After receiving his undergraduate degree, Mr. Bueno went on to study Accounting and Finance at the Mexico Autonomous Institute of Technology and to complete programs in Directive Perfection and Innovation and Technology Management from the Pan American Institute of Senior Business Management. He has conducted various symposiums, conferences, and courses on pest control, greenhouse management, hydroponics, and food safety, among others. Besides leading Koppert, Mr. Bueno has founded several other companies, including Vinco Solutions Ltd., a real estate, construction, warehousing, and logistics company in Querétaro, Mexico; CEICKOR & CEICKOR University, which, in association with Koppert & the Rapel Agricultural Institute, conduct research, training, and technical education; Koppert Development Institute Berries, a technological development center specialized in growing berries; and Ecosystem Capital Ltd., a bio-business incubator and accelerator company.

Mr. Iruegas studied Industrial Mechanical Engineering at the Regional Institute of Coahuila before obtaining his Master of Sciences in Industrial Economy from Mexico’s National Polytechnic Institute. In addition to Spanish, he speaks English and German at an intermediate-high level. He started his engineering career as a project engineer at the National Institute of Nuclear Research in Mexico City in 1979. After this, Mr. Iruegas went on to work as an engineering manager for ICI Group for 5 years and the Operations Director at Stahl Mexico before founding his own company. He has spent 20 years as the leader of Balper Group, directing all its business units. Alongside this, he attends various courses and seminars to stay informed on strategic planning, financial management, marketing, and quality assurance, among others.

Hesham Mekawi graduated from the Faculty of Engineering at Cairo University in 1983. He worked as an engineer for 4 years, before heading to the US to pursue an MBA from Boston University. Upon his return to Egypt, he joined Amoco in 1990 as an Economic Analyst.

In 1991, he worked as a Senior Economic Analyst in Houston, and later in Chicago as a Senior Financial Analyst and a Planner in the Strategic Planning Group and the Financial Operations Group.

Mekawi returned to Houston in 1995 as Commercial Director, where he took charge of Business Development for the Middle East. Following the merger between the British Petroleum Company and Amoco Corporation, Mekawi was transferred to London where he was appointed Executive Assistant in BP Amoco Exploration.

The following year, he was named President for BP’s Oil Operations in Algeria, where he continued to work from the company’s headquarters in London.

From July 2001 until December 2013, he was the Regional President of BP Egypt. In January 2014, he was appointed as Regional President of BP North Africa covering Algeria, Libya, Egypt and Morocco.

Ahmed Abou Hashima is CEO of Cairo-based Egyptian Steel, which he co-founded in 2010. A self-made global entrepreneur, Mr Abou Hashima has worked in the steel industry since 1996.

Named one of the World’s 100 Most Powerful Arabs by Arabian Business, Mr Abou Hashima has been the recipient of CEO Middle East’s Young CEO Award and Arabian Business’ Best Visionary awards. He was the first Egyptian to receive CEO Middle East’s Young CEO of the Year Award.

He’s also the recipient of Executive of the Year Award –Manufacturing Industry at Stevie’s International Business Awards in Paris, October 2014, in addition to an honorary Golden Award in the same ceremony as “Rising Businessman of the Year”, in addition to several other awards on regional and global scales.

Sawsan Lababidi Dajani is a Lebanese citizen who was born in Jerusalem. She married her college beau, Nabeel Dajani in 1959, the day after she graduated from the Lebanese American University in Beirut. In 1960, Sawsan and Nabeel moved to Kuwait and established the Institute for Private Education (IPE) which soon became the largest educational company in the Middle East. During that period, Lababidi managed schools and training centres as well as graduating from the Owner, Partner, and Entrepreneur Management (OPEM) Programme at Harvard University.

In 1990, as a result of the Gulf War, the Dajanis were forced to leave Kuwait.  They moved to Egypt where they set up the Modern English School Cairo, which is today one of only seven schools in the Middle East to be awarded ‘Outstanding’ by the British Schools Overseas (BSO) organisation.

She has two children; Tawfik Dajani, a Businessman and Ghada Dajani, the Managing Director of MES Cairo.

A pioneering leader, Lababidi is a role model for women everywhere.  Her success is based on a passionate belief in the power of education to improve the world. Anyone who has met her is immediately struck by her magnetism, vision, determination and her truly inspirational spirit.

Dr. Juliet Skinner is the Medical Director of the Barbados Fertility Centre in Christ Church, Barbados. She is Barbadian by birth, and was trained as an obstetrician/gynecologist at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. She was the youngest doctor to ever be appointed to the positon of Assistant Master of Dublin’s prestigious maternity hospital, Coombe Women’s Hospital. Returning to Barbados in 1999, she became the head of the BFC in 2002, and has since helped to achieve success rates comparable to, or better than, those in the US - and twice those in the UK. It was Skinner’s vision of developing one of the world’s best fertility centres that led her to put together a team of specialists, along with cutting edge technology, aimed at developing the centre to the acclaimed, globally recognized facility it is today.