Arya Bolurfrushan & Ali Hashemi

Arya H. Bolurfrushan is the youngest CFO of a public oil company in the Middle East, CEO of the Bolurfrushan International Group and cofounder of Emerge Ventures. Bolurfrushan was previously at Goldman Sachs’s internal think tank in New York, the Investment Strategy Group. He worked with the firm’s largest institutional and private clients, produced industry leading research on private equity, venture capital, hedge fund and commodity returns and helped create the patent pending Goldman Sachs Private Equity Index. Bolurfrushan received a Master’s degree and Bachelor of Science in Information Systems, Finance & Economics from Carnegie Mellon University and has attained an MBA from the Harvard Business School.

Ali Hashemi is a healthcare-focused venture capitalist and strategist. Hashemi is a Managing Partner of Avicenna Partners, a Dubai-based venture capital firm that specializes in healthcare investment in emerging markets. Hashemi was previously the founding member and leader of the Middle East Healthcare Practice for Booz & Company, and began his career based in New York City as a member of Bain & Company’s Healthcare and Private Equity practices. Currently serving as a member of Duke University’s Regional Advisory Board for the Middle East, Hashemi studied Medicine and received his MBA concurrently from McGill University as part of a joint MD/MBA program, also receiving a B.S.E. with Distinction from Duke University with a dual major in Biomedical Engineering and Religion and a minor in Chemistry.