Key partnerships

William Cheaib

Chief of Staff and Associate VP, International

William Cheaib is the chief of staff to the president and vice-chancellor of Concordia University. In this role, he provides advice to the president and assists him in developing and implementing strategy. In addition, William oversees Concordia’s international relations as associate vice-president international.

He has a track record in pioneering successful international alliances and advising on government and institutional strategies in international and next-generation education. His past and present public service includes the Canadian Bureau for International Education (CBIE), Expo-Entrepreneurs, Engcomm, and the Montreal Science Centre Foundation.

In 2018, William launched an Africa Initiative that aims to empower African youth through education, entrepreneurship and technology. He is a regular speaker on intercultural communication and strategic planning for the education and public sectors. He holds a Bachelor and a Master’s degree in Law. He has a broad administrative experience, a solid background in international relations and a passion for moving the education agenda forward.

Prof. Sunday A. Adebisi

Director, Entrepreneurship and Skills Development, University of Lagos

Prof. Adebisi is Director of the Entrepreneurship and Skills Development Centre, University of Lagos, Nigeria and the Director of ARUA Centre of Excellence for Unemployment and Skills Development in Africa (ARUA, African Research Universities Alliance). Prof. Adebisi is a First-Class Honours academic with a PhD in Business Administration specializing in Sustainable Strategic Management and Entrepreneurship Innovation, International Business, and resolving youth unemployment through mindset entrepreneurship. He was the Project Manager and Research Advisor of the Commercial Pilot of M(E)thanol Clean Cookstoves Project of Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCo) in Nigeria (2014-2016); Scholar of the Soochow University China (2013); British Academy of Management Best Paper Award (2014) and the EFMD 2016 Best African Case winner in Berlin, Germany (2017).

Prof. Adebisi is a member of professional and academic bodies including, Academy of International Business (AIB)-USA; Strategic Management Society (SMS)-USA; British Academy of Management (BAM)-UK; The Academy of Management, Nigeria (TAMN) and Nigerian Institute of Management (NIM) Chartered.

Henrik Boejen

Head of Business Development, Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU)

As the Head of Business Development at the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU), Henrik supports the mission of the ACU as a connector, facilitator, and enabler — turning ACU member needs into ideas and then into funded initiatives that support the vitality of universities and seed change across the Commonwealth. He works to develop partnerships with ACU members and key stakeholders and unlock funding that enable universities to achieve their priorities and to deliver innovative projects and initiatives that support the wider higher education sector.

Henrik is newly started with the ACU, and thus with supporting the FutureWise project too, but is excited about contributing to the project on behalf of the ACU.

Sabine Lopez

Director, Central Projects Direction, Agence universitaire de la Francophonie

Professor of applied linguistics for more than 20 years at various French and foreign universities, Sabine Lopez has taught, trained teachers and managed several European and international projects.

In 2007, she was appointed Director of International Relations at the Pierre et Marie Curie University, now Sorbonne University; she developed an international project engineering department, enabling the university to structure its international partnerships and increase its contractual resources.

After 12 years in this position, she joined the AUF in March 2019 to put her experience to the service of the development of structuring, sustainable and inclusive projects. She is, currently, Director of the central projects management Department.

Syma Mati

Project Manager, Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF)

After working several years in international university cooperation, at AUF's Middle East Office in Beirut, and teaching Communication at Cnam Lebanon, Syma Mati is now in charge of Entrepreneurship projects at AUF Paris, including FutureWise and the EU co-funded project Safir which promotes Social Entrepreneurship and the SDGs in MENA.

Syma is an ESCP Business School graduate and he wrote a thesis on the incubators and accelerators for start-ups in Lebanon.

Julio Sevilla

International Projects Manager, Concordia International

Julio Sevilla, MBA, is responsible for international projects at Concordia University in Montreal. He formally served as Director for Research Partnerships for the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) and as a Senior Advisor for International Relations at the National Research Council of Canada (NRC), where he managed the Canadian membership for the International Council for Science (ISCU), supported Canada’s participation in the G8 Head of Research Councils (G8-HORCS) and the Canadian participation in international forums related to “science advise to government”.

His background and training are in the fields of international relations, research partnerships and international development. He has coordinated multi-stakeholder partnerships in support of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and different international cooperation projects in Africa and Latin America. 

He is a former member of the Canadian International Council (CIC) and the Mexican Council for International Affairs (COMEXI). He currently chairs the cross-Canadian International Relations community, associated to the Canadian Bureau for International Education. 

Layial El-Hadi

Executive Director of Fintech Cadence 

Layial is the Executive Director of Fintech Cadence (an organization that aims to create start-ups that will help solve the financial industry’s problems through the integration of technology) and a former professor at Concordia University. She was previously the Chief Financial Officer of Apisen, a specialized industrial equipment company. She sits on the Advisory Board of Queen’s University’s Master of Financial Innovation & Technology. In 2022, Layial was nominated for the DMZ's Women of the Year award. In 2019, Layial was identified as one Digital Finance Institute’s Top 50 Women in Fintech and in 2018, Layial was awarded Mentor of the Year by Montreal NewTech for being the individual who had the biggest and most positive impact guiding Montreal-based startups.