Abdelhameed Sharara, is the CEO and cofounder of RiseUp; the Middle East and Africa’s top startup platform organising the famous RiseUp Summit with more than 5000 attendees from 52 countries every year. The company was awarded the top MENA ecosystem enabler in 2017 by Silicon Valley’s TechWadi as a result of connecting thousands of startups in the region to resources and helping promote entrepreneurial culture. Before founding RiseUp with his co-founders and the whole startup community at the GrEEK Campus in November 2013, Abdelhameed worked at Injaz-Egypt where he helped in creating the first startups’ pipeline in all Junior Achievement countries worldwide. Sharara taught English and soft skills to more than 7000 Egyptian youth and young professionals at Dale Carnegie Global, Berlitz and many universities in Egypt and MENA. He is also part of the ‘young global shapers’ community, initiated by the world economic forum, which is a network of young people who are exceptional in their potential. He also serves on the board of multiple organisations supporting entrepreneurship and innovation and Egypt and MENA, which includes TIEC (Egyptian government technology, innovation and entrepreneurship center) The American Chamber of Commerce and Edventures; Nahdet Misr Publishing Group education incubator.
His efforts were acknowledged in more than 300 local and international media outlets such as Techcrunch, Forbes, Wall Street Journal and The Economist. He was also selected as Egypt’s top influencer due to the RiseUp Summit 2015’s impact on the regional ecosystem. Top 100 Arab Pioneers by UAE Prime Minister's World Government Summit,Top 100 African Influencers by MIPAD magazine and the International Visitors Leadership Program by U.S State Dept"