Theme: Voyages

The RISE Center brings the TEDx experience here to the American University of Kuwait. TEDx is a curated half day-long, immersive live experience bringing speakers, artists and audience members together with the purpose of sharing perspective, sparking deep discussions and inspiring positive networks and impactful actions around ideas that matter.

The theme of TEDxAUK is Voyages; encompassing life’s adventures, both literally and figuratively, overcoming adversity, learning, personal growth, and self-actualization. We are seeking speakers who have found innovative ways to inspire learning and growth in others, whether in traditional educational settings or informal and alternative learning spaces. Our conference will bring together a uniquely diverse group of local and international speakers who will be a part of this conference to describe what Voyages mean to them.

Salwa Sabah Al-Ahmad Theater & Hall Kuwait City Kuwait
Salwa Sabah Al-Ahmad Theater & Hall Kuwait City Kuwait
Salwa Sabah Al-Ahmad Theater & Hall Kuwait City Kuwait
Kuwait, Ḩawallī, 10013
Kuwait

Ahmed El-Ghandour

Founder & Producer of "Da7ee7" Science Show

Ahmed El-Ghandour hosts the biggest science show in the Middle East, El-Da7ee7, with over 120 episodes reaching over 150,000,000+ million views. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Biology from the American University in Cairo, and a Master’s Degree in Education from the University of Hong Kong.

Ali Khalil Husain

Founder of Husaak Adventures

Ali Khalil Husain is trained to be a petroleum engineer but was born to be an explorer. Ali lived in different parts of the world, mainly around salty water and rugged majestic mountains. Along the way, he spent 11 years working in the energy exploration business for BP in Alaska and the Arctic before coming back to the Arabian Peninsula to continue the exploration work for BP in off-shore Abu Dhabi and Oman. In 2016, Ali decided to leave the oil industry and his prestigious job as a Petroleum Engineering Manager for the world’s 5th largest oil field to focus on the adventure business he started—Husaak Adventures. Since the start of Husaak in 2013, Ali has been working diligently in utilizing the company to introduce adventure to the GCC region. On the business front, Husaak significantly grew from a small adventure shop in a garage to 5 different adventure centers and offices across Oman, Kuwait, and Abu Dhabi.

Helen Woodward

Co-founder of Rebuilding Schools Nepal

Helen Woodward is a respected and sought-after coach, consultant, and facilitator both in the UK and internationally. She has held lead roles in national, regional, and local government schools and colleges. She has designed and facilitated coaching and leadership programs for the University of Manchester and served as a magistrate in Greater Manchester. Building authentic relationships and leading with courage and compassion lies at the heart of her practice. Helen is skilled at facilitating teams to explore leadership dilemmas, creating opportunities, and effectively managing challenging issues in the context of changing priorities. Helen currently works with school senior leadership teams in the UK, and British International Schools in Asia and Eastern Europe. Helen is a licensed yoga teacher and co-founder of Rebuilding Schools Nepal, supporting the sustainable education of a school in the remote Himalayan mid-hills in Nepal.

Jeff Noel

Retired Disney and Disney Institute Keynote Speaker

Jeff Noel is a 30-year Disney Leadership veteran, 2-time Disney Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, a published author, and highly-sought business advisor. As one of Disney’s top leaders, Jeff was invited to become part of Disney Institute’s team of professional development keynote speakers and spent his last 15 years with the Company at Disney Institute, developing business strategies and systems that teach the world’s Fortune 500 companies how Disney runs its business, touching on the five key operational areas that drive success for any company, based on his 30 years with The Walt Disney Company. Jeff has facilitated Disney’s secrets to every level employee, in every industry; earned the title of Disney Institute’s highest rated, and most requested keynote speaker; and after retiring from Disney in 2014, started his own enterprise, Jungle Jeff, focusing on helping companies, like yours, navigate and achieve business excellence.

Layan Al-Dabt

Programs Coordinator at en.v & Co-founder of Hikayitna

Layan Al Dabt is an alumna of the American University of Kuwait’s class of 2017 with a BA in International Relations and a minor in English Literature. Inspired by her passion for social justice, she joined en.v—a non-profit organization dedicated to fostering social development and civic engagement in the Middle East. As a programs coordinator, her role at en.v includes project design and management, development and execution of workshops, proposal writing, in addition to outreach to educational communities. She is also a co-founder of Hikayitna, a Palestinian oral history initiative that offers a platform to Palestinian tales and storytellers in an effort to build a bridge between those displaced and those who remained in the land.

Melody Mitchell

Air Force Officer & Founder of Lean In Kuwait

Melody Mitchell is an active duty officer with over 19 years in the United States Air Force. She received her Master’s degree in National Security Affairs, Middle Eastern Studies from Naval Postgraduate School and her Bachelor’s degree in Economics from UCLA. As a federal agent and Middle Eastern Specialist, she led several investigative units and spent most of her career in the Middle East via multiple deployments. Melody moved to Kuwait in June 2014 and works for the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait as a Foreign Military Sales Coordinator. She founded Lean In Kuwait and is an officially recognized Regional Leader with the creation of many peer-support groups to empower women.

Mike Raymond

Cave Explorer & Software Engineer

Michael Raymond is the diving officer for the U.S. National Cave Rescue Commission. It trains cavers to assist civilian authorities in rescuing hurt or trapped cavers. He is a lifetime member of the U.S. National Speleological Society and its Cave Diving Section, and a member of the Cave Research Foundation. He lives in Minnesota, USA. He works as a software engineer for Hewlett Packard Enterprise where he designs supercomputers and has several patents in the field of high-performance computing. Michael is also an officer in the U.S. Army National Guard where he works with field artillery. He has been deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kuwait. He enjoys traveling and has been to thirty-five countries.

Naif Al-Mutawa

Serial Entrepreneur, clinical Psychologist, & Founder of The Soor Center for Professional Therapy & Assessment

Dr. Naif Al-Mutawa is an award-winning serial entrepreneur, and founder of The Soor Center, a psychological clinic in Kuwait City. A licensed psychologist in the State of New York, Dubai, Qatar and Kuwait, he is certified by the National Guild of Hypnotists. He is a member of the American Psychological Association, Kuwait's Supreme Education Council, and the Kuwait SME Fund Investment Committee. He is an Approved Albert Ellis Institute RE & CBT Supervisor. He is a member of the academic staff at Kuwait University’s Faculty of Medicine, where he teaches clinical psychology, communication skills and cognitive behavioral therapy. He has a PhD and Master’s in Clinical Psychology from Long Island University. He also holds a Master’s in Organizational Psychology, an MBA, and a certification in conflict resolution from Columbia University.

Omar Khalil

Game Developer & Artist

Omar Khalil is a senior student at AUK majoring in Computer Science. Growing up, he always loved to experiment with crafting narratives and telling stories through various art mediums. He did this by writing short stories, drawing animations, and coding and designing apps and video games. Omar has found great fascination in his ability to interpret abstract thoughts and convert them into concrete logic, which is why he is pursuing a career in game development where he could mix the arts with programming to create meaningful and creative interactive experiences. Some of Omar's latest achievements include winning first place in the latest national Microsoft Imagine Cup by building an artistic app that later became featured by TechCrunch, and qualifying as a global finalist in the NASA Space Apps Challenge after leading the winning team in the national hackathon.

Omar Nour

Retired Professional Triathlete & Survivor

Omar Nour is the first Egyptian professional triathlete in history, representing his country at the Olympic triathlon circuit from 2010-2017. In 2017, Nour announced that he would row across the Atlantic Ocean with teammate Omar Samra (a mountaineer and polar adventurer). ‘Team O2’ set off on the grueling, unsupported 3,000 nautical mile crossing, dubbed ‘The World’s Toughest Row’. After 9 days of rowing, Team O2’s boat capsized and failed to self-right 1,000 km off the coast of Africa in Great White Shark hunting territory. The next 12 hours turned into a survival story of epic proportions. The story of their Atlantic crossing attempt and fight for survival has been told in ‘Beyond the Raging Sea’—a documentary by the director Marco Antonio Orsini. The documentary also raises awareness of the plight of many refugees forced to cross bodies of water in a desperate bid for safe refuge. The film was featured in the 71st Cannes Film Festival and will make its global release in 2019.