Karim Strougo
ZEN Conference President Karim Strougo, Founder and President of the SAFE Convention TM, and Founder and Managing Partner of STEP Center, is also the President of SAFE Academy, the first International Fitness Education Academy in the Middle-East. Karim is also a renowned fitness presenter and an AFAA CEU Provider.

A renowned Fitness Therapist, Karim is also certified in both Group Exercise and Personal Training from the Aerobics & Fitness Association of America (AFAA) and has a long experience in working with clients suffering from medical and/or physiological problems.

Karim is also the creator of QuickSlim® based on his now famous IBM technique (Integrated Body Mechanics®), a revolutionary training method, which helps people drop in size in record time and without dieting!

As an educator, Karim Strougo is the founder and author of the first Egyptian course in fitness education entitled “Primary Certification in Physical Education & Aerobics TM”, which was a revolutionary landmark in fitness education in Egypt and lead to a boom in the number of certified Egyptian instructors. In 2006, Karim also released the first edition of his Personal Training book entitled “Personal Training: A broader look on exercise TM”, which is the official manual for his now famous personal training course by the same title.

In 2009, Karim published a new revised and updated edition of his first course manual, which he renamed “The Professional Group Fitness Instructor’s ManualTM”. This new edition has been almost entirely rewritten to include some of the latest findings and researches in health and fitness worldwide.

In October 2010, Karim is launching his new book “Pilates: The SAFE Way™”, which will be the basis of SAFE Academy’s new Pilates Instructor Training Course by the same name.

Karim believes that “With determination, today’s dreams are tomorrow’s reality”.

Tracy Jennings-Hill
Tracy Jennings Hill ventured into her yoga practice after an injury caused the physical challenge of sciatica to arise.  As a way to help maintain a healthy and balanced lifestyle she began dabbling in different disciplines of yoga, later discovering the YogaFit style. 

She has studied in Rishikesh, India, the birth place of yoga and now travels internationally teaching yoga.  She understands the value of the mind/body connection, and is a fitness professional, embodying all aspects of the profession, instead of using her BS in Human Resource Management. 

In addition to having completed her R. Y. T., she has been an  AFAA certified group fitness instructor for over 11 years, where she now focuses on indoor cycling, dance, and pre-programmed muscle strength and endurance training. 

She also is an AFAA/ACE Certified Personal Trainer and has managed group fitness programs at several fitness facilities throughout the United States.

Mohamed Essa
Essa is a Kung Fu practitioner from more than 17 years, he scored the 6th African position in an International Wu Shu Kung Fu competition. He has started meditation around 15 years ago by following the Kung Fu Taoist Meditation School. He is a direct disciple of Grand Master Mantak Chia the famous Taoist Master, 2nd disciple of Grand Master Choa Kuk Sui the founder of the pranic healing and direct disciple of Grand Master Wang De Ming for Xing Yi Quan Kung Fu.

Essa has more than 5 years of experience in healing people with Meditation from, he helped many people to get over there stress , anxiety , colon problems , knee problems , kidney problems and many serious ailments.

Essa is also the founder of the Dynamic Meditation group in Egypt, establishing Dynamic Meditation as a healing technique and a way to transform negativity into vitality.

Essa has trained more than 500 students on his Meditation system.

Senior Software Engineer at IBM
Universal TAO Instructor
Pranic Healing Instructor
Meditation Instructor and Mentor
Certified Chinese Massage Therapist
Certified in Chi Kung Healing
Certified in Pranic Crystal Healing - GMCKS
Certified in Pranic Healing Psychotherapy
Certified Hypnotherapist
Certified Practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming
Certified in Reiki
Certified Kung Fu Coach

You can know more about Essa from his website http://www.exeeralhayat.com

Anna-Louise Sebborn
Anna Louise has been involved in the fitness industry now for the past 25 years. She first visited the gym at the age of 15 years and by the time she was 19 years had become Overall British Student Power Lifting champion. By her early twenties she qualified as a Power Lifting and weight lifting referee and became the youngest female senior British Amateur Weightlifting coach in the U.K and held several Power Lifting records.

She moved to Cairo as a teacher in 1994 but left teaching in 1998 for a full time career in the fitness industry, joining the original American management team at Gold's Gym, Maadi, when the gym originally opened. She later decided to set up her own personal training studio in Maadi in 2002 and last year, 2009, opened a 2nd branch in Zamalek.

Over the years she has also become a qualified aerobics instructor and nutrition consultant, which helps her role as fitness consultant and personal trainer. She now  specializes in constructing individualized training programs for clients of all ages and fitness levels, from sports specific regimes for athletes to weight loss programs for the out of shape and fitness programs for those recovering from various injuries. She owns and runs Body By Design Personal Training Studios in Egypt and works as a free lance consultant for other gyms in Egypt providing training for instructors, master classes, advice for implementing fitness systems and setting up new gyms. She also lectures, presents workshops and works as a fitness consultant for corporate programs in connection with exercise and nutrition.

Adham Hafez
Transdisicplinary artist, researcher and pedagogue, engaged in a lot of practice and theory around semiotics, alternative body sciences, rituals and new hybrid artistic forms.

Adham creates dance performances, publications, concerts, installations, lectures, workshops, and what's in between.

Teacher of "Contemporary Dance" and "Performance Theory" at the American University in Cairo, founder and program director of "HaRaKa project for dance development and research", and one of the very few Ayurveda instructors in Egypt, working creatively with possible reinterpretations of older philosophies.

He has produced a large number of artistic productions, that tour the Arab Speaking World and Europe. As a lecturer and instructor he is invited to present his researches on the intersections between rituals, arts, science and philosophy through various formats, at different leading international institutes.

Adham Hafez is also an awarded musician and choreographer by the Cairo Opera House, Egyptian Ministry of Culture, Bibliotheca Alexandrina, and is a member of the UNESCO's "Conseil International de la Danse", and a grantee of "International Leadership Program" of USA, and was recently selected as the "Young Performing Arts Entrepreneur of the Year" by the British Council in Egypt.

He is currently authoring a book on "Dance Education in the Middle East" to be launched during 2011.