Sawsan is also a co-founder and Trustee of the Asfari Foundation, which aims to help young people make a valuable contribution to society by empowering them through education, research and the power of free thinking.

In addition to this, she is board member of the U.S Middle East Project, advisory board member of Challenge To Change and member of the Palestinian development organisation, the Welfare Association. She is also the founder of Cocoon Films.

Yousef has over 26 years experience in complex corporate finance and business development. He gained extensive market knowledge after 10 years with a boutique advisory firm. He led the Transaction Services for Private Capital in the Middle East for two professional services firms. Yousef has sat on the Board of Directors of several investment companies and has hands on experience of company management.

He has also worked with many clients ranging from Large Private Equity Firms to Global holding companies. Yousef brings diversified technical financial and business skills into transaction advisory; including deal negotiations & closure, structured trade & project finance, capital raising, deal structuring, M&A and valuations. He has a Bachelors degree in Finance and Marketing from Yarmouk University in Jordan.

Leila received a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, a Master of Business Administration from the George Washington University and an MA in International Studies and Diplomacy from SOAS, University of London. She has worked at The World Bank, Brandes Asset Management, Robert Fleming NY and Goldman Sachs.

Khalil is currently the Executive Director of the Arab Center Washington DC, a think tank focused on researching the Arab World and US foreign policy. Between 2004-2013, Khalil was a lecturer in International Studies and Languages at Pepperdine University and Executive Director of Pepperdine’s Seaver College Washington DC Internship Program.

Prior to joining Pepperdine University, Jahshan served as Executive Vice President of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and Director of its government affairs affiliate, NAAA-ADC. Throughout his career Khalil has held numerous positions, including Vice President of the American Committee on Jerusalem, President of the National Association of Arab-Americans, and National Director of the Association of Arab-American University graduates. He received a BA in Political Science and French from Harding University in 1972.

Khalil serves on the board of directors, and advisory boards of various Middle East-oriented groups, including ANERA, MIFTAH and Search for Common Ground (Middle East). He appears regularly on various outlets including BBC, CNN, C-SPAN, CCTV, France24, RT, Al-Jazeera, Al-Araby TV, Al-Arabiya, Al-Hurra, Al-Ghad Al-Arabi, Ekhbariya TV, Al-Iraqiya, Qatar TV, Saudi TV 1, Saudi TV 2.

Eyad is a human rights lawyer based in Haifa and has been working with Palestinian political prisoners for over 10 years, representing them in the Israeli military courts. From his private Law Practice, he also provides legal advice to various companies and private clients.

Eyad is involved with several educational and civil society organisations working for advancing the rights of the Palestinian community in Israel. Eyad received an L.L.B in Law and B.A in Sociology and Anthropology from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem and while studying he was Chairman of the Arab Students’ Union.

Dr. Katherine Bucknell Maguire is a scholar and writer.  She edited W. H. Auden’s Juvenilia: Poems 1922-1928, Christopher Isherwood’s Diaries in four volumes and a volume of letters The Animals, which she also presented as a podcast.

She is Executive Director of the Christopher Isherwood Foundation and a founder of The W.H. Auden Society and often contributes to press and film.

She has published four novels, Canarino, Leninsky Prospekt, What You Will and +1.

Her degrees are from Princeton (BA, Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa), Oxford (MA, Honours First Class) and Columbia (PhD).

Dina is a passionate advocate for the empowerment of Arab Women. She is also a banker with a career in Private Banking that spans over 25 years, having worked with various leading international banks from Geneva. In December 2014, Dina launched ”Challenge to Change”; a platform focusing on the empowerment of Arab women. It was officially registered as a non-profit association in May 2016 in Geneva, Switzerland, and is now recognised as the region’s enabling network for women; catalysing positive change with a specific emphasis on those affected by conflict.

She earned a BA in Political Science & Economics from Duke University and later on, an MSC in Foreign Services from Georgetown University. In her spare time, Dina writes poetry. She loves alpine skiing, reading, music, and the outdoors. She is the mother of two young adult children, spends her time between Bahrain and Geneva, and travels extensively.

David is a lawyer based in London who has worked with Palestinians both inside and outside Palestine for over twenty five years. He spends more than half his time working as a lawyer on a pro bono basis for charities and NGOs that work in the Middle East while advising international families and their businesses on a broad range of tax, trust, real estate and commercial matters. He writes for Al Hayat on these subjects and is a member of the Clinton Global Initiative and of Chatham House.

Maha joined the Galilee Foundation in April 2018. She comes with over 12 years experience in media, with a particular focus on the Middle East. Maha started her career working at Al Jazeera English in Kuala Lumpur, on current affairs, breaking news and at times in the field. She then moved to Al Jazeera’s headquarters in Doha where she was the Senior Interview Producer at Al Jazeera English leading a team of interview producers, and working on news, programmes and various PR campaigns. Maha then decided to move permanently into the charity sector. The Galilee Foundation is a charity with a cause close to her heart. Being of Palestinian origin herself and a strong advocate for education, it has been an honour for her to work to help young Palestinians fulfil their potential.

Clare joined the Galilee Foundation in May 2023. She has over eight years of experience in the charity sector, with a focus on the Middle East. Clare studied Arabic and is passionate about Arabic literature and its translation. Supporting Palestinian educational and civil society initiatives is a cause that is particularly close to her heart.

Peter has over 30 years of experience in accounting, finance and management consultancy. Over that time he has worked with a variety of organisations including theatrical producers, international trading companies (equipment provision to the international petrochemical industry), a property management company, as well as Solicitors and Chartered/ Certified Accountants.

He has been working with the Galilee Foundation since 2014.

In addition, he works with another charity which focuses on the pre-teen education sector for Palestinian children, an evidence based wealth management company, and also sits as a non executive director for two companies working in the areas of social change.

Dianne has enjoyed a varied career that began in scientific research in food crop diseases and finished in teaching in further and higher education. A Degree in Biological Sciences and a Ph.D in Plant Pathology from the University of East Anglia followed later by Open University courses in Maths and Computing led Dianne to teach on a number of A level subjects, other Level 3 programmes and Degree courses, in a variety of roles, including programme leader.