Speaker

Directrice Primaire
Section maternelle-CP
Référente E3D
GLFL

Panelist
Founder of Capital Concept
and ESG Stewardship Program

Mr. Yasser Akkaoui is the founder of Capital Concept a research and consulting firm that advises corporations and investors to become sustainable business ventures.

Through Capital Concept sal, Mr. Akkaoui has become one of the reference names in Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) research and consulting.

He chaired the Lebanon committee of Human Rights Watch until 2022 which he joined in 2010.

Since 2011, Mr. Akkaoui is a founding member of the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies.

Mr. Akkaoui is the publisher of Executive Magazine since 2001.
Mr. Akkaoui is a part-time Business Ethics instructor at The American University of Beirut.

Panelist
Executive Director UN Global Compact Network Lebanon (UN GCNL).
Sustainability and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Expert.

Deenah carries a collective multidisciplinary long standing experience within the corporate, academic and the NGO spheres.
Her journey started in education where she served for several years in the academic sector whether as a teacher, professor and served on the board of several education NGOs.
She then moved to the business sector in 1990 in the distribution and retail arena where she held the position of Managing Director of the retail arm at Fawaz Holding for more than two decades.
In 2012, she moved to consultancies within the International NGOs’ sphere, and became a vivid advocate of Cross sector partnerships serving as Associate Consultant with “Out of The Box” and “The Partnering Initiative” and as Partnership Director at the “Beirut Marathon Association”.
She also served for several years as Mentor at Endeavor Lebanon and Blessing Foundation.

Deenah currently assumes the role of the Executive Director for the UN Global Compact Network Lebanon (UN GCNL), a network of businesses committed to advancing Sustainability and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Lebanon, and has been appointed as the Middle East representative at the Global Network Council.

She is also a Professor in Luxury Marketing & Entrepreneurship for the Master’s program in Marketing and Hospitality at the St Joseph University
She has been appointed in 2022 as a Malala Education Champion within the Lebanese Chapter

Combining the corporate world and the NGO’s world has been her strive for almost two decades, with a firm belief that collective action and cross sectoral partnerships are key to building a sustainable path for national and global recovery
Deenah holds a Master’s degree in experimental, social and cognitive Psychology from the American University of Beirut.

Panelist
Promo 2002
Managing Director and Founding Partner
Biomass.

Mario is the managing director and co-founding partner of Biomass Organic.

He currently leads the strategic and operational transformation of the company, focusing on capacity build-up, commercial expansion, brand presence in international markets, in addition to the transformation and turnaround activities of the business.

His previous experience is in management consulting and in start-ups with projects in the telecommunication and agriculture sectors, across the Middle East and West Africa.

Mario holds a bachelor degree in business administration from the American University of Beirut (AUB) and graduated from the Grand Lycee Franco Libanais, in 2002.

About Biomass
Biomass is a leading grower and provider of organic certified food products in Lebanon. The company is actively promoting organic farming projects and practices in the region, working closing with landowners, farming, processing, and commercial partners (export / import, suppliers, clients), across the food value chain.

Moderator
Project Manager
Climate Change Projects
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
Ministry of Environment

Ms. Kai is the Manager of UNDP’s climate change projects at the Ministry of Environment where she works closely with the Lebanese government on designing and implementing sectoral climate policies and promoting policy reforms. Through providing strategic support, she guided the development and implementation of various programs, laws and regulations. As part of the official Lebanese delegation, she has been negotiating international climate change agreements for 15 years, including the Paris Agreement.
Ms. Kai regularly contributes to the broader sustainability landscape through academic contributions, speaking, and mentoring students and young professionals.
Ms. Kai holds degrees in Environmental Health and Technology from the American University of Beirut and in econoic development from Harvard Kennedy School for Government.