Personal Information

Anne is a Policy Analyst in the entrepreneurship education team at the OECD’s Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Cities, and Regions. She was previously the Deputy Director for Higher Education Quality and Regulation within the UK Government, with oversight of the independent regulator of England’s Higher Education sector and of the Teaching Excellence Framework.

Previously Anne has undertaken roles related to Erasmus+, higher education reform, and supporting successful student outcomes. Between 2010 and 2017 Anne worked on telecommunications policy for the Canadian and UK governments.  She is a graduate of the University of Oxford (UK).

Personal Information

Dr. Mumtaz is an Assistant Professor at the University of Wollongong in Dubai. She is a highly qualified academic, having been bestowed a number of awards and recognitions throughout her time at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), including a Gold Medal for her MBA (scoring 99.47 in the National Percentile test of MBA’s conducted by the All India Management Association, a ranking comprising of candidates from various management colleges across India).

Dr. Mumtaz currently teaches modules on organizational behavior and a range of electives focusing on Human Resource Management. She treats her lectures as the motivating starting point to encourage students to explore a subject in greater depth.  She aims to encourage a lot of class interaction, triggering discussions that capitalize on the rich experiences of UOWD’s diverse student base.

Prior to joining UOWD, Dr. Mumtaz enjoyed a broad range of academic, academic administrative, and corporate roles. Her corporate experience includes three years in a management position at Allahabad Bank, one of India’s largest and oldest nationalized banks. Focusing on improving the organizations’ efficiency through computerization, Dr. Mumtaz was selected to represent the business at IRDRBT – a prestigious institute set up by the Reserve Bank of India to provide state-of-the-art training to all nationalized banks.

She has also had stints at IMT University Dubai as Registrar, responsible for the operational needs of the institute and achieving academic accreditation for the University’s MBA program. Dr. Mumtaz has also had the privilege of working with a range of Dubai’s other top universities as a specialist Human Resource Management faculty member.

Personal Information

Mona Ataya, CEO and Founder of Mumzworld.com, has proven to be one of the Middle East’s most prominent and successful female entrepreneurs. She has a strong track record of not only building successful businesses but also shaping the changing landscape and disrupting the ecosystem.

A transformational leader and a change agent in every sense of the word, Mona has managed to grow Mumzworld from a business plan on paper to a leading and enviable brand reaching more than 2.5 million mothers across the region since inception in 2011. Mumzworld has pioneered a revolutionary and gold standard e-commerce shopping experience for all things mother and child in the ME region. Today, Mumzworld prides itself on being the largest, trusted, and definitive source with over 250,000 products, an engaged community, exclusive product offerings, and delivery to over 20 different countries in the fastest, most convenient, and cost-effective way, at everyday low prices.

Under Mona’s leadership, Mumzworld has undergone tremendous growth and successfully established itself as the regional leader in this vertical space. With over 6 rounds of funding, renowned investors on board, and a solid business plan, Mumzworld has become the #1 Funded Women-Led e-commerce Company in the Middle East, the first regional, homegrown e-commerce company acquired by a Saudi, strategic giant. We expect to hear a lot from this brand in the years to come.

Regional recognition:
Mona has won more than 100 awards throughout her career.  Most recently, she was voted as one of 6 Powerful Women Transforming the Business World in the Levant, among UAE’s 5 Most Prominent Women in the Tech World. She is amongst the top 2 Forbes women creating impact in the region, most recently featured in Forbes Middle East as one of the Middle East’s Power Businesswomen in 2021 and 2020, and was voted amongst the 100 Most Powerful Arab Women, Forbes Top 10 Arab Women 2017, 2018; World’s 100 Most Powerful Arabs – Generation Next – Arabian Business. She was also voted SME Executive of the year 3 years in a row and one of 30 Most Influential Women in the Arab World in 2019.

Mumzworld.com has won The Small Business of The Year Award and Best Kids Online retailer by Timeout Kids in 2015, 2016, and 2018. Mumzworld.com has also been awarded the Images Most Admired Online Retailer of the Year 2014 and 2016 as well as the “Customer Service Excellence Award” by The Customer Festival Awards 2018.

Beyond the many awards she received, Mona was also selected into the prestigious group of globally recognized Endeavor businesses in 2014 and was the first woman selected into this prestigious network in the Middle East. Furthermore, she is a UNCTAD representative for the region with a mandate to empower women and create enabling opportunities for women in the digital ecosystem.

Personal Information

Edit is General Director of the strategic foresight company, Vision & Values situated in Brussels. She served two consecutive terms in the European Parliament as MEP 2004-2014.

She is a member of the Research Data Alliance Global Council. She is co-chair of the RDA FAIR Data Maturity Model Working Group and is Senior EU Liaison Adviser for GÉANT. She is a member of the Administrative Board of the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) and is a Member of the Board at the Transatlantic Policy Network (TPN) and RDA Europe. Edit was a member of the ITRE, IMCO, BUDG, and CONT committees and of a number of parliamentary forums.  Prior to her election to the EP, she was a member of the Hungarian Parliament in which role she was a delegate to the Council of Europe.

Before her political engagement, she worked for the private sector as regional sales and technical manager for a specialty chemicals company, National Starch & Chemical (belonging to Unilever and later to ICI).

Edit has an MSc in food conservation engineering. She was a research fellow at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Edit holds a Certificate of Company Direction for strategic marketing, financial management, and company law from the Institute of Directors.

Personal Information

Maria Syrengela is the Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, responsible for Demography and Family Policy and Gender Equality. Prior to her current assignment, she was appointed Secretary-General for Family Policy and Gender Equality (2019-2020), while she still serves as Vice President of the Women of the European People Party (EPP Women).

From 2001 to 2005, Ms. Syrengela had held the post of Vice-President of the YEPP (Youth of the European People’s Party) and served as YEPP Representative in the Western Balkan Democracy Initiative and the Southeastern European Forum.

She is a graduate of the School of Philosophy of the University of Athens. She also holds a master’s degree in Business Administration for Executives from the Athens University of Economics and Business (AUEB), with her thesis focusing on the Policy and Strategy of New Public Management. Maria Syrengela has served in key positions, both in private and public sectors, specializing in human resources and she is a Member of the Economic Chamber of Greece.