ACIE Global Accelerator is the first Lebanese online accelerator program initiated at USEK with American affiliations. It supports student entrepreneurs from various universities and provides them with hope and opportunities during these dire and challenging times. The program is built around:
- 8-week online intensive trainings, workshops and mentoring sessions
- Fast-tracking the development and growth of early-stage ideas to market
- Global strong affiliations mostly with the USA through connections with high-level experts, corporates, academic institutions and entrepreneurial ecosystems in various cities
This intercollegiate program is equity-free, sector agnostic and limited to 15 of the brightest teams.
ACIE Global Accelerator is the first Lebanese online accelerator program initiated at USEK with American affiliations. It supports student entrepreneurs from various universities and provides them with hope and opportunities during these dire and challenging times. The program is built around:
- 8-week online intensive trainings, workshops and mentoring sessions
- Fast-tracking the development and growth of early-stage ideas to market
- Global strong affiliations mostly with the USA through connections with high-level experts, corporates, academic institutions and entrepreneurial ecosystems in various cities
This intercollegiate program is equity-free, sector agnostic and limited to 15 of the brightest teams.






Program Schedule
Event | Date |
---|---|
Application Deadline | June 25, 2020 |
Accelerator Start | July 1, 2020 |
Foundations | Week 1 |
Marketing Fundamentals | Week 2 |
Organic Marketing | Week 3 |
Sales & Biz dev | Week 4 |
Product development | Week 5 |
Finances, Legal & Team management | Week 6 |
Monetization & fundraising | Week 7 |
Pitch preparation | Week 8 |
End of Program/Pitch Day | August 24, 2020 |
Meet our Team
Anthony J. Asher began his career working at a title agency while Read More
Nagi is the founder of Scandi, an unique communication platform created Read More
Prior to that he was the acting CMO at Tango, a unicorn and world’s largest video calling app. Before moving to the US, Nagi was the CMO at N2V, one of the largest tech investment group in the Middle East, the first regional marketing executive at Google handling 32 countries, and a regional brand manager at Procter and Gamble.
Nagi holds a BE in electrical engineering from AUB with emphasis in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon University, an MBA from Michael Smurfit business school in Ireland, and marketing executive education from Harvard.
Gérard Bridi is an executive with over 38 years of experienceRead More
At his last venture, Gérard created a digital nutritional platform where an ecosystem of stakeholders from different industries ( payers, employers, consumer goods, growers, associations, not for profits…) came together to help consumers become more aware of food purchases quality and their impact on health outcomes.
Gérard has served on board of directors of various groups including Group purchase organizations, Trade associations and is currently an adviser to start ups.
Gérard holds a Master of Science from the University of Montpellier (France)
Gérard lives in Newton MA with his family.
Raja Abdallah is a mechanical engineering, computer scienceRead More
Technology Innovation Entrepreneur and Technologist with over 23 years’Read More
Ziad has been advising companies and investors on strategic,Read More
technological matters for 25 years.
Ziad advises emerging companies on strategic planning, expansion tactics, and capital raising.
He also works with entrepreneurs and investors on launching and growing new ventures. Ziad
has specific expertise in high growth and innovative companies and in helping companies scale
beyond their original geographic borders.
Ziad advises public and private companies as well as investment groups on a wide variety of
transactions and projects which include mergers and acquisitions, venture capital / private equity
investments, business expansion, joint ventures, and strategic partnerships. He is also a
recognized turnaround and restructuring expert who has revived distressed companies and
brought them back to profitability.
Ziad advises governments and international organizations on economic/cluster development,
innovation, entrepreneurship, and issues relating to small and medium enterprises (SMEs). In
Lebanon, he ran the SME Programme, which was an EU-funded program with the Lebanese
government to improve the environment for SMEs through financial, service, and legal
initiatives. Ziad helped put together and launch incubators/accelerators (e.g. Berytech MatHaf,
BIAT, SouthBIC) and financing programs (e.g. Kafalat Innovative & Plus) for startups and
SMEs. Additionally, with the Partnership for Lebanon, which included Cisco Systems, Intel, and
Microsoft from the United States, Ziad was in charge of a Cisco-led venture capital fund. He also
created a microfinance program for ICT companies in remote, underserved areas.
In Lebanon, Ziad co-founded and served as Vice-Chairman of the MIT Enterprise Forum for the
Pan Arab Region, which promotes entrepreneurship in the Arab World. The organization
launched the MIT Arab Startup Competition.
Ziad started his career as an IT and business consultant for some of the largest companies in the
United States.
Ziad has a MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management, with a concentration in corporate
finance and macroeconomics. He also received a B.S. with distinction in Computer Science (and
mathematics) from Virginia Tech University.
As a Product Manager at Google, Sami Torbey is building a Read More
Eve Tamraz Najjar, Chief Scientific Officer and co-founder of Sensio Air.Read More
With over thirty-five years’ experience, I myself have been activelyRead More
Times have certainly changed, but our promise to continue to deliver state-of-the-art goods, efficient processes and unrivaled service to all stakeholders remains strong.
As we continue to grow our operations offshore, we have fostered valuable partnerships with global networks which has given us the competitive advantage of being at the forefront of the industry when it comes to supply and distribution.
As Australia’s youngest creator of aluminium systems and manufacturing, my passion for designing exclusive aluminium profile systems and accessories has seen prosperity and continued growth for A-Tech Australia. With a team as passionate I am, we anticipate continued success for the company with rapid evolution of the industry.
Colette Hart is the Senior Director of the Centers for OutreachRead More
Marc Suidan imagines a different future. One where technology changes the Read More
Marc is passionate about helping clients in delivering shareholder value through deals, including realizing new revenue generation and cost savings, while protecting core value. He has advised corporate and private equity clients on over 50 deals in M&A diligences, integrations and divestitures.
Prior to PwC, Marc was a member of McKinsey’s Technology Accelerator practice. He has built businesses from the ground up and has co-founded and sold two internet ventures. He frequently publishes papers on M&A in the Technology sector, is a regular speaker at conferences, and organizes round table events for Corporate Development Integration leaders.
Marc is an advocate of community services and regularly volunteers for youth education. He sits on the Board of the Silicon Valley Education Foundation and leads its Innovation Committee. He has worked in Venture Philanthropy launching education and health focused initiatives and is now publishing a paper on the benefits of technology in education.
He holds a Master of Business Administration from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University and a Bachelor of Management in Accounting and Finance from McGill University.
Richardos is the Co-Founder of Startchy.inc, a naturalRead More He received the Agripreuneur of the year 2017 title, has been in more than 10 local and international competition, graduated from Agrytech accelerator and incubator, has experience in the food sector and food tech industry, did leadership in agriculture and economy with the IVLP program in the US, was the science union president at USEK, and worked with different research institutions abroad.
World Bank Fellow, author of 10 books on global leadershipRead More
Chairman, Board Member, and senior member of several organizations in the US, Asia, Middle East and Central Eurasia.
Former Reuters war journalist covering various wars, writer, and scholar of leadership, strategy, policy-making and international business at Harvard, Princeton and other universities.
Currently the President and CEO of Cambridge Institute for Global Leadership (CIGL) - an advisory body and Think Tank that grew out of the study and research of its founders at Harvard and Princeton universities.
Advisor to heads or states, governments, and boards of directors.
Grand Juror at UAE President’s Government Excellence Award for top government officials. Grand Juror at Dubai Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Leadership Excellence Award.
Rawad is Founding Partner at RAMS Services and hasRead More
Rawad boasts 14+ years of experience in software engineering spanning various technology leadership roles at the heart of leading enterprise software companies and advisory roles in startups at various levels.
He is a prominent panelist and judge in local startup competitions and has strong relations within the digital ecosystem in Lebanon.
Rawad is a lecturer in Software Engineering at the University of Saint Joseph in Lebanon and a certified Agile coach.
Rawad has a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Saint Joseph where he graduated in 2006 at the top of his class.
Founder Entreprenergy, the largest community of EntrepreneursRead More
Since 2008, visited 20 countries as a Motivational Speaker and Trainer empowering aspiring entrepreneurs, to start their business using the Lean Methodology and bootstrapping strategies. (More than a thousand entrepreneur joined The Entrepreneurial Growth Series on www.100Days.email)
Founder and CEO of Digital Smarter, a company specialized in Customer Acquisition using Digital Marketing strategies, operating in Lebanon, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan and Canada. We help coaches, consultants and service providers to increase their sales by 20% in the first 3 months with a double bulletproof guarantee.
Trainer and consultant in Business Growth and Scaling Strategies.
Bijan Azad, is an Associate Professor at the Olayan School of Read More
Business (OSB), American University of Beirut and the Director of
Samih Darwazah Center for Innovation Management and
Entrepreneurship.
Dr. Azad teaches in OSB’s Executive MBA, Executive Education and
MBA programs. Bijan pioneered the popular experiential Startup
Acceleration Practicum graduate course at AUB (modeled after
Steve Blank’s Lean LaunchPad). In 2016 he designed AUB’s Scale-Up
Readiness Program that focuses on overcoming scale-up challenges
of companies wanting to exceed $5 million revenue—supported in
part by USAID. Bijan is also very active in the startup ecosystem
serving as bootcamp mentor/instructor at Flat6Labs and SPEED
accelerator, also as a mentor at the IM-Capital MIT Venture
Mentoring Service. Bijan, in 1988 was co-founder of a successful
map technology startup in Cambridge, Massachusetts, GIS/Trans,
was acquired later by Google Maps. In 2001 he co-founded another
successful map technology startup International Land Information
Systems bv (acquired by ARCADIS bv 2003), in Arnhem, Netherlands.
Mourad Aoun is the Chairman and CEO of The Net Group. Read More
Besides, Mourad has been the president of the Air Express Association in Lebanon (AXAL) since 2002. He is also a member of the board of the Lebanese Businessmen Association (RDCL) and SkyNet Worldwide Express Global Board of Directors since 2007.
www.thenet.group
FAQ:
The potential of the venture is in the potential of its founders who can transform their brilliant ideas into successful businesses.
Applications are reviewed by industry and business experts and seasoned entrepreneurs from the ACIE network.
Multiple ideas are always welcome in separate applications. Yes, we encourage you to fill your different ideas in different applications.
Being a solo applicant is not a disqualifying criterion. However, multidisciplinary ventures have better chances to accelerate the development of their projects and get funded.
There is no legal liability if a team withdraw from the program at any moment. However, the resources and program networks will no longer be provided to the team leaving the program.
ACIE Accelerate will make available all its resources such as trainers, mentors, experts and lab access upon request to ensure the teams are meeting their growth milestone.
Teams are requested to commit their attendance during all trainings and workshops to optimize their learning for the best interest of their ventures.
The presentation is not mandatory to consider the application for selection. However, teams with solid presentation or explanatory videos have better chances to communicate their project.
Load More
The potential of the venture is in the potential of its founders who can transform their brilliant ideas into successful businesses.
Applications are reviewed by industry and business experts and seasoned entrepreneurs from the ACIE network.
Multiple ideas are always welcome in separate applications. Yes, we encourage you to fill your different ideas in different applications.
Being a solo applicant is not a disqualifying criterion. However, multidisciplinary ventures have better chances to accelerate the development of their projects and get funded.
There is no legal liability if a team withdraw from the program at any moment. However, the resources and program networks will no longer be provided to the team leaving the program.
ACIE Accelerate will make available all its resources such as trainers, mentors, experts and lab access upon request to ensure the teams are meeting their growth milestone.
Teams are requested to commit their attendance during all trainings and workshops to optimize their learning for the best interest of their ventures.
The presentation is not mandatory to consider the application for selection. However, teams with solid presentation or explanatory videos have better chances to communicate their project.