Dr. Omar Al-Ubaydli
Bahrain
Bahrain
Omar Al-Ubaydli is the President of the Bahrain Economist Society. He is also an affiliated associate professor of economics at George Mason University; an affiliated senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center; a non-resident fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington; and a non-resident fellow at Trends, UAE. His research interests include political economy, experimental economics, and the economics of the GCC countries. Al-Ubaydli previously served as a member of the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Joint Advisory Board of Economists and a Visiting Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago. He regularly publishes his research in international peer- reviewed academic journals, and his mainstream media articles appear in Arabic and English- language newspapers and blogs such as AlHayat, The National, Forbes Opinion, and US News. Al-Ubaydli earned his BA in economics from the University of Cambridge, and his MA and PhD in economics from the University of Chicago.
Dr. Hosni Ghedira
Tunisia, UAE
Tunisia, UAE
Dr. Hosni Ghedira is presently the Director of Research Engagement at Mohamed Bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI), the world’s first graduate-level research-based AI university. He received his MSc degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Sherbrooke (Canada) and his PhD in Water Sciences from the University of Quebec (Canada) in 1997 and 2001, respectively. Before joining MBZUAI, Dr. Ghedira served as a Director of the Research Centre for Renewable Energy Mapping and Assessment at Masdar Institute from 2010 to 2020. Before moving to the UAE, he spent six years at the City University of New York as Assistant Professor and Research Associate Professor. He was the founding Director (in 2003) of the Environmental Remote Sensing and Image Processing Laboratory at the NOAA Cooperative Remote Sensing Science & Technology Center (NOAA-CREST) in New York.
Dr. Ghedira has 20 years of rich and progressively responsible experience in diverse sectors of Energy, Environment, Water, Innovation and Climate with a total of 10 years at managerial level in national and regional institutions. Dr. Ghedira is an active member in several regional and international working groups in the field of clean energy, space technologies, water security and environmental monitoring. Dr. Ghedira has participated in several studies with international organizations (UN-ESCWA, World Bank, IRENA, AfDB) on clean energy, water security and water-energy nexus. Dr. Ghedira was nominated in January 2019 by Solar Quarter Magazine in the list of Most Influential Solar Business Leaders in The MENA PV Market. He was nominated in January 2018 as a member of Mohammed bin Rashid Academy of Scientists (MBRAS).
Nivine Sandouka
Palestine
Palestine
Nivine Sandouka is a leader aspiring to achieve social justice, peace and gender equity. She is an expert in the field of program development, management, peace building, gender issues and political affairs. Currently, she works with the Alliance for Middle East Peace as the Regional Director. In the past, she worked with the German Association for Development Cooperation – Agiamondo. She also runs a grassroots-based initiative called ‘Judi – From Me to You’ that aims to connect women together, and volunteers in several civil society organizations.
To pursue her passion, she is the chairwoman of a newly established NGO called ‘Our Rights’ in Jerusalem, focusing on civic and political rights of Palestinians in East Jerusalem, especially women. She was identified by the U.S. State Department in 2014 as a young leader and participated in the prestigious ‘International Visitor Leadership Program’ on the theme of conflict resolution, and she now serves as an alumni leader.
Throughout her career, Nivine developed several programs that aim to empower women and support community development, working with international organizations such as Oxfam and CARE International. She also served as Co-Director of IPCRI – Israel Palestine Creative Regional Initiatives. In addition, she currently sits as a board member of the Jerusalem Center for Women, and was a civil society representative on the International Reference Group of the World Council of Churches.
She has participated in several conferences addressing women’s rights in Palestine and attended two institutes on Feminist Transformative Leadership. Nivine holds an MA in Democracy and Human Rights from Birzeit University and has taken numerous trainings in peacebuilding, gender, program management, accountability, and advocacy. She has also been invited to speak at several events including the annual J Street Conference (2017 and 2018), the Accord 1325 conference at the German Federal Foreign Office, among others.