As the Regional Director of Microsoft Cloud and Productivity Solutions, Ihsan Anabtawi leads Microsoft's business across cloud, productivity, communications, enterprise social and other information services in Gulf. His organization plays a key role in driving the agenda of digital transformation for commercial customers and partners to harness the great business impact of Microsoft innovative technologies on their businesses. In addition to that, Ihsan oversees the overall strategy, financials, operations, business management and marketing functions for a wide range of products and services across both business and consumer segments, led by Office 365, one of the fastest-growing cloud services in the industry.

Anabtawi joined Microsoft in 2004 and has taken over a number of roles in Microsoft's global sales, marketing and operations organization. Previously, he served in the same capacity covering the North Africa, Eastern Mediterranean and Pakistan region spanning 12 countries. Ihsan also served as the Marketing and Operations Manager for the Microsoft subsidiary in Jordan, and before that as a Technology Strategist in both Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Anabtawi holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the University of Jordan, and received executive education from INSEAD and the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He lives in Dubai with his wife and two children.

Matt is a digital brand engagement specialist passionate about leveraging technology to deliver meaningful experiences & relationships between people and products. Originally from a consultancy background, Matt has worked with many of the world’s leading brands across Europe, Asia and Middle East. Today, Matt is responsible for Dubai Airports' digital strategy & ecosystem and is tasked with defining the role of technology as an enabler of positive customer experiences & relationships.

Bhanu Shekhar is Chief Digital Of cer, GE Power (MEA). Prior to that Bhanu was Global Business Leader for Power Quality in GE's Power Conversion business. He has 12+ Years of experience in GE; starting with Aircraft Engines in 2002 and then receiving Lean Black Belt Certi cation for implementing Project Management practice in India. Bhanu's recent roles include building out GE Power Digital Business in MEA. In this role Bhanu will locate to the UAE. Bhanu earned Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering from Mysore University. Bhanu likes to travel and has interest in reading about History.

A leader with major operating tenets as driving technology transformation through thought leadership, innovation, analytics & delivering value to stakeholders.

Anshul is a global technology leader who has been instrumental in driving technology transformations for businesses in the range of too multi Billion USD as revenues. He has been key player at organizations which have been on an average 30% growth year on year in a career spanning almost two decades.

Currently in a leadership role as Chief Information Of cer Information Technology and Digital Of cer, leading the IT Strategy, Technology Transformations, Analytics, software delivery, architecture and Cloud for Union Insurance (UAE and Oman) across all lines of Business (Life, General (P&C;) and Health Insurance) Creating and Driving big strategic Initiatives aligning through IT transformation to deliver business value.

Won couple of Star Performer of the Year Awards from AXA India & thrice has been awarded the AXA innovation award both at AXA Asia and AXA Group level. CIO of the year award, InfoSec Maestro Award, CSO Next of the year award. CISO award from MESA.

Anshul writes a lot on Innovation, Big Data, Digital and Transformations and couple of publications are available in CNME, Data quest, LinkedIn and PM Network.

Ramez Dandan leads Microsoft's Digital Transformation enablement efforts with key customers in the Gulf by helping them translate and bridge how Cloud technology, policy and business model opportunities can empower every person and every organization in the region to achieve more.

Ramez has over 28 years of experience in IT, Telecom and Biotech across MEA. Prior to his current role at Microsoft Gulf, Ramez led Microsoft's regional Open Source Software initiative and prior to that served as Microsoft Kuwait's General Manager.

Over the years Ramez held a variety of senior sales, marketing and business development leadership roles. Before joining Microsoft, Ramez was the MEA Marketing Director at LifeScan (Johnson & Johnson). Prior to that, Ramez worked with Ericsson in Saudi Arabia managing the enterprise and consumer markets, and with Sun Microsystems ME as Regional Sales and Marketing Director.

Ramez holds a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Tennessee in the USA.

Manoj Karanth leads Big Data Analytics and Cloud Solutions for Mindtree's Digital Business. He works with Global 2000 clients to accelerate their cloud-first journey and become insight-driven businesses using Cloud-native technology platforms of Mindtree. Manoj has built the technology center of excellence with leading Cloud and Data Analytics partners to deliver differentiated digital solutions. He has lived Cloud and Product Engineering through his nearly 2 decade career.

Mr. Carlos Domingo, Ph.D., has been Chief New Business & Innovation Of cer at Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company PJSC since May 2015. Mr. Domingo has been the Chief Executive Of cer of Telefonica I+D and President of Telefonica I+D at Telefonica, S.A., since April 2012. Mr. Domingo served as the Chief Executive Of cer of Telefonica I+D and President of Telefonica I+D at Telefónica International, S.A.U., since April 2012. He is a Venture Partner at The Telegraph Hill Group LLC and looks after Dubai. Previously, he was a Venture Advisor at the rm In 2008, he was awarded the 'National Award to the Professional Career' granted by the Computer Science Engineers Association in Spain. With more than 15 years of experience in the software and telecommunications world, he has spent a big part of his professional career in Japan and USA. He has two decades of experience as a C-level executive, President, Chairman and Board Member for large and startup technology companies like Mobily. Mr. Domingo holds a PhD in Computer Science from the Polytechnic University in Catalonia, a M.Sc. in Computer Science from the Tokyo Institute of Technology, and EMBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Gopi Krishnan (known as Krish) is a seasoned Banking & Technology professional with successful track record of spearheading technology and business transformations for the past 19+ years. As an experienced change agent who is passionate about leading "Business Turn-around" situations, he has been helping executive management to get the best return on their technology investments and to use technology as a competitive advantage. His career includes key management positions in Citi group, Fidelity Investments, First Gulf Bank, Bank Muscat International and Qatar Islamic Bank. He is currently serving as Chief Information officer at Al Hilal Bank in UAE.

Voted CIO of the Year across all Financial Institutions in MENA by MEFTECH in March 2016, Krish is well known in Banking industry for his thought leadership in running IT like a Business and leading Business / Digital Transformation journeys. He regularly delivers keynote speeches in global conferences. Krish has an Postgraduate Diploma (MBA) from IIMM, India and has also garnered various industry certifications on IT & Information Security.

Dr. Ahmed has a combination of hands on practical work experience and solid educational experience. He has more than 21 years of experience in the Computer Science discipline, 15 years of them are in the Telecom sector.

In 1998, Dr. Ahmed has obtained his Master in Computer Science from Old Dominion University and in 2002, he has obtained his Ph.D. from the same school. While working on his Ph.D., he has worked as a Research Assistant at from 1997 to 1998, and at NASA Langley Research Center, from 1998 to 2000 in which he was involved in a wide range of network and distributed computing activities. He joined then Trendium (Telco Solution Provider) from 2001 to 2002 as Senior Member of Engineer working on the design and implementation of OSS platform.

From 2003 to 2015, he joined the Telecom sector in Saudi Arabia working at STC as CRM Technical Lead, and then mobily where he played several roles ending up with the Chief Technology Operations Of cer looking after IT and Network. He also managed Corporate Affairs which covers all enterprise governance functions such as Enterprise PMO; CEX; Process Excellent and Quality; and Risk Management and Business Continuity.

Dr. Ahmed Altheneyan is currently working at Saudi Ministry of Defence, Minister Of ce as CIO and Technology Advisor.

Chidi is the Chief Digital Of cer at Atlas Mara where he drives the Innovation, Digital Financial Services and Financial Inclusion agenda across their growing banking operations in Africa.

Prior to that, he was with Bharti Airtel International as Director & Africa Head for Airtel Money, with responsibility for Mobile Money businesses across 17 countries in Africa. While at Bharti, he built Airtel Money to become one of the largest providers of Retail Financial Services in Africa with 12m active (90Day) customers and over 100m and $2B in monthly transaction count and value.

Before Bharti Airtel, he was the Division Executive for Retail Banking at United Bank for Africa Plc, overseeing Personal and Business Banking in 19 countries. He earlier had a 2 year stint with Accenture as a Senior Consultant in the Strategy and Business Architecture. Chidi holds a BSc Finance and an MBA from the University of Nigeria. He also graduated from the Sloan MSC program of the London Business School as a Chevening Scholar.

Gulf Air, the national carrier of the Kingdom of Bahrain, has appointed Dr. Jassim Haji as the Director of Information Technology Division since August 2011. He currently serves on the board of directors of a leading hospitality and tourism technology provider in the Middle East and on SITA Council representing Middle East and North Africa.

Dr. Haji has been instrumental in implementing some key innovations at Gulf Air's IT systems and processes in recent times, most notably, the introduction of advanced technology for Gulf Air World Wide Contact Centre, Cloud Computing, Business Intelligence, Disaster Recovery Centre, Green Technology, In-house Oracle R12 upgrade, Big Data, Electronic Flight Bag and deploying tablets to cabin crew for on-board services plus ISO 27001, 9001, 20000, 240001 and 50001 certifications that have helped further improve customer interface services as well as cost efficiency to the company. He managed to achieve thirty-seven top Middle-Eastern technology awards for Gulf Air, including twelve CIO distinguished awards.

Dr. Haji received his Doctorate in Business Administration (PhD) from the University of Northumbria at Newcastle, UK in 2010. He has completed his Master degree in Management of Information Technology from the University of Sunderland, UK and graduation in telecommunications from the famed Cable and Wireless College, Cornwall, UK.

He started his career with Sprint Telecommunications in London before joining Gulf Air in 1985. He then moved to EDS as an Executive Director, another American IT solutions company with global presence, when Gulf Air moved its outsourcing services and grew within the ranks to become the Executive Director of EDS. When Gulf Air brought back its IT services, Dr. Haji also moved back to Gulf Air and became the Head of Information Technology Infrastructure in 2008 and then he was appointed as the Director of Information Technology Division in August 2011.

Dr. Didier Bonnet is a Corporate Vice President and Global Practice Leader at Capgemini Consulting. He also acts as the Executive Sponsor for Capgemini's Digital Transformation offering, a key strategic initiative including a six-year joint research collaboration with the MIT Sloan School’s Initiative on the Digital Economy.

Prior to this, Didier was the Global Leader of the Telecom, Media & Entertainment practice at Capgemini Consulting for 15 years. He has more than 25 years' experience in strategy development, globalization, internet & digital economics as well as in business transformation for large multinational corporations.

Didier has been published by the Harvard Business Review and the Sloan Management Review and is frequently quoted in the press, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Financial Times and The Economist. He also regularly provides commentary for broadcasters such as the BBC, CNN, Reuters and CNBC. Didier graduated in business economics from a French “Grandes Ecoles” and earned his Doctorate from New College, University of Oxford. He is based in London.

Didier is co-author of the best-selling book: Leading Digital: Turning Technology into Business Transformation, published by Harvard Business Review Press. Leading Digital makes the provocative argument that the next phase of digital technology adoption will make everything that’s happened so far look like a prelude. Based on researching over 400 global corporations, Leading Digital presents the DNA of Digital Masters, those companies that have mastered digital transformation to gain strategic advantage. What strategy to adopt; Where and how to invest in digital; and how to lead the transformation?

Follow Didier on twitter @didiebon

E-mail address: [email protected]

Steve is a leading global digital transformation expert with almost 20 years' experience using data and technology to design and deliver customer centric digital disruption platforms that create new and integrate previously siloed capabilities to enable ground breaking and award winning solutions. Repeatedly tapped to design new leading & differentiating global multi-channel customer centric data and technology strategies, assess the impact / benefits of new technologies and implement products and solutions that beat the competition by offering superior features, services, and both end user and shareholder value. Expert in translating emerging technologies into bottom-line business benefits. Steve brings a unique combination of both strategy & design AND proven disruptive transformation delivery capability. Previously Steve has been Joint MD & CTO of WPP's Data Alliance, CIO of Mindshare, CSO of Acxiom and CTO of Digitas.

Tariq Al-Osaimi joined the National Bank of Kuwait in 2016 as an Assistant General Manager of Innovation and Digitalization he is responsible for leading the Bank's digital strategy. He is responsible for setting the bank digital strategy to drive growth by converting traditional analog businesses to digital ones using the potential of modern online technologies, analytics and data, and at times oversees operations in the rapidly changing digital sectors like mobile applications, social media and related applications, as well as wild web-based information management and marketing.

Prior to joining the National Bank of Kuwait, Tariq was a Chief Information Officer at Kuwait Credit Bank responsible for IT strategic planning, project management services and web development practices. In a prior role, Tariq worked for Kuwait Investment Company managing multiple system implementation initiatives focused on core banking; payment systems; online trading; telecommunication; and consultation services for subsidiary company's Tariq holds a BS degree from the Oregon State University School of Engineering and leadership training programs from Harvard University.

Aditya is Vice President and Head of Messaging & Broadband Solutions at Mahindra Comviva. He has more than 17 years of rich industry experience across business and engineering leadership for market leading products in Enterprise and Telecom. Before joining Mahindra Comviva, Aditya led the Product Management for the Email Security business at Cisco with a focus on renewing the portfolio strategy and driving topline growth. Prior to Cisco, he was associated with Nokia Siemens Networks (now Nokia) in various roles in Policy Control and IMS. Aditya has been an entrepreneur in the mobile VAS space and has 5 patents in his credit.

In his current role, he is in charge of establishing Comviva as a leader in next generation messaging, data VAS and customer experience, helping CSP's in their digital transformation.

Ritesh Varma is the Head for Organisation Transformation Consulting Services for Europe, ME and Africa (EMEA) for Newgen Software. Over the last 17 years, Ritesh has been working with multiple BFSI players across the globe. Some of his recent accomplishments include coming with the concept of "Virtual Service Centres" for organisations. Currently he is working on the next generation Customer Experience Management which would improve the overall positioning of the organisation and in turn catapult it to the next level. He has travelled far and wide in the region and in his free time enjoys getting to appreciate the different cultures that he comes across.

An International Expert on Strategic Innovation & Digital Transformation with an extensive regional experience of more than 18 years covering 20 countries in the Middle East & Africa working with multi-national corporations, the private sector and public sector on topics related to transformation strategies using innovation.

Holding 10 International Awards, publisher of 6 books and Living an influential life where his thoughts, visions and teachings reach more than 400+ thousand followers from around the world on a daily basis through Books, Articles, Quotes, Podcasts and Social Interactions, along with International Public Speaking engagements.

Cristian Citu is based at DHL's global headquarters where he’s focusing on the design and implementation of the group digital transformation agenda. Previously he's been managing digital marketing programs as a mix of strategic brand initiatives and lead generation campaigns and he also spent time in Singapore for the Asia Pacific regional office. He joined the yellow logistics giant after a few years in consulting, where he worked with a wide range of customers from industries like IT, telecom, automotive, pharma or retail. Follow him sharing insights on digital transformation at @TheChiefDigital and www.chief.digital

Kripal Attawar (Kapi), as Executive Vice President of BCT, supports BCT's key initiatives specifically aimed business development in the US along with handling Marketing and large strategic accounts.

Kapi has over 20 years of high technology international executive experience in the industry. He spent two decades running International Marketing and Alliances for various high technology companies. As Vice President of Alliances in Oracle Communications Alliances, Kapi drove its leadership and teams across the world covering System Integrator, Network Equipment Provider and ISV partners. He then transitioned into Corporate Alliances and Channels at Oracle headquarters to run global System Integrator relationships with a focus around strategies for Cloud, IoT, Security and BI in high growth markets.

Kapi spent six years with Rover Cars and Vickers Systems in the U.K., introducing breakthrough computerized and MRP technologies to increase efficiencies. He served as the Head of Strategic Technology Alliances of IDS Scheer AG since February 2007 and was responsible for developing and maintaining global technology partnerships in the U.S. Mr. Attawar serves as a Member of Advisory Board at Wireless Glue Networks, Inc.

Kapi holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Loughborough, UK and a Masters from the University of Salford in the U.K.

Jakub Polec holds a position of Oracle Regional Digital Transformation Leader for Middle East and Africa region. During last 5 years, he was involved in defining digital strategy for the largest Oracle customers and support them in delivering digital journeys to grow their businesses and create new / innovative business models based on Oracle technology. He’s got extensive experience in Telco, Retail, Banking, Public Sector and E-Commerce industries. Has worked for France Telecom, T-Mobile, Microsoft, also being a Senior Consultant in the biggest Think Tank in Poland – Center of Adam Smith. Settled down his own startup in the area of Artificial Intelligence and Semantic Technologies, which he has successfully sold to Venture Capital Investment Found prior to joining Oracle. He has finished with distinction High Energy Physics at Warsaw University, and also conducted his PhD high energy physics in CERN, Geneva.

Having worked in the Social space within MENA for the last 10 years, Brett is responsible for growing presence in MENA & UK regions for Conversocial, a cloud solution that enables businesses to deliver customer service over social media at a large-scale.

Conversocial is used in the contact centres of hundreds of major retailers, banks, telcos, and other brands to enable them to manage the high volumes of complaints and questions they're receiving through social networks like Facebook and Twitter.