ADEL Bios

Nicola Bilotta is currently researcher at IAI where he works on international political economy, digital economy and geo-finance. 

Chiara Cocchiara is a System Operations Engineer at EUMETSAT, preparing future Earth Observation Space Missions to monitor weather and climate. She was awarded the MIT Innovator Under35 and the ESNC Prizes for a new drone technology design to help saving human lives, especially the immigrants in the Mediterranean Sea.

She ROARs is empowering female leaders across Africa. Having lived and worked across 5 continents, Chidiogo speaks 7 languages (Chinese, English, French, German, Igbo, Italian and Spanish). She is a World Economic Forum Global Leadership Fellow; and Associate Fellow of Nigerian Leadership Initiative.

Katrina Amupolo is the Business Development Coordinator for the Swakopmund Community Skills Development Centre. She has experience in empowering youth and women through entrepreneurship, skills training and mentorship.   Katrina founded the Empowering Erongo Young Women Project, a  project which offers job readiness training, mentorship and career guidance to unemployed  young women in the Erongo Region, Namibia.

Asim Ali has an extensive background in the Middle East, human rights, countering violent extremism, and public private partnerships. Asim is currently working as a Foreign Affairs Officer in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor of the U.S. Department of State.

Eric Asmar is Managing Partner at Happy Smala, an innovation lab for socio-economic inclusion. A graduate in Sociology from the University of San Francisco and in Development Studies from the Graduate Institute (IHEID), he has focused his career on development, innovation, and entrepreneurship. He has worked with entrepreneurs, financial institutions, public agencies, and civil society on innovation and economic empowerment programs in the United States, Europe, and Africa.