Com Mirza is a serial entrepreneur, investor and dream chaser.

He’s launched over 3 dozen companies around the world, made almost 100 Investments, mentored trained and coached thousands of entrepreneurs and has been a driving force in raising the level of contribution on the planet through his TheContributon.Org project.

From a humble lemonade stand with a group of neighbourhood kids at the age of 6 to living in the worlds tallest building in downtown Dubai Com is committed to chasing his potential and his dreams.

He spends 50% of his time making investments into entrepreneurs, early stage companies, and real estate deals and the other 50% split between launching new ventures, launching charitable/philanthropic projects, publicly speaking, mentoring and training entrepreneurs in his Billion Dollar Mastermind, and other mastermind programs, workshops and events. He runs the Dream Chasing Family a community of over 45,000 people around the world who collaborate to help each other reach their dreams faster.

Shahed is co-founder and CTO of Affinis Labs, a Northern Virginia innovation hub and startup accelerator that focuses on businesses with positive social impacts in global Muslim communities. Through Affinis Labs, he helps organize global hackathons to create social impact businesses and digital tools, incubate and accelerate startups for global markets, and create compelling global brands. As CTO, Shahed helps manage the development and launch of incubated initiatives and builds the technology architecture for portfolio companies.

A Silicon Valley veteran, Shahed also co-founded LaunchPosse, a startup based at Affinis Labs that helps people leverage their social networks to shape and launch ideas for entrepreneurship.  Prior to starting LaunchPosse, Shahed served as Senior Advisor for Technology at the US Department of State, where he worked closely with the White House and other government agencies on social entrepreneurship, social media policy, combating online extremism, and fostering innovation.  Shahed also founded Halalfire, a producer of online content and market research for global Muslim communities. He founded Altmuslim, an online magazine with 2.5 million annual unique users, and served as its editor-in-chief for 10 years before its 2011 acquisition by Patheos. In 1998, he created Zabihah, the world’s largest Halal restaurant guide, with 10 million annual users and 500,000 mobile app downloads. Shahed was also co-founder and CEO of Relatia, a venture-backed mobile software company acquired in 2001.

Shahed has written and/or been featured in pieces about technology, foreign policy, and media trends in venues such as CNN and Newsweek, has spoken at the Council on Foreign Relations and Center for American Progress, and has published essays in academic journals and newspapers such as the Washington Post and Chicago Tribune. He has been named three times (2009, 2010, and 2011) as one of the 500 most influential Muslims in the world by Georgetown University & the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre in Jordan, one of the Islamic 500 most influential entrepreneurs in the global Islamic economy (2015), one of the top 10 most visionary young Muslims by Islamica Magazine (2007), and the winner of the SXSW Dewey Winburne Award for Community Service (2007). He has also served on the boards of nearly a dozen national non-profit organizations focused on building stable Muslim-American identities. Shahed has a BS from UC Berkeley (where he served as Student Body Vice-President) and an MBA from Georgetown.

Irfan Ajmal is an award-winning serial entrepreneur, marketer, author, trainer, speaker and consultant specializing in content marketing, SEO and PR etc.

He is a Huffington Post columnist who writes about:

– entrepreneurship (particularly lifestyle entrepreneurship)
– building passive income streams
– becoming more productive, more successful and happier

He also runs  a blog where he share tips on the above topics as well as how to get massive exposure for your startup using writing, PR, SEO and social selling. Feel free to contact me via my website.
If you would like to know more about his agency’s SEO and content marketing services, please visit Digital Marketing ROI.

Aman Merchant is a Dubai-based serial entrepreneur passionate about creating better futures through power of ideas & disruptive thinking. With an entrepreneurial journey that began in 1991 even before he entered uni, he brings over two decades of experience to the various ventures he is associated with, having launched nine & led three others in markets across the Middle East & Asia regions.

Presently CEO at Impact Hub Dubai, a venture he co-founded back in 2010 and part of a global network that is part-campus, part-incubator & part-innovation hub for over 8000 impact-driven entrepreneurs, Aman is also Chief Emagination Officer at Future Leadership Academy, a pioneering social venture that is a greenhouse for preparing future world leaders, thinkers & entrepreneurs aged 3-24.

Previously, he co-founded INOS, the world’s first global leadership strategy consortium. He is also the Chief Disruptive Thinker at 10x Futures, a breakthrough advisory firm that partners with C-level teams to create bigger futures.

His first venture was Leading Concepts, set up in 1999 that revolutionized executive education in the region, thereafter morphing into a boutique leadership strategy consultancy. In 2002, Aman launched the region’s first ever performance consultancy Paradigmz through an exclusive regional alliance with Mercer. He is also an executive director & board member at Dubai 9 Group, as well as a number of academic advisory boards & councils.

Aman holds a 1st Class Masters Degree with Hons from Oxford University in Politics, Philosophy & Economics as well as a Diploma in Marketing from London School of Economics. He is a lifetime member of the Stanford Business School Alumni Association, Oxford Business Alumni as well as past President of the UAE Chapter of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization & a past Regional Learning & Membership Director. Between 2009-10, he also served as a board member of the Global Agenda Council on Emerging Multinationals at the World Economic Forum.

You enjoy the bustle of the city. You feel this is the place you have the possibility to live. You love to socialize, to go out and attend entertainments and programs. You enjoy good food with friends. Your home is the place, where creativity is combined with metal, wood and glass. It is the place of trendy living in a contrasty surrounding.

Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.

Ali Dabaja founder of Hajjnet  built one of the most informative mobile applications about the pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia that pulls in more than 24 million people a year.

Located at Dubai Silicon Oasis, Hajj Salam provides a step-by-step guide for pilgrims from the practical to religious rites. Need an ATM to buy an animal to slaughter? Hajj Salam will pinpoint one for you. Forgot how many times you have circled the Ka’aba? Hajj Salam uses your phone’s GPS to count for you.

Palestinian-Canadian Zaina Kanaan, co-founded of Chari Cycles, a social enterprise designed to help children living in refugee camps across the region.

Chari Cycles sells up-cycled Japanese bicycle frames which are further remodelled according to customers’ preferences.

Mohammed Faris (Abu Productive) is the founder of ProductiveMuslim.com, an online social enterprise dedicated to boosting productivity in the Muslim World.
He was born in Tanzania (of Yemeni descent) but spent the majority of his life growing up in Saudi Arabia when his parents migrated there. He later pursued his tertiary education at the University of Bristol in the UK where he graduated with a Masters in Finance and Investment.

Starting with a personal blog in 2008 called “ProductiveMuslim.com” he combined his love for productivity with love of teaching to help Muslims worldwide understand the unique perspective of connecting the demands of today’s modern world with Islamic values and principles to lead productive lives.

His journey with his blog & later online training organisation has set Mohammed Faris apart as an international speaker, trainer and author who can distil the broad concepts of Islamic values into practical, actionable steps for Muslims to acquire the tangible skill sets and motivation needed to lead productive lives for the sake of Allah SWT.

Omar Al Busaidy author of a self-help book called Just Read It, with experience in the UAE’s corporate environment, gaining skills in the banking, trade and investment sectors before joining Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority in 2012 as the Tourism Investment Promotion Manager.

Omar has worked in both the public and private sector in prestigious organisations such as the Dubai Chamber of Commerce & Industry, National Bank of Dubai, the Dubai Shopping Festival as well as a development role with Abu Dhabi Municipality and serving as commercial attaché at the British Embassy.

Al Busaidy holds a B.Sc. in Marketing from the American University in Dubai and is currently pursuing his post-graduate studies in Innovation and Entrepreneurial Leadership at the Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University.

Previously, Shahbaz Mirza worked as a Strategy Consultant with The Napiershall Formula, an independent consulting group, creating innovative economic diversification & regeneration strategies for local and international governments.

As a Chartered Accountant who trained with PwC, he have worked extensively across multi-industry corporate UK and US companies focusing on areas such as governance, regulation, operational effectiveness and evaluating financial business mechanisms.

He is a big believer in social entrepreneurship, he advises pre-revenue to +$10m revenue start-ups and launched his own start-up, Ramadan Legacy, which became the number 1 app for Ramadan in the world, with over 200,000 users, and being recognised as a trending digital company by Thomson Reuters UAE.

His passions lie in personal development and leadership. Having co-founded a fellowship programme ‘Marifa’, he mentored and lead a group of 12 talented undergraduate students to the World Islamic Economic Forum in Dubai 2014 and Kuala Lumpur 2015.

Lastly he is a former international athlete (Commonwealth Gold Medallist & Baton Bearer & British Champion) in the sport of Karate.

Dubai entrepreneur, Manal Bassay is the founder of Fiore Nero Interiors and a mom of 3.

Maruf Yusupov is a passionate serial entrepreneur, digital strategy advisor, usability and user experience expert who likes to work in a creative and international team environment. He is the CEO of Halal Ad,, The Worlds Most Ethical Ad Network for Muslims by Muslims. It’s a newer, faster and cheaper way to reach millions of Muslim consumers online.

Dustin Craun is the Founder and Executive Editor of Ummah Wide, a digital media startup focused on stories and cultures that transcend the global borders and boundaries of the Muslim, Interfaith and Human family.

He is a writer, community organiser, an anti-racist educator and a communications strategist who has worked with more than twenty-five different non-profit and social movement based organizations over the last twelve years in the United States, Mexico, and Ghana. Dustin works on the clergy organizing team for the PICO National Network building Muslim Community organizing into the largest faith based community organinizing network in the United States. His writings have been featured in publications such as Adbusters, and he is working on publishing his first book titled Decolonizing Whiteness.

Most recently Dustin has been working to found the nonprofit Ummah Wide, which is an emerging movement of community organizers, educators, and artists whose primary goal is to build unity within the American Muslim community, while building alliances with other social movements throughout the United States. Ummah Wide develops leaders and works to strengthen institutions in the Muslim community by using community organizing and grassroots education models to work for spiritual, social, racial, environmental and economic justice for all people.

The brilliant Irfan Khairi is the founder of the Irfan Institute of Business and Malaysia Icon.

With only $200 in his pocket and 20 years of age, Irfan was able to achieve by 25 what many business owners are not able to do in a lifetime: Single-handedly build a seven-figure business with no additional workers or fancy gadgetry.

Irfan’s company, Irfan Khairi Sdn Bhd (IKSB), continues to make a serious impact, and has been one of the top Internet and e-marketing training centers in Malaysia since 2006. Irfan’s early success in adopting the right mindset and teaching himself business strategy is at the core of why he has been an inspiration to millions of people around the world.

Entrepreneurial leader with 20 years of international experience conceptualizing ideas, seizing opportunities, building operations, leading successful new business development & entrepreneurship initiatives and startup ventures, and securing investor financing. “What most business schools and textbooks teach us about startups does not really apply in the real world. With the traditional business plan method, everything happens inside an incubator/accelerator where there is little knowledge. We do it the other way around: instead of writing a business plan (documenting all unknowns) or executing a predefined theoretical plan, we spend most of our time outside the building to uncover the unknowns by talking to customers, partners, etc. We focus on customer validation and MVP instead of developing a product or executing a predefined business plan. In fact we will never develop “the final” product but rather constantly improving the previous version. This is not another or new approach in entrepreneurship, but rather a fundamental different approach in how to successfully start a business”.

Abdelhameed Sharara is the founder of RiseUp Summit; the biggest entrepreneurship summit in Egypt and the Middle East with more than 3000
attendees. The summit is known for bringing the entire entrepreneurship ecosystem in Egypt and MENA together for the first time. Before founding RiseUp, Sharara worked at Injaz-Egypt where he helped create the first startups
pipeline in all Junior Achievement countries. The program design was awarded the MetLife foundation award for the most outstanding award in all JA countries. Sharara had also worked as an English conversation and soft-skills trainer at Dale Carnegie and Berlitz, and was the co-founder and business
development manager of Adams, a soft skills and training company. He graduated from Ain Shams University’s Faculty of Law (English Section) and was the founder of Ain Shams Model Arab League. Sharara is also a Global Shaper, which is a network of young people (under 30 years) from all over the
world, who are selected by the World Economic Forum and are exceptional in their potential, achievements and drive.

Sami Khoury is a trailblazing young entrepreneur. He is the Executive Director of Young Arab Leaders, an organization that focuses on empowering Arab youth and creating the next generation of Arab leadership, leveraging their influential membership base to share knowledge, shed light on individuals and enterprises with potential, and also create business development opportunities and a collaborative cross-sector environment.

He is also the founder of Social Tent, which has quickly become recognized for its resourcefulness and value-add to our regional social impact space. Organizations use Social Tent to hire qualified professionals, while jobseekers use it to find meaningful careers. We’ve hired for mission-driven organizations such as Injaz, Sustainable Square, and Taka Solutions. Within a year of launching the platform, 40% of web users on Social Tent are returning visitors. People have embraced it and it has become a brand that they love.

Chris is a passionate Muslim American entrepreneur committed to building up the global Muslim community to reach its full potential. He was born in Malaysia, raised in the United States and at the age of 16 became a Muslim through the influence of a friend and the Autobiography of Malcolm X. Chris was a top engineering graduate from the University of Michigan where he led the Muslim Students Association as President to win Student Organization of the Year. He received a masters in educational leadership and prior to starting LaunchGood was a teacher at one of the top boarding schools in the world, founded an Arabic non-profit, and was a producer for Bilal’s Stand, an award-winning Sundance film about an American Muslim. He started working on LaunchGood in 2011 and launched the site in 2013. In just over a year LaunchGood has already helped raise over $1 million for more than 100 projects across 13 countries. Chris currently lives in Dearborn, Michigan with his wife Amani and new daughter Maryam Yusra, and is an active community volunteer for University Muslim life and new Muslim work.

Mahamoud Fahour is the CEO – APAC and brings with him a wealth of experience from the corporate and partnerships space in Australia and abroad. Having worked with global organisations like; Qantas, Ch 9, PBL Media and ROKT. Mahamoud’s most notable achievements was securing a number of strong partnerships across many verticals including Sport, Business, Corporate and Government.

The New Social Media!

While popular social media networks have provided a means to engage an audience via Q & A forums, blogs, Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, Instagram accounts and Snapchat, the reality is that the human element of connecting face to face is lost through this method. Last year, in the newly dubbed tech-incubator city of the Gold Coast, an innovative solution to this problem was conceptualised. Now, the idea has completely materialised and it’s available to download and put into practice right away!

The idea is Kwickie.

Kwickie connects friends, fans and celebrities through short and engaging video moments.

Users simply record short video messages and send them to their favourite people (such as Athletes). Once they’ve responded, the “Kwickie” is complete and ready to be shared with the world!

The reason this is ideal for Influencers, Brands and Business is:

– Answer in their own time.  There’s no designated deadlines or times to answer.

– Kwickies look live. Using a patented technology, Kwickies are rendered together to look like a live, face to face moment.

– Kwickies can be moderated. Managers and moderators can be assigned to filter the messages that athletes receive, and send out. This eliminates a lot of the risks involved with traditional social media.

This special Kwickie content can be easily shared through existing social network audiences such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to drive membership, community engagement targets and contribute to media commitments.

Kwickie is available for free in both the App Store and Google Play Store.

Peter Gould is a celebrated designer, creative entrepreneur and artist. The BBC has described him as “among those young urban global Muslims leading the emergence of a new Muslim cool.”

After embracing Islam over a decade ago, Peter was inspired by a series of spiritual and artistic journeys through classical cities such as Fes, Damascus, Istanbul and Mecca. This quest for knowledge resulted in a flourish of remarkable creative projects, uniquely fusing traditional Islamic design elements with his own vibrant, fresh graphic styles.

Rafi-uddin Shikoh is passionate about empowering businesses to become global brands with socially responsible impact. He is leading the development of DinarStandard™, having 15 years of marketing strategy, e-business strategy, and technology management experience with small to Fortune 500 ranked companies. Rafi-uddin is a frequent speaker on innovation, marketing, social business, and Muslim customer strategies. He has presented at prestigious industry conferences at Oxford University, Harvard University, IIUM Malaysia and others. As an emerging expert on Muslim markets, he has been interviewed in media outlets including The Economist, Forbes, LA Times, BrandChannel, Arab News (Saudi Arabia), Khaleej Times, Sabah (Turkey), Star (Malaysia), and Geo TV (Pakistan), among many more.

Prior to DinarStandard, Rafi-uddin had been a vice president with Marsh Inc., a global risk-brokerage firm, where he led and successfully delivered multi-million dollar knowledge management and marketing technology related initiatives. He had previously served as a senior e-business consultant at a Boston based firm. In addition, he has also served as a marketing director for a communications training and sports media consulting company.

Rafi-uddin has an MBA from UNC-Charlotte, North Carolina, USA, and a BSc. in marketing from Southwest State University, Minnesota, USA. He was born in Pakistan and spent 14 years of his early schooling in the Sultanate of Oman.

Based in Dubai, UAE, Alia Khan is the Founder and Chairwoman of Islamic Fashion and Design Council (IFDC), an organization established for the development of the Islamic fashion and design industry worldwide. With offices in 5 countries and growing rapidly to other countries, IFDC is the world’s leading fashion and design (art, architecture, interiors, etc.) council representing the Islamic economy and its stakeholders. IFDC aligns itself with established and budding mainstream as well as Islamic fashion and design brands, government organizations, institutions, corporations, global conferences, events, fashion weeks, and publications to ensure a powerful, sustainable and supportive presence that will lead its talent to the global marketplace.

Raised in Canada and the USA, Alia worked on her own fashion creations with a fusion twist. Soon, she was producing unique fashion shows, events, and media programs, which led to setting up her own independent media and marketing company in Los Angeles. Winning high profile clients like Procter and Gamble and taking the lead on international projects was what lead her to significant exposure.

Razan Abudaqqa is a successful Palestinian entrepreneur, mother and founder of the UAE’s largest forum for women.

Farrukh Naeem is a freelance copywriter, journalist and social media consultant based in Abu Dhabi, right next to Dubai, UAE.

Farrukh has worked with some of the hottest brands in the world from Microsoft, HP and Siemens to Adidas, Canon, Xerox, Etihad Airways, Emirates Airline, Jacuzzi, Taj Palace Hotels & Resorts, Millennium Hotels, KPMG, the United Nations and more.

As one of the first marketing bloggers in the Middle East, Farrukh blogs on CopywriterJournalist.com and reaches a readership across more than 150 countries. His updates on Twitter @farrukhnaeem are followed by more than 11000 people across the world. Farrukh also manages one of the most ‘Liked’ pages by a freelance copywriter on Facebook.

Farrukh and his work have been featured in the Guinness Book of World Records (world’s biggest ad), Guardian UK, Campaign magazine, Communicate magazine, Forbes (Arabia), Newsweek USA, Gulf Marketing Review, University of Oxford, Zawya, Gulf News, Khaleej Times, and more.

As a freelance copywriter and social media consultant, Farrukh also speaks at industry events and conducts training sessions to help clients, students and the community harness the power of the internet and social media to communicate and achieve their goals.

Bilal Memon is a super tech entrepreneur, startup mentor and founder of Quran Academy io, The Smartest Way to Memorize Quran. He has wealth of experience building successful tech companies and giving back through mentorship at well-known organizations such as Techstars and Gaza Sky Geeks.

He is a data-driven entrepreneur whose specialties lie in Product Management, UX, Growth Hacking, Business Development, Digital Marketing (paid acquisition, email marketing, conversion rate optimization, content marketing, etc).

Omar Taha is a Senior Executive Search and Leadership Professional with nearly 10 years of global recruitment and Executive Search expertise. Lived and worked in the US and Middle East and hired into all GCC Countries. Obtained a MBA and MA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a B.S. with Honors from The Stern School of Business at NYU.