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.

Ritika Passi is Fellow at ORF. She works on connectivity, tracking developments across Eurasia and the Indo-Pacific, the changing global economic order and its geopolitical impact, and Indian foreign policy

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 the CEO of Happy Smala, a consulting firm and startup studio in Rabat, Morocco specialized in innovation and collaborative finance. Prior to this, he served as Director of Programs at the Moroccan Center for Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship, where he launched Dare Inc., Morocco’s first social enterprise incubator.

Foster Awintiti Akugri heads a non-profit organization, focused on preparing the youth for future jobs. Impacting over 3000 youth since its inception and through its partnership with IBM, Hacklab Foundation hopes to reach over 100,000 youth by 2021.

Hanae is an impact tech entrepreneur and certified international project manager with 10 years of overall professional experience, including 5 years in social impact stewardship at a multi-award non-profit and 2 years of operational stewardship at a high growth tech startup.

Jihad is a Moroccan American Psychologist and CEO of InspireCorp, the first prevention-focused mental health social enterprise in the MENA region and Africa. 

Benjamin Bocio Richardson is a humanitarian, health activist, and dentist. At the age of 14, he co-founded a charity with his family named FUMEBO, which is dedicated to supporting underserved communities in the Dominican Republic. Benjamin earned his degree in Dentistry from La Universidad Iberoamericana (UNIBE) in the Dominican Republic and Boston University. 

Max Bouchet is a researcher with the Metropolitan Policy Program and the Global Economy & Development Program of the Brookings Institution in Washington.

Chaimae Bourjij is currently the national project coordinator of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom in Morocco. In parallel, she is founder chairwoman of the International Youth Council – Morocco chapter and MENA regional director for the International Youth Federation.

At CEBRI, she is responsible for coordinating the think tank’s Environment and Climate Change Program.

Charlotte Brandsma is a political scientist and activist with an interest in security, civic engagement and women’s rights. Her geographic focus is Europe, the United States and the Mediterranean region.

Jessa Coleman is a seasoned director with a decade of experience in public-private partnerships, climate finance, decarbonization, resiliency, and sustainability across three continents. She has demonstrated a strong ability to manage high-stakes projects, foster strategic relationships with key partners, and drive significant financial and environmental impact.

CEO of NaaS, transforming companies in fintech, Innovator under 35 by MIT, Master at University College London, Business Administrator, Founder Institute Mentor. Co-founded Wesend in Singapore (Blockchain-based app) and Seed Software in Colombia (Content management system). Global Shaper alumni from the World Economic Forum and Fellow at the Westerwelle Foundation, Edmund Hillary Fellowship. Author of the book ´beat the robots´ and presenter of #PachoenVivo

Teresa Danso-Danquah is the Manager of NextGen Initiatives at Disability:IN, where she leads career development programs for U.S. college students with disabilities

Bushra Ebadi is a social innovator, interdisciplinary researcher, storyteller, and global strategist committed to advancing peace, justice, and the agency of marginalized communities globally. She serves as a Global Advisor (Sherpa) to Aya Chebbi, analyzing policies and supporting the development of strategies to support systems change as it relates to communication, community engagement, governance, and the socio-economic impacts of health emergencies.

Adil El Madani is a Belgian federal civil servant currently serving with the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He has a proven track record of designing private sector development programs in collaboration with diverse public entities and international organizations.

Adil holds a Master's degree in Management Engineering from the Solvay Brussels School, where he is achieving a Ph.D. in Economics. He is passionate about diplomacy and public policy making.

Iskander Erzini Vernoit currently works full-time as a founding director at the Imal Initiative for Climate & Development, a non-profit climate think-tank based in Morocco. As part of his work, Iskander advises a range of governments, civil society and non-state actors on issues relating to climate change and finance.

GLOBSEC is an international think-tank based in Bratislava, Slovakia. Roger has previous experience as a strategic communication analyst at the NATO Rapid Deployable Corps-Greece (NRDC-GR) and with the delegation of the Kingdom of Belgium at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

Meriem is a communication expert with an international perspective. She is a Senior Account Manager in the Corporate and public affairs Team at Edelman Montreal, where she leads and supports numerous strategic communications campaigns on an international scale. She was recently named in Infopresse’s «Top 30 under 30 leaders» in the marketing and communication industry in Quebec.

Omayra Issa is a journalist and news anchor with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation/Radio-Canada, where she covers breaking news and investigates a wide range of stories. Her reporting focuses on the justice system.

Naimah Jabali-Nash is a freelance Producer who recently co-produced a feature-length, historical documentary slated to air on Netflix in 2020 about the crack-cocaine era in the United States. 

Ramy Khoriaty is currently the Political Attaché and Director of Operations for Peter Schiefke, Member of Parliament for Vaudreuil-Soulanges and Parliamentary Secretary to both the Prime Minister of Canada and to the Minister of Border Security and Organized Crime Reduction.

Kwamboka Kiangoi is a Legal Counsel at the Office of the Chief Justice in Kenya. She is a Law and Development practitioner with extensive experience in private practice advising on a broad range of commercial transactions and property acquisitions, and in the public sector advising senior government officials, policy formulation and organizational development.

Jordan Kronen is currently legislative assistant to Washington State Senator Liz Lovelett in Olympia, Washington. Prior to this, he completed his M.A. in Global Affairs as a Schwarzman Scholar from Tshingua University in Beijing, China.

Emmanuel Lubanzadio is a German Public Policy professional with roots in the DRC. He is currently employed as Manager for Global Government Relations in the healthcare industry and will be transitioning to the Technology Sector in the capacity of Public Policy Manager for the region Sub-Saharan Africa.

Doreen is a social entrepreneur passionate about realizing Africa’s agriculture potential. She started her career in Accounting & Finance, advising clients on fund-raising and other matters in New York, Lagos and Abidjan with top global companies: PwC and Ernst & Young. She then founded The Good Heritage, a B2C venture aimed at making healthy products from Africa more accessible to global consumers.

With 14 years of experience in youth, international affairs, social and human development, she has worked in municipal, state and federal government. She has designed, developed and coordinated public policy projects at the local, national and international level.

She implemented the Social Entrepreneurship initiative with Harvard University and the MIT, as well as various international forums on migration, employment and the SDGs.

Adauto is currently serving as chief economist at the BDMG in the Southeast region of Brazil.

With ten years of experience in the public sector, he has also served as special Advisor and Deputy Chief of Public Policy Analysis at the Presidency of the Brazilian Republic and Deputy Executive Secretary of the Ministry of Planning. He  holds a degree in economics from the University of Sao Paulo and a Master’s degree in Public Policy from Harvard Kennedy School.

Sarala S. Morusupalli is the founder of EmpowerLife, an organization that works to achieve gender equality. One of the initiatives she is presently working on is the development of a campaign against domestic and gender violence in consultation with the Government of India. She was a recipient of the White House USOW Change-makers Award in 2016

Juan Diego is a lawyer and academic interested in how corporations can solve social and environmental problems. He is currently the chief coordinator of the “Fourth Sector Policy Initiative” by the Ibero-American General Secretariat and UNDP. 

Gwen Ngwenya is CEO of Techpol, a policy and public affairs advisory. Prior to this she was Head of Policy and a Member of Parliament in the national legislature of South Africa. 

LCDR Brent Oglesby is a United States Naval Foreign Area Officer who is currently assigned to the Comprehensive Research and Analysis Section of the NATO Strategic Direction – South HUB (NSD-S HUB) as an African Security Affairs Analyst.

OL Jonatan Beun is the former Director for Capability Building and Innovation of the Government Lab of Argentina, Cabinet Office. Currently, he is a Lecturer of Innovation at Torcuato Di Tella University and the Academic Director of the Applied Behavioral Design Program at the Catholic University of Argentina. Moreover, he is part of the Advisory Board of Apolitical and is a member of Global Shapers (World Economic Forum).

She has worked in the G20 Leaders’ Summit, the Mercosur-UE Agreement, the WTO ministerial meeting, the UN General Assemblies, as well as more than 140 high-level bilateral meetings between Argentina and over 50 foreign governments.

Máximo created and leads the Impact Community at SEK Education Group, which comprises 10 international schools and Madrid’s UCJC University. His foremost goal is creating a learning ecosystem of student and teacher changemakers that lead and engage in impactful projects. He also supports UCJC University in fostering sustainability and social impact research and the delivery of educational content that is aligned with the SDGs.

Matteo Pugliese is completing his PhD in Law and Political Science at the University of Barcelona and from 2017 to 2023 was an ISPI Associate Research Fellow. Between 2021 and 2023 he served as a military officer of Italian Carabinieri at the International Cooperation Office of the General Commander's Staff. In 2017-2018 he was appointed as a Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson for the Youth and Security agenda. 

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Sahil S.R Shah is a policy and strategy advisor working in the areas of private sector and economic development. Currently, Sahil is the Project Lead of the Kenya Business Guide, a private sector development think-tank aimed at improving the business and investment environment in Kenya.

Daniel Saka Mbumba is a Certified International Sanctions Expert, specialized in Investment Banking control processes and regulatory framework.
He is currently working at the Investment Banking arm of BNP Paribas in Paris, after spending 5 years in the New York Office focusing on Financial Security Risk Compliance (International Sanctions and Embargoes, Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism).

Edna Liliana Valencia is a proudly Afro-Colombian journalist. Reporter and news anchor for the international network France 24 that broadcasts in 180 countries around the world and in four languages. It is the sister channel of the renowned Radio France International station. There she directs and presents the program "Africa 7 days", the only news program in Spanish 100% dedicated to the African continent. 

Ronald van den Heuvel, teacher, military officer and civil servant. In 2013, after finishing a master’s degree in International Relations Ronald joined the Royal Netherlands Army as a reserve-officer.

Joana Flores is currently Strategy manager for Cancer Research UK, the world's largest independent cancer research charity, based in London. She has worked in different roles related to Health across the public, private and third sectors.

Kheston is a Neuroscientist with a background in neurophysiology, cancer and experimental neuroscience. He studied Medical Neuroscience out of the University of Sussex in Brighton, England and is a PhD candidate in Molecular Genetics at the University of the West Indies, Trinidad and Tobago.

Denica Yotova is the Africa programme coordinator of the European Council on Foreign Relations, based in the Berlin Office.

Zakaria Mamou is currently the President of the International Forum for African Entrepreneurship Development (FIDEA): a yearly meeting of entrepreneurs, investors and public actors which goal is to foster entrepreneurship and business environment in the African continent.