WASHINGTON DC

The Middle East Institute is pleased to host Ahmed El Alfi (Nafham Education), Sherif Kamel(American University of Cairo), and Simon Thacker(World Bank) for a panel discussion about the opportunities and challenges posed by the rise of online education tools in Egypt and across the MENA region.

Amid growing concern about the state of public education in Egypt and throughout the Middle East, online platforms seek to offer alternatives to weak public curriculums and poorly trained teachers. However, structural and social barriers, such as the lack of widespread Internet access, have challenged their utility. Ahmed El Alfi will discuss his online learning platform, Nafham Education, which offers free interactive classes to Egyptian students. Kamel and Thacker will examine the policies and changes in digital media that have made online education a potentially transformative tool for the region’s development.

Biographies:

Ahmed El Alfi is the founder of Sawari Ventures, a Cairo based Venture Capital firm established in 2010 with the goal of transforming Egyptian and MENA region economies through creation of high-impact businesses. In 2011, Sawari created Flat6Labs, its own startup accelerator. Flat6Labs immerses startup entrepreneurs into real-world challenges of creating and managing sustainable enterprises, supported by a dedicated staff, mentors and has launched 57 companies in Egypt and Saudi over the past 3 years. He also founded Nafham, the top online video educational platform covering the Egyptian public school curriculum. Nafham currently offers over 100,000 video lessons per day. In 2013 he established TATP, which took over a large part of the American University Cairo’s downtown campus to form the GrEEK Campus, a 250,000 square foot office park near Tahrir Square where over 100 startups work and collaborate. He has extensive experience in creating and nurturing early-stage companies, as well as structuring international M&A transactions. 
He is or has been a member of the Board of Directors or Advisors of Waqf Endowment, Polytechnic School Pasadena, Claremont Graduate School of Religion, several for-profit corporate boards. and is also an avid collector of Islamic coins.

Sherif Kamel is professor of management information systems and former founding dean of the School of Business at the American University in Cairo, where he led a major repositioning of the school by focusing on entrepreneurship, innovation, leadership, and responsible business. Kamel created the school’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation and the university’s Venture Lab investing in Egypt’s young promising entrepreneurs and future leaders through supporting start-ups, business plan competitions, bootcamps, and mentorship becoming Egypt’s primary university-based incubator and the main educational partner in the entrepreneurship ecosystem. He was associate dean for executive education (2008-2009) and director of the Management Center (2002-2008).  Before joining the university he was director of the Regional IT Institute (1992-2001) and training manager at the Cabinet of Egypt Information and Decision Support Center (1990-1992). He is the executive VP of the American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt; board member of the Egyptian American Enterprise Fund, member of Egypt-U.S. Business Council, and founding member of the Internet Society of Egypt.  His research and teaching interests include management of IT, IT transfer to developing nations, electronic business, decision support systems and entrepreneurship.  His work is broadly published in IS and management journals.  He is the editor of three books and the associate editor of the Journal of IT for Development and the Journal of Cases on Information Technology.

Simon Thacker is an Education Specialist in the Education Global Practice in the Middle East and North Africa Region at the World Bank Group where he works on a number of initiatives, some involving ICT. Before joining the Bank, Mr. Thacker was a teacher in Japan, several countries in Africa, France, and the US. A Canadian national, he holds an Ed.M in International Education Policy from Harvard.

Kate Seelye (Moderator) is senior vice president of The Middle East Institute, where she oversees MEI’s programs and communications. Prior to joining MEI, Seelye worked as a radio and television journalist covering the Arab world from 2000-2009 from her base in Beirut, Lebanon. She reported on the region for NPR, BBC’s The World, PBS’ Frontline/World and the renowned Channel Four British investigative news series, Unreported World. Prior to that she worked as a producer for the Newshour with Jim Lehrer on PBS.