ADEL Bios

Salem Afeworki is an award-winning sustainability executive with over 16 years of experience advancing climate resilience and organizational transformation across public and private sectors. As the first Energy and Sustainability Services Manager for the City of Costa Mesa, she developed citywide frameworks now used as models nationwide. Previously, she led a 12-person team at Value Sustainability, building public-private partnerships to scale clean energy adoption.

Cire Ba is Executive Director, CIRTECH-CTC and has over six years of experience in political consulting. After the completion of his master’s degree in management studies from the Bordeaux Management School, he began his professional career in the management of development projects before specializing in public communications. 

Anand Reddi is a global health specialist at Gilead Sciences, Inc., a major multinational biotechnology company that focuses on the discovery, development, and commercialization of innovative medicines.

Megha Aggarwal is the co-founder and CEO of LEAP Skills Academy. LEAP stands for Learning, Employability and Progress, and was founded to create opportunities and enable employment for motivated students in small towns in India. 

Jihane Ajijti works for OCP SA as the head of project and development for Southern Africa. She is a graduate of HEC Paris (Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales) and a candidate of Africa Business school executive master’s in business administration partnership with Columbia Business school. 

Ahmed AlAhwal Tarek is an architect with academic and professional experience in urban development. 

As the regional manager for West and North Africa for EnergyNet, Valeria Aruffo currently works with governments across West and North Africa promoting investment into the energy, electricity, and infrastructure sectors with a clear focus on energy access and economic development in Africa through project implementation, climate finance, technology transfer, and capacity building. 

Khadijetou Ba is a citizen activist passionate about pan-Africanism and governance. She is a founding member of Leadership-Ethics-Governance and Strategies for Africa (LEGS-AFRICA), a Senegal-based CSO that promotes leadership qualities for Africans and a thinking model based on African values and principles. 

Dana Bekri is a member of the International Staff of the NATO Headquarters in Brussels. She is currently working in resource management for the NATO Security Investment Program, reinforcing the delivery of common-funded Alliance capabilities. 

Rukmani Bhatia currently serves as the special assistant to the assistant administrator for Europe & Eurasia at the U.S. Agency for International Development. 

Adam Bouhadma is the head of Education Media Company, a startup working on the editing of educational websites. Bouhadma is also founder of anqabot, a tool used to audit any website, giving practical recommendations.

Harold Cardenas Lema is an Assistant Vice President at Morgan Stanley, where he leads analyst teams conducting enhanced due diligence for domestic and international clients, with a focus on PEP screenings and AML compliance. Founder of the nonprofit organization La Joven Cuba, focused on Cuba's economic, political and social development .

Karim Chbani currently serves as an investment manager within the SNI investment fund in Morocco, where he is responsible for the structuring and execution of M&A transactions. 

Emil Chireno is a Dominican attorney and the current executive director of the United Nations Association of the Dominican Republic. Chireno was appointed by the President of the United Nations Association of the Dominican Republic, Dr. Leonel Fernández, in 2013.

Julia Contrea is a senior events and programmes professional with experience in international relations, public affairs, and the nonprofit and cultural sectors. Since 2018, she has been with INSEAD Business School’s Advancement Department, leading global alumni and institutional events and serving as one of INSEAD’s AI Champions. She previously managed the European Network for Women in Leadership (WIL Europe), worked with the W.J.

John M. Dionisio is currently a senior investment director at Meridiam, an investment firm that manages $5 billion of capital to invest in infrastructure projects and Public Private Partnership (“P3”) assets in the Americas, Europe, and Africa. 

Fitsum Girma Demissie is a director for Neighbouring Countries Affairs Directorate, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia with over a decade of experience in diplomacy, mediation, and international negotiation. His work focuses on advancing Ethiopia’s foreign policy objectives in peace, security, and development at bilateral, regional, and multilateral levels. He holds an M.A.

Jessica Gottsleben is the first-ever elected ambassador of Running Start, a nonprofit organization that trains young women to run for elected office. 

Pedro Guerra is special advisor to the São Paulo State Governor since 2013. In this position, he makes contact with São Paulo state’s secretaries, enterprises’ CEOs, national, state-level and local representatives, and mayors in order to provide summarized information and analysis to support the governor’s actions and policies. 

Soufiane Khebbaz is a seasoned professional in program management and data analytics with a passion for transforming education systems. He holds a Ph.D. in Management Sciences: Public Administration and certifications including PMP, CSM, and POPM. His expertise spans strategic planning, system optimization, and data-driven decision-making across roles at Georgetown University, DC Public Schools, Howard University, and World Learning.

Kelsey Lilley is associate director of the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center. Her work focuses on emerging security threats and political developments across sub-Saharan Africa, in particular the Horn of Africa. Prior to the Atlantic Council, Lilley worked for the Society for International Development, where she offered operational and financial support to the membership-based international development organization. 

Paola is Head of Projects at Fondazione Alia Falck in Milan, where she led the strategic set-up of the foundation and now oversees the scouting, development, and financing of high-impact social projects.

Carlos Gerardo Martínez González is the dean and founder of the Instituto Internacional de Estudios Superiores Campus Nuevo Laredo, a private university in the border between Mexico and the United States that promotes the logistics competitiveness of North America.

Based at the Mandela Institute for Development Studies, Mandisa is a professional in the development space, with over five years of experience in program strategy and policy advocacy. 

Lea Metke is a Senior Policy Officer in the European and International Affairs and Cooperation Department at the French Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE). In this role, she monitors European initiatives concerning the internal electricity market and prepares and coordinates CRE's positions within European institutions. She also manages CRE's relations with energy regulators in Western and Northern Europe.

Kiron Neale is a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom working on his PhD that looks at residential solar energy transitions in Small Islands States.

Mary-Jean Nleya is a lawyer from Botswana currently working as in-house counsel for an international media network. She also writes on a variety of topics at the intersection of law, technology and international development. In 2020, she was selected as one of the IMF Youth Fellows by the International Monetary Fund.

Parfait Ouattara is a young Ivorian who is passionate about technology. He is CEO of  TaxiJet.

Leonardo Párraga is a Colombian activist who believes in the value of systemic change through sustainable peace, increasing community well-being, and building strong networks. Passionate about the arts, alternative development, and constant learning, Leonardo has a wide range of experience in nonviolent resistance.  

Clarissa Rios Rojas is a Political Affairs Officer at the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA), where she supports global efforts to implement the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC). A molecular biologist turned science diplomat, she helps shape multilateral negotiations, integrate emerging bioscience into treaty discussions, and broker partnerships to strengthen biosecurity worldwide.

Jide is a Manager in Accenture’s Strategy & Consulting practice, where he helps global businesses, private equity firms, and strategic acquirers navigate cybersecurity risks and maximize deal value throughout the M&A lifecycle. An MBA graduate (Distinction) from the University of Oxford with over 12 years in cybersecurity, he has secured corporate IT, OT/ICS, and is a content security assessor for the Motion Picture Association’s Trusted Partner Network.

Benjamin Schmitt is currently a European energy security and science and technology policy advisor for the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Energy Resources (ENR), where he is also serving as the current IEEE Department of State Science and Technology Policy Fellow. 

Pedro Seabra is an Assistant Professor at Iscte–University Institute of Lisbon and Deputy Director at the Center for International Studies (CEI-Iscte). He is also co-Editor of the Portuguese Journal of Social Science and Director of the Ph.D. program in History, Security Studies, and Defence. From 2022 to 2024, he served as Adviser to the Minister of National Defence of Portugal. He has held fellowships with GIGA, FGV, and the U.S.

Merel Severyns currently works as an investment manager for Partners in Equity, a venture capital impact investment firm. Before joining Partners in Equity Merel worked as an analyst at ING Belgium, prior to this she worked at IBM. At IBM she worked in policy and regulatory affairs, and also as a consultant for clients in the financial and public sector.

Nisrine Tahri is the founder X-large, a digital and communication agency based in Technopark Rabat. She is also the founder of a nongovernmental organization that aims to solve the educational problems in Morocco.

Soha is a UK-based education professional with over 12 years of experience across mainstream schools, further and higher education, with a particular specialism in Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). She has held diverse roles in teaching, curriculum development, academic mentoring, and educational business development across several countries.