Europe, Middle East, and Africa Annual Conference

Moderator: Sherif Kamel, Chair of AACSB Board of Directors, Dean, School of Business, The American University in Cairo

Kamel is a professor of management and dean of the School of Business at The American University in Cairo. Previously, he served as the university vice president for information management. Before joining the university, he was the director of the Regional Information Technology Institute and managed the training department of the Cabinet of Egypt Information and Decision Support Center. 

He is the Vice-Chair of the board of directors of AACSB International (United States) and Deputy Chair of the Global Alliance in Management Education (France). He serves on the boards of Raya Holding for Financial Investments and Education for Employment Egypt. He is a member of the Egypt-U.S. Business Council and the Egyptian Center for Economic Studies and a founding member of the Internet Society of Egypt. He served as the president of the board of governors of the American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt. He co-chaired the board of stewards of the African Women Entrepreneurship Cooperative. He served on the international board of the Association of MBAs and the Business Graduate Association (UK). He served on the boards of the Egyptian American Enterprise Fund and the Commercial International Bank. His teaching and research interests include digital transformation, IT transfer to emerging economies, decision support systems, and entrepreneurship, with over 300 articles and three edited books. He is the author of a book titled “Leading Change in Challenging Times: Lessons of Disruption and Innovation from Egypt – Thoughts, Observations, and Reflections” and the NileView article series. 

Marthese Portelli, CEO, The Malta Chamber

Dr Portelli is a law graduate from the University of Malta specialized in applied business law and IT. Throughout her 28 years of working experience, she occupied several managerial posts and spearheaded nationwide projects within the public and the private sector. 

In 2013, she contested the general election successfully and was re-elected again in 2017, during which she shadowed challenging portfolios including EU affairs, energy, environment, transport, infrastructure, capital projects, planning and property. 

Following her departure from politics, she ventured into the sphere of sectoral representation.

Since 1st May 2021, she took on the role as CEO of The Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry.  She is also a visiting lecturer at the University of Malta and sits on the Board of Directors of Malta Business Bureau (MBB), Education Malta, Tech.MT and Trade Malta.

Philipp Seifert, Operations Manager, Seifert Systems

Philipp Seifert joined Seifert Systems, the family business founded by his grandfather and now led by his father Michael R. Seifert, in 2018. He spearheaded a digitisation initiative throughout the Seifert Group, with Malta setting up an Industry 4.0 Smart Factory for sheet-metal manufacturing. From January 2020, Philipp took up the responsibility of leading production at the Malta plant. Philipp is a graduate in Management and Economics from the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Since April 2023, Philipp represents the Manufacturers and Other Industries Economic Group on the Council of the Malta Chamber of Commerce.