Dr. Nada Jammoul Messaikeh is the co-founder and Managing Director of Impactiv, and an adjunct faculty at Alliance Manchester Business School. She is the former Associate Vice Provost for Research Administration and Financial Planning at New York University Abu Dhabi where she played an instrumental role in building the research infrastructure and negotiated and secured funding to support the expansion of the academic and research programs. In her previous roles, Nada served as a Finance and Administration Director at Abu Dhabi Education Council, Paris Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi, and Abu Dhabi University, and senior audit Manager at Deloitte and Ernst & Young M.E. She is as a member of the Select Committee on Global Affairs at the National Council of University Research Administrators (NCURA) and a contributing editor of the NCURA magazine. She has published numerous articles advocating the importance of academic research in the MENA region. Reem Younis holds a Master's in Biotechnology Management and her 12 years of experience span the higher education, government, and healthcare sectors in the US and the Middle East. Reem is a grants manager by training, who set up two research offices in the Middle East. Her current role is as a senior specialist at the United Arab Emirates Ministry of Education’s Department of Science, Technology & Scientific Research.