Mr. Hayek is the Official Spokesman & the Group P.R. & Commercial Manager at MBC Group.

Prior to joining MBC Group, he was Managing Director of MS&L in the MENA Region.

He holds a BA in Political Science & Public Administration from University of Saint Joseph and a Masters Degree from the American University of Beirut.

Mrs. Hariri is Deputy in the Lebanese Parliament and heads the Parliamentarian Committee for Education and Culture.

She is also President of the Hariri Foundation for Sustainable Human Development, National Committee for Public Schools & Saida Heritage and Environment.

She is the founder of the first gathering of Arab Woman Parliament Members & first gathering for Arab Woman Press Members.

Mrs. Hariri previously served as Minister of Education & Higher Education (2008-2009).

Mr. Abu Faour is Minister of Social Affairs in the Lebanese government.

He serves on the Leadership Council of the Progressive Socialist Party since 1999.

He was elected as Deputy in 2005and was re-elected in 2009.

Mr. Abu Faour holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from the American University in Beirut.

Ms. Al Ramahi is currently presenter of Panorama talk show on Al Arabiya Channel in Dubai.

She started as a news reporter in Jordan TV and developed through her career to become a co-producer and presenter of a weekly talk show.

She also worked at Al Jazeera on different shows including news, talk shows and interviews. She hosted regional & international political leaders including late Prime Minister of Lebanon Rafic Hariri, Former Prime Minister of UK Tony Blair, Queen Rania of Jordan, amongst others.

Dr. Wehbe is Professor of Philosophy and Supervisor of Masters and PhD thesis at the Lebanese University.

He is also Editorial Consultant for Al-Hasnaa Magazine and a founding member of the Arab Commission for Human Rights.

He wrote numerous philosophical research papers and articles on the possibility of philosophizing in Arabic, philosophical terminology in Arabic, the need for metaphysics and the critic of political need.

He translated into Arabic Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, Hume’s Enquiry concerning Human Understanding and Husserl’s Logical Investigations.

Dr. Wehbe holds a PH.D. in Literature from Sorbonne University, Paris.

Ms. Kamel is an Egyptian television anchor, activist, and politician.Born in Cairo, she is a long time activist for human rights, and has thus decided to run for presidency in upcoming elections in Egypt.

She was appointed news reader at the National Egyptian Radio and Television union. However she soon decided to refrain from reading the government news, in a pronounced objection to the outrageous discrepancy between the news she read to the public, and the painful reality.

She was a daring journalist, and continued her defiance of the ruling government by broadcasting “Night confessions", a radio program which addressed problems of Egyptian society, and which recorded the highest listening rates in the history of Egyptian radio broadcasting. The program was suspended six years later.

Being a relentless activist for human rights, Ms. Kamel founded "Shayfeen.com" movement (we are watching you), which main mission was to address and fight government corruption, and support those who were persecuted for their struggle against this corruption. She also founded "Egyptians against corruption", in support of and to reward annually, fighters of corruption. The organization is still active to this date.

Dr. Farida Allaghi is a Libyan human rights activist.

She has worked closely as an advisor on human development, policy formulations, strategic planning, fundraising, networking, and capacity building issues in several United Nations organizations, as well as government organizations and private companies in order to promote and support their contributions to human development needs in the Arab World.

She holds a Masters and a Doctorate degree in Sociology (Social Planning and Development) from Colorado State University-USA.

Ms. Hamza is President of the Foundation for the Future (FFF), an independent, international nonprofit organization established in 2005 in Jordan.

She previously served as the Executive Director of the Center of Arab Women for Training and Research (CAWTAR), a regional center based in Tunisia and funded by UNDP, UNFPA and IPPF.

She has also worked as an Expert in the Arab League for 10 years.

In November 2011 the Arab-European Center of Human Rights and International Law honored Mrs. Hamza through the “Arab Human Rights Award” for her dedicated efforts towards enhancing the principles of human rights.

Ms. Hamza holds an M.S in Political Science from University Paris VIII - Sorbonne, Paris.

Mr. Saghieh is political editor of the London-based Arab newspaper Al-Hayat, and serves on the editorial board of the quarterly publication “Kalamon”.

Mr. Saghieh has previously worked at As-Safir Newspaper, and has published several books on politics and Arab political culture.

Ms. Joya is an activist, writer and a former politician from Afghanistan.

She served as a Parliamentarian in the National Assembly of Afghanistan from 2005 until early 2007, after being dismissed for publicly denouncing the presence of what she considered to be warlords and war criminals in the Afghan parliament.

Time magazine placed her on its annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world, and was listed in the Foreign Policy Magazine annual list of the Top 100 Global Thinkers.

Ms. Nasr is founder of Bridges Media Consulting; a firm that helps businesses and media organizations synchronize traditional and digital strategies.

She is CNN’s former Senior Editor of Mideast Affairs and Co-Creator of the network’s digital international newsgathering strategy.

During her 20-year tenure at CNN, she served in several high profile positions including Executive Producer of Ted Turner’s brainchild CNN World Report and Anchor of CNN International's World News.

Prior to joining CNN, Ms. Nasr was a war correspondent for the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation.

Ms. Fraisse is a Philosopher and Director of Research for the national Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), France.

She is a former French interministerial delegate for Women’s rights and a former European MP.

She has worked on topics of History and Philosophy of Gender Equality, from an epistemological and political point of view, focusing on 3 main themes: Genealogy of Democracy, Concepts of Emancipation and Philosophical Problem of sexual/gender difference.

Her latest publications include Le Mélange des sexes (2006); Du consentement (2007); Le Privilège de Simone de Beauvoir (2008); L’Europe des idées, chroniques (2008); A côté du genre, sexe et philosophie de l’égalité (2010) and La fabrique du féminisme, textes et entretiens (2012, to be published soon).

Mr. Zabbal is a philosopher and translator. He joined the “Institut du Monde Arab” in Paris in 1986.

He is also chief editor of the cultural journal “Qantara”.

One of his main fields of interest is relations between the Western world and Islamic countries and recently contributed to a collective work that focuses on these relations: Après l’orientalisme. L’Orient créé par l’Orient, Karthala Publications, 2011.

Ms. Damon is CNN's Beirut correspondent covering stories from Lebanon and the surrounding region.
She is an award-winning journalist who continues to report from Baghdad on assignment throughout the year.

Ms. Damon was the first television reporter allowed inside the Khamiya women’s prison and reported on the desperate situation of the women behind bars.

Before joining CNN, she spent three years covering Iraq and the Middle East as a freelance producer for various news organizations including Feature Story News (PBS) and CNN.

Ms. Damon graduated with honors from Skidmore College in New York with a double major in French and Biology and a minor in International Affairs.

Mr. Mahfoud is a journalist and web content manager at Al-Hayat pan-Arab daily.

He has participated in several theatrical plays as director, actor and conceptor.

Ms. Al Bassam is currently Head of News and Political Programs at Al-jadeed TV.

She began her career at Sawt al Shaab Radio Station, where she successively served as Editor for the Lebanese Political News; Official Reporter; Head of Local Political News Department and Head of News Editor.

She was also contractual editor for Reuters News agency and BBC World News.

Ms. Al Bassam published her first two books “WikiLeaks Background” and “Truth Leaks” (in Arabic) in 2011.

Ms. Al-Sakkaf is Editor in Chief of the Yemen Times.

In 2003, she joined Oxfam-GB and worked in the Humanitarian Program as well as in the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper while being the media spokesperson of the organization in Yemen.

She has represented Yemen on public platforms internationally and spoke on issues of media, gender, development and politics.

Ms. Al-Sakkaf received the first Gebran Tueni Award 2006 for professional media, from the World Association of Newspapers and An-Nahar Newspaper in Lebanon.

Ms. Serhan is Microsoft Country Manager, Lebanon and NEPA Indirect Markets (Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and the Palestinian Authorities).

She started her career with Libancell, where she headed the Financial Planning and Budgeting unit.

She recently received one of the highest achievement awards in Microsoft for her outstanding contributions and is member of the Platinum Club of the Circle of Excellence Awards.

Ms. Serhan holds a BA and MBA in Business Administration from the American University of Beirut.