Jyoti Lalchandani is a seasoned business executive with more than 25 years of experience in emerging markets across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). In his role as IDC’s Group Vice President and Regional Managing Director for the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa (META), he has been instrumental in establishing IDC’s presence in the region – first, through the initial expansion of the Dubai headquarters and then by spearheading the development of IDC offices in Johannesburg, Istanbul, Riyadh, Casablanca, Lagos, Nairobi, and Cairo.

Jyoti is responsible for the planning, development, implementation, and coordination of IDC’s market intelligence and advisory services, sales, conferences and events, go-to-market services, and office development activities across the META region. As a respected authority on emerging market tech trends, he is also regularly invited to speak at major industry events throughout the region and is frequently quoted by both the national and international media.

His field of expertise includes key tech areas such as cloud, analytics, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things, and he is well known for providing guidance on digital transformation strategies for the entire C-suite. He is a trusted advisor to senior executives in the supplier/enabler space across the ICT ecosystem, as well as to tech buyers from the CIO and line-of-business communities.

Starting at IDC’s CEMA (Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa) headquarters in 1995 in Prague, the Czech Republic, Jyoti served as IDC’s regional consulting manager. In this role, he headed several country-based project teams that advised local and multinational IT vendors on issues relating to entry strategy, competitor analysis, ROI analysis, distribution and partner evaluation, and market segmentation. He later took on the additional responsibility of overseeing the CEMA software practice, in which he was responsible for overseeing all related research (applications, system infrastructure, and tools) and advisory work across emerging EMEA countries.

Before joining IDC, Jyoti served on the national board of international non-profit organization AIESEC, where he managed the association’s partnership agreements with leading Indian conglomerates. He graduated from Loyola College, India, where his studies focused on strategy management and business policy. He later attended a corporate-sponsored program at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts.

Linus Lai is a member of the Asia/Pacific Software and Services Research Group. He has more than 20 years of IT experience in the region. Based in Sydney, Australia, he has experience in several cloud, software, and services programs in Asia/Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ), which covers a wide range of technology and services markets across 13 countries.

In this role, he is responsible for providing insights and analyses in enterprise adoption, integration, and management of these solutions. This includes sourcing strategies, vendor selection, and identifying emerging trends in business and technology solutions across technology buyers in the region. Linus is a founding member of IDC Asia/Pacific’s Emerging Technology Advisory Council and is a recipient of numerous awards for country, regional, and quality research contributions. In his previous role as head of research in Southeast Asia, he developed and grew IDC’s presence in the region.

Linus is frequently quoted in various publications and media outlets and is a regular presenter at industry forums, client events, and strategic workshops. Prior to joining IDC, Linus worked with a large outsourcing service provider that focused on retail banking solutions.

Linus holds a master of science degree from the University of Lincoln, United Kingdom.