George F. Boutros

Wa'el Chehab

Fuad Sawaya

Rami Zurayk

George Boutros is a Managing Director of Credit Suisse and Co-Chairman of the Global Technology Group, based in San Francisco. Prior to Credit Suisse, he was a Managing Director with DMG Technology Group and Head of the Technology Group's Global Mergers & Acquisitions activities. George was previously a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley, heading M&A activities in the western United States. He received his B.S. in Civil Engineering, M.S. in Structural Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley and his M.B.A. from UCLA's Anderson School of Management.

Wa'el Chehab is President and CEO of Cedar Capital Management, a fund management and commodities trading group of companies. Before establishing Cedar in 1996, Wa'el was Associate Director with Bear Stearns and Co. in the global derivatives group, leading its proprietary trading effort. Wa'el also worked at Citibank NA, as a Vice President in the debt derivatives group. He received his MBA from the American University of Beirut.

Raymond Debbane is the President and Chief Executive Officer of The Invus Group, LLC, a multi-billion New York-based investment firm active in LBOs, venture capital, hedge funds and public stocks. Prior to forming The Invus Group in 1985, he was a manager for The Boston Consulting Group in Paris, France. Raymond holds an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, an M.S. in Food Science and Technology from the University of California, Davis and a B.S. in Agricultural Sciences and Agricultural Engineering from the American University of Beirut. Raymond is the Chairman of WeightWatchers International, Inc.

Fuad Sawaya is a Managing Director and co-founder of Sawaya Segalas & Co., LLC, a New York-based investment banking firm focused exclusively on the Consumer Products industry. Prior to co-founding the firm in 2001, he was head of the middle market Consumer Group at J.P. Morgan and head of the Consumer Products Group at PaineWebber Incorporated. In the last twenty years, Fuad has provided M&A advice and overseen the completion of over one hundred and forty M&A transactions. He holds a B.S. from the American University of Beirut, and an M.B.A from Columbia University.

Rami Zurayk is professor of land and water resources in the Department of Landscape Design and Ecosystem Management at the American University of Beirut, director of AUB's Interfaculty Graduate Environment Science Program, and environmental program coordinator for the University's Ecosystem Management Program. He was also policy advisor to Lebanon's Minister of Agriculture and founder and president of the Association of Lebanese Organic Agriculture. He has worked extensively around the world for a number of international development organizations such as UNDP, UNEP, the World Bank, and Oxfam. He has published extensively on issues of environment and development and on sustainable agriculture, indigenous knowledge, and community development. His most recent book, Food, Farming and Freedom: Sowing the Arab Spring, was published by Just World Books in May 2011.