, Google

Mariam Dabboussi looks after the Google Assistant as well as Growth and Social Marketing across Consumer Apps for the Middle Eastern and North African region. Her key accomplishments at Google include launching the Google Assistant in Arabic in 18 markets, creating a Guinness World Record Breaking Iftar Livestream garnering +3.5M playbacks within 24 hours, and experimenting with media optimization in the most recent Google Search campaign, shaping media targeting for Google campaigns in 2021+.

Zain Masri

Head of Brand & Reputation Marketing, Google

Zain Kamal Masri is the Head of Brand & Reputation at Google MENA. Zain launched "Maharat min Google", a digital skills program that trained over 1,000,000 people, of which 50% are women and 54% found a job or grew in their business/career as a result. 

Marwa Khost Jarkas

Communications and Public Affairs Manager, Google

Marwah is Communications Manager at Google responsible for the Middle East and North Africa. Her role is to inform and educate users, businesses, entrepreneurs and advertisers about Google’s MENA programs, distinctive values and products by creating and delivering consumer, business and brand reputation strategies and plans. Since joining Google, she has led the launches of Google Digital Skills program - “Maharat min Google”, Internet Safety Platform - “Abtal Al Internet” and ""Grow Stronger with Google"", working with content creators, publishers, governments and large and small businesses across industries in the MENA region.

Amanda Cavallaro

Google Developer Expert & Women Techmakers Ambassador

 Amanda is a Developer Advocate at Vonage, Google Developers Expert for the Google Assistant, Women Techmakers Ambassador, Full Stack Web Development Specialist, Google Developers Group Cloud London Lead and Community Manager at Bots Brasil. She is based in London, UK.

Lucero Tagle

People Advisor, Google for Startups  

Lucero joined Google in 2004 in People Operations. Her career has covered recruitment for both sales and tech, career development, coaching, leadership development, and talent growth & retention both on an EMEA and global level. She has a passion for helping founders solve their most critical organisational challenges. She encourages founders to go to the "uncomfortable" and take action to increase the impact of their own individual leadership, and to improve the health and performance of their team and organisation. She is a frequent external speaker and facilitates numerous "people strategy" workshops/webinars.

Zohra Slim

Co-Founder and CD&VO, InstaDeep

Zohra is InstaDeep’s Chief Digital and Visualization Officer. She is completely self-taught with in-depth knowledge of software and system integrations. In addition, she possesses a unique drive which, combined with her second-to-none people management skills, ensures projects are delivered to excellence and on time. After leading a team of developers in India, Zohra co-founded InstaDeep.

Aram Hamad

3D artist and Hyper-casual games team lead  at Maysalward

Graduated from Jordan University Of Science and Technology - Jordan. With a Bachelor Degree in Design and Visual Communication Four-year experience at Maysalward - 3D artist and Hyper-casual games lead team.

Asma Asi

2D artist and UX/UI team lead at Maysalward

Graduated from Yarmouk University - Jordan, with a Bachelor Degree in Graphic Design Four-year experience at Maysalward - 2D artist and UX/UI team lead 

Fontana Butterfield

Lead Specialist with Speechless and manager of the Google Developer Studio Speaker Training solo sessions 
Fontana Butterfield is a Lead Specialist with Speechless and manager of the Google Developer Studio Speaker Training solo sessions. She coaches individuals to amplify their unique voice and transform their presentations. She leads group trainings and studio classes to help folx find common ground and instill creativity and joy into all aspects of life. Fontana is driven to open hearts and minds by embracing empathy and compassion.

Stacie Blanke

 Community Operations Lead at Speechless

Stacie is the Community Operations Lead at Speechless and facilitates workshops along with 1:1 sessions, focusing on public speaking through improv-thinking and interactive exercises. She's also a yoga instructor and incorporates certain elements into her sessions to connect the mind and body. Her goal is to help others feel more comfortable being themselves and feel heard, especially in the workplace.