We have launched our latest initiative, the YAL Mentorship Program that aims to educate and empower the next generation of leaders in the Arab World by turning innovative business ideas into a reality. YMP enables industry leaders to serve as mentors to young business founders with the mission of creating valuable solutions to society’s needs. Thank you for the support from our YAL Mentors, Christos Mastoras, Mazen Aloul, Jay Srage, Ashish Nanda, Hani AbdulHadi, Nader Museitif and Mahmoud El Khoja.

YAL Mentors

Hani AbdulHadi - Vice President, Lamar Holding

With over a decade’s experience in construction and energy industries, Hani combines accumulated technical expertise with a unique understanding of the Saudi energy market. As Vice President, he personally oversees relationships with Lamar Holding’s strategic partners.

Mahmoud El Khoja - VP of Marketing & Digital Customer Experience, Schneider Electric Middle East & Africa

Based out of Dubai, Mahmoud heads a multi-cultural team of seasoned marketers and digitization leaders across the region, focused on thought leadership, brand engagement and the digital customer journey.

Jay Srage - CEO, Centrigent

Jay spearheaded Centrigent, a company built on the foundations of Consulting 4.0 providing leading with a new concept of exceptional and specialized consulting services.

Ashish Nanda - Director, AWRostamani-Shift

Ashish has been in the automotive Industry for 38 years of which 30 years have been the Gulf with large automotive distributors for whom he has set up 4 vehicle leasing and car rental companies, Shift being the last set up which started operations in March 2008 and today has 8000 vehicles. He has a desire of mentoring and creating leaders of tomorrow and takes great interest in digitizing processes, not only make life easier for customers, but also for employees.

Christos Mastoras - Founder & Managing Partner, Iliad Partners

Iliad Partners is a venture capital firm investing in MENA tech startups. Christos is an investor, ex-entrepreneur and operating executive with 20+ years of experience in tech in the US, Europe and MENA.

Mazen Aloul - Founder and CEO, WebQuest SEO

WebQuest SEO is a digital agency based in Dubai that specializes in Search Engine Optimization in English and Arabic. He has worked with hundreds of websites over the past 5 years including some of the largest across the MENA region.

Samer Hamzeh - Principal Associate, Eversheds Sutherland 

Samer advises on all aspects of corporate law including M&A transactions and joint ventures but with particular focus on corporate structuring and restructuring, company formation, regulatory and licensing requirements as well as general advisory work on company law matters. Samer’s current projects include advising a number of international clients on the structuring and restructuring of their businesses in the UAE as well as assisting with the company formation or restructuring process.