Streams of Progress

Helen Al Uzaizi is an established businesswoman and an active community member. With over 17 years of experience spanning marketing, non-profit management, and entrepreneurship, Helen has been supporting major brands, non-profit organizations, and startups across the region as a mentor and Board member and advisor. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of PACES Charity working with Palestinian refugee children through sports, an...

Farah Al Qaissieh is a mother of three boys and social entrepreneur and motivational speaker; she holds a Bachelors of Finance from Zayed University.

Farah launched Stutter UAE in 2013 to raise awareness and support people who stutter through various workshops and events.

In 2016, Farah was featured in a book chapter titled “Game Changers: How Women in the Arab World Are Changing the Rules and Shaping the Future”.

In 2017, a s...

Muna Easa Al Gurg is the Director of Retail of Easa Saleh Al Gurg Group, a multidivisional conglomerate with 27 companies. The Group is active in several industry sectors that include retail, building and construction, industrial, real estate and joint ventures.

Since 2008, Al Gurg has been Chairwoman of Young Arab Leaders UAE, where she promotes education, entrepreneurship and youth development.

Al Gurg has been advocating a gre...

Najla Ahmed Al-Midfa, Vice-Chairwoman of Young Arab Leaders, is the Chief Executive Officer of the Sharjah Entrepreneurship Center (Sheraa), a government-supported entity launched in January 2016, with a mandate to build the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Sharjah, and support entrepreneurs as they build and grow innovative startups that will contribute positively to the region’s economy. To date, Sheraa has built a portfolio of over ...

This week on Streams of Progress, while at the 2020 Step Conference we sat down with various speakers who were in Dubai for this occasion.

This episode’s guest is Robert Scoble from Infinite Retina, where he shared some highlights from his keynote talk about Spatial Computing.

These mini episodes offer insights into the trends they are seeing from their respective roles as well as their thoughts on the MENA startup ecosystem ...

This week on Streams of Progress, while at the 2020 Step Conference we sat down with various speakers who were in Dubai for this occasion.

This episode’s guest is Hasan Haider from 500 Startups, where as a regional venture capitalist, provides us some insights into the 500 Falcons Fund.

These mini episodes offer insights into the trends they are seeing from their respective roles as well as their thoughts on the MENA startup ...

This week on Streams of Progress, while at the 2020 Step Conference we sat down with various speakers who were in Dubai for this occasion.

This episode’s guest is Alicia Sornson from Village Capital, where she gives us some highlights into their recent Finance Forward initiative in the MENA region.

These mini episodes offer insights into the trends they are seeing from their respective roles as well as their thoughts on the M...

This week on Streams of Progress, while at the 2020 Step Conference we sat down with various speakers who were in Dubai for this occasion.

This episode’s guest is Jeremiah Owyang from Kaleido Insights, where he provides some highlights from his keynote talk about the six digital eras.

These mini episodes offer insights into the trends they are seeing from their respective roles as well as their thoughts on the MENA startup ec...

Stuart Oda is an investment banker turned urban farmer with a passion for innovation and sustainability. In 2013, Stuart founded Alesca Life, an agricultural technology company that builds indoor, vertical farms and farm management software to make food production more localized and data driven.

Stuart is a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer and Alesca has been part of multiple prestigious accelerator programs including Sta...

Asunción Molinos Gordo is a research-based artist strongly influenced by disciplines such as anthropology, sociology and cultural studies. In her practice she questions the categories that define ‘innovation’ in mainstream discourses today, working to generate a less urban-centric way of understanding progress.

Her latest work, In Transit: Botany of a Journey, is on display at the Jameel Arts Centre's Artist's Garden until May 2...

Jasper Hope has had a prestigious career in the music and entertainment industry over the last 2 decades and continues to impact our region's arts and entertainment scene. Since departing from his role at the Dubai Opera, he has continued to engage with various figures and entities in the promotion of the arts and music industries in the MENA region, through his work at Proscenium Arts.  

He is considered one of t...

Marc Cirera is the founder and CEO of Companies for Good, a social enterprise designed to help businesses change for good. Marc is a business ethics, CSR and sustainability specialist with a clear vision: a world where companies operate in a more sustainable and responsible way. He strongly believes that good business practices help companies outperform, while benefiting employees, the environment, and society at large.

He ...

As a dynamic entrepreneur in the automotive industry, Oweis Zahran is the force behind launching innovative solutions in this sector in the Middle East. Born and educated in the USA, Oweis has a strong affinity to this region since his father set up businesses in the UAE under MZ Holdings in the early 90s. The Holding company’s 16 subsidiaries, in three continents, are primarily in the field of equipment supply, industria...

Briar Prestidge is the CEO and founder of Briar Prestidge International, a high-profile marketing, branding and reputation building agency operating in Dubai, London and New York. Working with world leaders, top CEOs, government, entertainers and strategists, they boost client’s prestige and elevate them to become impactful international business influencers.

A qualified digital marketer with an international career spanning acr...

Karl W. Feilder is a serial entrepreneur, Founder and Chairman of The Neutral Group and CEO of Neutral Fuels. “I’m not an environmentalist, I’m just trying to save the planet,” Karl says, and his direct actions to mitigate climate change have already resulted in over 10.5 million tonnes of CO2e savings from global corporations, such as DHL, Del Monte, Anglo American, and McDonald’s. 

In the last decade, Karl has built up Th...

In this episode, we sat down with Dr. Corrie Block, CEO of Paragon Consulting, where he shared some great stories about his experiences in Estonia & Yemen prior to making Dubai his home.

Dr Corrie Block is a leading business strategist and CEO of Paragon Consulting, Professor of Strategic Management at Monarch Business School, and certified NLP Executive Coach, with over 20 years’ experience working on more than 100 companie...

This week on Streams of Progress, we met up with the startups taking part in this year's Techstars Dubai program.

These mini episodes offer insights into what the startups are working on and the founders behind the startups. The guest for this episode is Toghrul Samadov, CEO of Buglance.

Buglance is a crowd testing company that connects software testers with software development companies all over the world. We test mobi...

This week on Streams of Progress, we met up with the startups taking part in this year's Techstars Dubai program.

These mini episodes offer insights into what the startups are working on and the founders behind the startups. The guest for this episode is Patrick Rogers, CEO of Clara. 

Clara is a SaaS platform that digitises and automates startup legal expertise. Clara empowers founders to efficiently set up and mana...

This week on Streams of Progress, we met up with startups taking part in this year's Techstars Dubai program.

These mini episodes offer insights into what the startups are working on and the founders behind the startups. The guest for this episode is Lance Lin, CEO of LuggAgent.

LuggAgent is a Global Concierge that offers the luxury of Time and Freedom. It started with the goal of eliminating the burden of luggage h...