Ibrahim Osta is an international tourism development expert based in Sarajevo with experiences in international trade and investment promotion, youth entrepreneurship and tourism development. He has managed international development projects exceeding $140 million in scope with additional quarter billion dollars in leveraged funds from public, private and international institutions. Currently, he is chief of party of the USAID Developing Sustainable Tourism in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Earlier he was based in Washington, D.C. as Senior Economic Growth Advisor and Middle East & North Africa Region Director for Chemonics International. Between 2005 and 2017, he served as Chief of party of the $100 million USAID tourism development portfolio in Jordan which helped grow the tourism sector several billion dollars. He has led, advised and supported tourism development activities in various countries such as Nepal, Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, Timor Leste, Egypt, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Lebanon.

Currently, he is member of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Panel of Experts and served earlier on the Governing Body of United Nations Foundation World Heritage Alliance, where he co-designed the People Protecting Places campaign adopted by UNESCO to conserve World Heritage sites. With a background in finance and economics, Mr. Osta is a regular speaker in international tourism forums and co-led the UN International Year of Sustainable Tourism Global Forum with the World Bank, UNWTO and Government of Jamaica.

He advises on tourism development and economic impact strategies, destination resilience and experience design. He supported formulation of Egypt’s business reform agenda in 1999, the first of its kind since the Gamal Abdel Nasser socialist revolution and led creation of Injaz a youth entrepreneurship organization modeled after the US-based Junior Achievement International, that has now reached over three million children in over 12 Arab countries. In his early career, he was Executive Director of the US-based American Arab Chamber of Commerce.

Mr. Osta holds a degree in Finance and Economics from the University of Michigan, A Masters of Tourism Administration from George Washington University and Postgraduate Diploma in International Business Law from the University of London.

Eymen Errais is a senior strategic investments advisor. Mr. Errais has more than 15 years of experience in capital markets and corporate finance, acquired from several international institutions such as Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse and Barclays.

He was also Chief Executive Officer of a private equity fund management company and a CEO of listed stock asset management firm. More recently, he was advisor to the Minister of Development, Investment, International Cooperation and Finance.

Mr. Errais has a PhD in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University. He also holds two masters, the first in Operational Research and the second in Financial Engineering. He is also the holder of several professional degrees such as a financial risk manager (FRM), in corporate finance technical foundations, and investment management of the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investment (CISI).

Sadia Sajjad is the Country Manager for UK, Ireland, Denmark and Malta at IFC, a member of the World Bank Group and the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in Emerging Markets. In her current role, Sadia leads IFC’s relationships with private sector clients, governments, financial institutions, and investors to enable IFC deliver its investment and advisory program.

Sadia’s career spans over two decades at IFC in various sectors, regions and business lines. In particular, she has worked across IFC’s Investment Operations focusing on Agribusiness and Mining sectors globally; Syndications and Resource Mobilization, where she led commercial debt raise for IFC transactions in Europe, Middle East and Africa region from commercial and development investors; Donor Funding raising for IFC advisory and blended finance projects; and Business Development and clients and stakeholder relationship management. Sadia is an alumnus of IFC’s prestigious Global Business Leadership Program.

Prior to joining IFC, Sadia worked as an economist at IDEA global, a financial research firm based in New York City. Sadia holds a Masters in Economics from McGill University in Canada. She also holds a BA in Honours Economics from McGill as well as a BSc in Accounting from the University of London.

Carmen Roberts is a travel writer and television presenter, predominantly for The Travel Show and previously for the BBC’s fast:track programme, broadcast on BBC World News.

She has travelled extensively with the show and has filmed in more than 70 countries around the world.

After the Asian Tsunami on Boxing Day 2004, Carmen cut short her holiday in Langkawi, Malaysia to report from the devastated resort town of Phuket in Thailand.

Carmen has produced a programme aboard the world’s longest flight, filmed on board the world’s largest cruise ship, gone behind the scenes of the world’s most efficient high-speed train service in Japan and reported from one of the world’s most secretive countries – North Korea.

Carmen won the Best Television Travel Feature at the British Guild of Travel Writers Member’s Awards two years in a row in 2008 and 2009.

Born in Singapore, her father was from New Zealand and her grandparents were Scottish. However, Carmen grew up on Australia’s Gold Coast and moved to London in 2000.

Carmen is now based in Tokyo.

Nasise Chali is the Minister of Tourism since October 2021.Prior to her current ministerial position, Nasise was Ethiopia’s Ambassador to Canada.

Nasise received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Foreign language and literature and Master of Arts in Teaching English as a Foreign Language both from Addis Ababa University.

Nassise began her career as a lecturer at universities in Ethiopia, including Jimma University, St. Mary’s University and Adama Science and Technology University. She has also served as a Director, Directorate of Protocol and Public Relations in the president’s office of Oromia National Regional Government.

Mahrouqi’s experience spans 20 years in managing real estate project investments and commercial contracts, and he held a number of positions, the last of which were senior manager of investment real estate at the Oman Investment Authority (OIA), chairman and CEO of Yiti Tourism Development Company, chairman of the executive committee and a member of the board of directors at ASAAS Company.

In addition, he has also been a member in a number of boards of directors and associated committees in OIA’s real estate investments in both the United Kingdom and Germany. This also coincided with other roles that he assumed, including managing local and international real estate investment portfolios amounting to RO1bn in the sectors of hospitality, entertainment, logistics, retail and multi-purpose projects, as well as leading projects to attract foreign direct investment worth tens of millions.

Hamza Farooqui is a prominent South African-based entrepreneur with a special interest in real estate, technology, hospitality, leisure, and global financial services. He is the founder and CEO of the Johannesburg-headquartered boutique family investment office Millat Investments which he started in 2016.

He started his entrepreneurial journey in his early teens when he conceptualised and developed icricketer.com providing millions of fans around the world with live online cricket scoring and radio/audio updates. The business achieved global success and recognition.

Later he co-founded South Africa’s first Islamic satellite radio station, CII. CII went on to become a significant player in the Islamic media, Islamic retail, and Islamic financial services front. He helped launch a variety of multi-billion Rand pioneering Islamic financial services products with Old Mutual and Albaraka Bank.

Continuing with the entrepreneurial journey, he subsequently joined and became the managing director for satellite radio company WorldSpace in Africa. During this time, he was part of the team which supported the company’s capital raising process which led to the successful IPO of the company on NASDAQ. This provided him with significant experience in working with large capital providers such as global private equity funds, sovereign wealth funds and family offices.

He was also the driving force behind the first ever dry hotel built in Cape Town initially being branded by Hilton Worldwide. Farooqui is driven by an abiding passion for and firm belief in South Africa. He is an active and successful player in the tourism sector where, in partnership with the global Hyatt Hotels brand, opened four hotels in the country during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hamza’s most recent brain child saw Millat Investment becoming the first hotel group to open Dark Kitchen food brands in South Africa with Uber Eats coming in board as an exclusive partner for ordering and delivering.

He strongly subscribes to the concepts of community and family and values the importance of a service ethos in everything that he does.

Farooqui travels the world widely, has extensive business interests in the GCC and the sub-continent, and through an extensive network has high-level access to global companies and their leaders. He also draws inspiration from the cultural diversity in these regions and his parental roots of Pakistan and uses every speaking opportunity and engagement to extol the potential of South Africa as an investment destination.

Farooqui fervently believes that South Africa’s future economic success will be built through the power of entrepreneurship. The secret he says, is to remain laser-focussed on the job and to work in sectors that constantly move your spirit.

Emma Nelson is a broadcaster and communications expert with more than two decades’ experience. Beginning in BBC local radio she worked her way up to become BBC World’s in-house correspondent, reporting for the national and international news tv and radio bulletins.

She now works as a presenter for Monocle 24 radio (she’s been described as the ‘defining voice’ of the station) and also at BBC London TV news. She’s also a host on the UK’s most listened-to commercial radio station, Classic FM and sometimes heads to Paris to present news programmes on France 24 TV.

Emma is also an experienced moderator, hosting discussions for the likes of the UNWTO, the OECD, Monocle and the European Parliament.

As a trainer, Emma has worked with everyone from young Premier League footballers, CEOs of major furniture retailers and Japanese tech firms, to help them communicate in the best way they possibly can. She covers everything from business pitches to crisis communications. She helps people share their passion and expertise with confidence, and to get their message across successfully.

Ph.D. in Tourism. CEO at Málaga Tourism Authority. Former UNWTO International Liaison Officer. +10 years of experience teaching in spanish, central-american and european universities and business schools. DMO expert & Tourism Boards director and deeply involved with the international travel & tourism industry relations. Ms in Tourism Consulting / Ms in MICE Tourism / Ms in Mkt & Communication / Ms in Hospitality Management / GD in International Relations