Ali Babacan was born in Ankara in 1967.

He graduated first in the Class of 1985 from the TED Ankara High School.

In 1989, he received a Bachelor of Science Degree (BS) in Industrial Engineering from the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, where he ranked first among the graduates of that year.

In 1990, he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and attended the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, where he received his Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Marketing, Organizational Behavior and International Business in 1992.

From 1992 to 1994, he worked at a Chicago-based company providing financial consulting services to top executives of major banks in the United States.

Subsequently, he returned to Ankara to run his family business from 1994 until 2002.

In 2001, he became a Founding Member and Board Member of the Justice and Development Party (AkParti), a position which he still retains.

At the general elections held in November 2002, he was elected to Parliament and appointed as the Minister of Treasury, a cabinet position he retained throughout the 58th and 59th Governments of the Republic of Turkey until August 2007.

In addition to his tenure as Minister of Treasury, on June 3, 2005, he was appointed as Chief Negotiator in Turkey’s accession negotiations with the European Union.

At the general elections held on 22 July 2007 he was re-elected to the Parliament.

On August 29, 2007, he was appointed as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the 60th Government of the Republic of Turkey.

Regarding change in Cabinet in 2009 he was appointed as Deputy Prime Minister, in charge of Finance and Economy.

After the 2011 general election he was appointed as Deputy Prime Minister For Economic and Financial Affairs.

He is married with three children.

Hanzade Doğan Boyner is currently Chairwoman of Doğan Online and Doğan Gazetecilik, Vice Chairwoman of Doğan Holding and Hürriyet Newspaper. As former Chairperson of Petrol Ofisi, she also pursues Doğan Holding’s interests in the energy sector.

After graduating from LSE, Hanzade Doğan Boyner commenced her professional career at Goldman Sachs London’s CMT department as a financial analyst. She earned her MBA from Columbia University. In 1999, Doğan founded Turkey’s leading Internet company, Doğan Online. In 2003, she became CEO of Doğan Gazetecilik, which has the highest selling daily, Posta, in its portfolio. In 2006, she played a leading role in forming a strategic partnership, at Petrol Ofisi, between Doğan Holding and Central Europe’s leading oil and gas company, OMV.

She is the founding member and Vice Chairwoman of Global Relations Forum, Vice President of World Association of Newspapers. Doğan is also a member of several business, trade organizations and think tanks including the Brookings Institute International Advisory Council, European Council on Foreign Relations, Foreign Economic Relations Board, Association of Turkish Businessmen and Industrialists, Young Presidents’ Organization and Association of Woman Entrepreneurs. A philanthropist, Doğan is the patron of “Daddy Send me to School” campaign that aims to remove economic and cultural barriers to girls’ education in Turkey. The campaign raised the necessary funds to grant 10,500 scholarships and to build 33 girls’ dormitories across Turkey.

Rakesh Malhotra is the Founder of the SAR Group of companies, which cover a wide range of industries including power electronics, energy, water and telecom manufacturing and services, and the Managing Partner of Ncubate Capital Partners, which invests in early stage companies needing growth capital and knowledge infusion.

Rakesh graduated from Jadavpur University with a degree in Electronics and Telecom Engineering and started his career in 1985 at Siemens, followed by NELCO and Mitsui. His entrepreneurial journey began in 1988 with founding Luminous Power Technologies. Beginning with $10K in capital, Luminous is now India’s leading manufacturer of power supplies, batteries, and invertors, and in 2011 sold 75 percent of its share to Schneider Electric for over $300M. Rakesh currently serves as Chairman of the company.

The SAR group has businesses across a diverse range of industries. Wynncom and Flymobiles are GSM handset manufacturers. Luminous Mobile Accessories manufactures and sells accessories to complement the handset business. Navitas Green Power Pvt. Ltd. is developing a clean power generation portfolio throughout India. The group is also focused on the domestic water purification market.

With a repertoire of rich and diverse experiences, and a strong interest in investing and mentoring entrepreneurs, Mr. Malhotra launched Ncubate Capital Partners as "a fund by the entrepreneurs for the entrepreneurs" to provide growth capital, skill-gap fulfillment and hands-on knowledge. Ncubate is currently focused in the sectors of Renewable Energy and Clean Technologies, Information Technology, Telecom, and Consumer Products and Services.

Mr. Malhotra regularly spends time with engineering and business school students to share experiences and to develop their interest in entrepreneurship. He holds multiple issued and pending patents in areas of power electronic, renewable energy, and energy storage. He serves on various industrial technology committees and still presents papers at engineering conferences. Rakesh is a family person and likes travelling, playing cricket, music and business reading.

Jonathan Margolis, a career member of the Senior Executive Service, serves as Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Science, Space and Health in the Department of State’s Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs. In this position, he is responsible for policies and programs in the areas of International Science and Technology Cooperation, Space and Advanced Technologies, and International Health and Biodefense.

From 2007-2011, Mr. Margolis served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Global Communications in the Bureau of International Information Programs. Mr. Margolis oversaw the Bureau’s internet, video and print products, including social media. His team’s programs reached and engaged hundreds of millions of people both directly and through decentralized operations on 250+ sites in virtually every country in the world.

From 2006-2007, Mr. Margolis served as the Senior Coordinator for Global and Functional Issues in the Office of the Director of Foreign Assistance, where he oversaw reform efforts to ensure effective use of foreign assistance resources, through strategic planning and transparent performance measures. His team was responsible for programs with an annual budget of 6.5 billion dollars, dispersed through 14 bureaus and over 100+ U.S. missions.

From 1997-2006, Mr. Margolis served as the Department's Special Representative for Sustainable Development and as the Director of the Office of Policy Coordination and Initiatives in the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs. As Special Representative, he headed the U.S. Delegation to the UN Commission on Sustainable Development. He also served as a member of international science and technology boards and sustainability partnerships.

Mr. Margolis joined the Department in 1991 as a American Association for Advancement of Science Diplomacy Fellow and was integrally involved in environment, water, and economic issues and programs, as part of the multilateral track of the Middle East peace process through 1996. During that time he also served as the Division Chief for the Middle East and Asia in the Office of Science and Technology Cooperation.

Mr. Margolis has a Ph.D. from Harvard University in psychology, focusing on negotiation and conflict resolution. He holds a Master's Degree from the Fletcher School of International Law and Diplomacy, and his undergraduate degree is in Fine Arts from Harvard College. He has also served as an Adjunct Professor at American University, and the Foreign Service Institute, where he has conducted courses on environmental policy, negotiations, and international organizations.

Iqbal Z. Quadir has been articulating, for two decades, the critical role of entrepreneurship and innovations in creating prosperity in low-income countries. In the 1990s, Quadir conceived and organized Grameenphone to provide telephone access to 100 million people living in rural Bangladesh. Grameenphone is now Bangladesh’s leading telecommunications operator providing access to over 35 million subscribers irrespective of their geographic location or economic standing.

From 2001-2004, Quadir taught at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, focusing on the democratizing effects of technologies in low-income countries. He co-founded the journal Innovations (MIT Press) and, in 2005, moved to MIT where he founded the Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship in 2007 and is a professor of the practice. Quadir founded Emergence BioEnergy to produce decentralized energy, and recently co-founded Money in Motion to provide mobile phone-based banking services. He sits on the boards of the World Wide Web Foundation and the Global Fairness Initiative.

Quadir holds an MBA and an MA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and a BS with honors from Swarthmore College. In 2011, he received the honorary degrees of Doctor of Humane Letters from Swarthmore College and Doctor of Science from Case Western Reserve University.

Ashok is a Serial Entrepreneur with four successful high technology start ups. He took one of them public (IPO) with a market cap in excess of $400mm. He is currently on his 5th start up as Chairman and CEO of Whodini Inc. – developing cutting edge software for enterprises, utilizing Artificial Intelligence and Computer linguistics. He is also Chairman of the TiE Global Board of Trustees. (TiE is the world’s largest organization of entrepreneurs with over 15,000 members in 5 continents.) He was one of the first Indian-Americans to take a company public on NASDAQ.

As CEO of Excalibur Pictures, he has produced three award winning feature films, released in 2008/09. “My Faraway Bride” and “Before the Rains” had successful runs in theaters worldwide - now available on DVD.

He has been an Angel Investor in 6 high-tech startups and on the Boards of several private and public companies. From 2004 to 2007, he was Chairman of Opelin Inc., an online data backup system and software which was sold to HP in 2007. From 2000 to 2003, he was CEO of Prime Wave Communications, a broadband wireless access technology start-up, that reached revenues of $50 million. He sold his stake in and retired.

He was Founder and CEO of Trex Communications Corporation. Trex was founded in Dec 1997 and in the Satellite Communications business, TrexCom’s revenues reached $60 million in 2 years. He sold TrexCom to L3 in March 2000. He was President of the North-American operations of Houston-based Enron Corp. in 1996/1997, and grew revenues from $300 million in 1996, to $2 billion in 1997. He founded Midcom Communications in 1990. As CEO and founder, he grew the company into one of the 10 largest long distance carriers with $250 million in annual revenues, culminating in a successful IPO in July 1995. He also founded ASCENT, the largest trade association for the long distance and wireless industry with over 1,000 member companies, of which he was Chairman for its first 2 years.

He is on the Board of the Jones Business School of Rice University, the Board of Mentors of the University of Houston’s Bauer School of Business, guest lecturer at Rice University, U of H, Franklin Pierce University and USC. From 1998-2002 he was a Trustee and Board Member of Franklin Pierce University.

He obtained a BS in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Delhi, an MS from Marquette University, and an Executive Diploma in Financial Management from the London School of Economics.

He is married to Sheela, has 2 children. His hobbies include golf, guitar, photography, poetry and various charitable organizations.

Ambassador Ricciardone was appointed by President Obama to be the U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Turkey on January 1, 2011. His previous Ambassadorial appointments include Deputy U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan from 2009 to 2010, Ambassador to the Arab Republic of Egypt from 2005 to 2008, and Ambassador to the Republic of the Philippines and the Republic of Palau from 2002 to 2005. Prior to that, Ambassador Ricciardone served as Director of the Department's Task Force on the Coalition Against Terrorism and as a Senior Advisor to the Director General of the Foreign Service. From March 1999 until early 2001, he served as the Secretary of State's Special Coordinator for the Transition of Iraq.

Ambassador Ricciardone was born in Boston and graduated from Malden Catholic High School. Upon graduation summa cum laude from Dartmouth College in 1973, he received a Fulbright Scholarship for teaching and study in Italy. He went to Iran as a teacher in 1976, traveling widely in Southwest Asia, Europe, and the Middle East until he entered the Foreign Service in 1978.

Ambassador Ricciardone's Foreign Service assignments include two tours in Turkey, most recently (1995-1999) as Deputy Chief of Mission and Charge d'Affaires; and service in Cairo, Amman, and London. He served in two multinational military deployments: as chief of the Civilian Observer Unit of the Multinational Force and Observers in Egypt's Sinai Desert, and as Political Advisor to the U.S. and Turkish commanding generals of Operation Provide Comfort, based in Turkey and operating in Iraq. In Washington, DC, Ambassador Ricciardone has served in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research, the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, and in senior management positions under the Director General of the Foreign Service and of Human Resources. He has won high awards for policy and program management and for political reporting.

Mr. Ricciardone speaks Italian, Turkish, Arabic, and French.

Hüsnü M. Özyeğin was born in 1944 in İzmir, Turkey. He graduated from Robert Academy in 1963 and received a B.S. in civil engineering from Oregon State University in Corvallis Oregon in 1967, and an MBA degree from Harvard Business School in 1969.

In 1974 he was appointed the Managing Director of Pamukbank. He became the Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Yapı Kredi in 1984.

In September 1987 he founded Finansbank. He was the Chairman of Finansbank between 1987 - 2010.

Mr. Özyeğin is also the Chairman of Fiba Holding A.Ş., Fibabanka A.Ş., Credit Europe (Suisse) S.A. in Geneva and he is also Board Member of Credit Europe (Holland) N.V. and Credit Europe (Moscow) Ltd.

Fiba Holding is active in financial services, tourism, retail and real estate development.

Mr. Özyeğin is involved in numerous civic activities as Chairman of Hüsnü M. Özyeğin Foundation, Board Member of Mother and Child Education Foundation, and Chairman of Board of Trustees of Özyeğin University and member of Board of Dean’s Advisors of Harvard Business School.

Mr. Özyeğin is married, has two children and three grandchildren.

As Director of 3M New Ventures EMEA, Mr. Andrae is responsible for all aspects of New Venture's European operations. Next to general management and supervisory functions, this includes strategy setting, due diligence, deal structuring, and post-investment collaboration with the respective ventures.

Mr. Andrae brings almost twenty years of experience in consulting, strategic sales and marketing for major firms such as Andersen Consulting and Price Waterhouse. Mr. Andrae spent a significant amount of his career in North America and Asia, leading complex supply chain and IT implementation projects for major clients from the banking, automotive and telecommunications industry. After Price Waterhouse, Mr. Andrae held key positions at Ariba and Emptoris, where he was instrumental in directing the growth and success of the European operations of both companies. Subsequently, he joined CombineNet as Vice President and Managing Director, developing the firm to one the leading providers of eSourcing solutions in Europe. Prior to joining 3M, Mr. Andrae was Vice President at Siemens AG, heading their Global Procurement Operations based out of Zurich, Switzerland.

Bill Aulet is a serial entrepreneur who has run three companies, directly created hundreds of millions of dollars of market value, raised over $100 million in funding for his companies, produced award winning products and developed numerous business leaders in his 30 year business career.

He started his career at IBM (11 years) and subsequently founded and/or ran three companies Cambridge Decision Dynamics, SensAble Technologies and Viisage Technologies) with each becoming increasingly successful as he gained wisdom from his experiences.

Today Bill teaches four courses at MIT and speaks globally on the topic of entrepreneurship and innovation. His programs have won global recognition for their leadership and excellence.

He sits on the boards of a number of high growth companies, consults with large companies on how to be more innovative, works with foundations and governments to develop innovation/entrepreneurial ecosystems and also conducts workshops throughout the world working directly with entrepreneurs to increase their skills to be more successful.

Isabel Avila is a journalist with more than 14 years of experience in all aspects of communication; from writing for the internet, newspapers and radio, to working in the communication offices of public administration and organizations connected with culture, creativity, advertising, education and information society. She began her career with one of the pioneering on-line Spanish newspapers: El Mundo Digital, in 1998.

She then started to work in several press department of different companies and public administration offices like Red.es, a public company under the Ministry of Industry that promotes the Information Society in Spain; and the Creative Club of Spain, a nonprofit organization that connects the members of the creative advertising sector of the country.

In 2010, Isabel became an entrepreneur and created a new type of communication company, a “Visibility Brands Agency” called -IAM Visibility- which specializes in project visibility in the media brands in the 2.0 environment and advises agencies and brands such as Smart, Aquarius, Vodafone, Mahou or Iberostar, among others.

Highly experienced management consultant, especially in project management, whose expertise relies on 14 years of work in both the profit and non-profit sectors. Former collaborator of European institutions such as the European Youth Forum and the Council of Europe, he was involved in monitoring missions in countries such as Mexico, the Palestine, Scandinavian countries, Russia or Macedonia, where he was consultant for the newly-created Ministry of Youth, following the fall of the former Yugoslavia.

After this European period, he collaborated with several companies in the United States, such as the “Academy for Educational Development” and Development Alternative Inc., within the project GRASP financed by USAID. His mission was to provide technical assistance for local authorities and non-profit organizations. Subsequently, Péter Barta was Project Manager for SMURD Târgu Mureş, where he set up regional training centers and two local SMURD units in the county of Sibiu. He also managed the fundraising campaigns for SMURD, raising the largest amount of money in Romania for the program related to the redirection of 2% of taxpayers’ taxes to a non-profit organization and built a development strategy that lead to the creation of the Foundation for SMURD.

As Executive Director of the Post-Privatization Foundation (FPP), the only organization in Romania focused solely on entrepreneurship and on the promotion of entrepreneurial skills among Romanians, Peter manages European-funded projects, a varied portfolio of investments and international entrepreneurial development programs for the benefit of Romanian entrepreneurs.

Ziya G. Boyacigiller makes early-stage investments in innovative technology-driven start-up companies (in Silicon Valley and Istanbul) and works with the founding teams to help grow their companies. He also teaches MBA students entrepreneurship, at Sabanci University, Istanbul. Until October 2000, he was a Business Unit Vice President / General Manager at Maxim Integrated Products - a NASDAQ 100 semiconductor company (MXIM). Mr. Boyacigiller joined Maxim in 1983 when the company was started, as a founding partner, and served in various technical and executive management capacities for 17 years, helping build the company to over billion dollars in revenues. Prior to Maxim, he worked at Intersil Inc. and designed state-of-art mixed-signal CMOS integrated circuits, including the world’s first digitally calibrated 14-bit data converters. In the late 1970s, he started E/Z CAD Inc., a pioneer in the PC-based electronics design tools industry. Mr. Boyacigiller holds an MSc in Engineering from UCLA, and a BSEE from Bosphorus University, Istanbul. He currently works to help to create and develop a world-class, technology-based entrepreneurship environment in Turkey.

Cem was born in Ankara in 1962. Cem graduated from Kadikoy Maarif Koleji in 1981 and Cerrahpaşa Medical Faculty at Istanbul University in 1987. Over the last twenty years, after Cem returned to Turkey from working as a doctor abroad, Cem worked as CEO and general manager in four different companies., all of which were engaged in different areas of the helath care industry. During this period, Cem completed his PhD in Pharmacology and his Master’s in Business Management.

John Chisholm has three decades of experience as general manager, entrepreneur and investor. In 1997, he founded and served as CEO/Chairman of CustomerSat (acquired by MarketTools), a leading provider of enterprise feedback management systems. A pioneer in online marketing research, in 1992 he founded and served as CEO/Chairman of Decisive Technology (now part of Google), publisher of the first desktop and client-server software for online surveys. Earlier he worked at HP, Xerox, and Grid.

He is a trustee of The Seasteading Institute; a member of the Development Committee of the MIT Corporation; chairs the Santa Fe Institute Development Committee; chairs the MIT Club of Northern California; and through the MIT Venture Mentoring Service helps young entrepreneurs start new high-tech businesses. He has also chaired the Stanford Institute for the Quantitative Study of Society, one of Stanford's twelve independent laboratories; served on the visiting committee of the MIT math department, and as VP of the MIT Worldwide Alumni Association. He is author or co-author of two US patents.

He holds BS and MS degrees in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT and an MBA from Harvard Business School. An avid mountain climber, he has summited Mts. Rainier, Shasta, Whitney, St. Helens, and live volcanoes in Chile and Indonesia.

Nader F. Darehshori has more than 40 years of experience in all aspects of publishing beginning with sales, and including editorial, marketing, technology, globalization, and acquisition of organizations. He began his career with the Houghton Mifflin Company in 1966 as a sales representative in the College Division, then in 1990, Nader was elected Chairman and CEO of the Company and assumed the title of President in October 1991.

He then founded Cambium Learning, a publishing company focused on K-8. Cambium became the premier education company delivering research and evidence-based outcomes for students at risk for academic failure. The company was sold to Veronis Suhler in early 2007.

In mid 2007, Nader co- founded Aptius Education a publisher of quality instructional materials developed to advance careers and enhance job skills. Content areas are selected for their focus on skills demanded by the 21st-century workplace, and distribution channels make the materials easily accessible - and customizable - for virtually any educational setting.

Nader is a director and member of the Executive Compensation Committee for State Street Bank. He is Director of the Audit Committee for Aviva USA, Chairman of the Boston Public Library, and a trustee of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He a supporter of the U.N.

Tonya Drake is a Principal at Fish & Richardson. As a patent attorney, her practice supports all areas of intellectual property including patent prosecution, portfolio management, licensing, reexamination, and counseling in the areas of electrical engineering, materials science, and software. Tonya has extensive experience assisting start-up and early stage companies in developing intellectual property portfolios. Ms. Drake also has experience in patent litigation including matters before U.S. District Courts and a recent appeal to the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals from the USPTO. Ms. Drake was previously a Research Assistant at Massachusetts Institute of Technology where her masters thesis was entitled "Fabrication of Ultra-thin Strained Silicon on Insulator.

Prof. Erkut obtained an undergraduate degree from the Faculty of Engineering of Bogazici University in 1980 and a Ph.D from the University of Florida in 1986, both in Industrial Engineering. Between 1985 and 2005, he taught at the University of Alberta’s School of Business, and was a visiting faculty member at the Univ. of Geneva, Ohio State Univ., NIDA (Bangkok), as well as Bogazici and Sabanci Universities. He received nine teaching awards, including the prestigious "INFORMS Teaching of Management Science Practice Award" and Canada’s "3M Teaching Fellowship," as well as five awards of merit, and four practice awards from the Canadian Operational Research Society.

Prof. Erkut, served as project leader for a number of externally-funded projects, founded an applied research center (Center for Excellence in Operations) at the University of Alberta, was the Founding Editor of INFORMS Transactions on Education, and published over 50 refereed journal articles in journals such as Operations Research, Transportation Science, European Journal of Operational Research, Interfaces, Computers and OR, Risk Analysis, and Geographical Analysis. He served as Dean of the Faculty of Business Administration of Bilkent University between 2005 and 2007, before starting to serve as the Founding Rector of Ozyegin University in 2008.

Mustafa K. Erçelik is a BoD member in Alp Aviation Co., a privately held engineering and manufacturing company, jointly owned by Alpata Group, Turkey and the Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, USA; with a progressive machine shop featuring a diverse assortment of 5-axis CNC machines, in-house special processes, test/quality infrastructure and engineering / component design capability specializing in serving the commercial and military aerospace industry.

Since 2001, Mustafa K. Erçelik also serves as the CEO in Alpata Group of Companies. Prior to 2001, Mustafa Erçelik held management positions in finance and REIC sectors in Turkey and abroad.

Mustafa K. Erçelik graduated from Ankara Bilkent University, the Department of Business Administration under full scholarship provided by the University’s Board of Trustees. Mustafa K. Ercelik speaks Turkish as native Language; he is fluent in English and has working French knowledge.

Ercelik, 43, is married and has two sons. He is a citizen of the Republic of Turkey.

Jil Van Eyle (Hilversum, Netherlands, 1967) has worked in several multinational companies as a marketing and sales director. He also worked as a personal assistant of Frank Rijkaard, a former FC Barcelona coach.

In 1998, his daughter was born with hydrocephalus, which drastically changed his way of living. He started to spread the concept of Teaming. Teaming is a charity initiative, which helps those in need with micro-donations of 1 euro (these donations are delivered to a social cause chosen by the donors). During these years, Teaming has been implemented in more than 1000 companies around the world. Teaming is neither a NGO, nor a foundation, nor a company. It is an ideal based on solidarity.

In 2012, Teaming Online (www.teaming.net) was launched. In this website, people create their own groups or join others, which support a variety of charity causes, donating 1 euro a month from their checking accounts. This is done securely, automatically, transparently and without fees. For the moment, the site is only available in Spain, but Teaming Online will be launched in other countries in the near future.

Ayla Goksel is CEO of ACEV, a Turkish NGO working in early childhood, female literacy and parent training. ACEV has provided education services for over 697,000 individuals and trained 8300 teachers and volunteers. ACEV’s programs are also implemented in nine other countries in the Middle East and Europe. She is also CEO of Hüsnü M. Özyeğin Foundation, a private foundation that has provided financial aid for over 11,000 students, constructed and donated 65 schools, dormitories and social facilities, undertaken cultural restoration projects and founded Özyeğin University. Goksel is a Trustee of Ozyegin University and serves on the Boards of the Education Reform Initiative and TOHUM Foundation for Autism. She is also a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, Senior Fellow of the Synergos Institute, Qatar Foundation WISE Laureate and World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council member. She holds a BSc from University of Bath, MSc from London School of Economics and has conducted fellowships at Johns Hopkins University and Harvard University.

Georges Haour is Professor at IMD in the area of entrepreneurship, innovation management and technology commercialisation. For several years, he has been associated with the incubator/innovator firm Generics (now Sagentia), in Cambridge, UK.

He is an adviser to firms and organisations on effective R&D/innovation management and innovation-led growth, mostly in the healthcare sector.

Born and raised in Lyon, France, he graduated from the higher school of chemistry ENSCP, Paris. He has a Master of Sciences (New York) and a Ph.D, in Chemistry/Materials Science, from the U. of Toronto, Canada.

Prior to joining IMD, Dr. Haour was a manager at Battelle-Geneva. There, for nine years, he led a business unit carrying out innovation projects on behalf of companies in Europe, Japan and the USA. In this capacity, he hired professionals from six countries and significantly grew his unit’s sales to Euro 4 million per year. Several of his innovations, licensed to firms, resulted in large new business for the client companies.

Earlier, he was a researcher at ATT's Bell Laboratories, in Murray Hill, New Jersey. In Toronto, he worked with Marshall McLuhan at his Centre for Culture, Society and Technology.

Dr. Haour has 8 patents, 110 publications and four books on innovation and technology commercialization. His theme is "creating value and jobs through effective innovation management".

Following Resolving the Innovation Paradox - Enhancing Growth in Technology Companies, (www.innovationparadox.com), his latest book is titled: From Science to Business: How Firms Create Value by partnering with Universities (www.sciencetobusiness.ch; Palgrave, London, 2011). In it, he shows that effective knowledge and technology transfer from universities/public laboratories to firms create new activities and jobs, at a time when the world's challenges must transform, which, in turn, requires numerous innovations.

He founded the international forum for technology management. For several years, he served on the jury for the Innovation Award of The Economist. In Basel, in 2006, he founded the executive course ECLE for managers from the healthcare sector, with Dr Bühler - formerly with Roche. He works with several new ventures/start ups. He is on the board of seven organizations, including four start ups.

Wardah Inam is the Co-Founder and Chief Technical Officer of KnowElectricity (KE). KE is a social enterprise which promotes energy education and energy efficient practices in Pakistan - a country which is currently facing a major energy crisis.

She obtained her undergraduate degree from GIK Institute and is currently a PhD candidate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where she is researching high efficiency power converters for alternative energy applications at the Research Laboratory of Electronics.

Félix Lozano is a Creative and Serial Entrepreneur. Partner of The Hub in Madrid (http://madrid.the-hub.net/public/index.html). Member of Team Academy Community. He has been a creative and cultural consultant since 1988, with studies in the fields of Business Management, Social and Cooperative Economy (Deusto University, Bilbao), Strategic Management in the Information Age (MIT, Boston) and Entrepreneurial Masters Program (MIT, Boston). He has made several stays as a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University (USA), forming a part of the movement of “design thinking to tackle social problems.” He has also been a scholar at the European Centre for Experience Economy in the program Prima Vera Research of the University of Amsterdam. He has over 24 years of experience as an entrepreneur and “design thinker” of several companies in the fields of art, culture, creativity and innovation. His goal is to develop projects that will help to create a better world, using culture as a new tool for economic and social development. He tackles social problems using cultural resources. His mission is to transform cultural expressions into social and economic progress. In the last 12 years he has completed more than 200 projects helping companies, cities, regions and countries with their specific development plans.

I run Xtreamis, an online media startup based in Buenos Aires. We started in late 2010 as a university spin-off, a video-stream indexing service called "Stream Roulette", which eventually evolved into a B2B content syndication platform.

GSW 2011 was my first, and it has catapulted me into an intense entrepreneurial lifestyle. It allowed me to build an amazing global network of contacts, who personally introduced us to our first clients and largest competitors. They also happen to be responsible for the greater part of 520,000Km worth of business trips during this past year. It was they who provided the most valuable thing I received at the GSW in Seoul: feedback with a global perspective. The GSW community pushed my company to rethink our business model and pivot into the B2B segment.

These kind of workshops are real stepping stones, they provide opportunities and empowering experiences. Personally, the MIT GSW has given me the confidence and global mindset needed to actively help within my community and to act as an advisor for various other projects.

Sherwood Neiss is co-founder of The Startup Exemption, the nonprofit responsible for bringing the concept of Crowdfund Investing (aka equity-based Crowdfunding) to Washington, DC. He started his post-MBA career on Wall Street and moved to Silicon Valley. Sherwood co-founded FLAVORx (www.flavorx.com), where his structured approach helped grow the business from one pharmacy to over 80% of the pharmacies in the United States. FLAVORx was a 3-time Inc500 recipient as well as E&Y's Entrepreneur of the Year winner. He raised millions of dollars in capital and oversaw the sale of the company in 2007. Sherwood is an avid public speaker. He speaks at universities and seminars around the world about what it takes to be an entrepreneur, how to fund your idea and build a winning company. In addition, he has testified at three Congressional hearings.

Vinit Nijhawan is Managing Director, Office of Technology Development, and Director of Enterprise Programs at ITEC (Institute of Technology, Entrepreneurship & Commercialization) at Boston University. Vinit also teaches MBA courses on Entrepreneurship at BU. Vinit has over 30 years experience building five startups: as CEO of three, five were acquired. Vinit was Venture Partner at Key Venture Partners and over two years sourced over 200 deals and made one investment that was acquired for $430M. Vinit is an advisor and board member to several technology startups and was a Mass High Tech All-Star in 2005. Vinit has participated in over 150 panel discussions and paper presentations, and is a Board Member of MTDC, an early stage, quasi-public Massachusetts venture capital firm. Vinit earned a B.A.Sc in electrical engineering from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada.

Numan Numanbayraktaroğlu, currently a Managing Director at 212, has a solid background in global technology services and international management. Numan has spent the last 20 years of his career to analyze technology venture companies, identify their needs, and provide customized solutions for each enterprise.

Most recently, Numan was Vice President at Goldman Sachs where he spent over 12 years in Tokyo and New York, as a technology evangelist in the firm’s leadership team. He managed global engineering teams, focusing on new technologies to bring competitive advantage and addressing challenging business problems. Working closely with the firm’s private equity and venture capital arms, Numan identified, evaluated, and reviewed start-up companies around the world for the firm’s interest. He also initiated and oversaw the Global Mobile Technology team to define and facilitate the firm’s mobile strategy. As VP of Technology Division, Numan designed and implemented more than 40 global projects, identifying new products, facilitating M&A integrations, and maximizing efficiency. Prior to Goldman Sachs, Numan provided technology solutions and built support systems at both regional and global levels for companies such as CS First Boston, Dun & Bradstreet, and GTE.

Being an entrepreneur, Numan has ventured into other businesses. He currently serves on the board of directors and advisory boards of various companies.

Numan holds B.Sc. in Computer Sciences from Ege University. Numan currently lives in Istanbul, Turkey where he is among pioneers cultivating the ecosystem.

Ekber Onuk was born in February 13th 1948, in Istanbul. He graduated from St.Joseph High School in 1966 and completed his graduate study in mechanical engineering department, Istanbul Technical University (ITU) in 1972.
He started his professional career as product development engineer at Otosan A.S. in 1972. He participated in the Anadol STC-16 project, the first automobile design for mass production in Turkey, as project leader.
He finished his PhD between 1973 and 1976 in VKI for Fluid Dynamics, Belgium.

Mr.Onuk worked as Strategic Management Expert in Turkish Airlines between 1976 and 1981. He was in the establishing chair of Anatolian Air Freight A.S. in 1981-1983 as Strategic Management V.P.

In 1986 he co-founded Yonca Teknik A.S., a company that designs and manufactures high speed composite boats, with Şakir Yılmaztürk. İn 1992 he won IDSA Industrial Design Excellence Award bronze medal for their design of Motali Yacht.

Ekber Onuk co-founded Onuk Tasit Sanayi Ltd. with his son Kaan Onuk in 1994. Onuk Tasit Sanayi Ltd. developed ONUK MRTP concept and designed and manufactured first MRTP15, MRTP29, MRTP33 then MRTP16, MRTP20, MRTP22 and MRTP41.
He managed/arranged the merger of Yonca Teknik A.S. and Onuk Tasit Sanayi Ltd. in 1997. The new company is called Yonca-Onuk J.V. Ekber I. N. Onuk is currently the Vice President of Managerial Board of Yonca-Onuk J.V. which designs and manufactures ONUK MRTP.

Yonca-Onuk partnership won V. Technology Success Award (2003), Undersecretariat of Defense Industries Engineering and Design Award (2000) and Dow Fabricator’s Excellence Award (2002).

He won the “Egpik Science Honor Award“ under the program of “Technical University Picks the Best of the Year” by Istanbul Technical University.

Dr. Ekber I. N. Onuk is married and has two children.

Basak Ozer is the Global Head of Social and Location Based Applications at Nokia. Basak built and leads a team at Nokia which conceptualizes, designs, develops and launches innovative location based social applications, on several platforms. Basak has 15 years of experience in high-tech and startups, primarily in the location, social media, and mobile commerce space: Both at Tele Atlas (digital mapping company acquired by TomTom) and Quattro Wireless (mobile advertising company acquired by Apple) she built and led Product teams, and was instrumental in company's exponential growth, which led to successful exits. Earlier in her career, she led teams at Honeywell, developed sensors for the auto and consumer electronics space. Basak advices start-ups and venture capital firms, and participates in panel discussions. She earned a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from Istanbul Technical University and an MBA from Michigan State University. Basak is currently based in Boston, with frequent trips to Berlin and Istanbul.

Kürşat Özkan assumed his current role in March 2002. He is responsible for driving GE’s growth initiatives across multiple businesses and expanding key governmental and business relationships.

Kürşat Özkan joined GE in 1991, as Aircraft Engines Program Manager in Ankara, and lead marketing, sales, customer support initiatives with increasing responsibilities in Turkey and Middle East.

In 1997, he moved to Cincinnati, OH, with global assignments of airline marketing, services and international military programs. He was assigned as Regional Director for GE Aircraft Engines in March 2000, covering airline and government programs in Turkey and Central Asian states.

Kürşat Özkan holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Middle East Technical University, Ankara and an MBA from Xavier University, Cincinnati.

Kürşat Özkan is a board member at Tusas Engine Industries (TEI), Gama Energy, Turkish American Business Council of DEIK, Foreign Investors Association (YASED) and Private Sector Volunteers Association.

Gary Palin is the Executive Director of the Doherty Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership at Elon University and a senior lecturer of the Love School of Business at Elon University. He brings a combination of over 30 years experience in both the academic and entrepreneurial communities. He founded the Entrepreneurship Education Initiative at NC State University in 1993 and served as the Executive Director until 2008. He was a faculty member of the NC State College of Management for 17 years. Palin's areas of expertise include new venture development, social entrepreneurship, intrapreneurship and venture growth.

He was a founding member of the MIT Global Startup Workshop Board of Advisors, founder of the Social Entrepreneurship and Education Consortium, founder of the Entrepreneurship and Education Network and a participant in the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship, Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers, Academy of Management, International Council for Small Business, North Carolina Center for Entrepreneurial Development and the North Carolina Chapter of The Indus Entrepreneurs.

Palin has been named a recipient of the 2008 Excellence in Entrepreneurship Education Award from the Acton Foundation for Entrepreneurial Excellence. He has served as Director of NC State University's Small Business Technology and Development Center where he assisted hundreds of business launches, expansions, and acquisitions. He has developed executive education programs in business planning, new venture launches, and technology commercialization. He has consulted for numerous entrepreneurial ventures and also with major corporations such as Texas Instruments, FMC Corporation, and Thomas Register. Palin serves on a number of high growth company advisory boards.

Neha Patadia has over ten years of experience working with entrepreneurs and startups. She started her first organization, HOPE, at 14, which provided monthly performances at convalescent homes. In college, she co-founded and was the CEO of UC San Diego’s 100K Entrepreneurship Challenge in conjunction with Triton Innovation Network, a nonprofit incubator. The UCSD 100K Entrepreneurship Challenge was the first business plan competition in the community and one of the first completely student led efforts on the West Coast. She created the internal organizational strategy for the competition as well as the external strategy to promote, market and fundraise in the community. She also led, managed and developed a team of 30 students who created the foundation for the competition today.

Along with entrepreneurship, Ms. Patadia is passionate about healthcare and healthcare systems. She is currently working at Objective Health, a healthcare startup within McKinsey & Co. As the Healthcare Operations Expert, she manages the Infrastructure and Data Analytics Team to enhance product strategy around big data and hospital analytics. She has worked with clients to design strategies and products around physician alignment, utilization, hospital market competition as well as reform and IT. Prior to McKinsey & Co, she served healthcare clients across the value chain including, payor, providers, hospital systems and the government. She helped create the design for a state wide Health Information Exchange which serves as a model for MA and VT Community Health Centers. She was also instrumental in implementing the Meaningful Use IT strategy for Steward Hospital Networks.


Ms. Patadia received her Bachelors of Science from University of California in San Diego in biology with emphasis on molecular biology and is currently pursuing her Masters in Health Informatics and Systems from Northeastern University. She is a member of the Health Information and Management Systems Society and is on the Board of the UCSD 100K Entrepreneurship Competition.

Melek Pulatkonak is currently the Director of Development Technologies and Platform group at Microsoft Turkey. Before that she was the President & COO of Hakia, a semantic search technology company. Most recently, she was the Associate Partner of Star Venture Group (SVG), a venture capital firm with investments in the U.S. and Turkey. Prior to her work at SVG, she was the Advisor to the Chairman of the Istanbul Stock Exchange and a Research Associate at the New York Stock Exchange. She holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a B.Sc. degree from London School of Economics and Political Science. In her play time, Melek organizes TEDx events, was an active leader of the Columbia Business School Alumni Club, advised Girls in Tech NY and Entrepreneurs' Roundtable and planned pitching events for the Turkish Founders' Club in New York. Now she devotes her free to time to build the Turkish Women’ International Network.

By training, Ricardo is a Biomedical Engineer and Neurobiologist that currently works on stem cell research for neurodegeneration purposes in Duke University and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). His research on stem cells and tissue engineering has been featured in the cover of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

Ricardo has worked in several national campaigns in the USA as a surrogate, policy writer, and strategist. Most recently, he was vice-chair for the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign in Puerto Rico.

As an entrepreneur, Ricardo founded, Auctoritas Labs, a privately funded company, focused on designing novel methods for public opinion polling, marketing research, technology and transparency. The results of which have been featured in magazines such as Campaigns and Elections and national blogs (e.g. Huffington Post). Recently, he co-founded Prosperous Biopharm, a biotech company working out of both China and the United States. Prosperous Biopharm aims to revolutionize the protein therapeutic market by introducing its patented products TransBody™; a class of re-designed, engineered stable proteins that can specifically bind intracellular targets, providing a powerful new way to create novel drugs and targeted delivery.

Joshua is the Executive Director of the Lemelson-MIT Program, a non-profit organization within MIT s School of Engineering, which recognizes outstanding innovators and enables and inspires young people to pursue creative lives and careers through invention. Joshua joined Lemelson-MIT in 2003 to develop and run InvenTeams, the program s nascent national grants initiative designed to foster inventiveness among high school students. A graduate of Tufts University (Political Science/Environmental Science) and MIT (Technology and Policy/Entrepreneurship), Joshua also holds a MBA from the Collège des Ingénieurs (Paris, France).

Omer graduated high school from Istek Atanur Oguz High School in 1994. He obtained an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from Yildiz Technical University in 1999 and then obtained an MBA in marketing from Istanbul Technical University in 2003.

Omer is currently the Energy Solutions Branch Manager at Johnson Controls, Turkey Region. Previously, he has been a Project Engineer at Refkon Ltd., Service Engineer at Form A.S., Project Design and AutoCad Engineer at LBM GMBH, Project Sales and Fullfilment Engineer at Trane International, and Regional After Market Operations Manager at Johnson Controls.

Antoine co-founded Sandbox, a global network that brings together young leaders from all fields and provides them with the tools they need to accelerate their projects.

He has a Master of Law from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. Passionate about politics, he was the youngest member ever elected of the Parliament of Lausanne, his home city, at the age of 20.

During his law studies, Antoine interned in several banks and founded a liberal think tank in 2003 (“Groupe de Riencourt”) that published a book in collaboration with HRH The Prince of Wales. In 2010, Antoine was named by a Swiss magazine among 100 top Swiss personalities.

Rui is a computational biologist whose expertise lies in statistical modeling of protein structures and systematic dissection of genetics for complex traits and diseases. Bearing an entrepreneur spirit, he founded Prosperous Biopharm and invented a fast protein engineering platform with his team, which is geared to fast-generation of a novel class of protein drugs that are more affordable and cure disease more effectively than existing monoclonal antibody drugs. While the original idea was to meet high demands from China market where most antibody drugs have been priced out, these innovations have also elicited worldwide interest from the pharmaceutical industry. In 2011, Rui and his team were designated as the “High-end Leading Talents” by Zhongguancun High Tech Center (known as "China's Silicon Valley"). Rui obtained his Bachelor degree in Biology at Tsinghua University, China, and his Ph.D degree in Bioinformatics and Genome Technology at Duke University, USA.

Eleanor 'Nell' Watson is an interdisciplinary industrial technologist with experience in E-Commerce and Information Systems. After several years in industry she felt the need to try something different, and so left for Tripoli, Libya in order to help establish a school of English there. Following this, Ms Watson taught postgraduate Computer Science and Computer Forensics for two years at Birmingham International College.

She then co-founded her first company, Graffiti4Hire Ltd, at Birmingham’s Custard Factory. Following this, she founded a another company, Poikos Ltd. Poikos is a disruptive innovation house based at Birmingham Science Park Aston. It is currently developing an advanced computer-vision technology which can accurately measure bodily dimensions using a digital camera or smartphone.

During his undergraduate studies at the Faculty of Economics in Ljubljana, Slovenia Jure was also assistant professor at Entrepreneurship and Business Economics courses. After finishing his degree Jure co-founded a start-up company Genelitik offering direct-to-consumer nutrigenomic services. The product range of Genelitik is represented by the brand name LifeGenetics and consists of services helping individuals to find the optimal nutritional and lifestyle choices in order to prevent possible illnesses and achieve well-being based on their personal genetic information.

Jure is also in charge of business development and is creating innovative strategic partnerships with prominent companies in the region that will revolutionize the industry of personalized products and services taylored to individual's DNA.

Genelitik received several business and product awards, the latest being nominated the "Hidden Champion" by CEEMAN, a group of European business schools. Genelitik is currently in the phase of internationalization and is seeking strategic partneships and venture capital.

Naeem is a member of the faculty of the Haas business school at the University of California Berkeley and teaches Entrepreneurship and Innovation in the MBA program. Naeem is the founder of Startup-Advisor.com and focuses on educating and advising entrepreneurs on all aspects of starting and running a company. Naeem’s entrepreneurial experience includes working directly with six startups, and he has extensive experience in mentoring and coaching founders and CEOs. Naeem is now the president and CEO of Bitzer Mobile, a company that simplifies enterprise mobility.

Until 2007, Naeem was the president and CEO of Pyxis Technology Inc., a company specializing in advanced chip design software for nanometer technology. Naeem has also been president and CEO of two other high tech startups (Silicon Design Systems and Veridicom, a Bell Labs spin-off that invented the silicon fingerprint sensors today found on most laptops). Naeem has held senior marketing and engineering positions at several companies including Quickturn Design Systems that had an IPO in 1993 and grew to $125M in revenues.

Pure silk and pure cashmere have inspired Aysen Zamanpur to form strategic partnerships and alliances with manufacturers throughout Inner Mongolia and other regions of China. With her trademark, world recognized brand, " Silk and Cashmere", Zamanpur has established around 50 stores (corners shops) in select shopping centers in Turkey and abroad, where luxury silk and cashmere items have been on sale under the brand's own name since 1992.

Mrs. Zamanpur has been frequently invited by media, universities and other academic institutions, domestic and foreign NGOs, and a considerable number of societies and associations of brand-names, businesspersons, and entrepreneurs to tell about the success attained by "Silk & Cashmere" and present her story as an "entrepreneurship model". She is the recipient of many awards, including a two-time winner of the Rotary Club "Businesswoman of the Year" Award.

Whilst being publicized in the media and being the topic of various conferences, forums and symposiums held, the success of the brand name have attracted interest in the academic circles. Consequently, the presence of "Silk & Cashmere" in the educational arena has started upon its being included in the curriculum of the graduate program of the Business School of Istanbul University as a case study on a "successful entrepreneurship" and has continued on being the subject of dissertations presented 4 times up to now in the graduate schools of well-acknowledged universities.