CIO Summit Middle East

24 Mar – 25 Mar 2027 Dubai
CIO Summit Middle East

CIO Summit Middle East

The CIO Shift 2027

Resilience, Risk, and Reinvention

24 Mar – 25 Mar 2027 Dubai

Celebrating 20 years of Leadership, Innovation & Impact

As the IDC Middle East CIO Summit marks its 20th edition, it stands as a milestone moment for the region’s technology leadership community. Over the past two decades, this summit has built a strong legacy of bringing together CIOs, business leaders, government officials, and industry visionaries to explore the trends, challenges, and opportunities shaping the future of enterprise technology in the Middle East.

 

From technology operator to business strategist and resilience leader: The CIO mandate is being reinvented. As AI becomes embedded in every business function, success is measured by enterprise value delivered, not technology deployed. The 2027 CIO Summit will explore how leaders are repositioning strategy, governance, and operating models to lead autonomous enterprises and build architectures fit for a sovereign, AI-driven future. CIOs lead two transformations at once – scaling AI while building sovereign architectures that their national agendas demand. 

Key Trends Shaping AI Investments

Generative AI uptake / Agentic AI proliferation

Explosion of GenAI solutions; proliferation of agentic AI platforms

IoT/Edge AI

Deployment of AI solutions for smart cities, infrastructure, public safety, and sectoral
operational efficiencies.

Sovereign AI and data architecture

Escalating demand for sovereign AI infrastructure and data platforms

AI factories

Growth of prebuilt accelerators, use case libraries, and COEs

Integrated AI business platforms

Shift from individual AI use cases toward platform-driven strategies

Ecosystem-led co-innovation

Strong shift towards co-innovation with services providers, technology hyperscalers,
academia & start-ups

Responsible, ethical, and explainable AI

Client demand for explainability, fairness, and bias monitoring

AI talent and upskilling

Investment in AI & data science academies, partnerships with universities, bootcamps &
internal AI programs

Get Ready to be Inspired: Announcing our Keynote Speaker

Keynote
9:05 am

The CIO Shift 2027: Resilience, Risk, and Reinvention

Meredith Whalen | IDC

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Meredith Whalen

IDC Middle East Advisory Council 2026

H.E. Mohammad Hassan

H.E. Mohammad Hassan

Executive Director, Statistics & Data Science Sector

UAE Federal Competitiveness & Statistics Centre

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Yazeed Alotaibi

Yazeed Alotaibi

Deputy Minister for E-Health and Digital Transformation

Ministry of Health (MOH)

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Ahmad M. Al Mulla

Ahmad M. Al Mulla

Chief Technology Officer

Emirates Water and Electricity Co. (UAE)

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Latifa Al Shehhi

Latifa Al Shehhi

Director of Investment Data Department & Chief AI Officer (CAIO)

Ministry of Investment (UAE)

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Eng. Huda Ahmed Mohsen

Eng. Huda Ahmed Mohsen

Chief of Information Technology

Ministry of Information (Bahrain)

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Mai B. AlOwaish

Mai B. AlOwaish

Chief Executive Officer

Kuwait Credit Information Network Company (CINET)

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Essa Haidar

Essa Haidar

Chief Technology Officer

Ooredoo (Kuwait)

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Mounir Abdelmoujoud

Mounir Abdelmoujoud

Executive Director, Group Technology

Aldar (UAE)

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Thuraya Al Harthi

Thuraya Al Harthi

Director, Government Unified eServices Portal

Ministry of Transport, Communications, and Information Technology (Oman)

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Jayesh Maganlal

Jayesh Maganlal

Chief Information & Digital Officer

ROSHN

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Manoj Bhojwani

Manoj Bhojwani

Chief Information Officer

Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (UAE)

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Srinivasan Sampath

Srinivasan Sampath

Head of GTTO Business Intelligence & Planning

First Abu Dhabi Bank (UAE)

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Saud Al Dhawyani

Saud Al Dhawyani

Group Chief Platform Officer

Emirates NBD (UAE)

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Mamoun Al Homssey

Mamoun Al Homssey

Chief Information Officer

Doha Bank ( Qatar)

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Eng. Sultanah Aljaser

Eng. Sultanah Aljaser

Chief Information Officer

Princess Nourah Bint Abdul Rahman University (PNU)

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Dr. Akram Nour

Dr. Akram Nour

Chief of Digital Transformation

Misk Foundation

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Yousef Al Mazeedi

Yousef Al Mazeedi

ICT Director

Capital Markets Authority (Kuwait)

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Ramez AlFayez

Ramez AlFayez

Chief Information Technology Officer

King Abdullah Financial District

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Dr. David Millan

Dr. David Millan

Chief Data & AI Officer

Department of Culture and Tourism (UAE)

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Eng. Mohannad AlSalmi

Eng. Mohannad AlSalmi

Chief Information Officer

Flyadeal

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Fatma Al Sowaidi

Fatma Al Sowaidi

IT Director

Qatar Financial Centre Regulatory Authority (QFCRA)

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Giovanni Everduin

Giovanni Everduin

Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer

Commercial Bank International (CBI) (UAE)

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Mohamed Abdel Razek

Mohamed Abdel Razek

Senior Executive Vice President, Group Head of Technology, Transformation & Information

Mashreq Bank (UAE)

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Paul Potgieter

Paul Potgieter

Head of Middle East & Turkiye

Atos

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Andrew Murphy

Andrew Murphy

Chief Information Officer

Abu Dhabi Airports (UAE)

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Saket Saith

Saket Saith

Group Chief Technology & Data Officer

RAKBANK (UAE)

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Hans Peter Buse

Hans Peter Buse

Vice President Digital & IT

EDGE Group (UAE)

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Nayef Bardeesi

Nayef Bardeesi

Deputy Mayor of Holy Makkah for Digital Transformation

Holy Makkah Municipality

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Eng. Meshal Bin Hussain

Eng. Meshal Bin Hussain

Director of Digital Transformation & Chief AI Officer

Ministry of Finance (UAE)

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Antonietta Mastroianni

Antonietta Mastroianni

Chief Information Officer

e&

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Partner

2026 Partners

Event Highlights 2026

Venue

Grand Hyatt, Dubai

Grand Hyatt Dubai Convention Centre
Sheikh Rashid Rd – Umm Hurair Second – Dubai

Celebrating its landmark 20th edition, the Middle East CIO Summit returns to the Grand Hyatt Dubai on 24th–25th March 2027. Held across the Baniyas and Al Ameera Ballrooms, the summit brings together the region’s top technology leaders for two days of insight, innovation, and networking.

Knowledge Hub​

FutureScape 2026: Building Trust, Resilience, and Prosperity in the Agentic Future

How organisations can embed trust, governance, and resilience into AI systems to ensure they operate reliably, transparently, and at scale in the agentic economy.

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An IT Tech Leader's Guide Through the Agentic Pivot

Agentic AI will enhance the capabilities of more than 40% of enterprise applications by 2027. How IT and business leaders are governing, costing and scaling the shift.

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Three Forces Shaping the Future of IT Leadership

The CIO is now the chief orchestrator of the intelligent enterprise. The ten IDC predictions defining the agentic, quantum-aware and edge-intelligent enterprise.

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