Omid Bahrami was born in Iran. He has practiced karate since the age of six. After having done his military service in Iran, he came to Portugal where he has lived for the past decade. He continued his sporting activities at Clube Atlético de Queluz, where he won various national and international titles. He studied Physiotherapy and Chinese Medicine at the Higher School of Traditional Chinese Medicine. He participated in a European project run by ISCTE in the field of combating social exclusion among young homeless persons and in a study on Sexual Violence among Refugees, at Egas Moniz Hospital, in partnership with Gent University, Belgium. He is a Tai Chi teacher in the Falagueira-Venda Nova Parish Council and participates in the RefugiActo theatre group. Since February 2017, he has worked as an education monitor at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.

Hugo Menino Aguiar is a co-founder and board president of the Fazer Avançar Association, co-founder of SPEAK, mentor of social projects, and a mentor at IES – the Social Business School. Hugo is also a global shaper appointed by the World Economic Forum, recognised by INSEAD as one of the three best young social entrepreneurs with greatest potential in Portugal and by UNAOC as one of the top twenty in the EURO-MED region. Before embarking full time on the challenges of the Fazer Avançar Association, Hugo, with a Master’s Degree in IT Engineering awarded by the Nova University of Lisbon was an assistant professor. He has received research and study grants. He worked in research and development at OutSystems before moving into marketing. He then switched to Google, dividing his time between Dublin and California to work as an online community specialist in 17 different languages. He has received a golden globe for his productivity and efficiency and since promoted to product manager.