About The Speaker
Dr. Nezar Sami
Having been awarded the “One of The Top 100 Most Influential Characters in the Arab Region” award by The Arab Entrepreneurs Union for his contribution in supporting entrepreneurship and innovation in the region, Nezar has been always recognized for his contributions in the area of startups, entrepreneurship, and innovation. Nezar is the author of “Al-Maknaz™ for Entrepreneurship” book, which is a comprehensive guide for entrepreneurs and startup companies to take their ideas and turned it into products and/or services. He developed the “STARS™” model for technology commercialization and the “Project & Management Interaction Model™”. Nezar is the Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Competitiveness Advisor to Chairperson of the Arab Council for Social Responsibility. In 2017, Nezar also founded the “Nilepreneurs” Initiative; which is a nation-wide initiative that supports the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME’s), Startups and Entrepreneurs in Egypt. The initiative is under the auspices of Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) and managed by Nile University. Nilepreneurs Initiative acts as the enabler and catalyst between banks and SME’s ecosystem in Egypt. Nevertheless, Nezar also founded the NU100 nationwide competition. Nezar has 20+ years of experience in managing multi-million projects nation-wide projects in sectors such as Government, Banking, ICT, Education, FMCG and Healthcare. Nezar is the co-founder and Vice President, IEEE Technology Engineering and Management Society (TEMS) - Egypt Chapter. Also, he is the co-founder and vice president of the EgyMOT: Egypt Chapter of the International Association of Management of Technology (IAMOT). Also, he is the co-founder of NU100 Entrepreneurship Initiative and the Professional Services Lead. He has reputable certifications in training, facilitation and other technical aspects including, but not limited to, Certified Innovation Management Coach, DDI Certified Facilitator®, WakeUpBrain Facilitator, American Management Institute, Intel Certified Ideation Master Trainer, StartUp Cup Master Mentor Trainer, ITIL and others. Nezar was the course leader of Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Project Management courses in the Presidential Leadership Program (PLP). He was the former deputy director for academics for the PLP in 2016-2018. Nezar was the advisor to Ministry of Planning (MOP) for the establishment of the Government Innovation Unit, 2016. He developed with the MOP team the vision, mission, strategy and the Business Model of the unit. Also, since 2016 till present, Nezar is the training program designer and the master trainer of Egypt Innovation in Government Competition under the Cairo Innovates Initiative. Since 1997, he conducted 1000+ training courses and sessions in different Business areas including, but not limited to, Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Business Strategies, Leadership, Contemporary Management, Project and Risk Management, IT Service Management, Quality Management, and others. As a trainer, Nezar served Egyptian and regional clients as well as multinational companies and banks; including but not limited to: Central Bank of Egypt, Banque Misr, National Bank of Egypt (NBE), Egypt Air, Saudi Airlines, Mercedes Benz, Astrazeneca, Telecom Egypt, Etisalat Misr, Edita Co., and others. Over the last 15 years Nezar received 10+ “Certificate of Recognition” and “Teaching Honor” from reputable organizations such as Ministry of Investment, American University in Cairo (AUC), Nile University, Entrepreneurship Magazine, Egyptian Banking Institute (EBI) and many other organizations. Nezar mentored new technology-based and FinTech startup companies and entrepreneurs participating in international business plan competitions such as Hajj Hackathon, MIT Arab Startup Competition, Valeo Innovation Challenge, Idea-to-Product (I2P), Made In Egypt (MIE) and others through different incubators in Egypt, such as Start IT, Falak Incubator, Intelaq Incubation Program . Nezar has been selected as a member of HONORABLE SELECTION COMMITTEE for the 2019 Hult Prize. Also, he judges nation-wide and regional innovation and entrepreneurship competitions such as Hajj Hackathon (named to be the Guinness World Record Award as the largest hackathon in the world), Google Mobile Application Launch Pad (MAL), Orange Startup Cup, MIT Arab Startup Competition, Challenge 22 international competition, TechniSummit Competition, Nawah ILO Competition, Intel Business Challenge, Intel ChallengeME, Startup Weekend, and Technology Business Plan Competition (TBPC).