#23 Let's talk about health and wellness with Dubai government advisor Cedric Betis

We talk to Cedric Betis, an athlete and wellness expert who works with Ministers from the Dubai government and CEOs from the private sector to help them achieve their health and wellness vision for themselves, their companies and their city.
We discuss how COVID has changed the dynamics in terms of wellness on a corporate level and why it is no longer a -nice to have- a wellness program and why the role of -Chief Wellness Officer- would become ubiquitous.
Cedric offers tips to companies, individuals and parents who are looking to achieve their health - wellness goals and how to make these goals sustainable.
PS: please excuse the glitch in the sound in the last 10 minutes as my microphone was accidentally disconnected!
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E22: Noor Sweid on Venture Capital and Startups Exits in MENA

We talk to Noor Sweid, the General Partner at Global Ventures about building a top tier Venture Capital firm in the Middle East - North Africa region. We cover her recent startup exits with e-commerce startup Mumzworld that has undergone an M-A transaction and Kitopi, a cloud kitchen startup that has recently raised $415M via Softbank-s Vision Fund. We discuss fund return expectations in MENA and we wrap up by touching on Noor-s own journey as an entrepreneur and investor.
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Noor Sweid on Venture Capital and Startups Exits in MENA

We talk to Noor Sweid, the General Partner at Global Ventures about building a top tier Venture Capital firm in the Middle East - North Africa region. We cover her recent startup exits with e-commerce startup Mumzworld that has undergone an M-A transaction and Kitopi, a cloud kitchen startup that has recently raised $415M via Softbank-s Vision Fund. We discuss fund return expectations in MENA and we wrap up by touching on Noor-s own journey as an entrepreneur and investor.
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E21: Facebook's Ramez Shehadi on the digital economy, entrepreneurship and impact

Ramez Shehadi is the Managing Director of Facebook for the MENA region. In 2020, Ramez was ranked among the top 20 of the -Top 50 Regional Executives Heading International Companies- by Forbes. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Aramex, the Board of Trustees of BeMA (Beirut Museum of Art), the Board of Directors of MMA (Mobile Marketing Association) and is a Fellow of the Aspen Institute-s Middle East Leadership Initiative and the Aspen Global Leadership Network to name a few. What is striking about Ramez though is not his accolades, it is his humility. In this episode Ramez speaks openly about the differences between his lifelong consulting career and his leadership role at Facebook. He shares some of the hard lessons he had to learn along the way. Ramez talks about a stronger and more prosperous MENA region and why he has faith in the region and its capabilities. We talk about Ramez-s own experience as an entrepreneur and the outcome of the startup he co-founded. He continues to love and give back to the startup space by mentoring and personally investing in startups via R-R Ventures, a boutique VC he co-founded. We chat about the skills of the future and what advice he is currently giving his daughters who are transitioning from high school to university. We conclude with a recommendation for governments that are currently launching funds to invest in local startups and SMEs. This conversation is a peak into Ramez-s mind and would certainly leave you more optimistic about the future. For more on Ramez and his work, please check out his biography. If you-re enjoying this podcast, please subscribe, share and leave us a review!
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Facebook's Ramez Shehadi on the digital economy, entrepreneurship and impact

Ramez Shehadi is the Managing Director of Facebook for the MENA region. In 2020, Ramez was ranked among the top 20 of the -Top 50 Regional Executives Heading International Companies- by Forbes. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Aramex, the Board of Trustees of BeMA (Beirut Museum of Art), the Board of Directors of MMA (Mobile Marketing Association) and is a Fellow of the Aspen Institute-s Middle East Leadership Initiative and the Aspen Global Leadership Network to name a few. What is striking about Ramez though is not his accolades, it is his humility. In this episode Ramez speaks openly about the differences between his lifelong consulting career and his leadership role at Facebook. He shares some of the hard lessons he had to learn along the way. Ramez talks about a stronger and more prosperous MENA region and why he has faith in the region and its capabilities. We talk about Ramez-s own experience as an entrepreneur and the outcome of the startup he co-founded. He continues to love and give back to the startup space by mentoring and personally investing in startups via R-R Ventures, a boutique VC he co-founded. We chat about the skills of the future and what advice he is currently giving his daughters who are transitioning from high school to university. We conclude with a recommendation for governments that are currently launching funds to invest in local startups and SMEs. This conversation is a peak into Ramez-s mind and would certainly leave you more optimistic about the future. For more on Ramez and his work, please check out his biography. If you-re enjoying this podcast, please subscribe, share and leave us a review!
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E20: Crypto currencies, asset-backed tokens and building a MENA crypto exchange

As the topic -cryptocurrency- reaches its highest level on google trends globally, we decide to dig into this world in order to understand what it all means to us as individuals and potential investors. We-ve all seen the news and watched Elon Musk drive cryptocurrencies and particularly Bitcoin to its highest peak and then sent it back crashing. But is it all Elon? What else is at play? Are cryptocurrencies and their underlying technology the blockchain here to stay? Will they indeed fundamentally change the way we own assets and transact? We tackle these points and bring a MENA perspective as we chat with Daniel Ahmed, the co-founder of Fasset, a newly launched (but a couple of years in the making) emerging markets -Digital Asset Gateway- which offers a cryptocurrency exchange service and tokenization services for corporates/ governments with an emphasis on sustainability. We discuss cryptocurrencies, MENA trends, regulation, crypto cycles and his advise for first time crypto investors. To learn more about Fasset visit their website: https://www.fasset.com If you like this content, please subscribe to Conversations with Loulou on Youtube, it helps increase the reach and visibility and helps me as a content creator. For sponsorships, guest recommendations, feedback and other requests, you can connect with me here: https://conversationswithloulou.com/contact/
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Crypto currencies, asset-backed tokens and building a MENA crypto exchange

As the topic -cryptocurrency- reaches its highest level on google trends globally, we decide to dig into this world in order to understand what it all means to us as individuals and potential investors. We-ve all seen the news and watched Elon Musk drive cryptocurrencies and particularly Bitcoin to its highest peak and then sent it back crashing. But is it all Elon? What else is at play? Are cryptocurrencies and their underlying technology the blockchain here to stay? Will they indeed fundamentally change the way we own assets and transact? We tackle these points and bring a MENA perspective as we chat with Daniel Ahmed, the co-founder of Fasset, a newly launched (but a couple of years in the making) emerging markets -Digital Asset Gateway- which offers a cryptocurrency exchange service and tokenization services for corporates/ governments with an emphasis on sustainability. We discuss cryptocurrencies, MENA trends, regulation, crypto cycles and his advise for first time crypto investors. To learn more about Fasset visit their website: https://www.fasset.com If you like this content, please subscribe to Conversations with Loulou on Youtube, it helps increase the reach and visibility and helps me as a content creator. For sponsorships, guest recommendations, feedback and other requests, you can connect with me here: https://conversationswithloulou.com/contact/
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E19: Kristel Bechara on embracing NFTs & crypto currencies

This inaugural episode for season 2 delves into the world of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) and gives you a high-level overview of their use cases. We talk to Kristel Bechara, the award-winning Lebanese artist residing in Dubai about her experience being the first artist from the MENA region to mint and sell NFTs. Why do you need to know about NFTs? Because the underlying technology of NFTs could become ubiquitous sooner than you think and ultimately everything that we own could be made into and traded as an NFT.
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Kristel Bechara on embracing NFTs & crypto currencies

This inaugural episode for season 2 delves into the world of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) and gives you a high-level overview of their use cases. We talk to Kristel Bechara, the award-winning Lebanese artist residing in Dubai about her experience being the first artist from the MENA region to mint and sell NFTs. Why do you need to know about NFTs? Because the underlying technology of NFTs could become ubiquitous sooner than you think and ultimately everything that we own could be made into and traded as an NFT.
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E18: Brahms Chouity a.k.a Daddy Foody on becoming an accidental award winning food blogger

Brahms Chouity known by his Instagram handle @DaddyFoody is the winner of the Best Comfort Food Blogger at the World Bloggers Award for 2019. In this episode we discuss Brahm-s passion for conceptualising and identifying business opportunities with the goal to exit in a few years and how he managed to launch close to 30 startups in 2 decades. Whilst he was hard at work churning one business after the other and just before he turns 40, life throws Brahms a curveball that would change his perspective forever. Out of that experience, Daddy Foody was born. Tune in to listen to Brahms- story and find out about his plans for the future!
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