Metaverse Education Council

H.E Adnan Al Noorani

Adnan Al Noorani is a man who likes to dream big. As the founder of the Future Innovation Summit and the chairman of the board of the Private Office Of Sheikh Saqer Bin Mohamed Al Qasimi and Group of Companies, Dubai, UAE, Al Noorani has his sights set on making a significant impact on the world. And he believes that blockchain technology will be a major catalyst in achieving this goal.

Al Noorani views blockchain as a seed that, when planted, has the potential to grow into a number of different areas, including NFTs, gaming, metaverse, digital currencies, and more. Ultimately, he believes that this technology will 'make life easier and work more efficiently.' It's a lofty goal, but one that Al Noorani is confident he can achieve through the Future Innovation Summit. This event brings together some of the brightest and most influential minds in order to chart a course for the future. And as Al Noorani likes to say, 'You can either create history or be history.' With blockchain technology at his disposal, there's no doubt that Al Noorani is poised to make history.

Al Noorani is a great believer in investing in the next generation, which he believes will bring forth the future we hope for. Today, he targets the brightest university students, investing in them and showcasing their talent to the attendees at the Summit, which have included leaders from the Vatican, NASA, United Nations, and more. Al Noorani has said that 'The next generation is our only hope. They are the ones who will create the future we want to see.' He believes that by investing in these young people and giving them opportunities for better and more immersive education, we can change the world for the better.

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Judy Shalom

Judy Shalom is an entrepreneur, digital marketer, lecturer, author, podcast host, CEO of Advedro, and Chairwoman of NoordMarketing. Judy has her own professional experience from the digital industry including but not limited to Blockchain, DeFi, Fintech, Adtech and Martech and has been part of the industry for the past 16 years. As a journalist who relapsed into the studies of AI, behavioural science, leadership, communication and psychology Judy has a lot to share with her students, clients and readers. Her experience in the field allows her to understand the concerns and needs of businesses when it comes to these innovative technologies. Judy is also a big promoter of Women in Tech. As a CEO she runs her company with an inclusive culture that builds on everyone's strengths, where individuals can be their authentic selves and reach their full potential. Judy believes that by bridging the gender gap in tech we can speed up innovation and create more social impactful solutions to problems faster.

Judy is a well-educated and experienced businesswoman who has been nominated for Business Woman of the Year multiple times. She holds a MPhil degree from Stockholm University and she enlisted in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) in 2001, serving as a combat officer. What really fascinates Judy is how technology shapes our societies' behaviours, attitudes and needs as well as how this can be used to design better customer experiences and services - even better societies! Judy lectures on digital marketing at both undergraduate- and graduate level at SSE ( Stockholm School of Economics). She is also a popular speaker at conferences about digital marketing, technology trends, women in tech/entrepreneurship & leadership as well as giving inspirational talks about Metaverse and Web 3.0 possibilities. Judy's professional background and interests make her a uniquely qualified individual to give lectures and talks on a variety of topics.

Judy is also a host of her own weekly podcast called Marketing Unfiltered where she interviews people working with or have an interesting perspective on how Metaverse will impact different industries but also how marketing is changing and how marketers should use different strategies to reach their targeted goals.

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Melissa McBride.

Melissa McBride is an Entrepreneur, Founder, Headteacher, Leader, Impact Educator, strategist for Metaverse Education, Investor and Momx4.

She leads the UKs only EdTech company to offer both a quality assured platform for full time online education for children from ages 3 to 15 and to develop digital and VR content and technology for the future of learning in Web3.

In a groundbreaking partnership with Prague based Somnium Space and Oasis Meta Games, Melissa leads her team as they are building a world for education for GenZ and GenAlpha students in the MetaVerse

As one of the first Metaverse strategists for the future of k12 education in Web3, Melissa is thrilled to be a leader of the radical change in education that is not happening top-down via politicians and traditional institutions, but bottom-up via startups, parents and students.

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Christian Gleich

Christian is the International Ambassador to the European Blockchain Association (EBA) and Chief Strategy Officer & Futurist at OneBigWave. He looks back on more than 20 years of digital expertise. Christian held executive positions at AOL/Oath/Verizon and Innovation/Digital agencies, expanded XaaS companies with new entities globally and established widely recognized corporate partnerships. Amongst those is the one between Samsung (Galaxy) and Angry Birds (Space) where he holds the Guinness® world record for the biggest product launch ever - streamed from the ISS. He features many years of experience in venture building, scaling startups and in corporate-startup-ventures. He is an investor, advisor, mentor and jury member of Unicorn Startup Challenge and Cup, the largest global startup pitch contest. Christian is CEO, co-founder and owner of companies with a digital focus on innovative products and cutting-edge technology. As the Ambassador of the European Blockchain Association he is a specialist and internationally renowned speaker for Blockchain, web3 and Metaverse related topics which includes creating and validating relevant use cases. After having established the UAE Blockchain Education Centre in Dubai he is building a live-experience Digital Asset ecosystem as a co-founder at the moment.

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Silja Litvin

Techstars Berlin Alumni Silja Litvin, CEO and founder of PsycApps, Ph.D. candidate at Ludwig Maximilian University and honorary Research Associate at UCL in London, is a clinical psychologist with years of experience providing counseling and therapy, including in the NHS NELFT mood and eating disorder division. Her specialty is in clinical psychology (depression and anxiety) as well as systemic psychology, the science of relationships.
Silja has multiple articles published in peer-reviewed journals and two evidence-based mobile mental health applications making her one of the UKs leaders in mobile mental health. Due to her rather unusual career of modeling for 17 years, Silja has a unique approach to both the commercial and academic aspect of her products as well as years of self-dependent working experience
Now she is venturing into the world of AI, gamification, and mobile mental health to find a way to be able to help people help themselves, launching her emotional fitness game eQuoo worldwide. It is the only game on the NHS Apps Library and has been featured in major news outlets such as Forbes and TechCrunch and she won multiple prizes with PsycApps such as THE EUROPAS Pitch Awards and Pitch@Palace on Tour.

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Deborah Quazzo

Deborah is the Managing Partner of GSV Ventures, a venture fund investing in education and workforce skills technologies that are disrupting the $7 Trillion sector and named to Insider’s inaugural list of top 100 seed investors. In addition, she is Co-founder of the ASU+GSV Summit. Now in its 14th year, the ASU+GSV Summit celebrates innovations and innovators across the global “preK to Gray” learning and talent landscape and attracts over 5,500 live and 10,000 virtual attendees.

Deborah currently serves on the boards of, Ascend Learning, BrightChamps, Classplus, Class Technologies, CoLearn, Degreed, Ellucian, Intellispark, New Profit, PhotoMath, Remind, Simplilearn and Turnitin (an Advance Communications company). She is a member of the boards of The Common Ground Foundation, The Khan Academy Thought Leadership Council, Steppenwolf Theatre Company and Unity Advisory Board. She previously served on the board of a number of education organizations including The Chicago Board of Education (CPS) and KIPP: Chicago.

Deborah graduated cum laude with a BA in history from Princeton University in 1982 and an MBA from Harvard University in 1987.

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Pablo Olivera Brizzio

Pablo Olivera Brizzio is a Senior Innovator, Technology Generalist and a Serial Inventor at heart, with 30 years of international experience in High Tech and Fortune 500 companies such as IBM, GE, UTC and Orange Business Services, among others.

He has a background in Electronics Engineering Technology, Engineering Management and has a Master’s in Blockchain Technologies, besides holding 4 certifications in RFID from US and UK.

He is the author of several US and international granted patents on electronic gadgets and in 2015 he was recognized by the media in Uruguay to be the inventor of the first electric auto lacing shoes in 1998, inspired by the film “Back to the Future”.

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Claire Zau

Claire is a Vice President on the GSV Ventures team based in New York City. She previously worked across both the GSV Ventures investment team and ASU+GSV Summit team. Through 3 consecutive Summits, she collaborated with thought leaders across the edtech ecosystem to develop program and thought leadership, and moderated various conversations around equity and access, web3, gaming and the metaverse. She graduated from Stanford University and received her Master’s from the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education. At Penn, Claire was a Venture Fellow at Red & Blue Ventures and interned at Penn’s education accelerator Catalyst. She has previous work experience in tech (strategy and product) and finance (private equity and venture capital).

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John Lillywhite

John Lillywhite is a Research Fellow at the Mohammed bin Rashid School of Government. He is a formal advisor to Meta Metaverse and author of the UAE Metaverse White Paper. His core research interest explores how digital networks are reshaping international relations, participatory governance and security. John is based between the UAE and UK.

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Ahmed Haffar

Known as the Voice of Dubai, Ahmed is a Dubai based entrepreneur, Musician, and local celebrity. Ahmed has been a musician since the early age of 8, and has since then created music for the likes of Melhem Zein, Vivian Mrad, Nancy Ajram and others by the age of 17.

Dropping out of school to focus on his dream, Ahmad voice-over work can be heard everywhere in the UAE - from public transport including Emirates Airline and Dubai Metro, Etisalat, and the welcome videos of the recent World Expo to many of the popular audio visual promos in dubai. Ahmed is now the business owner of Mindloop Studios & Establishing the groundbreaking ‘’OnThefield’’ academy, 1-on-1 custom made programs for the creative field.

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Warsamè Ahmed

An innovator, an entrepreneur, and a co-founder of Braiyt AI, Warsame Ahmed, is beautifying the Canadian startup ecosystem by helping businesses of different sorts and sizes automate their data-intensive processes with cognitive automation solutions. Having a strong appetite for cutting-edge technology, Warsame is aiming to move forward on the path of enhancing human capabilities with artificial intelligence (AI).

As founder of Braiyt, and counting clients such as the University of Toronto and the Canadian Armed Forces, Warsam is working to integrate its proprietary AI technology with metaverse digital twins, enabling many industries looking to integrate live data streams to their 3D model physical spaces. Education is a huge area of interest and Warsam will be working with Melissa McBride at Sophia Technologies to make explore the potential here for learning further.

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Cumai A. Housn

Transformational leader in the data-driven Marcomms industry, Cumai is the co-founder of Biennale.io, a global, community-driven art and culture metaverse, an ecosystem for artists and art enthusiasts that leverage the power of future blockchain and distributed computing technologies.

Equipped with big data, data science, and design thinking skill sets, he spearheaded the transformation journey of C2 Native, the leading data-driven communication agency in the MENA region. He recently joined ADPF as a Digital Transformation Architect to help in the change from traditional communication to a hi-tech, hyper-personalized, data-driven communication model that leverages technologies to provide the ultimate customer experience.

His futurist mindset and strong tech qualifications enabled Cumai to provide businesses in the private and government sectors with visionary guidance and leadership over more than 25 years.

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Halcyon Manton

Halcyon is an education consultant with a passion for enhancing the education system and equipping children with the skills they will need in the future to take on an ever-increasing technology-driven world. Halcyon is particularly focussed on how advancements in technology could be used to unlock the potential in every child.

With over 10 years’ experience in the education sector as a teacher, school governor and in management roles, Halcyon has a solid foundation of industry knowledge, working in leading schools in the UK and internationally. Halcyon’s impressive use of her initiative and drive outside of her career in the classroom saw her found her own company, Peggy Orange during the Covid pandemic - a service providing parents and carers with the confidence and tools to support their child’s early education and have an impact on what and how they are learning through interactive, play-based activities.

The success of the Peggy Orange encouraged Halcyon to evolve the business into one which gives her the opportunity to make a wider-reaching positive impact on educators and learners. Peggy Orange delivers bespoke consultancy services to businesses and organisations who want to improve the educational offering of their products and services. Halcyon also works with schools to support their digital and sustainability strategies to ensure what they deliver has an even greater impact on young learners, the change-makers of tomorrow.

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Himanshu Maradiya

Mr. Himanshu Maradiya is an accomplished business leader, blockchain visionary and an entrepreneur with a holistic industry experience of more than 25 years. He has worked with leading organizations in various domain like Real Estate, International Finance & Investment. A result oriented professional, he has contributed immensely to the growth of various self owned organizations through his strategic acumen and astute leadership qualities. His rich experience across industries gives him a sharp understanding of the macroeconomic environment and the ability to take sound business decisions quickly.

Mr. Maradiya holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from BVM Engineering College, S.P. University, Gujarat, and is an avid reader with a love for music. He is also a humanitarian, and volunteers his time to help those in need. These diverse interests make Mr. Maradiya an excellent candidate for any position that requires a well-rounded individual who can think outside the box.

Mr. Maradiya is a true visionary in the field of trading. He has worked diligently in multiple verticals, including Forex, commodities, international stocks and cryptocurrencies. He has also exhibited his passion for music by owning an entertainment company that curates music, movies and web series on blockchain via NFTs. He truly believes that blockchain technology has the potential to revolutionize the entertainment industry by providing a more secure and efficient way to distribute content.

In his quest to innovate and disrupt the traditional trading industry, Mr. Maradiya founded CIFDAQ - The Evolution of Innovative Blockchain Ecosystem, that is the first of its kind to host major trading verticals across the globe. With CIFDAQ, Mr. Maradiya aims to provide investors with a seamless investing experience unlike anything they have experienced before. Powered by blockchain technology, CIFDAQ will provide users with a secure and efficient way to trade a variety of assets. Mr. Maradiya's ultimate goal is to create 'One World. One citizen. One trading platform. Power to all''. By providing users with a single platform that offers a wide range of trading options, he hopes to make investing more accessible and convenient for everyone. With CIFDAQ, Mr. Maradiya is paving the way for a new era of trading.

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Pekka Kelkka

Pekka is a seasoned blockchain and cryptos professional. He has been on the scene full-time for 7 years. He got named on TOP 10 blockchain professionals in the Middle East

Pekka has had various roles in several blockchain and crypto projects from sales and business development to advisory and CEO. Blockchain and crypto projects such as

Supply chain
Decentralized data storage
Digital assets trading platform
Decentralized Finance (DeFi)
Property
NFT
Play to earn
Metaverse

He is also a public speaker and blockchain & cryptos evangelist educating people to understand the great future this disruptive technology will bring to the entire society

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Amna Usman Chaudhry

Amna has been selected as one of ‘The Top 100 Women of the Future’ due to her contribution in the Blockchain, Metaverse and Web 3.0 space. She is a judge for the competition “The Top 25 Women in Blockchain and Fintech.”

Amna been passionately involved in the blockchain space before it went mainstream and was a member of the first cohort of the Oxford Blockchain Strategy Program by the prestigious University of Oxford. She was a founding member of Blockclean in 2018, a blockchain project based in Slovenia aimed at reducing plastic pollution through tokenization. She is also a founding member of the Oxford Blockchain Foundation, a 190+ member organization spread across the globe.

Amna holds an MSc. in Financial Economics from the UK with economic research experience on a World Bank project which has equipped her with analytical, qualitative and quantitative research experience. She is a graduate level lecturer with teaching experience in London and Dubai.

Amna also holds a Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) diploma in Islamic Finance so she is well versed with how blockchain, metaverse and Web 3.0 can affect both fintech and Islamic fintech. Islamic Finance was a staggering $2.9 trillion industry in 2019, and Islamic Fintech has been growing rapidly ever since. She is also a strategist for an exciting upcoming Metaverse project related to Islamic Finance.

Amna is very interested in frontier technologies such as IoT, AI, robotics and especially blockchain, including cryptocurrency, DeFi, NFTs, Metaverse and Web 3.0. Being a creative, she experiments with AI generated art. She has also taken certifications on Google Cloud and is well versed with digital transformation. Amna is a keynote speaker and has spoken on podcasts and various blockchain, metaverse and Web 3.0 events such as at the iconic Museum of the Future in Dubai.

Amna is motivated to improve female representation, diversity and inclusion in the blockchain and Web 3.0 world. She is an advocate for diversity and inclusion. She always does her best to share her knowledge with others because education is the first step towards more adoption of Web 3.0 and thus a more inclusive and diverse future.

Amna is also Head of Research and Innovation at the AllStarsWomen NFT Club and DAO along with heading its UAE Chapter. This DAO is focused on bringing diversity and inclusion especially women empowerment to the forefront of Web 3.0.

According to the Gender Social Norms Index by the UNDP, a staggering 90% of men and women have a bias against women. These biases are usually subconscious and can show up in all aspects of women's lives. Amna shares these figures and other related facts regarding women representation often, via through LinkedIn, podcasts, speaking engagements or even simple discussions. We can only move forward when we consciously address these unfair biases against and work towards eliminating them.

Amna also believes education is the first step towards eliminating the tech barrier and encourage more people, particularly women into Web 3.0. She actively shares her knowledge on LinkedIn, events and speaking engagements to encourage more women to the Web 3.0 space.

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Christina Basias

At the core of Christina's work is the passion to creatively solve problems of inequity & improve access to empowering education. Christina began her education career as a high school English teacher in Brooklyn, ultimately leading her to find her passion for meaningful educational technology incorporation.

She most recently brought her research-informed perspectives to serve the New York City K-12 and Higher Education public education ecosystem for New York City leaders, teachers, and students.

Christina has a Ph.D. in Urban Education specializing in Technology and Pedagogy, where she researched roadblocks to teaching and learning regarding digital spaces and how partnerships across institutions can creatively solve problems together. As an educational technologist, intersectional feminist & advocate, Christina synergized her passions into Fempower Beauty, a new-age affirming beauty brand, with her partner Alexis.

As both a researcher and startup founder, Christina has been recently excited by the potential of web 3 and metaverse spaces, and regularly engages with builders and innovators across education and entrepreneurship. Additionally, she consults for education-centric venture funds fueled by her unique hybrid perspectives across education and entrepreneurship to guide investment decisions for up-and-coming startups.

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Francesco Vincenti

Francesco has been committed to education since his teenage years.

At 14 he started questioning the real value of his school program and that's where he started developing alternative ways of learning as a self-school simply navigating the web and enrolling in free courses of different kinds.

At 21 after dropping out of university he went all-in into working with the most advanced technologies like wearables, A.I and aerospace. Francesco has worked also at Scuole Naturali, the biggest network of outdoor educators in Italy, learning and creating from the best schools in the country that were developing a new education system based on practice, experience and attention to soft skills.

Francesco is now leading Business Development at Somnium Space, the most advanced VR Metaverse on the blockchain where anyone can create and monetize their digital creations and experiences in any field, such as gaming, art, fashion, industry and of course education. Here, he founded the Somnium Academy that helps to onboard schools in the Metaverse.

With his commitment for changing school from the bottom, he already started workshops in universities sharing with students the jobs of the future.

Education is the base of any society, and he's committed his life to make any children's dream work a reality.

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Vanessa Hirsch-Angus

Vanessa has 25 years experience of working in high growth, fast-paced environments with a focus on transformation, business development, People and Cultural change. I spent 17 years at AXA Global Health as Exec Leader before running my own business for 5 years and then moving to work with Private Equity (Carlyle Group) transforming one of their portfolio business from a UK centric business to a global player.

I joined Silja Litvin and PsycApps in May 2020 with the express desire to give something back to the world and to drive change in a positive way delivering Emotional and Mental health solutions to young people using gamification. We recently raised 1.7 million USD with Morningside VC and are focused on supporting the Education sector with digital access to mental health solutions.

I was delighted when Melissa asked if I would be interested in joining the Metaverse Council and working with you all because I passionately believe that young people both need and deserve access to the a whole host of cutting edge interventions delivering education in an entirely different way but that we must never forget that the stresses of the world they live in now needs the ultimate support infrastructure in a way that works for them and we can do that through a gamified and engaging way that means they will get the tools and support they need to be the best version of themselves.

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