Arab Region advisory board

Board

Tarek Bouchamaoui
HBS International Egypt

 

Emile Eid
Al Rayan

 

Helmy Abouleish
Sekem Group

A graduate of the Faculty of Commerce, Cairo University and Faculty of Business Administration, The American University in Cairo, Helmy Abouleish was deeply involved in the establishment of SEKEM Initiative, with a focus on devising competitive approaches and modern methodologies for the initiative.

Founder and cofounder of various organizations including; The Egyptian National Competitiveness Council (ENCC), the International Association for Partnership (IAP), the Egyptian Biodynamic Association (EBDA), and the Centre for Organic Agriculture in Egypt (COAE), the Society for Cultural Development (SCD), he has worked in various positions within SEKEM organization, and organized the first IFOAM Conference on Organic Cotton in Cairo in 1993 and AGROBIO’96. He represented SEKEM in the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum 2004/5/6/7, as well as various regional events of the World Economic Forum (WEF).

Currently, he is the Managing Director of SEKEM Group of Companies that consists of six companies (ATOS, CONYTEX, HATOR, LIBRA, ISIS, SEKEM), which covers the fields of Phyto-pharmaceuticals, organic textiles biodynamic agriculture, and organic and fast moving consumer goods consecutively, employing 2000 people.

May 2005, he has been appointed as the Executive Director of the Industrial Modernisation Centre (IMC), the biggest development fund in Egypt funded by the EU and the Egyptian Government, aiming at improving competitiveness of Egyptian enterprises, increasing exports, and Job Creation.

Mr. Helmy was the Chairman of the Egyptian Junior Business Association (EJB) from June 200 to June 2006, and also was Executive Director of the Industrial Modernisation Centre (IMC) from May 2005 to December 2006.

Under his stewardship of its commercial arm, SEKEM initiative received the “Right Livelihood Award 2003” for sustainable development, better known as “Alternative Nobel Prize”, and became a member of the Schwab Foundation for Outstanding Social Entrepreneurs.

Robert Pardi, Jr.
Evolvence Capital

Robert Pardi heads Evolvence Capital’s Cleantech Investment Initiatives and spearheads the development of this subsidiary in addition to his participation in the conceptualization of the product pipe-line, roll-out and strategic fit of all investment initiatives contemplated by Evolvence Capital.

He is responsible for the development of strategic relationships/partnerships in Europe and the United States and works with Evolvence Capital’s research teams to oversee the due diligence process for all Cleantech investments.

Mr. Pardi has over a decade of investment and entrepreneurial experience. Previously, he was part of Evolvence Capital’s alternative investment management team, where he worked on direct and secondary investment activities to build the firm’s private equity portfolio and industry network.

Prior to joining Evolvence Capital, he worked as a Portfolio Manager for the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) targeting North American Public Equity Technology and Telecommunications companies; and as a Senior General Equity Analyst for Glickenhaus & Company, where he worked with a team of seven portfolio managers managing assets of over US$ 4 billion. Other stints include working on crisis communications and investor relations at Citigate Dewe Rogerson Inc., and heading the investment advisory team at Royce Investment Group, a boutique investment firm in the USA.

Mr. Pardi holds an MBA in Columbia University, USA.

Samer Salty
Zouk Ventures

Samer has 22 years of experience in venture capital, investment banking, and technology in Europe, the Middle East and the United States. Throughout his career, he has kept a clear focus on technology and entrepreneurship. Samer founded zouk ventures in 1999 and has successfully raised two technology venture funds including its current fund, Cleantech Europe. Samer built zouk into one of the leading European firms investing in Clean Technology. Samer has considerable management experience and has spent the last nine years building technology businesses. Prior to founding zouk, Samer worked on M&A and private equity transactions within the Telecom, Media and Technology Group at JP Morgan. He was also head of Global Markets for the Middle East region, structuring large corporate finance and derivatives transactions with institutional clients. Before JP Morgan, Samer spent seven years designing and implementing communications and computer systems for the FAA of the US Government and a number of other international civil aviation authorities. Amongst others, he worked with Martin Marietta, Lockheed, AT&T and Hughes Aircraft.

Samer holds a BS in Electronic Engineering specialising in fiber optics from CalPoly and a MS in Finance from MIT. He is on the Dean’s International Council of the University of Chicago Harris School of Public policy and is on the International Council of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government Belfer Center. In addition, he is Chairman and co-founder of World Links Arab Region, a non-profit organization focused on integrating technology in the education process of the Arab world. He also helped launch The Arab Region Initiative for Social Entrepreneurship for Ashoka. Samer represents zouk as board member for Orb Energy and Solarcentury.