Speakers

Meet our Speakers, Panelists, Judges, and Workshop mentors. 

Photo of Bill Reichert

Bill Reichert

Partner, Pegasus Tech Ventures

Veteran Silicon Valley legend and global early-stage investor

Bill Reichert is a Partner at Pegasus Tech Ventures, specializing in deep technology investments and serving as Chief Evangelist of Startup World Cup. With 20 years in venture capital, he co-authored “Getting to Wow! Silicon Valley Pitch Secrets for Entrepreneurs” and has a diverse background including entrepreneurship, consulting, and public service. Bill is a graduate of Harvard College and Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Photo of Ron Weissman

Ron Weissman

Chair of Board of Director, Angel Capital Association

Ron Weissman is not only Chair of Board of Directors for ACA (250 US Angel groups, largest in the world), but he is also the Chairman of the Software Industry Group of the Band of Angels (original angel group in Silicon Valley).

Ron Weissman has been a venture capitalist and angel for nearly 25 years, with 70 investments and has served on more than forty boards of directors. He was CMO at Verity when the company won the large-cap Turnaround of the Year. Before Verity, he was a direct report to Steve Jobs at NeXT and was recruited out of Brown University where he ran Academic Computing. A former professor of Italian Renaissance History, he worked concurrently at civilian and national security agencies of the US Government. Ron has spent much of working life in Europe and is a former Fulbright Scholar. For the past 25 years, Ron has advised startups, mature companies and regional and national governments about private capital investing best practices and angel group formation, often partnering with US MAC. For this work, Keiretsu Forum (NW) has awarded Ron its Lifetime Achievement Award.

Marvin Liao

Global Macro Investor with a Speciality in Startups. Operator-Investor. Portfolio Entrepreneur.

Marvin runs an Investment Holding Co called Sukna Holdings. He used to be a Partner at Diaspora VC and helped run Game Groove Capital: a Gaming-focused Holding Company. He ran the flagship accelerator for 500 Startups where he was a partner. He has invested in over 470+ Pre-seed & Seed stage startups with a focus on Digital Media, Enterprise SAAS, Marketplace, Mobile, Internet of Things & Fintech startups. He has worked with hundreds of founders of  Pre-seed & Seed stage startups such as Embroker, Eaze, Aircall, Manychat, Shippo, RapidAPI, Worthix, Indio, Pipefy, Innovacer, Vela, Apostrophe, AgFunder, Printify, Whereto, Qualio, PlateIQ, Avanoo, Zentist, Stackshare, Shortpoint, MonkeyLearn & Cube.js (aka Statsbot) among many others.

Previously an experienced client-facing senior executive in the media and technology space in both large and start up growth companies, having managed large multifunctional teams across multiple countries. He has P&L management experience and most recently responsible for 100% YoY revenue growth while running a business unit and building new sales channels in EMEA & the Emerging Markets regions for the last ~4 years at Yahoo!.

A 10.5 year veteran of Yahoo! Inc., Marvin has held executive roles in the various departments of Sales, Business Development, Ad Operations and Marketing. Most of his roles were regional or global management roles giving him extensive experience across Asia, Europe, Latin America and the United States in his career at the company.

Marvin presently serves on the Investment Committee/Advisory boards of several Venture Capital Funds across the globe.

Nada Shaheen

Managing Director, GB Vetures

Nada Shaheen is the Managing Director of GB Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of Ghabbour, where she leads investment expansion, fosters innovation, and bridges the gap between CVC and the startup ecosystem. With over 10 years of experience in entrepreneurship, innovation, and venture capital, Nada has collaborated with major industry players such as GB Corp, CBE, and the European Union, leveraging her expertise to drive growth and transformation. As a serial entrepreneur, Nada brings firsthand knowledge of founding and scaling startups, complementing her work as a mentor and leader in the venture capital space.

Photo of Bill Reichert

Chris Burry

Founder, Global Innovation Dojo

Helping great startup founders reach their full potential around the world

9X Serial founder with over $1.2 Billion in exit value.  For the past 15 years he has run US Market Access Center working with over 5,000 startup founders from 82 countries to strengthen their mindset, build their skills of high-growth high-scale entrepreneurship.

Colin Donohue

CEO, Kernel
Co-founder, Global Innovation Dojo

Venture catalyst- bridging founders, investors, and expertise

Haytham El-Azaizy

Managing Parner, Intuitio VC (Saudi Arabia)

Top 40 Under 40 MENA

An exited founder with over 16 years of extensive experience in
senior leadership and digital transformation, Haytham specialize in auditing
companies and providing financial advisory services. His expertise
extends to evaluating companies and creating detailed reports for
investors looking to allocate funds across various stages, including
pre-seed, seed, series A, B, and C.

Justin Hwa

Fractional & Interim CXO, Empyrean International

E-commerce, B2B, & AI
Former Global Innovation at eBay

Justin partners with growth-stage companies as a fractional or interim C-level leader—typically stepping in as CPO, COO, or CCO. Hands-on and outcome-driven, he shapes strategy, builds teams, implements structure, and execute plans that unlock their next stage of growth. Justin led Wolt’s global B2B business, Wolt for Work. Before joining Wolt, Justin founded and led eBay’s Commerce Innovations venture studio, where they launched new products and businesses that augment the shopping experience.

Sameer Sortur

Founding Partner, SquareCircle Ventures

Global Startup Ecosystem Connector

Sameer Sortur is the Founder & CEO of SquareCircle Ventures, a global impact investment and advisory firm based in Palo Alto. With over 20 years of experience, he specializes in scaling growth-stage tech ventures across MEA, APAC, and the US—covering B2B SaaS, AI, PropTech, and fintech. Sameer is also MD‑GCC for Founder Institute and a seasoned mentor, having guided 50+ startups valued over $50M

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