Leslie Jump
Sawari Ventures, LLC
Leslie Jump has twenty-five years experience building, advising and investing in new companies, products and brands, in the US and across the globe. She is a Partner in Sawari Ventures, LLC, a Cairo-based early stage venture capital firm investing in entrepreneurs across the Middle East/North Africa. She coaches and mentors emerging technology entrepreneurs, providing them with business and operational expertise. She also advises graduates of Flat6Labs, Sawari Ventures’ dedicated startup accelerator for seed stage investments. In addition to her work with Sawari Ventures, she is the co-founder of Cazeema Partners, a consulting firm which offers market, risk, and financial assessments to companies and organizations seeking to do business in the Middle East. She provides early/growth stage technology companies with strategic planning as well as marketing, business development and fundraising expertise.
Between 2002 and 2003, Leslie led the development of donor and volunteer programs for Network for Good, an e-philanthropy web site, and a joint venture of AOL, Cisco and Yahoo! Prior to that, she was the Chief Marketing Officer and member of the founding management team of Inter.net, an international Internet Services Provider, where she managed the development and implementation of marketing programs in more than 15 markets worldwide. In 1996, as the Vice President and Managing Partner of USWeb/CKS, Leslie conceived, launched and led the marketing analytics business unit at the firm, a leading global integrated marketing services company. She was previously a Director at MCI Telecommunications, where she led a team of over 100 individuals responsible for consumer and business marketing programs. She is an alumna of St. Johns College (Annapolis, MD/Santa Fe, NM), and serves on its Board of Visitors and Governors. She also serves on the Boards of Startup Weekend, a global network of entrepreneurs and startup community leaders, as well as the Touchstones Discussion Project.
