ASTROLABS LEADERSHIP TEAM
Louis Lebbos
Founding Partner
Louis is Founding Partner of AstroLabs, an organization on a mission to create a thriving tech ecosystem in MENA. AstroLabs launched MENA’s only Google partnered tech hub, hosting tech entrepreneurs from across the world in Dubai and delivers classes focused on teaching digital skills through AstroLabs Academy. Before starting AstroLabs, Louis co-founded Namshi, an e-commerce portal for the Middle East, where he led the marketing, onsite experience, and human resources teams. Before Namshi, Louis was a consultant at the Dubai office of McKinsey & Company, focusing on growth strategy projects. Previously, Louis was part of the general management development program at a US Fortune 200 multinational. He is passionate about economic development, social enterprise, technology, and seeing people succeed beyond their expectations. Louis studied for his electrical engineering degree at North Carolina State University and received his MBA from Harvard Business School.
Muhammed Mekki
Founding Partner
Muhammed is a Founding Partner at AstroLabs, the region’s premier tech learning community. AstroLabs operates a network of three spaces in the UAE and Saudi Arabia with over 120 resident companies building innovative technologies. AstroLabs Academy delivers a variety of practical training courses on topics related to digital business. Prior to AstroLabs, Muhammed co-founded Namshi, now one of the largest ecommerce companies in the MENA region. Muhammed is a former McKinsey & Company strategy consultant with clients across the GCC. Muhammed received an MBA from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the Wharton School and a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies and Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania.
Roland Daher
Chief Operating Officer
Roland is the COO (Chief Operating Officer) at AstroLabs. Prior to AstroLabs, Roland was the Head of Dubai 100, the first digital health accelerator in Dubai and the MENA region. Over 2 years, he helped run 3 cohorts in Dubai and Shanghai with 18 startups from the UK, Germany, Italy, Kenya, Nigeria, China, Singapore and Argentina. Roland also was a Founding Member and Head of Business Development for Wamda, one of MENA’s largest tech entrepreneurship platforms. Roland has an MBA from London Business School and a BS in Computer Engineering.
Mustafa Nabelsi
Country Director, Saudi Arabia
Before joining AstroLabs, Mustafa worked as the senior manager of strategic planning in the National Center for Performance Measurement, overseeing the formulation of center’s strategies and the execution of key programs with the aim of having a lasting impact towards the achievement of Vision 2030. Prior to that, Mustafa launched an edu-tech startup, Acadox, driving it to be a leading education technology provider in the region. As part of a brilliant team, he helped in growing it to a multi-million dollar company positively impacting 300,000+ students and teachers in the MENA region. His Acadox journey came after working at ARAMCO, conducting research in Texas A&M university, and earning his Masters from KAUST. On his spare time, Mustafa advises and supports few startups. He is mostly interested in scalable impactful ideas, and he enjoys video games.
Ahmad Abugosh
Director of Marketing & Learning Programs
Ahmad is the Director of Marketing & Learning Programs at AstroLabs. He handles all marketing, running of academy programs and tech systems at AstroLabs. Ahmad graduated with a degree in Computer Engineering from the American University of Sharjah in 2011, and has been Google Certified (in Analytics & Adwords) since 2012. Since then, he has worked at MBC, Namshi (Rocket Internet) and a digital agency in Dubai (RBBi, where he worked on Analytics and BI setups for some of the largest organizations in the region). His professional expertise is in Analytics, Digital Marketing, Fullstack Web Development and Tech Workshops. By combining his technical knowledge and experience with his passion to contribute to the learning and development of others, Ahmad makes sure that AstroLabs course offerings are both technically relevant, and provide lasting real-world value for all who take them.
Samer Bejjani
Director of Product, Technology and Training
Samer is currently working as the Director of Product, Technology and Training at AstroLabs. With 8+ years of experience in technology and startups, he’s a customer-obsessed product leader having a strong background in software engineering and digital marketing. Samer loves building high impact consumer products and being the driving force behind strategy, innovation, and growth.
Mohtab Arabiat
Head of Digital Development
Head of Digital Development at AstroLabs, Mohtab is an early adopter with a passion for digital storytelling. With over 11 years of experience in digital marketing, Mohtab brings to the table the practical knowledge and experience that led to the success of over 35 of the top brands in the MENA region. His experience at agencies such as FP7 and Starcom gave him the opportunity to work with some of the top industry leaders in a number of sectors such as telecom, FMCG, QSR, and banking, among others.
Ralph Azar
Head of Enterprise Sales
Ralph is the Head of Enterprise Sales at AstroLabs. He leads client relationships with large organizations, universities, and government institutions seeking digital capability development for their teams through AstroLabs Academy. Prior to AstroLabs, Ralph was the Director of Sales & Business Development – Middle East at Blackboard, an education technology company. Prior to that, Ralph spent around 10 years at Ellucian (formerly SunGard Higher Education), a software and services company for higher education management. Ralph studied Computer Science at the Lebanese American University and holds a eMBA from London Business School and a Masters in Education from the University of Phoenix.
Charles Viron
Community Operations Manager
Chaz is one of the first person to greet you at AstroLabs, and always with a big smile. He leads the Dubai Community and Operations Team. He’s well-known in the space for planning fun gatherings and he’s always around when you need him. With an extensive background in operations and events, Chaz is as detail-oriented, resourceful and organized as they come. He makes certain that every AstroLabs member receives an extraordinary experience from onboarding to work environment.
Edwin Dennis
Accounts/Admin Lead
Edwin is the Admin/Accounts Lead. He handle everything account oriented. it includes a vast range of activities like Invoicing, processing payment, Generating reports for management processing renewals, etc. He grew up in Dubai, completed school in Our Own Indian High school. He later went to Australia to complete undergraduate at Swinburne University of technology. Edwin worked at Burj Khalifa and At The Top for the first 5 years of my career as a Finance executive. He joined the Astrolabs team in 2018 and loving every bit of it. He is currently doing my MBA at Herriot Watt. He loves problem-solving and working with the team to achieve a common goal. As an account, He has a decent knowledge with Excel.
Josh Natividad
Community Operations Coordinator
Josh is our Operations Coordinator who assists companies, startups and entrepreneurs build a name in the MENA region and help manage our Co-working Space in Dubai. Before joining the AstroLabs team, Josh spent 9 years as a Manager for an International Banking & Finance company servicing the U.S. and Singapore. After extensive work experience in a corporate environment with background on collections/sales management, and customer service, Josh now helps AstroLabs market their products and services and ensuring 100% client satisfaction for the members in our community.
Rishabh Goyal
Special Projects Lead
Rishabh leads Special Projects at AstroLabs. He has experience in management consulting, program management, business development, marketing, and practice development. Prior to AstroLabs, Rishabh was working at PwC where he helped in setting up the Entrepreneurial and Private Business Advisory Business Practise. Rishabh graduated with a degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from the Delhi College of Engineering, India.
Daniel Bateman
Business Development Lead
Danny is the Business Development Lead at AstroLabs and is responsible for the next phase of growth as we take our company licensing business and capacity building practice to their full potential. Danny is a client-centered senior business development professional with over seven years of experience in sales and is renowned for his strong business acumen, consultative approach, and in-depth product knowledge. Prior to AstroLabs, Danny was the Business Development Director at a Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) owned publishing and events subsidiary and was responsible for establishing key accounts of large organizations such as: UBS, HSBC, Barclays, Standard Chartered, KPMG and Rolls Royce. His innate passion for entrepreneurship was fostered during his time at Lancaster University Management School (LUMS), a world-ranked international business school, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Entrepreneurship with Management. He received invaluable guidance from professors and visiting practitioners alike during this period which enabled him to develop a business model that secured a proposed investment of £500,000 from an angel investor. He is passionate about contributing to the MENA region’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and reciprocating this support by helping young companies and ideas for startups head in the right direction.
Majed Soufi
Academy Coordinator
Majed is the Academy Operations Coordinator and the focal point of contact for all of our courses, tracks and bootcamps. He organizes the Academy courses and make sure all attendees have a wonderful experience at our academy. Before joining AstroLabs, Majed worked in operations in an aviation setting, which helped learn how to act quickly yet efficiently, and made me attentive to details and very time-oriented.
Yousef Al-Rashid
Community Lead, Riyadh
Yousef is the Community Lead at AstroLabs. He supports international entrepreneurs and companies to get licensed in Saudi Arabia by facilitating the setup process with various government entities (SAGIA, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of labor, Chamber of commerce, etc.) Prior to AstroLabs, Yousef has participated in many extra-curricular activities in the College of Engineering at King Saud University in Riyadh and has been selected to lead the Hosting Committee and Project Management Team at Industrial Engineering Club. He has dedicated more than 200 hours as a volunteer and led many teams to different activities.
Abdullah Al-Quayyid
Operations Coordinator, Riyadh
Abdullah is the Operations Coordinator at AstroLabs. He supports international entrepreneurs and companies to get licensed in Saudi Arabia by facilitating the setup process with various government entities (SAGIA, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of labor, Chamber of commerce, etc.) By combining his professional knowledge and experience, Abdullah delivers an excellent customer experience, helping international entrepreneurs in setting up their companies in Saudi.