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
Jyoti Lalchandani
Head of WW Events & MD – META, Central Asia, India
IDC
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Jyoti Lalchandani
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.
Michael Yeo
Associate Research Director, Financial Insights
Asia/Pacific IDC
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Michael Yeo
Michael Yeo is the Associate Research Director for IDC Financial Insights and Retail Insights in the Asia/Pacific region. Mr. Yeo’s core research coverage focuses on payments including the uptake of mobile payments in the Asia/Pacific region, digital banking, and the evolution of joint digital ecosystems involving ecommerce, mcommerce, and payments. Mr. Yeo has also significant experience in advising financial institutions on their fintech management strategies, placing particular emphasis on organizational and technology restructuring within banks to better cope with the demands of current-generation digital customers.
Prior to IDC, Mr. Yeo headed all financial services–related research at KPMG Malaysia. Previously, he served as a project manager at an advisory firm in China, where he advised multiple international clients with their China market entry strategies. Mr. Yeo started his career in an advisory role for financial services at Ernst and Young.
Credentials:
- B.A Accounting and Economics from the University of Reading, United Kingdom
- Frequent speaker in the region on mobile payments and digital ecosystems. Contributor to major global and regional media outlets including CNBC, South China Morning Post, Straits Times, and Global Finance
Event Sessions
One Day Event 5:05 pm
IDC Keynote: The Great Reset: Redefining Financial Services in the UAE
The UAE’s financial sector is undergoing a fundamental reset, driven by new banking law, open finance regulation, and the FIT Programme. Drawing on IDC’s latest MEA BFSI research, this keynote explores the strategic choices facing banks and fintechs as they navigate compliance, reimagine business models, and race to deploy AI and open APIs at scale.
Eren Eser
Associate Research Director, Türkiye
IDC
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Eren Eser
Eren is a seasoned analyst with 20+ years of experience in the ICT sector. He directs all IDC ICT research and consulting engagements in Türkiye, and all sustainability research and consulting projects across the Middle East, Türkiye, and Africa (META).
Based in Istanbul, Eren has been involved in projects ranging from market forecasts to strategic consulting engagements on market entry, competitive analysis, go-to-market strategies, technology marketing, and end-user studies. Eren’s vast experience in the IT services, cloud, software, and telecommunications domains helps IDC clients understand the impact of technology-enabled, sustainable transformation processes in the context of sustainable digital business strategies, operations, products, and services. In addition to his research and consulting activities, Eren is a speaker at industry events.
Prior to joining IDC in 2017, Eren spent more than a decade in IT industry roles spanning portfolio management, channel and business development, pricing, and software development at companies including Turk Telekom and TAI.
Eren earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical and electronics engineering and an MBA focused on technology road mapping for strategy and innovation, both from Middle East Technical University. He received a master of science in information systems, with a thesis on modeling mobile telecommunications services, from Middle East Technical University. During his academic endeavors, he studied for one semester at the University of Copenhagen, and for one semester at Harvard University. He is pursuing a marketing PhD focused on sustainability.
Melih Murat
Associate Research Director, Artificial Intelligence (META)
IDC
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Melih Murat
In his role as associate research director for IT services and software across the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa (META), Melih drives IDC’s regional research and consulting engagements in the areas of IT services, Cloud, artificial intelligence (AI), and intelligent automation.
He first joined IDC in 2012 as a senior research analyst located out of IDC’s Istanbul office, with various responsibilities for the firm’s IT services, cloud computing, software, and telecom domains — both in Turkey and across the wider META region. Between 2016 and 2021, Melih headed the international marketing and investor relations practice at P.I. Works, a global automation and AI software vendor that serves telecom operators.
Now back at IDC, Melih is leveraging his vast experience in the IT services, cloud, software, and telecommunications domains to advise clients on go-to-market strategies, technology marketing and promotion activities, and market trends analysis. He is also driving a wide variety of research and consulting projects across the META region.
Melih has also previously served as enterprise channel and marketing manager at Nortel Turkey and as business development and strategy manager at Netaş, one of the leading systems integrators in Turkey and a former Nortel subsidiary. He possesses a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and received his MBA from Esslingen University of Applied Sciences in Germany. He has worked as a business development specialist at HP and wrote his MBA thesis for the company, covering European retail channel trends and winning strategies for channel businesses.
Harish Dunakhe
Senior Research Director, Software & Cloud (META)
IDC
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Harish Dunakhe
Harish Dunakhe leads IDC’s research & advisory practice for the software program in the Middle East, Africa, and Turkey (META) region.
He is responsible for a team of research analysts and manages the delivery of insights in IDC’s software program and syndicated research. Harish and his team have expertise in studying technology trends to provide our clients with thought leadership and actionable insights. He is based in Dubai.
Harish has a strong understanding of leveraging technologies to solve business problems in the public sector, travel & transportation, hospitality, IT, and retail. He has significant knowledge of emerging technologies such as blockchain, RPA, artificial intelligence, and cloud. He works with clients to understand the intricacies, opportunities, and challenges involved in their technology transformation journeys.
Harish brings more than 17 years of experience working with leading system integrators and other technology companies across the Middle East, South Asia, and India. Prior to joining IDC, he held senior roles spanning technology sales strategy, program governance, and large account business planning at Global MNCs such as Wipro, DXC Technology, and Sonata Software.
Dr. Christopher Lee Marshall
Vice President, Financial Insights
IDC
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Dr. Christopher Lee Marshall
Dr. Chris Marshall is Program Vice President for IDC Asia Pacific, responsible for the Analytics, Big Data and Artificial Intelligence practice. Dr. Marshall’s core research coverage includes the development of Data Analytics and Machine Learning competencies and their implications – the threats and opportunities facing organizations as they seek to augment and automate their knowledge-based work.
Previously, Chris was a senior executive in IBM Watson Financial Services where he led their AI-enabled risk and analytics practice in Asia. Before joining IBM, he held senior business development and management roles in big data and analytics at KPMG, Oracle and UBS.
- MA in Theoretical Physics from Cambridge University.
- MBA from University of Chicago
- Doctor of Business Administration from Harvard Business School
- Professor of Computer Science at National University of Singapore.
- Co-Founder and Director of NUS Program for Research in Intelligent Systems
- Co-Founder and Director of NUS Risk Management Institute
- Author of widely used textbook on Operational Analytics
- Frequent speaker, presenter and moderator at industry conferences