Matt Eastwood is Senior Vice President of IDC’s enterprise infrastructure, cloud, telecom, security, developers, channels and enabling technology research groups. Mr. Eastwood and his team research people, process and technology trends affecting the enterprise technology marketplace worldwide. Mr. Eastwood first joined IDC in 2000 as part of the server team and his responsibilities have evolved and expanded during his tenure. In his current role, he leads a team of more than 100 analysts providing insights and analysis to IT suppliers, buyers, investors, and distributors through more than 75 syndicated research programs. Mr. Eastwood also leads IDC’s BuyerView primary research programs which are focused on defining emerging trends in cloud, developers, service providers, edge, AI and security.

Mr. Eastwood joined IDC in 2000. He provides in-depth market analysis, research, and consulting on all aspects of the enterprise infrastructure marketplace to IT professionals, investors, resellers and technology suppliers. During his tenure at IDC, Mr. Eastwood has led IDC primary research focused on emerging trends in enterprise systems and data centers. This primary research allows IDC to make continuous assessments regarding how customers are deploying and using enterprise infrastructure power digital transformation. Recent topics covered in Mr. Eastwood’s research include: Software Defined Infrastructure, Integrated infrastructure, Convergence, Disaggregated Infrastructure, Virtualization & Automation, Cloud Computing, High Availability, Platform Migration and Datacenter Workloads. Mr. Eastwood also serves as IDC’s lead analyst covering Dell and VMware.

Prior to joining IDC, Mr. Eastwood worked for twelve years as a senior project manager and environmental consultant at CDM Smith in Boston. Mr. Eastwood was responsible for managing the planning and design of large environmental infrastructure projects including wastewater collection and treatment facilities. In addition, Mr. Eastwood served as Operations Manager of the firm’s New England practice.

Mr. Eastwood received a bachelor’s degree in Civil/Environmental Engineering from Northeastern University in Boston and earned his MS in Engineering Project Management from WPI in Worcester, MA. He is a Registered Professional Engineer (PE) in Massachusetts.

Markus Leberecht has spent his career at Intel holding a variety of individual and managerial roles in technical sales since joining the company in June 2006. He is member of the EMEA Chief Technology Office as a specialist in cloud service provider infrastructure and its security. He holds a doctorate degree from the University of Technology, Munich, Germany, an MSEE from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, and is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP).

Charles Chebli is a senior executive operating at the intersection of artificial intelligence, sovereign cloud, and national digital transformation strategies across the Middle East and Africa.

As Managing Director UAE and Head of AI Cloud MEA at Qualcomm, he leads the regional strategy to position AI as a core economic and infrastructure layer, driving large-scale partnerships with governments, sovereign entities, and global technology leaders to enable next-generation AI ecosystems.

Charles brings a proven track record of building and scaling strategic businesses from inception to multi-billion-dollar impact. During his career, he established and grew one of the region’s most critical AI companies into a global top-tier portfolio, delivering significant revenue growth while shaping the foundations of sovereign AI infrastructure.

He is recognized for his ability to translate emerging technologies into board-level value creation, advising on AI investment strategy, infrastructure economics, and ecosystem development. Through his work, he has contributed in a practical way to the Gulf region’s evolving AI journey, in line with national efforts on economic diversification and digital sovereignty.

Charles holds a Master’s degree in Artificial Intelligence for Public Services, and is a frequent advisor and speaker on AI as critical infrastructure, enterprise transformation, and the future of intelligent economies.

Mark Hailes is the co-founder and Chief Technology Officer at Dstation, serving as the technical visionary who drives the strategy and engineering behind the company’s most complex builds. Specializing in architecting highly scalable digital products, Mark has fostered a culture of engineering leadership that balances cutting-edge innovation with architectural stability. By seamlessly bridging the gap between high-level business goals and robust technical execution, he ensures that every solution built is inherently future-proof. Under his technical stewardship, Dstation delivers resilient, forward-thinking platforms engineered to scale seamlessly alongside their partner’s evolving business needs.

Murad Abu Abed is an AI Field Technical Director at Cohesity, specializing in enterprise AI, data security, and sovereign data architectures across the Middle East. With over 20 years of experience in data management, cybersecurity, and solution architecture, he helps organizations unlock the value of their data while ensuring strong governance and compliance.

He focuses on enabling AI adoption in regulated industries, ensuring data sovereignty, resilience, and security are built into enterprise AI strategies by design.

Aaron is the Senior Vice President for the Middle East and Africa, leading Advisory Services at SecurityHQ. With over a decade of cybersecurity experience, he has worked across sectors including financial services, retail, insurance, government, and telecommunications. A GIAC Certified Defence Analyst (GCDA), Aaron brings deep expertise in incident response, threat hunting, vulnerability management, security operations, threat intelligence, and cybersecurity consultancy. He is dedicated to helping organisations enhance resilience and navigate today’s evolving cyber threat landscape.

Dr. Alexey Sidorov is the chief evangelist at Denodo. He was born with a passion for data programmed in his DNA and began his career 27 years ago building a volumetric model of radioactive pollution within the Chernobyl nuclear disaster zone for the Russian Academy of Science. He has since earned a reputation for being a trusted strategic adviser across all aspects of data management. Prior to joining Denodo, Alexey built and managed enterprise-wide data integration platforms for industry giants like Nokia and Deutsche Bank. In the last 15 years, he has been helping many companies across three continents to digitally transform their businesses with cutting-edge data technologies from Teradata and Informatica.