First Day

Karim graduated from the University of Prince Edward Island, specializing in Entrepreneurship. Karim started his professional career early on while studying; he immersed himself in the Egyptian startup ecosystem through various positions. He worked in one of the early e-commerce startups in Egypt, Mumm, in the commercial department. Afterward, Karim was responsible for the programmatic activities at the leading entrepreneurial tech hub in the MENA region, The GrEEK Campus, as a Community & Business Development Associate. Currently, Karim works at DMZ Cairo in programmatic coordination and operations while managing the partnerships.

Robert Ott is Vice Dean of The Creative School – Ryerson Cairo, hosted by Universities of Canada in Egypt. He is also Professor in the School of Fashion at Toronto Metropolitan University and Director of The Suzanne Rogers Fashion Institute, a fellowship program for upcoming Canadian fashion designers. He earned a MMSc, Management of Technology and Innovation, and a BAA, Fashion Design – Apparel Production Management, both from Ryerson. His research focuses on fashion systems, which are mechanisms for the production and consumption of clothing. In an ethnography of tailors and shoemakers he investigates the notion of craftship to understand what embodied skills, materials, and tools inform contemporary practices of craftship. This study provides a perspective on how the body and materials interrelate, how work is organized, and what factors influence the making of bespoke artefacts. Robert Ott is recognized for his extensive senior leadership contributions to higher education and in the private sector where he has held a series of progressively responsible executive roles since 1990.