LebNet San Diego held its year end event on December 14th featuring Dr. Nadine Hachach-Haram, CEO of Proximie, in a fireside chat with UC San Diego Professor Shadi Dayeh. The event drew 60 attendees from the community who hailed to hear Nadine speak about her journey.  

Nadine impressed everyone with her fluency in emerging medical technologies along with her business acumen, leadership traits and genuine concern to revolutionize access to better healthcare! When asked about the conception of Proximie, Nadine revealed that “5 Billion people lacked access to safe surgery resulting in up to 18 million deaths each year. There is no bigger purpose than this to try and create a solution.”  She highlighted three successful entrepreneurs traits -  “Tenacity, courage and humility” - and added “you are only as good as the impact that you have; what drives me is the ability to touch people and change their lives.”  Her advice to the youth in tech is “to do what you love, and bridge engineering with social impact.” 

You can watch the entire riveting chat in the video below: 

During the event, George Akiki, President of LebNet, presented Nadine with the 2022 Bireme Award for Entrepreneur of the Year. This award recognizes the leader of a startup that has reached a major milestone and put the company on the radar screen of the US and global investor community. “The LebNet awards are presented to inspiring individuals who have made an impact on society and no one embodies that more than Dr. Nadine whose humility is matched only by her accomplishments,” highlighted George Akiki.

LebNet warmly congratulates Nadine and wishes for the continued success of Proximie. Proximie is a best-in-class innovative life science company that is positively impacting human health, improving equitable and global healthcare access, and saving lives. Nadine is an inspiration and a role model to all entrepreneurs, especially in our LebNet community!  

(From left to right: Jeanine Akiki, LebNet Executive Director, George Akiki, LebNet President, Nadine Hachach-Haram and Shadi Dayeh)

To view all photos, click here. 

As part of its traditional end of year celebration, the Bay Area community hosted a dinner attended by 50 members and friends. 

Hosted at Tannourine restaurant on December 7th, the evening featured a thank you talk by George Akiki, LebNet President, who recognized the leadership of former Chairman of the Board, Abdo George Kadifa, and the past contributions of all the former board members Habib Kairouz, Najib Khouri-Haddad, Raymond Lahoud, Fares Moubarak, and Frederick Wardini. 

Akiki also announced and welcomed LebNet’s new Chairman, Habib Haddad, Managing Director at E14 Fund, and the incoming new board members Nadine Alameh, CEO at Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC); Hala Jalwan, Senior Product Manager at Apple; Walid Khoury, Founder and CEO at Marc Media; Rania Afiouni Monla, PhD Candidate - Research on AI and the Changing Nature of Work; Aya Mouallem (Student Observer), Electrical Engineering PHD Student at Stanford University, Co-founder of All Girls Code; Layal Rouhana, Advanced Integrated Circuit Packaging Technologist at Google; and Marianne Zakhour,  Co-Founder & Co-CEO at Orderbot Software Inc.

Jeanine Akiki, Executive Director of LebNet, shared with the attendees the LebNet 2022 Bireme award recipients and a summary of LebNet’s 2022 accomplishments.

Co-founder and CEO Arthur Bizidikian shared updates about his company, Lemonade Fashion, winner of the 2019 LebNet Ignite program. 

LebNet Bay Area wishes all its members and friends Happy Holidays!!

On December 7th, the LebNet Boston community hosted a meetup in the MIT Media Lab to recognize Fadel Adib, LebNet's 2022 Bireme Award recipient for Technologist of the Year.  The event also featured a special tour of the MIT Media Lab, followed by a cozy dinner.

Fadel is an Associate Professor at MIT and Founder of Cartesian Systems. He is one of the youngest professors to get tenure at MIT. Fadel's groundbreaking work centers around new technologies to interconnect, sense, and perceive the physical world in ways that were not possible before. Before becoming a professor, his PHD thesis on seeing through walls led to a startup, Emerald Innovations, whose devices are used for remote health monitoring of thousands of patients.  

“It’s heartwarming to be recognized by my own community. I’m grateful to the LebNet members who came to the event, and very happy I got to show them first-hand our inventions at MIT!" commented Fadel.  "The event went on for 1.5 hours over time. It was a big success, celebrating Fadel’s accomplishments and energizing for the people in the Boston LebNet community!" said Habib Haddad, Managing Partner at E14 Fund and LebNet's newly elected Chairman.

Fadel is an inspiration to our LebNet organization, particularly our Early In Career and student communities. Congratulations Fadel Adib!!

On November 30th, the LebNet Toronto community hosted a webinar titled ‘The Web Journey to Web 3.0’. 

Panelists Marleine Saliba Delaurier, Director at BMO Wealth Management, Chadi Habib, Chief Technology Officer and Head of Business Solutions at WSP, Jamil Mina, Chief Architect at Red Hat and Fadwa Mohanna, CEO at One37 ID discussed the journey of the web from infancy to the emergence of Web 3.0.  This webinar explored the co-existence of Web 2.0 and 3.0, the promise of Web 3.0 and its implication on data ownership, data sharing, privacy, security and trust and its impacts on organizational and societal level. The panel was moderated by Fram Akiki, President at Joun Technologies. 

“Thank you for all the interactions and valuable input and for having us. It is definitely worth a follow-up,” said Mohanna.  “It was fun and informative” added Mina, “Thanks for the great exchange everyone” , commented Habib and “I’m very grateful to be part of this team,” concluded Saliba. 

If you missed the webinar, you can watch it on our YouTube channel by clicking on the below link:

On November 3rd, the LebNet Montreal community hosted an evening of networking to discuss the digital skill gaps and the future of work in the tech industry. The community invited special guests Steve Harvey, Chief Learning Officer at SuccessFinder and Zouheir Mansourati, CTO at Cogeco Communications to weigh in on the subject and share their expertise with a crowd of around 40 people. 

The discussion covered the future of teamwork and collaboration, the investment in upskilling and reskilling the workforce, the adaptability of employees, and turnover challenges. 

“A panel I particularly enjoyed where I had the chance to discuss the future of work and the changing skills with two brilliant minds. Thank you Zouheir Mansourati and Steve Harvey CLO for the gems you shared with us and for engaging beautifully with the audience,” said Rania Afiouni Monla, researcher in job transformation with AI - PhD candidate at McGill University, who moderated the discussion. “Last but certainly not least, thank you IBM for hosting and LebNet for a flawless organization.” 

“It was a pleasure participating in this conversation, and gaining insights from everyone,” added Steve Harvey. 

Participants were equally eager to take part in this event, which marked the first in-person event for the community since the pandemic, and excited to finally meet in person and connect with the community. 

“It was a very interesting session. The panelists brought important insights to the Future of Work, and many interactions with the attendees. Looking forward to your next event,” said Bassem Monla, Practice Leader & AI - Analytics Subject Matter Expert at LGS, an IBM Company. 

“I was happy to attend the panel discussion on ‘the future of work and skills’ which discussed important topics with tremendous value and gave insightful ideas! As well as, an encouragement to invite us to hone our skills over the years & sooner than later, to catch-up with rapidly moving technologies & robotics,” said Lama El-Kouche, Wealth Associate at RBC Dominion Securities. 

We look forward to upcoming events and activities for the community for 2023 so stay tuned to not miss a thing. 

On October 27th, the LebNet Mid Atlantic/DC community hosted its first event. The goal of this activity was to introduce the new steering committee members, meet the community and offer them the chance to mingle and form new connections. (Scroll down for photos)

The evening drew 84 participants from different backgrounds and industries, technology, engineering, health care and more. Thanks to the outdoor patio at Wilson Hardware and the positive vibes, the event was a success. “The vibe was chill and positive and people mingled freely. Several people asked me about upcoming events and fundraisers and some had an interest in mentoring, internships and joining the steering committee,” said Wissam Yafi, founder at TIDWIT and steering committee member. 

“It was a great Event. Positive vibes only. A lot of people asked how they can help the community in future events and Wissam did a great brief explaining LebNet and keeping the audience all ears at all times,” added Jean Claude Dagher, Sales Engineer at FTC & Founder at Munkimedia and steering committee member. 

Special thanks to Wilson Hardware for the beautiful and cozy venue and to Munkimedia for the check-in support. We are also very grateful to our new LebNet Mid Atlantic Leadership team for launching this event and community!  Great things are yet to come!

Excited crowds joined LebNet Pacific Northwest’s first community gathering on October 20th for the chance to meet other fellow Lebanese professionals in the area, network and get a closer look at what plans the community’s steering committee has in place. 

The evening also featured an inspiring talk given by Wissam Tabbara, founder and CEO at Truebase, a B2B sales intelligence platform. Tabbara shared his entrepreneurship journey with an audience of 30 people, explaining how he built and grew three businesses from the ground up and made them successful. 

"What a way to kick off the LebNet PNW community! I want to thank the committee for putting this event together, Wissam Tabbara for sharing his story, and all the attendees for the rich conversations. It was a pleasure to meet all of you and I cannot wait to see you in our future events and collaborate with you on initiatives to support our members,” said Omar Kahil, LebNet PNW Steering Committee Member and Senior Product Manager at Amazon. 

The goal of this newly formed PNW community is to grow the network, create a platform for individuals to share their knowledge and expertise, give back to others and celebrate being Lebanese. This is the first of many events lined up so if you’re living in the area and interested in being part of this growing and vibrant community, or if you’re interested in helping support its mission, connect with us by visiting this page. 

On August 25th, around 40 people gathered outside at the cozy Fieldworking Brewing venue for a vibrant networking session with other fellow Lebanese living in the area. 

The event was organized by the Bay Area steering committee and was very well received and a much needed get-together. 

“Yesterday’s Bay Area Happy Hour event was a refreshing change after COVID-19. I can’t tell you how proud it made us feel that this new generation is energized and self-motivated. As early founders,we were looking at each other feeling reassured that our 23-year old LebNet is in good hands,” said George Akiki, LebNet president. 

This is one of many Bay Area events that the community is planning for its members so if you’re a member of a Lebanese tech professional living in the Bay area or in neighboring areas, do not hesitate to subscribe to LebNet to stay updated about any upcoming events! 

On August 18th, the LebNet New York community ended its three summer community huddle series. The goal of these huddles was to grow the community in New York and neighboring areas, enable partnerships and collaborate on future plans and activities.

Hosted at Vig Bar, the August 18 huddle attracted around 35 participants and many new faces. Although this is the last huddle for this summer, the community has plans for other types of events. If you’re interested in joining their community and receiving their upcoming events, please send an email to [email protected]

On August 8th, the LebNet Arizona community hosted a Dine & Network event at Mijana Lebanese restaurant.

Members and friends living in the area joined for a fun casual dinner to meet the community. Discussions around women in tech and plans for growing the community got everyone very excited and energized.

Drawing from the success of this event, the community is planning another one in the fall with a different format and a much larger group so stay tuned!