Hashem Montasser, Founder of the The Lighthouse Restaurant & Concept Store in Dubai Design District, is a raconteur who avidly follows the work of arts, culture, technology and, of course, food. In a series of conversations aimed at introducing its audience to the Middle East’s entrepreneurial landscape, Hashem asks his guests about their life journeys, inspirations, successes and failures and everything in-between. New episodes available every second Wednesday.
This week we dive into the world of venture capital and startup investing as Hashem catches up with Khaled Talhouni, Founder and Managing Director of Nuwa Capital, a Dubai/Riyadh-based investment platform he set up with partners Stephanie Nour Prince and Sarah Abu Risheh. Hashem and Khaled discuss his journey...
This week we reunited with one of our favorite podcast guests from 2020, Fatafeat founder and overall renaissance man, Youssef El Deeb. Having met last summer just as The Lighthouse reopened post-lockdown, Hashem and Youssef formed a bond over chocolate cake, books and a shared nostalgia for Egypt’s ancien...
This week Hashem caught up with Sandy El Hayek, the newly minted General Manager of Dubai’s Time Out Market which launched in April in collaboration with Dubai mega developer Emaar. A veteran of Dubai’s F&B scene, Hashem and Sandy talked about her childhood as the daughter...
The Lighthouse Conversations: Maha Maamoun 0:00 / 0:00 1× In today’s episode, host Hashem Montasser, a collector of Middle East art, catches up with multi-disciplinary and award-winning Egyptian artist Maha Maamoun. Maha expands on how her series “Domestic Tourism” and “Cairoscapes” came about and shares the fascinating stories...
In our first episode since Ramadan break, Hashem is joined by Manal Ataya who, as the Director General of Sharjah Museum Authority, sits at the helm of 16 museums documenting and consolidating the cultural heritage of the region. They discuss the “inner workings” of a museum director and why Manal...
On this week’s episode we caught up with friend of The Lighthouse, furniture and product designer Nada Debs. Coming from a lineage of Lebanese textile traders who settled in Japan at the turn of the century, Nada grew up with a sense of dissonance as one of the few...
