Meet Our Speakers
Uncover breakthrough insights from IDC experts and exclusive sessions featuring influential voices transforming technology and leadership today
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Speakers
Ranjit Rajan
Vice President, Research (META)
IDC
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Ranjit Rajan
Event Sessions
One Day Event 11:05 am
IDC Keynote: The CIO Agenda Reset: What’s Changing for Technology Leaders in the GCC
Attendees will gain insights into new priorities around resilience, data sovereignty, multi-cloud strategies, and talent transformation as CIOs navigate an increasingly AI-first, regulation-driven, and fast-growing digital economy.
Shakeel Baig
Specialized Solutions Sales Leader, Saudi Arabia
ServiceNow
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Shakeel Baig
Event Sessions
One Day Event 11:20 am
Anchored in Intelligence: AI, Data Sovereignty & Resilience in Shifting Economies
The rules of the digital economy are being rewritten. As Gulf economies navigate an era of unprecedented change, the ability to harness AI while maintaining control over data and digital infrastructure has never been more critical. AI is the new currency of power — and for organizations across the region, harnessing the value whilst maintaining sovereignty and resilience is no longer optional; they are strategic imperatives.
Join ServiceNow as we examine the strategies, technologies and practices needed to build intelligent, sovereign and resilient foundations — ones that withstand disruption and drive sustainable long-term growth.
Ask Questions and stand a chance to win exciting e-gift vouchers.
Tolga Tutel
Field CTO, Middle East & Africa
ServiceNow
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Tolga Tutel
Event Sessions
One Day Event 11:20 am
Anchored in Intelligence: AI, Data Sovereignty & Resilience in Shifting Economies
The rules of the digital economy are being rewritten. As Gulf economies navigate an era of unprecedented change, the ability to harness AI while maintaining control over data and digital infrastructure has never been more critical. AI is the new currency of power — and for organizations across the region, harnessing the value whilst maintaining sovereignty and resilience is no longer optional; they are strategic imperatives.
Join ServiceNow as we examine the strategies, technologies and practices needed to build intelligent, sovereign and resilient foundations — ones that withstand disruption and drive sustainable long-term growth.
Ask Questions and stand a chance to win exciting e-gift vouchers.
Ahmed I Farrag
Chief Technology Officer
IBM
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Ahmed I Farrag
Event Sessions
One Day Event 11:50 am
Doing More with Less: Balancing Cost Pressures While Sustaining Innovation
This session highlights how organizations can optimize costs without slowing innovation. It explores strategies such as smart cloud spending, prioritizing high-impact initiatives, automation, and efficient resource allocation.
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Samer Hasan
Senior Solutions Engineer, Strategic
Cloudflare
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Samer Hasan
Anirban Mukherjee
Director of Solutions Architecture, Middle East & North Africa (MENA)
Red Hat
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Anirban Mukherjee
Event Sessions
One Day Event 11:35 am
Cloud That Doesn’t Stop: Architecting for Availability When It Matters Most
This session highlights how to design cloud systems for high availability and resilience. It covers key practices like fault isolation, multi-region architecture, automated recovery, and observability. Attendees will gain practical insights into building systems that stay reliable and responsive—even during failures or peak demand.
Ask Questions and stand a chance to win exciting e-gift vouchers.
Dr. Alexey Sidorov
Chief Data Evangelist and Data Management Director
Denodo
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Dr. Alexey Sidorov
Dr. Alexey Sidorov was born with the “Passion for Data” programmed in his DNA.
Alexey started his carrier 30-years ago building volumetric model of radioactive pollution of Chernobyl nuclear disaster Zone with Russian Academy of Science and since then earned his reputation as the strategic adviser in all aspects of Data Management.
Prior joining Denodo as Chief Evangelist, Alexey built and managed enterprise-wide Data Integration platforms for industry giants like Nokia and Deutsche Bank. In the last 15 years Dr Alexey has been helping many companies across 3 continents to Digitally Transform their business with the edge-cutting Data technologies from Teradata and Informatica.
Tareq Momani
Head of Systems Engineering, Middle East
Infoblox
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Tareq Momani
Tareq Momani, Head of Systems Engineering for the Middle East at Infoblox, is a cybersecurity and business strategy leader with nearly 20 years’ experience guiding organizations through complex transformation and building digital resilience.
Cliff Madru
Vice President, Digital Solutions
Iron Mountain
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Cliff Madru
| With a unique passion for technology, data and information management, Cliff Madru has built a successful career as a high performing digital solutions and services leader.
In his current role as the VP of Iron Cloud and Data Services, he runs cloud services and a team of Digital experts that help businesses develop and execute strategic initiatives which enable digital transformation and business evolution. This includes complex solutions involving digitization, information governance, content management, and data protection for digital assets. This solution design expertise requires a depth of knowledge around traditional and advanced technologies, from physical infrastructure to cloud, data indexing to advanced ML & AI, tape backup to advanced cyber protection and most everything in between. Cliff has been working with technology and information systems his entire career and has held roles as the Director of Technology for multiple start-ups. With this history and his constant engagement with customers, he understands the needs and challenges today’s businesses face around digital information management. Cliff holds degrees in Computer Systems Engineering and Information Systems Management, graduating first in his class and with highest honor.
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Event Sessions
One Day Event 12:50 pm
Governance, Protection and Resiliency in the era of AI
This session highlights the challenges of managing a rapidly expanding global datasphere, expected to reach 175 zettabytes by 2025. With most data unstructured and recently created, organizations face growing complexity, data sprawl, and security risks, even as AI unlocks valuable insights.
He introduces two frameworks. The 5-Step Value Pyramid helps organizations move from data storage to value creation: identifying useful data, migrating from legacy systems, optimizing storage, automating workflows, and leveraging AI for insights. The 3-2-1-0 Resiliency Standard strengthens data protection by ensuring multiple copies across different media, including one air-gapped, with zero recovery errors.
The presentation concludes by emphasizing Iron Mountain’s integrated approach to physical and digital data management, combining sustainable data centers and advanced restoration capabilities to support AI readiness while ensuring strong governance and long-term data protection.
Ask Questions and stand a chance to win exciting e-gift vouchers.
Faye Murray
Field Chief Data Officer (EMEA)
Dataiku
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Faye Murray
Faye Murray is Field Chief Data Officer (EMEA) at Dataiku and a strategic leader in data and AI, with over 15 years of experience driving transformation across organisations from start-ups to $1B+ enterprises.
She specialises in helping organisations move from AI ambition to execution, delivering measurable outcomes including seven-figure cost savings and significant ROI on AI investments. Faye is known for bridging the gap between business and technology, advising C-suite leaders on AI strategy, governance, and scaling data-driven innovation in complex, regulated environments.
A regular keynote speaker, she shares insights on AI governance, digital transformation, and ethical innovation.
Faye holds degrees in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge and an Executive MBA with Distinction from Warwick Business School.
Tom Gamali
Field CTO & Strategic Advisor, MEA-TRC
Splunk
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Tom Gamali
Tom Gamali is a seasoned Technology Executive and cybersecurity leader with over 20 years of experience driving strategic security and technology initiatives across Europe and the Middle East. He has served as Group CISO for several leading banks and major conglomerates, and has been a member of board risk committees for financial institutions, advising on cyber risk and digital resilience.
Tom is currently Field CTO and Strategic Advisor at Splunk and has also served on the EMEA Advisory Council for (ISC)², contributing to the advancement of cybersecurity leadership and professional standards across the region.
Event Sessions
One Day Event 1:05 pm
From Risk to Resilience in the AI Era
The role of the CISO is expanding faster than ever. AI adoption is accelerating, regulatory pressure is intensifying, and boards expect clearer answers on risk, resilience, and return on security investment. At the same time, CISOs face growing personal accountability while still being expected to enable innovation rather than slow it down.
In this executive level session, let us unpack the key findings from The CISO Report 2026: From Risk to Resilience in the AI Era and explore what they mean for security leaders
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Rob Greenman
Principal Sales Engineer
Ping Identity
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Rob Greenman
Rob Greenman is Principal Sales Engineer at Ping Identity, where he helps enterprises design and deliver secure, seamless digital identity experiences. Drawing on extensive professional services consulting and leadership experience across EMEA, he brings a delivery-focused, consultative approach to pre-sales, partnering with customers to translate complex identity, access management and Zero Trust requirements into practical, scalable architectures that accelerate value. Rob has extensive experience guiding organisations through modernisation initiatives, from legacy access environments to cloud-first, standards-based identity solutions. He is known for aligning technology decisions with measurable business outcomes, enabling improvements in security, customer experience and sustainable growth.
Akshay Dalal
Head of Regional Risk and Compliance, UAE
Google Cloud
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Akshay Dalal
Akshay Dalal is a risk and compliance leader with a proven track record of enabling global
organizations to scale securely across diverse and dynamic markets. With extensive experience
spanning multiple industries and geographies, he specializes in building and operationalizing
solutions that navigate complex regulatory environments. His work is instrumental in protecting
revenue and enabling strategic growth for a multi-billion dollar book of business.
As the Head of Risk and Compliance for Google across the region, Akshay operates at the
intersection of regulation, strategy, and innovation. In this role, he is responsible for ensuring safe
operations, fostering responsible growth, and building trusted engagement in some of the
world’s most rapidly evolving markets.
Akshay holds an MBA from the University of Oxford and a Bachelor of Engineering from the
University of Delhi. He has also pursued his CFA up to Level II. A passionate community leader,
Akshay was the first MBA student to be elected President of St. Catherine’s College MCR at
Oxford. He currently also serves as the Head of the UK and EMEA chapter of the Old Sanawarian
Society.
Event Sessions
One Day Event 12:35 pm
Google Cloud Resilience
Google Cloud’s approach to resilience is founded on its global, architecturally robust network, spanning 43 regions and 130 zones, and its deep Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) expertise, focusing on minimizing failure impact and duration. Utilizing this platform (“Resilience ON the Cloud”) involves a shared responsibility model, requiring customers to deploy critical applications using multi-zone and multi-region architectures to ensure rapid, automated failovers and high availability. The deck reviews enterprise Disaster Recovery (DR) strategies categorized by risk protection and RTO/RPO, including Backup & Restore, Pilot Light, Warm Standby, and Multi-Site Active/Active. Finally, the presentation emphasizes Google Cloud’s built-in Security, Privacy, and Compliance, detailing global certifications, a zero-trust model (BeyondProd/BeyondCorp), and specific customer controls over data through features like default encryption, Data Residency, and Access Transparency.
Ask Questions and stand a chance to win exciting e-gift vouchers.
Ahmed Afrose
Head of Customer Engineering UAE, Levant and North Africa Dubai, UAE
Google Cloud
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Ahmed Afrose
A highly accomplished individual with 24 years of impactful technology, integration, leadership and professional services delivery in the UAE. Ahmed brings a wealth of experience from leading organizations such as Siemens, Fujitsu-Siemens and Cisco Systems. At Google Cloud, he is focused on leading a team of experienced customer engineers delivering tangible business outcomes through cloud transformations for customers across UAE, Levant and North Africa.
During his tenure at Cisco, he held roles including Enterprise Architect and Solutions Architect, leading end-to-end transformations. Notably, he co-authored two editions of a Data Centre Design certification guide and received the Cisco-Press Author Badge. Ahmed has a strong track record of leading cross-functional teams, providing technology architectural guidance, and delivering pre-sales and professional services.
His leadership also extends to training and mentoring high-performing teams. With a Bachelors from Manchester Metropolitan University, MBA from Imperial College Business School and a PG Diploma in Digital Business from MIT Sloan and Columbia Business School, Ahmed combines strong technical acumen with strategic business insight. He is a strategic and influential technology leader capable of driving significant organizational advancement.
Event Sessions
One Day Event 12:35 pm
Google Cloud Resilience
Google Cloud’s approach to resilience is founded on its global, architecturally robust network, spanning 43 regions and 130 zones, and its deep Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) expertise, focusing on minimizing failure impact and duration. Utilizing this platform (“Resilience ON the Cloud”) involves a shared responsibility model, requiring customers to deploy critical applications using multi-zone and multi-region architectures to ensure rapid, automated failovers and high availability. The deck reviews enterprise Disaster Recovery (DR) strategies categorized by risk protection and RTO/RPO, including Backup & Restore, Pilot Light, Warm Standby, and Multi-Site Active/Active. Finally, the presentation emphasizes Google Cloud’s built-in Security, Privacy, and Compliance, detailing global certifications, a zero-trust model (BeyondProd/BeyondCorp), and specific customer controls over data through features like default encryption, Data Residency, and Access Transparency.
Ask Questions and stand a chance to win exciting e-gift vouchers.
Bilal Issa
Technical Manager, Gulf
TrendAI
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Bilal Issa
Bilal Issa is currently technical manager for TrendAI in Gulf , with more than 15 years, Bilal has accumulated technical in-depth experience in cyber security, cloud, infrastructure and applications.
Event Sessions
One Day Event 1:20 pm
Beyond Digital Ghosts: Defending the New AI Attack Surface
As organizations embrace Agentic AI enterprise applications, the attack surface is shifting from traditional system access to complex identity replication and new vulnerabilities are introduced. In this session, we will explore the evolving AI security landscape and how proactive AI innovations, like Trend Cybertron, are transforming defense. Attendees will discover a comprehensive blueprint for securing the entire AI lifecycle. We will discuss safely managing the secure end-user AI journey, and enforcing real-time guardrails for AI applications Finally, we will unpack how to fortify underlying AI factory infrastructure using TrendAI AI security stack.
Ask Questions and stand a chance to win exciting e-gift vouchers.