Meghan Gregonis is the United States Consul General in Dubai starting August, 2021. A career member of the U.S. Senior Foreign Service, Meghan was the U.S. Consul General in Munich, Germany from 2018-2021.  She managed support for the two largest in-person U.S. delegations and the first virtual delegation to the Munich Security Conference during her time there. She also focused on innovation themes in Germany and launched the first Germany-wide Transatlantic Innovation Week to further develop innovation and trade and investment relationships.
Meghan’s previous overseas assignments include Islamabad, Riyadh, Rome, Baghdad, and Jerusalem. Her Washington assignments include directing public engagement efforts in Europe; managing relations with Turkey from the State Department’s Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs; and coordinating U.S. engagement with Jordan from the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs. Meghan was also responsible for relations with Turkey during an assignment to the White House, where she served as a member of the National Security Council.
Meghan is a distinguished graduate of the National War College and an alumna of New York University. She has completed graduate studies at Temple University and earned professional certifications from the University of Southern California and MIT’s Seminar XXI for national security professionals. Meghan speaks Italian and German, and basic French and Arabic. She worked for a venture capital firm in her hometown of Philadelphia before joining the Foreign Service in 2001.  Meghan is accompanied in Dubai by her husband, Dr. Alessio Volante.

Dr. Eric Liguori is Founding Head of the School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Rowan University. He also holds the William G. Rohrer Chair of Entrepreneurship and serves as Executive Director of the Rowan Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. His research interests include entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurial competency development, and entrepreneurial ecosystems.

Dr. Thomas Pittz is an Associate Professor at the John H. Sykes College of Business of The University of Tampa. His research focuses on strategy and entrepreneurship to explore how firms build and perpetuate a culture of innovation. He maintains a particular focus on collaboration across market sectors, where diverse knowledge structures can coalesce to produce novel solutions and systemic change.

Dr. Kui Xie is the Red Cedar Distinguished Professor & Chair of the Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology, and Special Education in the College of Education at Michigan State University. He was previously the Ted and Lois Cyphert Distinguished Professor and Professor of Learning Technologies program in the Department of Educational Studies at The Ohio State University and the director of The Research Laboratory for Digital Learning at OSU. His recent research aimed to understand how to design, develop, and integrate innovative technology capable of promoting students’ motivation and engagement in digital learning to achieve a positive impact on student success.

Dr. Cesar Bandera is the Leir Chair for Entrepreneurship and Associate Professor in the Martin Tuchman School of Management at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. His research interests include entrepreneurship pedagogy and entrepreneurial ecosystems with a focus on healthcare and autonomous platforms. Bandera has also launched successful ventures in the Health industry.

Dr. Chourouq Haisni is the Programs and Accreditations Director at ESCA Ecole de Management, the only AACSB accredited Business School in Morocco and French-speaking Africa. She is passionate about education, technology, and business management, and her specific interests are in innovative pedagogies and digital learning.

Dr. Oyedele Ogundana is a Senior Lecturer in the Accounting and Finance Division at Nottingham Business School, Nottingham Trent University. His current research focuses on women entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial finance, micro-entrepreneurship, family businesses, social entrepreneurship, international entrepreneurship, international business, business growth, and financial reporting among other topics.

Alexandre Le Voci Sayad is an educator, journalist, and novelist. He is currently director of the ZeitGeist organization in Brazil and former co-chairman of the UNESCO Media and Information Literacy (MIL) Alliance. He holds a master’s degree in Artificial Intelligence and Ethics from PUC (Pontifical Catholic University - Brazil) and a specialization on media and business from the University of California – Berkeley.

Devoted to ‘exploring’ the future and spotting the trends and technologies that are shaping our world. Dimitris is a futurist and expert in designing companies for the Future. With a captivating blend of case studies, global perspectives, and cutting-edge research. Researcher for the Special Secretary of Strategic Foresight at the Presidency of the Greek Government.

Mr. Shamal Kareem is Founder and CEO of Digital Shift Iraq. He has more than 14 years of experience in digital transformation in the Iraqi market and has worked as the Digital Transformation Lead at the University of Kurdistan Hewler for more than 10 years. He holds a BSc in Software Engineering from Salahaddin University – Erbil.

Ms. Shereen Mosallam is an ACSM – APICS Certified Trainer and Authorized Partner at Symbios Consulting, where she has worked for the last 18 years. She is also an Advisory Board Member of the Operational Excellence Society. Her main topics of focus include Data Mining, Operational Excellence, Process Mining, and Digitalization and Digital Transformation Strategy, and she is an Industry 4.0 Readiness Consultant. She received a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Ain Shams University in 1993 and a Master of Business Administration from the American University in Cairo in 2001.

Dr. Tsedale Melaku is a Sociologist, Assistant Professor of Management at the Zicklin School of Business, Baruch College (CUNY), and author of You Don’t Look Like a Lawyer: Black Women and Systemic Gendered Racism (2019). She earned a Ph.D. and Master of Philosophy in Sociology from The Graduate Center, City University of New York and a B.A. in Sociology and Africana Studies from New York University. Her research focuses on how race and gender affect advancement in traditionally white institutional spaces, and how white racial framing and systemic gendered racism play a critical role in the experiences of Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC), and more specifically, BIPOC women in organizations.

Dr. Christoph Winkler is the Founding Program Director and Endowed Professor of the Hynes Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation at Iona University. He is also a candidate in the Faculty Innovation Fellows Program at Stanford University’s Hasso Plattner Institute of Design. His research focuses on developing innovative, entrepreneurial mindsets in students through experiential learning.

Barry O’Mahony is a Professor of Services Management and Dean of the College of Business at Abu Dhabi University in the United Arab Emirates. Previously he was Chief Academic Officer at École Hôtelière de Lausanne and Dean of the Faculty of Business at the University of Wollongong in Dubai. Professor O’Mahony holds a PhD in consumer culture from the University of Melbourne and is a recognized scholar in the development of complex service delivery models for government and business. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Hospitality and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Dr Jörn Bühring is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Management at Abu Dhabi University, College of Business (Department of Strategy, Leadership and Management). In his last position, Dr Bühring was a full-time member of faculty at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, School of Design (#21 QS WUR), where he served in a variety of academic roles for the past 9 years. As a global citizen, he has also held senior corporate leadership positions across diverse industries, working within a wide range of global brand icons (e.g. Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, Toyota, General Motors, and Bang & Olufsen A/S), and across organizational cultures and geographic locations. His knowledge of the demands of the future is based on firsthand experiences, and his employment locations span the globe and within the major cultures of the world. Formal qualifications earned him a BA-equivalent degree in the field of Tourism Management (HH), an MBA (VU) majoring in Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and a PhD in Consumer Engagement Innovation futures at Swinburne University of Technology (SWIN) in Australia.

Dr. Marc Poulin is Academic Dean and Associate Professor of Management at Abu Dhabi School of Management. He has a PhD in Operations and Supply Chain Management from University Laval in Canada. His research and teaching interests include operations management, supply chain management, business strategy, entrepreneurship, and mass customization. He has over thirty scientific publications in international journals and conferences. Dr. Poulin has also consulted local and international SMEs on management strategy, operations and supply chain strategy, and funding. He has a special interest in start-up companies.