From MIT Bootcamper to WEF Global Shaper
By Sally Coldrick and Rachel Hentsch
Izzat Fathallah is a Bootcamper close to our hearts. We spent an intense and fun week with him in Seoul in March this year and he is a fellow member of our startup. Izzat lives in Lebanon. As well as being an MIT Global Entrepreneurship Bootcamper Alumnus, he recently attended the WEF Annual Meeting of the New Champions in China. Izzat bravely agreed to let the MITSisters interview him so that we could tell the world more about his fascinating role as a Global Shaper at The World Economic Forum.
Izzat, let’s start with something light.
Q: What is your favourite Lebanese comfort meal? Your go-to food when you just want to share it with family and friends, fully nourishing, that makes you feel content?
It’s the Lebanese mezza for sure (it’s actually more than a meal). It’s a selection of small dishes such as tabbouleh, fattoush, hummus, moutabal, kebbeh… and accompanied with Lebanese BBQ, it is a perfect meal with family and friends.
Q: Are you a morning person or night owl?
More of a morning person. Since childhood I have woken up early, I make some in-house trouble and wake everyone up. I usually rise up early, at 5am, and go to sleep early.
Q: How many people in your family? Have you always lived in Lebanon? Do you have a hobby?
Besides my lovely, hardworking parents (Wafic and Nada), I have an elder brother (Hadi) and a younger sister (Lynn). I’m the middle-man at home! I was born and raised in Beirut, Lebanon, yet was always open to the outside world. During years at the American University of Beirut, I had the opportunity to intern within the Airbus Group in Paris, and have participated in seminars and forums abroad. Just before the WEF in China I was at the “Family Gathering” — the MIT Global Entrepreneurship Bootcamp in Seoul, South Korea.
One of the hobbies I’d like to master in the future is cooking! Maybe at a later stage become a Chef.
Now for your WEF story.
Q: Have you attended WEF before?
It’s my first WEF event, actually. I’m part of the Global Shapers Community, an initiative of the World Economic forum, and a global network of local communities developed and led by young leaders who want to develop their leadership potential towards serving society and improving the State of the World. The aim also is to bring the voice of youth to the WEF and have Shapers sit at the table with leaders in dialogue to shape the future of this world in a way that reflect the needs of the current generation.
The WEF hosts several meetings each year. The Annual Meeting of the New Champions convenes in China and focuses on science, technology and business innovation. I’ve been selected as one of 60 Global Shapers to represent the Global Shapers Community at this important gathering in Tianjin, China.
I got to see firsthand great technological shifts whilst taking a glimpse of how the Fourth Industrial Revolution is changing our world, the power of single innovations and how they can have impact on the entire global structures. It was fascinating seeing the speed, scale and complexity of our interconnected world and how best to manage it.
At the WEF Annual Meeting I’ve had the opportunity to lead and facilitate a session within the Innovator Hub on Sustainability on the recycling challenge. It was great interacting and sharing insights with different stakeholders on that subject matter as well developing synergies to best tackle the problem.
Q: What is the uptake of Uber and AirBnb and similar Sharing Economy businesses like in Lebanon? We understand there was a very strong Sharing Economy focus. What shifts do they predict in this space? Beyond sharing cars, homes, machinery?
Like in any country, Lebanon has been introduced to the disrupting effect of Uber and Airbnb. Industries such as transport and hospitality are being disrupted primarily from the sharing economy in addition to all the political risk.
Multiple policy workshops were conducted at the WEF and one of which I attended was on the Sharing Economy featuring Travis Kalvanick (CEO of Uber), Peter Smith (CEO of Blockchain), Varsha Rao (Head Global Operations at Airbnb), Professor Arun Sundarajan (Professor at NYU’s Stern School of Business and a recognized authority on the sharing economy) amongst others. The aim of the session was to see how the transformation of the “economy” is enabled through the sharing economy that is leading the shifts in Technology, Business Models and Financing.
Panelists talked about entrepreneurial economy and the importance of bringing internet to old industries. Stress was on how startups/companies are helping people to monetize any asset they have and how they are unleashing entrepreneurship in people. A panelist spoke about Crowd-Based Capitalism and shift in the Employment Model. Others talked about the wisdom of people in the 4th industrial revolution when the stress is on not consuming resources. There was also a focus on the human relationships, sharing across generations, and importance of Trust in the “Sharing Economy”. The Sharing Economy was described as a little tree, and how this tree will grow we still don’t know.
Q: Did you come across any new companies that are true disrupters? Which ones & what industries are they shaking up?
Many disruptions and innovations are coming from different ways. Much is coming up from technology pioneers and innovators such AeroMobil, a flying car manufacturer, Plant-e, a company that uses electrodes to harvest electricity from live plants and Ecofiltro, a water filtration technology that solves the growing water crisis in developing countries. The list is long.
Q: Tell us about the BrainHub? What problem was it designed to solve?
The Brain Hub! Lots of fascinating things were happening there. The Brain Hub is dedicated to neurobiology, neuro-technology, brain health and neuro-ethics. With the brain made up of 86 billion neurons, forming a network of 100 trillion connections, a visit to this Hub was a must to put them in action! Conversations on the latest knowledge on mapping the brain and latest research on developing the adolescent brain were conducted. What was more intriguing is The Work in Progress Exhibition within the Brain Hub that explored the technological advances of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and reflects on humankind’s relationship with technology.
I had the opportunity to test a brain-computer interface to move a ball with my mind, by just thinking that I’m moving that ball. And voilà, in seconds the ball starts moving and rolling!
Q: Without naming names, can you share the stories of a few people you met, where they were from and what drove them to become Global Shapers?
Shapers came all over from Palestine, Canada, Switzerland, Egypt, India, Luxembourg, Kenya, Australia, Russia, Ghana, Argentina, Bangladesh, Nepal, Oman, Belgium and many different cities in China.
A Shaper from Egypt was working on an online marketplace for on-demand home-cooked food, enabling home-based women to start their own businesses, while another Shaper from the investment industry was working on an advisory with environmentally-focused non-profits and foundations on sustainable finance and impact investing.
If you want to learn more about Izzat’s experiences at the MIT Global Entrepreneurship Bootcamp in South Korea, you can have a read of our MIT Bootcamp 3 part series.
