Amar is the founder of Shared Studios and guides much of the organization's creative and technological direction. He evangelizes Shared Studios wherever he goes. Amar is an artist and entrepreneur who loves imagining what the world needs but doesn't realize quite yet. Before founding Shared Studios in 2014, He traveled across the world as a multimedia journalist for the Washington Post and worked for the U.S. Mission to the United Nations. Amar holds a bachelors from Harvard, a master’s from Johns Hopkins, and a JD from Yale Law School. He loves working alongside a passionate, diverse global team that demonstrates every day what a brighter future for all of us looks like.

Tommaso was a member of the founding team of Wimba, where he also served as CEO. Wimba became the leading virtual classroom solution. Tommaso grew the company to 800 customers before it was acquired by Blackboard. Tommaso also founded Tocca, a virtual events platform, and was the CEO of multiple other companies over his diverse career.

Didier founded and served as CEO and Head of Product of inWebo, growing it to become a leading multi-factor authentication solution. He ultimately sold the company to a PE firm.

Brandon helps drive new and existing partners to design and execute programming, and oversees our global community of curators and contributors at Shared Studios. He is a writer, educator, and expert facilitator with a doctorate in intercultural communication from Arizona State University. He has a range of experience across the private, education, and not-for profit sectors where he has worked to harness the power of new communication technologies to bridge cultural divides through transformative conversation. A life-long learner, in his free time you can find him practicing German, reading, riding his bike, and (sometimes) watching bad reality television.

Teun works to ensure that everything gets done when it needs to be in order to successfully deliver all of our activations. He comes from a film production background with an international track record, as well as co-founding and managing several startups in the entertainment sector. Teun is happiest at the helm of a sailboat and loves to cook for family and friends. He loves being constantly challenged, surprised and humbled in equal parts by the Shared Studios team.

Danara oversees the planning, development, and deployment of technical solutions at Shared Studios. She is a creative technologist that has worked on a range of productions, including sound, light, and kinetic installations. Danara was born in Kazakhstan, and grew up in Turkey where she was trained as an industrial engineer, before relocating to New York to pursue her master’s at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program. When she is not playing with code, Danara is likely to be painting or playing fetch with her dog Bobo. Danara values collaborations and being part of an organization that values integration of different cultures while maintaining their separate identities.

Victoria is originally from Brazil and has graduated from NYU’s Film & TV program at Tisch School of the Arts. She has lived in NYC, Los Angeles, Shanghai, Rio and is now back in São Paulo, her hometown. Victoria has spent the last few years working as a production manager for film shoots both in Brazil and in the US, and now joins Shared Studios to provide operational and logistics support to the team. Although very pragmatic and driven in her organizational role, Victoria also loves her creative side. She has a passion for creative writing and travel, having backpacked solo through several countries, teaching yoga in exchange for room and board in hostels and guesthouses. In her spare time, you will find her reading or writing poetry, teaching and practicing yoga, or taking care of her plants.

Jay is a seasoned cross-cultural communication professional with work experience in the Development and Aid sectors across East Africa, as well as within the Entertainment and Services sectors in the Netherlands. He is responsible for coordinating and executing programming across all global sites, ensuring seamless execution of programming with Shared Studios partners and collaborations with our global curator community. His interests in human history, politics, and in arts and culture, combined with his passion for breaking down barriers and connecting people from diverse backgrounds, brings a unique perspective to the team. When out of office, you can find Jay on the road with friends, exploring new cuisines, beaches, and dance moves.

I am a strategist, trainer, brother, friend, husband, sailor, traveler, learner and citizen of the world. Positively affecting lives is my driving force and passion, whether assessing communities and organizations, developing talent strategy and human capital initiatives, supporting global teams or simply helping friends, neighbors and peers. I have degrees in Economics and Human Resources from the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh and a Masters in Global Management (means I am trained to lead the world!!) from Arizona State University. Thing you may not know is that I've lived in the Caribbean for 8 years and owned a floating bar in Grenada :)

Niko focuses on growing the Shared Studios business and driving strategic partnerships. Having lived and worked across 5 continents, he is a huge proponent of Portals and their ability to create impactful connections from around the globe. He has worked in journalism, sales, brand strategy and venture building, as well as being an avid plant collector, photographer and DJ. He studied undergraduate economics at UC Irvine and received his MBA from Bocconi University in Milan.

Vanessa is a climate activist from Uganda. She works to raise awareness about the dangers of climate change and amplify the voices of activists from Africa. Vanessa was nominated the First Fridays For Future climate activist in Uganda and is the founder of the Rise Up Climate Movement. She spearheaded a campaign to save the Congo rain forest, which later spread to other countries in Africa and Europe. Vanessa is currently working on a project that involves the installation of solar and institutional stoves in schools.

Chris is a Silicon Valley national and international speaker, thought Leader, and culture & inclusion advocate. He works with corporations and organizations in driving impact acceleration and removing barriers to innovation. He is also the founder of BTMP, a Mentor-Mentee program that inspires, educates and brings underserved black communities into technology. Chris is also Founder of XR platforms, Flotilla, HoloPractice and the Immersive Directory. He lectures on the hyper real constructs of extended reality. He is a maker of fully equipped immersive Holodecks, and medical technology software for XR. Over the course of his career, Chris has executed and managed business development for thousands of campaigns and projects. An expert in lab-to-market platform launch.

Rehmah is an author and activist who is passionate about girls' education, gender equality, financial inclusion, and social innovation. She has worked for over 25 years as a gender and youth empowerment expert. Her visionary work has empowered 186,000+ youth and women by providing leadership, mentorship, entrepreneurship, workforce development, girls’ education, preventing violent extremism, human trafficking, democracy, and active citizenship projects across Africa. She is Senior Fellow of the Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative and founder of CEDA International-Uganda & USA which helps develop entrepreneurial skills in young women. She was awarded the Fortune/Goldman Sachs Global Women Leaders Award, the Islamic Development Bank Women in Peace and Development Prize, and was recognized by President Barack Obama in 2010 for her work in girls education. Rehmah is an author of From Gomba to the White House and Sheroes of COVID-19 children's book. A graduate of Peace, Conflict, and International Development, Rehmah is a Vital Voices Fellow, Synergos Senior Fellow, KAICIID International Fellow, and an Aspen Global Leaders Fellow.

Pashtana is a community development expert whose work focuses on digital literacy, sexual and reproductive healthcare, and menstrual hygiene management. She is the founder and director of grassroots level non-profit LEARN Afghanistan where she has educated and trained hundreds of community members in Kandahar on digital literacy, midwifery, and menstrual management. Pashtana is the first girl from Kandahar to receive the Malala Fund Education champion award. She has received a development fellowship on sexual and reproductive healthcare from The Aspen Institute, and she is an International member's youth representative for Amnesty International.

Khalida Popal the former captain of Afghanistan Women's National Team and founder and director of Girl Power Organization. Her work focuses on using sport and education as tools to empower and educate women and girls. She started her career as a football player, and later on took a position as the youngest and first female board member and leader of the women's football committee in Afghanistan football federation. She was the first female employee in the history of Afghanistan Football Federation. Popal has not only created opportunities for women and girls in sports, but has also developed the women’s football league to the point of international recognition.

Hope is a pioneer in using art as a tool for peacebuilding and a celebrated leader of the Rwanda and the African continent’s arts sector.  She is the founder of the acclaimed Ubumuntu Arts Festival. She uses art to promote values of humanity and healing, a unique approach that centers storytelling to help communities around the world to deal with their own traumas and to triumph over adversity. Raised as a refugee in Uganda before returning to Rwanda in 1998, Hope’s work as a writer, performer and teacher has taken her to many theaters and universities around the world. She was artist-in-residence at the Institute for the Arts and Civic Dialogue in Cambridge-Massachusetts, is an alumni of Brown University International advanced research institute in 2013, is a member of the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab, and is a fellow of the Africa Leadership Initiative (ALI-ASPEN-Institute).

Amarachi is an award-winning Chant Performance Poet, who uses her indegenouse language to enchant her audiences and provoke thoughts. Amarachi tours around Nigeria and internationally connecting with people through her performances and speaking engagements. She writes poetry beautifully in English language, and sometimes in the Naija Pigin but widely known for her sonorous folk chants in her mother-tongue. Amarachi recently completed a four months fellowship with the Royal National Theatre, London, United Kingdom, where she performed in the fifty-two theatre productions of the Three Sisters directed by Nadia Falls. A play by Inua Ellams, an adaptation of Chekhov's Three Sisters. She has received numerous awards and honorary mentions for her very unique art.

Yacine is an economist and a digital activist working in the field of ICT for development and digital transformation since early 1994. He worked many for many years with for rural and marginalized communities internet access and empowering use initiatives. He joined the Web Foundation in 2014 the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) the world’s broadest technology sector alliance that brings together businesses, governments, and civil society actors from across the globe to deliver the policies needed to reduce the cost to make universal, affordable, inclusive and meaningful broadband connectivity a reality for all. Yacine leads A4AI efforts in Latin America and the Caribbean, supporting research, regional advocacy and facilitating participative processes to create and implement innovative digital policy and regulatory changes.

Jeff is a musician and lawyer, as well as founder of The MusicianShip, a non-profit organization that facilitates music lessons, experiences, and opportunities to benefit youth who need us most. In just 10 years, The MusicianShip has grown from serving 2 students to serving nearly 2000 students in DC, Johannesburg, Pretoria, St. Maarten, and Paris. Since 2016, The MusicianShip has acquired 3 organizations, now overseeing the Washington Youth Choir, the Wammie Awards, and the DC Funk Parade. Jeff has also served as a business strategist for internationally renowned recording artist, Jeremih, and for Pro-Bowl NFL Cornerback, Josh Norman.

Songa was born in the DRC. He founded Naki Football Academy, which uses football to promote social integration among all nationalities within the Nakivale refugee settlement in Uganda, where he lives as a refugee. As a spoken word artist and page poet, Songa Bahati uses his pen and voice to contribute toward a more peaceful and collaborative world. Songa is also a mentor for others at the Opportunigee entrepreneurship hub.

Emma is a bubbly comedian, storyteller and MC living in the Netherlands. She has lived each decade of her life in a different country, obtaining a sense of humour from the English, a love of food from the French and an obsession with bikes from the Dutch. At this stage she doesn’t know where she should say she is from, so she got an Irish passport instead. She is also an entertainment entrepreneur having co-founded the Wageningen Comedy Club and EEH Productions, an entertainment and training company. Pre-covid she was kept busy with monthly theatre productions, hosting jobs and soft-skills training workshops.

Elizabeth is the founder of the Green Generation Initiative and a recipient of Wangari Maathai Scholarship award for her outstanding passion and commitment to environmental conservation which dates back to her childhood. Enthusiastic about sustainability, she is a Sustainability Analyst at the Sustainable Square, Kenya which is a micro-multinational firm that focuses on organizational sustainability, transparency and disclosure, responsible investment and social impact. She is a 2018 Global Youth in Landscape Leader recognized by the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF), the winner of the Africa Green Person of the Year 2019 Award, and named one of the 2019 list of the 100 Most Influential Young Africans, a 2019 Regional Finalist for Africa for the UN Young Champions of the Earth Prize 2019, and a member of the Greenbelt Movement.

Anna directs the world’s leading Future of Work Consortium, which has brought more than 100 multinationals together over 10 years to explore what work will look like in the years ahead, and what individuals, organisations and institutions must do now to prepare. Anna’s academic background focused on social movements, exploring how people use social networks and connections to instigate change. This has continued in her work with organisations, where she has developed expertise in marrying theory and practical action - taking abstract concepts but exploring how they work in practice, how they are perceived, and how institutions can take steps to build and develop them.

Gloria is a transexual writer, journalist, photographer, feminist, civil politician born in the sixties. She defines herself as an "old hippie witch" who has spent the last 25 years spearheading a feministrans rebellion in the Mexican national government, in the local congres, and in the citizenship social sphere. Gloria was the driving force for legal reforms for the official recognition of the trans people's identities. She has worked in the National Program on Prevention and Control on HIV AIDS, was elected Vice President of the First Women Parliament of the Congress of México City, and the director of the LGBTTTI Office in the Feminist Transition Government of Pachuca Hidalgo. As a transsexual feminist woman, she consider that it's time to come out of the "Trans Umbrella" and name ourselfs out and clear. She has written two books.

Felicite Rwemalika uses female participation in football to build self-confidence and social support among poor rural women in Rwandan society. Through the Association of Kigali Women in Sports (AKWOS ), she uses women's participation in sports to challenge the cultural and historical status quo, demonstrating their ability to improve their lives and develop their communities. She is also an Ashoka Fellow. Felicite serves as the Chairperson to two NGOs: WE ACT FOR HOPE and the Rwanda Non-Governmental Organization on HIV/AIDS and Health Promotion. She was awarded the IOC Women and Sport Award for the African Continent 2016, has been elected IOC member in 2018 and was also awarded the AIMF Femme Francophone in 2019, as Woman of the Year.

OnRaé Watkins, aka OnRaé LaTeal, is a music producer and creative arts educator holding nine years of experience in out-of-school programming. OnRaé currently serves as Senior Manager of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden’s teen programs and digital arts studio, ARTLAB. Known for merging the arts and social justice, OnRaé is the co-founder of the Black Girls Handgames Project, a grassroots program dedicated to using childhood handgames to uplift joy and resiliency for Black girls through hip-hop and education. Due to her dynamic work as an artist activist and community organizer, she was recently awarded a fellowship with one of the world’s largest philanthropic organizations, Open Society Foundations (OSF). As an OSF fellow, OnRaé has founded the Freedom Futures Collective, a multi-media group of artist activists using music, film, and education to support the movement for ALL Black lives. Her latest work includes the Black Joy Experience, a compilation album of mainstream freedom songs and liberation chants she produced in conjunction with the national activist organization, Black Youth Project 100.