Nafez is the Managing Partner at Anara Impact Capital, $50M fund that invests in learning, wellbeing and environmental resilience across the MENA region. Previously Nafez co-founded BLDR, a venture studio focused on pioneering the future of work and learning in the MENA region. He was also the founding CEO of Edraak.org, the largest open Arabic online education portal that today reaches almost 10 million learners across the MENA region – where he was the Executive Chairman until late 2022. Nafez was recognized as one of the top 50 “Makers+Shakers” in education technology globally by EdtechXGlobal in 2016; and received the Order of Independence First Class on behalf of Edraak from HM Abdullah II King of Jordan in 2017. Nafez has a master’s in educational neuroscience from Harvard where he focused on Arabic literacy. For his undergraduate work at Yale, Nafez completed a thesis on the Obstacles towards Curriculum Reform in the Middle East, using Jordan and the UAE as case studies.