Biography of speakers - 2022 UfM-UNIDO Women Business Forum

John Paul Grech is the Deputy Secretary General of the Union for the Mediterranean in charge of Social and Civil Affairs since September 2021.

His diplomatic career spans over 30 years of service during which he has served as Head of Mission in both bilateral and multilateral missions overseas.  In addition, he also held various positions within the Ministry of Foreign & European Affairs of the Republic of Malta, including that of Permanent Secretary.

He has served as ambassador of Malta to Germany, Poland and Belarus.  He also served as Permanent Representative of Malta to the United Nations Specialized Agencies in Geneva and Deputy Permanent Representative of Malta to the OSCE and UN Agencies in Vienna.  Besides, he has been assigned duties as Special Envoy on behalf of the Government of Malta on a number of assignments.

Roger has been working at the IEMed since 2016 and as an associate professor at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Barcelona, where he teaches international economic policy. He has published numerous papers and articles in his fields of expertise. Roger is also a board member at CIDOB and a member of the Advisory Council of EMEA.

Prior to joining the IEMed, Roger served as Secretary for Foreign and EU Affairs of the Government of Catalonia (2013-2016) and was a member of the EU Committee of the Regions. From 2010 to 2013 he served as advisor on private sector development at the Secretariat of the Union for the Mediterranean.

He holds an MA in Economic History from the University of Barcelona, a BA in Economics from Pompeu Fabra University and a BA in Business Administration and Management from the Open University of Catalonia (UOC).

Tamara Abdel-Jaber is a partner at Amam Ventures, a Gender Lens investment fund that caters to businesses that are committed to equality, those that put women at the front and focus on specifically serving women in Jordan and MENA. Tamara is also the founder and the chief executive officer at Palma Consulting.  She is an expert in strategy design and execution, business and digital transformation. She currently serves as the Past Chair of the Global Institute of Certified Management Consultants (CMC-GI) as well as board member at the Int’l Council of Management Consulting Institutes (ICMCI). 

Jihen is a woman, a mother and a leader.

Born into a family of entrepreneurs and researchers, she was able to grasp the knowledge and to develop the business skills needed to manage large-scale projects, a talent she further honed through her master’s degree in finance engineering in the Institute of high Studies in Tunis and through the multitude of leadership and management trainings she underwent.

Currently, she is the general director of BUSINESSMED, an organization aimed at supporting and reinforcing the private sector in the Mediterranean and MENA Region and she uses that position to advocate for a strengthened social dialogue, promote gender equality and empower youth by making sure they receive the tools, autonomy and motivation necessary to successfully contribute to the development of the organization.

Mother of two children. Executive woman in investment banking in otherwise NYC, Japan, Paris, and Munich, I was born in Algiers and has lived in France.I feel concerned by pollution issues and wanted to fully engage myself to reduce CO2 emissions.

I was convinced by solar energy while working in Japan and in Germany as I had the chance to see how far those countries were in developing solar energy. She then decided to found SunGy to make it happen in Africa.

She is Ambassador of the Cluster Digital Africa and president of the CACI en France Energy Commission.

Neila AMARA holds a Ph.D. in economics from Paris Dauphine University (France). She first embraced an academic carrier before devoting herself full-time to her work as a Program Development and Monitoring & Evaluation Specialist with a specific focus on women and youth economic empowerment and private sector development. She is currently working as an International Project Management Expert at the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), coordinating inter alia the implementation of phase II of the project “Promoting women’s empowerment for Inclusive and Sustainable Industrial Development in the Middle-East and North-Africa region” labelled by The Union for the Mediterranean and implemented by UNIDO jointly with FAO and UN Women

Serena Romano has an extensive experience in the area of legal, regulatory and antitrust affairs that she has gained in the corporate world, working for companies such as Olivetti and Telecom Italia. Leveraging on her advocacy skills, she is dedicated to gender-equality providing qualified services to civil society, international institutions and corporations.

Serena Romano is co-founder and currently President of Corrente Rosa, a women’s advocacy association that promotes women’s participation in business, institutions and politics to achieve a greater balance of talents in society. 

In 2009, she became a participating member of the OECD-MENA Women’s Business Forum (now the Women’s Economic Empowerment Forum) and has been actively pursuing since the development of an action plan for women in the Middle East and North Africa region.  

Since 2010, Serena Romano manages a consultancy business advising corporations and institutions in the telecommunications and gender parity sectors. She leads EuropeAid-funded projects on gender-related issues, in the Eastern Partnership countries of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine, in the South Mediterranean countries and in the Western Balkans. 

She’s currently leading the project Enhancing EU Communication and Visibility for Supporting Women’s Participation in Public Life with the EU Delegation in Cairo. 

Serena Romano’s education includes studies in Paris, London and Brussels. She holds a degree in Law from the Université Libre de Bruxelles.

Gaëlle Ferrant is Economist at the OECD, in the Middle East and Africa division of the Directorate for Global Relations and Cooperation. As Development and Gender Specialist, Gaëlle manages the MENA-OECD Women’s Economic Empowerment Forum (WEEF) and leads the Gender Projects of the OCDE Country Programmes in Morocco and Egypt, including policy-oriented analysis, policy dialogue and gender data capacity building. 

Gaëlle joined the OECD in 2013 and held several positions in the OECD Development Centre. Prior to join the OECD, Gaëlle worked at the French Development Agency, UNFPA, UNESCO and for African-based NGOs. Gaëlle holds a Ph.D. in development economics from University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and Paris School of Economics and was post-doctoral researcher at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium and the University of Laval, Canada.

Melika Karrit a à son  actif  une longue  expérience dans  le  domaine  de la mise à niveau des  industries tunisiennes et de la promotion des Petites et Moyennes Entreprises (PME).

Elle occupe  actuellement  le  poste  de  Directrice Générale de la Promotion des Petites et Moyennes Entreprises (PME) au sein du  Ministère de l’Industrie,  des Mines et de l’Energie. Elle est principalement chargée  du  suivi et de la  mise en œuvre de la politique de l’Etat dans les domaines de l’encouragement de la création des PME ainsi que du  développement et du suivi de l’exécution des programmes d’appui au renforcement de leur compétitivité. Dans ce cadre, elle s’est particulièrement investie dans la promotion des outils de financement et de soutien aux PME et a notamment contribué à l’élaboration du texte de loi sur le  Crowdfunding. Elle est également membre de la Commission de la surveillance de la Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations depuis juin 2021.

Elle est membre de  nombreux  conseils,  commissions et  comités dont le comité  de pilotage du  projet régional de ‘ONUDI“ Promouvoir l’autonomisation des femmes pour un développement industriel inclusif et durable dans la région Moyen-Orient et Afrique du Nord” pour sa composante tunisienne.

Mrs. Wadi is the Executive Director of Business Women Forum-Palestine since 2008. BWF is a nonprofit organization established in 2006 with a mission to strengthen the role of businesswomen as leaders in the Palestinian economy through advocacy, networking, and the provision of business services. 

Mrs. Wadi has more than 25 years’ experience in economic development, especially for women economic empowerment and encouraging entrepreneurship for youth. Mrs. Wadi has participated advanced training courses in regional and international NGOs and further developed her capacity in Management for Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) by acquiring a professional Diploma certificate in SME’s development in addition to her BA in Business Administration at the university of Birzeit, Ramallah which enabled her to lead and have a significant contribution developing BWF into a well positioned local NGO for women Economic empowerment.

As well as, she participated as a speaker, role model and facilitator in different local and international conferences. Mrs. Wadi participated as a member of Jury with NGO’s, Banks and universities to evaluate Businesses for young entrepreneurs, such as Injaz, BOP, HULT Prize, Welfare association for youth prizes and she herself acts as a role Model, a mentor and a coach.

 One of her remarkable experiences is in developing and designing Programs targeting Female Youth and engaging them in the economic sphere and raises their employability by enhancing their soft skills and abilities for labor market.  As well as, she coaches women entrepreneurs to find their work life balance to create their support system that makes their lives easier.  She has worked directly with a large number of female graduates, business women and entrepreneurs and school students over the past 15 years. Mrs Wadi, and through different approaches, she believes that working and engaging men and boys is the base of change on the social and economic aspect, engaging them to become proud and an effective  support system for their working wives, daughters, mothers and sisters reflects positively on the family and the small communities around them.

Sharing,  is her passion, and she promotes thes culture of mentorship by passing experience for the young to make the road much easier in front of them for a better future.

Named by Forbes in the 2021’s 30 under 30 list, Melanie is the CEO and co-founder of Melanin Kapital, the 1st Panafrican neobank helping African entrepreneurs to access and grow capital through online banking, financing and investment services.

As a French-German-Congolese private equity professional, Mélanie has always endeavoured to leverage on her inter cultural perspective and her financial expertise to contribute to the efforts of economic development on the African continent. 

She has worked in the impact investment field for the past six years in Africa and in the Middle East, supporting due diligence processes aiming at investing in SMEs, start ups and financial institutions. Over the years working in different impact ventures such as Investisseurs et Partenaire and Finance in Motion, she has particularly developed a deeper knowledge in corporate finance, fundraising and impact assessment. Besides her investment activities, she lectures in business schools and universities. Currently in ESCP Europe she lectures an elective class on impact investing in emerging markets. She offers similar lectures for entrepreneurs in accelerator programs like Bridge for Billions or GIZ-SAIS program.

Mélanie holds a Master’ s in Corporate Finance from ESSCA business school, MSc International Sustainability from ESCP Europe and is certified as a Microfinance expert from Frankfurt School of Finance Management.

A career development, Mr. Wissam H. FATTOUH became the Secretary General of the Union of Arab Banks in November 2010. As such, he leads the largest banking consortium in the region and the sole representative of the Arab banking community, which aims at the development and advancement of the banking and financial markets, in addition to the cross-border relations and exchange of expertise with international counterparts.

Mr. Fattouh has excellent knowledge and expertise in Arab and International banking and financial sectors, acquired from over 25 years of experience in this domain, and through extensive and close relations with MENA Region, Europe and United States of America, in addition to regional/ International financial and regulatory bodies. His remarkable contact portfolio with Heads of States, officials, ministers, politicians, Governors and regulators, and excellent liaison with banks and financial institutions’ chairmen, CEOs and heads through years of direct and careful relations acted as the vote of confidence for his evident rise to this position.

Before his current position, Mr. Fattouh served as the Acting Secretary General, Deputy Secretary General, Director of Conferences Department at UAB and Manager of Databank and Information Technology. He gained a worldwide network of communication and Economic Knowledge through innovatively organizing and supervising international, regional and local Conferences and awareness Seminars on banking and financial matters in cooperation with the likes of the US Department of the Treasury, World Bank, IMF, IFC, FATF, United Nation Security Council, European Banking Federations and various international governmental offices.

He established the new line of technical Forums that excelled for its scientific importance and established a number of Professional Groups and Associations, Group of Certified Compliance Officers (GCCO) in MENA Region, Group of Certified Risk Managers (GCRM), MENA Financial Crime Compliance Group (MENAFCCG) in addition to 2 main initiatives for Private Sector Dialogue (PSD): US-MENA PSD and EU-MENA PSD, it is a dialogue between Arab Banking community and its counterparts from European Union and United States. The EU-Arab and US-Arab banking dialogue initiatives cover matters of laws and regulations, correspondent banking and investment including AML/CFT, Basel recommendations, FATCA law, CSR, De-risking, Correspondent banking and others.

Through his suave yet professional persona backed with years of expertise and an eye for the future, Mr. Fattouh has managed to raise funds on continuous basis to get the UAB to the highest standard of professionalism while using advanced technologies and relying on the best human resources. He managed to transform the UAB into an internationally renowned organization with a say on the international banking and financial fronts.

Mr. Fattouh was born in Beirut in September 1965. Married with two children and is a graduate from the Lebanese American University in Beirut class of 1989 and MBA, London 2016. He is fluent in Arabic, English and a good commend of the French language.

On this capacity, he leads the implementation of MENA-OECD Initiative on Governance and Investment for Development. The Initiative promotes policy dialogue on governance, investment and private sector development between MENA and OECD countries. During this period the MENA Initiative has introduced the process of OECD peer reviewing in the MENA region, and extensively promoted country programmes of reform in the MENA region with a particular focus on Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, and Jordan. Between 2007 and 2014, he led the MENA-OECD Governance Programme in the Public Governance Directorate of the OECD and supported the OECD work on public governance in Latin America. Before joining the OECD in 2007, Mr. Conde was associate professor of political science and public policy at the University of Granada in Spain. In this position, Mr. Conde led several projects of academic co-operation, research and network building between Arab and European universities. Mr. Conde had visiting positions at Harvard University (1995-96) and Al Akhawayn University of Morocco, where he lectured between 2001 and 2003. Mr. Conde holds a PhD in Political Science and Public Administration from the Complutense University of Madrid.

Cecilia Ugaz Estrada (Peru) is Director of Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women Office and Special Advisor, Office of the Managing Director, Directorate of Corporate Management and Operations. She formerly was Director of the Policy Research and Statistics Department at UNIDO.

Cecilia holds a PhD in economics from Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris (major: Econometrics of Investment) as well as graduate degrees in economic modelling from France and Peru. Prior to joining UNIDO, she served as United Nations Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative for Paraguay, as Deputy Resident Representative for UNDP in Argentina and as Deputy Director of the UNDP Human Development Report Office. Cecilia Ugaz Estrada also held various positions with the United Nations and in academia in Switzerland, United Kingdom and Finland as well as with the World Bank in Washington DC.

Graduated in Law at the University of Naples, in 1989 he passed the competition for access to the diplomatic career. 

After a period spent at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the Directorate General for Human Resources, in 1994 he was transferred to Rio de Janeiro with the role of Vice Consul and then of Consul. 

In 1998 he took up the Permanent Representation of Italy at the United Nations in New York, where for four years he was in charge of the economic, development and humanitarian sectors, in the General Assembly and Ecosoc, as well as of the UN Funds and Programs (UNDP, UNICEF, UNFPA , UNIFEM). 

Returning to the Ministry he was assigned to the Directorate General for Human Resources, where he was first Head of the Competition Office and then Head of the Legal Department. 

In 2005 he was assigned as Counsellor at the Permanent Representation of Italy at the OECD in Paris, where he followed, among others, the development cooperation sector and the MENA programs. At the same time he was Italian delegate at the European Space Agency. 

In 2009 he was transferred to the Permanent Representation of Italy to the European Union in Brussels, where he first coordinated the Justice, Home Affairs and Immigration sector, and then the  Infringement Procedures and State Aid sector. 

In 2011 he was promoted to Ministry Plenipotentiary, on a proposal from the Council of Ministers, by a Decree of the President of the Republic.

From 2012 to 2016 he held the functions of Deputy Director General for Development Cooperation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In this capacity he contributed to the formulation of cooperation policies and strategies, coordinated the bilateral and multilateral initiatives of Italian cooperation and followed its implementation, particularly in the priority countries in Africa and the Middle East, where he made numerous field visits. In this period he was also appointed as Coordinator for the UN Agenda post 2015 within the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.

In 2016 he was appointed as Deputy Head of the Staff of the Minister of Foreign Affairs. 

In 2017 he was directly reported to the Director General for Economic, Cultural and Scientific Cooperation, and in particular he coordinated several initiatives of integrated promotion including the regional program “Italy, Cultures, Mediterranean”. 

In July 2018 he was appointed as Ambassador of Italy to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, on a proposal from the Council of Ministers, by a Decree of the President of the Republic. On October 31, 2018, he assumed in this capacity in Amman.

In December 2021 he was appointed as Director General for Development Cooperation. On March 1^st 2022 he assumed in this capacity at the Ministry for Foreign Affair and International Cooperation in Rome. 

Mr. Zeitoun has more than fifteen years of experience in sustainable energy consultancy. For the past five years, he has been managing the technical assistance team for multiple green financing facilities developed by the EBRD and supported by the European Union and the Green Climate Fund. His main role is on providing technical advisory services to both multilateral and commercial financing institutions. 

Prior to his work on climate finance, Mr. Zeitoun was the lead technical expert for technical assistance programme focused on energy efficiency improvements in the industrial sector developed by the United Nations Industrial Developed Organization.  

Mr. Zeitoun is an engineering graduate with energy and power specialization. He holds a M.Sc. in Engineering degree from Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, UK. 

Ana Díez Fontana holds a degree in Economics from CEU San Pablo University ni Madrid, and an Executive MBA from IESE.

Throughout her professional career she has held positions of responsibility at Citibank and “CaixaBank”. In 2008 she joined CaixaBank as Director of Trade Finance, and then moved to Malaga, where she was Director for Corporates forAndalusia. In 2013 she moved to Sevilla as Managing Director for comercial Banking in aAndalucia, , later and for five years, she was the Regional Director of Caixabank in Navarra.

Currently she is a Executive Director of SME’S and start ups.

She also is Board member of Micro Bank S.A.U and Zone2Boost.