TEDxCairo Debate

Biography

Seif Abou Zaid is a young Egyptian leader whose work focuses on mobilizing and empowering people through policy change and educational reform. He graduated with a degree in Political Science from the American University in Cairo and is currently an MPP Candidate at the American University in Cairo. He is currently the CEO of Nabadat Foundation; a tech-powered non-profit that fosters education, increases political awareness and fights poverty. He has led the foundation's team to build the biggest online education portal in the region; Tahrir Academy.He is also a committed advocate of personal rights and freedoms, and has been heavily involved in Egyptian politics early on; starting by being the Student Union President of his university in which hestarted a nation-wide student lobby till holding the position of Executive Director of Masrena Movement; one of Egypt's biggest political movements with a membership base of more than 30,000. He's currently heading the Strategic Planning Unit of Masr El Qaweya political party and is part of the Steering Committee of the party; responsible for its foundation. In addition to his professional and political track record, Seif writes frequently for different papers and publications. He is also a certified trainer, a speaker and a learning facilitator with a track record of more than 1000 speaking engagements, trainings and learning experiences done for audiences in more than 7 countries. Ibrahim El Houdaiby is a senior researcher at House of Wisdom Foundation for Strategic Studies, and lecturer at AMIDEAST. A graduate of the American University in Cairo , he holds a B.A. in Political Science and an M.A. in Political Science and Development Studies He also earned a diploma in Islamic Studies from the High Institute of Islamic Studies in 2010, where he is currently pursuing his M.A. in Islamic Shariah. He writes a weekly column for the Arabic Daily Shorouk, and is a freelance columnist in English language Al-Ahram Online. His research focuses on Islamic movements, democratization, and political economy of the Middle East. Mai Sherbini "Moderator" of The New Arab Debates Arabic version, she is a popular Egyptian TV presenter and news anchor. She was one of Al-Arabiya TV's main news anchors for four years and presented "90 Minutes" on the Egyptian private TV channel "El-Mehwar". Mai is also a columnist for the "Al Youm Al Sabea" (Youm7) newspaper. Born and raised in Cairo, she has worked in the Arab media since 1993 and has vast experience in the media field. She believes that the Egyptian media played a key role in the January 2011 uprising and that they continue to exert a powerful influence on events throughout the Middle East.