Climate Change in Emerging Economies: Are Fossil Fuels an Economic Mean or an Imminent Disaster?

Alex Epstein

Alex Epstein is a philosopher and energy expert who argues that “human flourishing” should be the guiding principle of industrial and environmental progress. He is the author of the new book Fossil Future and the 2014 New York Times bestseller The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels.

Alex has made his moral case for fossil fuels at dozens of campuses, including Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and Duke (his alma mater). He has also spoken to employees and leaders at dozens of Fortune 500 energy companies.

Alex, known for his willingness to debate anyone, anytime, has publicly debated leading environmentalist organizations such as Greenpeace, the Sierra Club, and 350.org over the morality of fossil fuel use.

In his speeches and consulting work he helps pro-freedom elected officials and companies take his pro-human messaging and use it to neutralize attackers, turn non-supporters into supporters, and turn supporters into champions.

Moataz Darwish

Darwish combines 20+ years career in energy with executive training and lecturing experience enabled by his academic credentials and practical experience. Darwish spent 16 years till 2021 with Royal Dutch Shell, the last five of which he acted in the capacity of Deputy Country Chair and Government and Corporate Affairs Director for Shell Companies in Egypt. Prior to that, he was based in the Netherlands where he acted as the Commercial Manager for the UK Southern North Sea in NAM (a Joint Venture between Shell and

ExxonMobil). Previously based in Cairo, he was the Country Commercial Director, Executive Team Member, and Board Director for the NATGAS and Nubariya Companies. He have more than 25 years of experience in commercial negotiations, strategy & business

development and corporate affairs.

He was granted a part-scholarship in pursuit of a Doctoral Degree in Business from the triple crown Bradford School of Management in the UK with a research focus in the area of Strategy and Entrepreneurship. He is also a holder of a MBA and Master of Research degrees and an Instructor at the American University in Cairo School of Business Executive Education, the Edinburgh Business School MBA Program, and the Energy Delta Institute in the Netherlands. He is dedicated to strategy, entrepreneurship and leadership excellence, training and research. In recent years I participated in a variety of executive programs from INSEAD, IMD, Harvard, Oxford and London business schools as well as Shell’s Open University and Commercial Academy.

He is also an active member in the AUC Angel Investors Network and a co-chair in the Amcham oil and gas committee. He is a passionate entrepreneurship mentor, speaker and judge with the AUC VLab, Falak, TIEC, Flat6 and others.

Sherwat Elwan

Associate Professor of Management and Director of MBA Programs

AUC School of Business

Sherwat Elwan Ibrahim is an associate professor of Operations Management at The American University in Cairo (AUC) and the MBA program director at AUC School of Business. She holds a Master’s and Ph.D. in Technology Management from Stevens Institute of Technology.

Her current research interests include global value chains, sustainable supply chain management, responsible sourcing, supplier governance, and supply chain technology adoption. She serves as the founding Vice-Chair for PRME Chapter Africa of the

UN.