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By 2026, 40% of all G2000 job roles will involve working with AI agents, redefining long-held traditional entry-, mid-, and senior-level positions.
leaders driving digital transformation in AI, cloud, cybersecurity, and automation. Its highlight, “The Power 50,” recognizes CIOs delivering exceptional business impact. The event combines award celebrations with talks from industry speakers and IDC analysts, spotlighting the CIO’s expanding role in Türkiye’s digital economy.
A gathering of tech leaders exploring digital innovation in Türkiye, celebrating excellence and the CIO’s growing strategic role.
The event will spotlight:
Through the IDC CIO Excellence Awards 2026, IDC intends to honor those organizations and IT leaders that have conceptualized and successfully delivered digital transformation initiatives that brought about tangible results.
The Power 50: Recognizing Excellence in IT Leadership
The CIO is evolving from an IT operator into a strategic business leader — using technologies like AI, cloud, and analytics to drive growth, collaborate across the C-suite, and lead organizational change.
Eren Eser | IDC
Associate Research Director, Türkiye
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.
The CIO is evolving from an IT operator into a strategic business leader — using technologies like AI, cloud, and analytics to drive growth, collaborate across the C-suite, and lead organizational change.
Gungor Bingul studied Mathematical Engineering at Yıldız Teknik University and MBA at Yeditepe University. In 1997 he started his career as System Network Pecialist at BIM A.S., between 1998 and 2000 worked at Uzel Makina as SAP System Manager. Since 2004 Mr. Birgul is working at Korozo A.Ş. as CIO.
He received his bachelor’s degree in Management Information Systems from Boğaziçi University. He worked as Business Analyst & Project Manager in Turkcell and Türk Telekom (Avea). In 2010, he worked as a Business Development Manager and Miles & Smiles Loyalty Program & CRM Department Manager roles at Turkish Airlines. In 2012, he joined Teradata as Senior Industry Lead and managed Telecommunications and Media sector in Turkey as well as within EMEA region. In particular, he served in the area of large data and analytics solutions for more than 3 years, and was appointed as the Vice President of Digital Services at Turkish Airlines in 2016 January. He managed digital channels & services of Turkish Airlines and Anadolujet brands and the airport passenger systems. On November 1, 2018, he joined Vakıf Katılım Bankası as Chief Information Officer, responsible for information technology and digital banking.
Gökhan Gökçay is Senior Vice President responsible for Digital, Payments and Data Technology in Akbank. He considers ‘information’ as a shared corporate asset and aims to produce solutions generating value and actionable insight. Prior to Akbank, Gökhan was SVP responsible for Information, Customer and Workflow Management solutions in Yapi Kredi, and the head of Financial Services industry in NTT Data Turkey where he delivered transformation programs for leading banks and telcos. He also worked for other technology consulting companies such as CSC and Siemens Nixdorf, and served large corporates such as Lloyds Bank, Barclays Capital and Legal & General. Gökhan has Bachelor and Master’s degrees in Computer Science from Boğazici University.
Proving the business value of AI has become the defining challenge of the enterprise AI era. Traditional ROI models, built for predictable IT investments, fall short when applied to AI initiatives that reshape workflows, accelerate decisions, and create entirely new revenue streams. IDC predicts that by 2027, 55% of G1000 CIOs will be tasked with creating enterprise AI value playbooks featuring expanded ROI frameworks that capture efficiency, growth, and innovation impact. This panel brings together senior CIOs to unpack what those playbooks look like in practice, how to instrument AI investments, communicate value to the board, and translate model performance into tangible business outcomes.
Born in 1967 in İstanbul, Kemal Kaplan graduated from Akdeniz University Electronic Engineering department. He worked in Sony, Netaş, Pimaş and Yapı Kredi Bank as a specialists and in Esbank, Etibank, ZB and HSBC Bank as an administrative. He has participated in various projects about reconstruction, integration of financial organizations, call-centers, credit-cards, ATM and banking applications/technologies and health application/technologies. Besides his studies on mobile technologies, wearable technologies and Research and Development projects, during various seminars he has been sharing his experiences on health technologies with the industry. He works as a technological consultant in some public organizations on behalf of Acıbadem Sağlık Grubu. He’s a member of the Board of Management of Life Sciences and Information Technologies in Health Organization. He currently works as an Information Technologies Director in charge of technological management in Acıbadem Sağlık Grubu hospitals, university and all subsidiaries.
Proving the business value of AI has become the defining challenge of the enterprise AI era. Traditional ROI models, built for predictable IT investments, fall short when applied to AI initiatives that reshape workflows, accelerate decisions, and create entirely new revenue streams. IDC predicts that by 2027, 55% of G1000 CIOs will be tasked with creating enterprise AI value playbooks featuring expanded ROI frameworks that capture efficiency, growth, and innovation impact. This panel brings together senior CIOs to unpack what those playbooks look like in practice, how to instrument AI investments, communicate value to the board, and translate model performance into tangible business outcomes.
Proving the business value of AI has become the defining challenge of the enterprise AI era. Traditional ROI models, built for predictable IT investments, fall short when applied to AI initiatives that reshape workflows, accelerate decisions, and create entirely new revenue streams. IDC predicts that by 2027, 55% of G1000 CIOs will be tasked with creating enterprise AI value playbooks featuring expanded ROI frameworks that capture efficiency, growth, and innovation impact. This panel brings together senior CIOs to unpack what those playbooks look like in practice, how to instrument AI investments, communicate value to the board, and translate model performance into tangible business outcomes.
Proving the business value of AI has become the defining challenge of the enterprise AI era. Traditional ROI models, built for predictable IT investments, fall short when applied to AI initiatives that reshape workflows, accelerate decisions, and create entirely new revenue streams. IDC predicts that by 2027, 55% of G1000 CIOs will be tasked with creating enterprise AI value playbooks featuring expanded ROI frameworks that capture efficiency, growth, and innovation impact. This panel brings together senior CIOs to unpack what those playbooks look like in practice, how to instrument AI investments, communicate value to the board, and translate model performance into tangible business outcomes.
Examines how Gulf nations are building sovereign cloud infrastructure and data centers, offering a blueprint Turkish enterprises can follow as they balance AI ambitions with data residency and sovereignty requirements.
Outlines how regional CIOs are strengthening business continuity, cloud resilience, and crisis response amid geopolitical instability, offering a practical readiness framework Turkish technology leaders can apply to their own risk planning.
Breaks down how tightening data sovereignty regulations are reshaping telecom and cloud strategy across EMEA, a trend directly relevant to Türkiye’s own data localization rules and growing infrastructure investment priorities.
Summarizes the latest quarterly EMEA IT spending data, highlighting where AI investment is accelerating fastest, insight Turkish CIOs can use to benchmark their own 2026 technology budgets against regional peers and priorities.
Explores how telecom operators across the region are shifting from pure network providers to AI-driven intelligence platforms, a transformation shaping Türkiye’s connectivity and digital infrastructure roadmap through 2026 and well beyond.
Details how regional geopolitical instability is forcing enterprises to rethink business continuity, cyber resilience, and supply chain risk, lessons directly applicable to Turkish organizations building resilience into their 2026 strategies now.
KoçSistem, one of the leading players in information technology sector, summarizes its corporate mission by the motto “Your imagination is our strength”, and helps its customers to attain their goal of sustainable growth rate with its strategy “creating a difference” by providing them unique technology solutions and outsourcing services. KoçSistem has been one of the leading companies in the field of information technology solutions in Turkish Information Technologies Sector since 1945. In accordance with the approach “end to end services”, KoçSistem has adopted the principle of providing service beyond expectations of the customers with its customized special technological solutions.With its service centers throughout Turkey, KoçSistem provides unconditional customer satisfaction by managing information effectively and appropriately, taking position against global competition, targeting to turn its customer’s imaginations into reality, using its rapid and solution-based system and gaining confidence from its experience of 65 years. In order to perpetuate its unique position in Turkey, KoçSistem combines its corporate capabilities and creativity with the power of the world’s largest technology producers and providers by establishing strategic joint ventures. In the 2009 report of IDC, KoçSistem ranked 2nd in the Turkish Information Technologies Services Market. KoçSistem grew by 30% (on the basis of Turkish Lira) at the end of 2009 in comparison with the previous year.
OBSS is an engineering-led technology consultancy helping organizations modernize, scale, and operate mission-critical systems with greater control and predictability.
Backed by more than 20 years of engineering and delivery expertise, we work across technology consulting, cloud and transformation, data and AI, operational excellence, and end-to-end product delivery. By combining enterprise-grade delivery discipline with an AI-native approach, we enable faster, more controlled, and repeatable outcomes.
With 1,000+ engineers and offices in London, Amsterdam, Baku, Istanbul, and Ankara, OBSS serves complex, high-volume, and regulated industries at scale.
Established in 2004, Argela is a technology company specializing in telecommunications, research and development, and next-generation communication technologies. By combining innovation with industry expertise, Argela develops advanced products and solutions for today’s market while continuously exploring emerging technologies and future opportunities.
Argela plays an active role in 5G initiatives and the development of 5G-enabling technologies, generating intellectual property (IPR) and delivering innovative solutions that shape the future of communications.
Its diverse portfolio supports the telecommunications, government, and defense sectors, helping organizations enhance operational efficiency, improve user experience, and unlock new business opportunities. Argela also collaborates with leading technology companies, industry consortia, and universities worldwide to develop and deliver integrated solutions.
Argela’s solutions portfolio includes Software-Defined Networking (SDN), Programmable Radio Access Networks (RAN), Network Performance Monitoring and Subscriber Analytics, Small Cell Solutions for public and defense networks (3G and LTE), Cloud-Based Video Surveillance, and Signaling Applications.
With a strong international presence across Central Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, Argela has established multiple deployments with telecommunications operators. In Türkiye, the company also delivers public safety solutions for government and defense organizations.
Through continuous innovation, strategic partnerships, and a commitment to technological advancement, Argela continues to contribute to the evolution of next-generation communication networks and mission-critical solutions.
İşNet, a subsidiary of İşBank, celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, continues its activities with its strong corporate structure, customer-oriented approach and dynamic, experienced teams. Since the beginning of the 21st century, İşNet has been providing quality, sustainable and reliable services to companies aiming with its ‘Technology for People’ focused approach, end-to-end infrastructure services and wide range of services.
At Eclit, we offer managed IT solutions with the help of more than 20 years of experience as a holistic business partner.
We provide managed IT services to companies of all sizes by using our own technology platforms and the largest and most reliable cloud infrastructure of Turkey.
We manage the IT services of 56% of e-invoice archives, 45% of insurance policies and 40% of retail e-commerce businesses in Turkey.
With a vision of setting the Managed Services industry standards in Turkey, we simplify complex IT processes thanks to our expert human resources and technological structure.
VBM is a pioneering technology company founded in 2015 and the first partner of UiPath in Türkiye. It delivers innovative RPA and AI solutions, driving transformation across industries, particularly in finance. With Diamond partner status and international awards, VBM continues to grow, offering high-value hyper-automation solutions to clients globally.
Asseco South Eastern Europe (ASEE), a member of the Asseco Group — Europe’s 6th largest software company with 33,000 employees operating in 59 countries — ranks among the leading IT companies in its region in terms of software and service revenues. With more than 4,100 employees across 27 countries and delivering solutions in 13 languages, ASEE continues to strengthen its position as a regional technology leader. ASEE Türkiye, building on its strong experience dating back to 1991, provides software solutions under its own brand, distributed products, and integration services to banks, private pension and insurance companies, financial leasing firms, telecom operators, airlines, and leading enterprises from various industries.
Intelligence Center X is Siemens’ agentic enterprise system, empowering companies to embed agents alongside people with the context, intelligence, orchestration and governance they need to deliver AI-driven business impact.
Siemens Xcelerator helps organizations digitally transform using software, hardware, services and the comprehensive digital twin to enable companies to optimize their design, engineering and manufacturing processes to turn today’s ideas into the sustainable products of the future. From chips to entire systems, from product to process, across all industries.
Founded in 2012, Mobven is a technology company specializing in mobile technologies and digital transformation. From its beginnings as a promising startup, Mobven has grown into an award-winning company, recognized by Deloitte as one of the fastest-growing technology firms in the EMEA region for four consecutive years.
With a strong focus on innovation, quality, and technical excellence, Mobven develops high-quality digital products and solutions that help transform industries and empower global enterprises. Its expertise in mobile technology and digital transformation enables businesses to adapt to evolving market demands and create impactful digital experiences.
Driven by a commitment to excellence, precision, and continuous innovation, Mobven fosters a culture that values expertise, creativity, and professional growth, supporting the development of forward-thinking digital solutions that shape the future of technology.
Wguard, with its extensive support and sales team, offers enterprise software solutions in line with today’s rising trends, especially to upper segment institutions in the Finance and Energy sectors. Our solution set includes Monitoring, Inventory Management, Server Dependency Map, Automation, PDPA, Hybrid Cloud Management and Corporate Data Protection and Management solutions.
ICterra is a well-established software engineering company that has been delivering end-to-end software and technology solutions to clients across various sectors such as telecommunications, finance, defense, energy, manufacturing, and public sector in Türkiye and abroad for over 30 years. With more than 150 software development and testing experts, ICterra operates from its offices in Istanbul, Ankara, and Munich, implementing projects and delivering services.
Using the latest technologies and methodologies, the company develops a wide range of software solutions spanning desktop applications, web and mobile platforms, embedded systems, and mission-critical software. ICterra has also delivered numerous successful projects in the field of testing and test automation.
ICterra also provides fast and scalable application development with Mendix low-code platform, RPA and test automation solutions with UiPath, AI-powered assistants and data analytics (BI) solutions, cybersecurity awareness solutions including phishing simulations, and disaster recovery and data backup solutions.
ICterra serves its customers with the most suitable approach through flexible business models such as turnkey projects, managed services, integrated team and resource provision.
Medianova provides global CDN and Cloud security solutions. The Gartner-mentioned company has deep experience in Dynamic Site Caching, Static Content Delivery, Image Optimization, API Caching, Streaming, Hybrid CDN, Cloud Object Storage, Web Application Firewall, DDoS Protection, and Bot Protection.
Riverbed is the only company with the collective richness of telemetry from network to app to end user that illuminates and then accelerates every interaction so that users get the flawless digital experience they expect across the entire digital ecosystem. Riverbed provides two industry-leading solutions: the Riverbed Unified Observability portfolio, which integrates data, insights, and actions across IT to enable customers to deliver seamless digital experiences; and Riverbed Acceleration, which offers fast, agile, and secure acceleration of any application over any network to users, whether they are mobile, remote, or on-premises. Together with our thousands of partners, and market-leading customers across the world, we empower every click, every digital experience. Riverbed. Empower the Experience.
Kron Technologies is a globally recognized leader in the field of cybersecurity, offering a comprehensive range of products focused on Privileged Access Management (PAM) and Data Security. Since its founding in 2007, Kron has served a broad portfolio of clients across 30+ countries on six continents.
Kron’s Identity Security solution, KronPAM, and its Data Security products, KronDAM and KronDDM, work seamlessly on a single platform, helping organizations build a stronger defense against cyber threats. Kron’s innovative cybersecurity solutions not only provide effective protection against security threats but also play a crucial role in enhancing business continuity and operational efficiency.
Listed on Borsa Istanbul since 2012 (BIST: KRONT), Kron Technologies operates offices in Istanbul, Ankara, and Izmir in Turkey, along with locations in the U.S. and UAE, and sales and support operations in Pakistan, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
Cohesity is a global leader in data security and management, dedicated to protecting, securing, and unlocking the value of data. Organizations worldwide rely on Cohesity to enhance business resilience and ensure the availability, security, and recoverability of their critical data.
Its Cohesity Data Cloud platform enables enterprises to recover rapidly from cyber incidents, manage and protect data at enterprise scale, and derive actionable insights through industry-leading AI capabilities. By combining data security, cyber resilience, and intelligent data management in a unified platform, Cohesity helps organizations safeguard their digital assets while maximizing the value of their data.
Platin Bilişim provides proven technologies in Data Protection and Cyber Security to its customers. In addition to traditional cyber security solutions, Platin Bilişim also delivers competent solutions in emerging security areas such as AI Security and Quantum Security.
With 24/7 SOC monitoring services in cyber security, security incidents are continuously tracked and responded to as quickly as possible. Our SOC services, with a vendor-independent approach, cover solutions from industry-leading vendors in SIEM and MDR areas.
MiCloudSW Ltd. (an Affiliate of Midis Group) is Cloud Software Group’s Strategic Partner for the majority of Africa, Eastern Europe and Middle East. A leading technology partner providing managed IT services and consultancy, system integration, cloud and data center capabilities, infrastructure, software, and hardware solutions, the Midis Group serves customers through a network of 170 companies across 70 countries. This expansive network, coupled with the in-territory skills and support infrastructure within the Midis Group, will ensure partners and customers get the backing needed to define and implement superior technology deployments. Regional resellers and distributors in these territories will get fast and easy access to their Cloud Software Group products (the majority of the Citrix and TIBCO solutions), through MiCloudSW, benefiting from its extensive local market knowledge, expertise, and in-country resources.
Vodafone is the telecommunications leader in Europe and Africa. Its networks keep families, friends, businesses and governments connected and play a vital role in keeping economies and critical sectors like education and healthcare running. Vodafone is the largest mobile and fixed network operator in Europe and the world’s largest provider of Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity. It operates mobile and fixed networks in 22 countries and collaborates with partners in 46 other countries in the mobile sector. As of 31 December 2022, it had more than 323 million mobile customers, more than 28 million fixed-connection customers, more than 22 million TV customers and over 150 million connected IoT devices.
Under the Vodafone Business brand, Vodafone provides services to businesses globally and locally, whether it is mobile, fixed or integrated communications, Internet of Things, cloud services, mobile private networks or online security.
In the Czech Republic, Vodafone provides services to more than 4.5 million customers – approximately 3.9 million of them are using Vodafone’s mobile services, while 700 thousand customers use fixed connection services. Vodafone has strengthened its position in this area following the integration of UPC Czech Republic.
The company promotes diversity and inclusion, improves access to education and digital skills, and respects all individuals regardless of race, ethnicity, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, culture or religion.
Vodafone is also taking significant steps to reduce the impact of its business on the planet. This does not only mean buying 100% of electricity from renewable energy sources worldwide, but also its commitment to reuse, resell and recycle 100% of surplus grid equipment from 2025 at the latest. The company is also gradually reducing greenhouse gas emissions from its operations and the supply chain. With these steps, Vodafone aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2040 at the latest.
QuantumGate is a cybersecurity and cryptography company bringing together world-class cryptographers, cybersecurity professionals, researchers, product experts, and operations specialists with experience at leading global organizations, including Intel, Nokia, Mandiant, Barracuda, and other secure systems companies.
Powered by VentureOne, the commercialization arm of the Advanced Technology Research Council, QuantumGate focuses on helping organizations protect their critical data assets in the post-quantum era.
Built on proprietary cryptographic libraries developed by cryptography experts at Abu Dhabi’s Technology Innovation Institute (TII), QuantumGate’s enterprise solutions enable organizations to transition seamlessly from classical cryptography to post-quantum cryptography (PQC).
The company’s technology portfolio is designed to strengthen long-term data security, support cryptographic modernization, and help organizations prepare for the evolving cybersecurity challenges of the post-quantum world.
Kafein Technology, in collaboration with Google Cloud Security, helps organizations modernize security operations with AI-powered detection, investigation, and response. Leveraging Google Security Operations, Google Threat Intelligence, and Gemini, Kafein enables organizations to transform traditional SOC environments into intelligent, automated, and scalable security operations. With deep expertise in SOC transformation, SIEM & SOAR, threat intelligence, detection engineering, incident response, and cybersecurity services, Kafein helps security teams reduce complexity, accelerate investigations, and improve threat detection and response through AI-driven security operations.
OpenText is a leading Cloud and AI company that provides organizations around the world with a comprehensive suite of Business AI, Business Clouds, and Business Technology. We help organizations grow, innovate, become more efficient and effective, and do so in a trusted and secure way—through Information Management.
Konsalt Information Technologies, based in Istanbul, is a software consulting company focused on strengthening the connection between the business operations and information technologies of large enterprises in the banking, insurance, telecommunications, manufacturing, and retail sectors. The company’s core focus areas include enterprise service management (ESM), observability, application performance monitoring (APM), IT automation, Robotic Process Automation (RPA), AIOps (Artificial Intelligence for IT Operations), Containers/Kubernetes, DevSecOps, and PAM (Privileged Access Management). The Konsalt team specializes in providing expertise and guidance to integrate solutions into customer business objectives, aiming to enhance efficiency and effectiveness in complex business environments.
Mellivor is a cybersecurity company delivering advanced threat intelligence and digital risk protection. Combining cutting-edge technology with expert-driven security strategies, Mellivor helps organizations detect vulnerabilities, prevent cyber threats, and build resilient digital infrastructures in an increasingly complex and evolving threat landscape.
Established in 2007 as the Turkey and MENA integrator of Amdocs, the world’s leading Telco Billing & CRM solution, the company successfully delivered implementations across multiple countries. In 2015, the journey continued under the MTEK brand, expanding into software development and consultancy services for leading companies in Turkey.
Enterprisecoding is a Türkiye-based technology company providing IT consultancy, assessment, training and on-site software development services, with deep expertise in DevSecOps, Kubernetes, observability and enterprise open source. As an Elastic Elite Partner and an ISO/IEC 27001:2023 certified organization, it designs, implements and supports Elastic Security and Observability solutions that deliver unified visibility and faster threat detection and response.
Elastic, the Search AI Company, enables everyone to find the answers they need in real time, using all their data, at scale. Elastic’s solutions for search, observability, and security are built on the Elastic Search AI Platform — the development platform used by thousands of companies, including more than 50% of the Fortune 500.
QUASYS headquartered in İstanbul is one of the premier providers of Information Technology Solutions to the market. As stated in our motto “Quality as a Service”, our business philosophy formed to provide the “High Quality” solutions while maintaining a fine balance between quality, cost, and timeline. We do this by delivering the best harmonies of consultants, advisors, proven methodologies, technology and a hard-won philosophy that successful execution is the key to creating a positive ripple effect through an organization in addition to sustainable growth. Our key to success is aligning the right people, processes, and technologies for the specific needs of our clients.
Akamai secures and delivers digital experiences for the world’s largest companies. Akamai’s intelligent edge platform surrounds everything, from the enterprise to the cloud, so customers and their businesses can be fast, smart, and secure. Top brands globally rely on Akamai to help them realize competitive advantage through agile solutions that extend the power of their multi-cloud architectures. Akamai keeps decisions, apps, and experiences closer to users than anyone — and attacks and threats far away. Akamai’s portfolio of edge security, web and mobile performance, enterprise access, and video delivery solutions is supported by unmatched customer service, analytics, and 24/7/365 monitoring. To learn why the world’s top brands trust Akamai, visit www.akamai.com, blogs.akamai.com, or @Akamai on Twitter. You can find our global contact information at www.akamai.com/locations.
Vectra AI is the cybersecurity AI leader in protecting modern networks from modern attacks. The Vectra AI Platform delivers real-time visibility into network activity, clear insight into which behaviors matter most, and the ability to act before risk becomes impact.
Exclusive Networks is a global trusted cybersecurity specialist for digital infrastructure helping to drive the transition to a totally trusted digital future for all people and organisations.
IBM (International Business Machines Corporation) is a global technology company that helps organizations transform their businesses through innovation, technology, and expertise. The company provides solutions across software, artificial intelligence, hybrid cloud, IT infrastructure, cybersecurity, and consulting.
IBM works with businesses, technology partners, developers, and organizations across industries to address complex challenges and create innovative solutions. Its approach focuses on combining advanced technologies with industry expertise to help organizations operate more efficiently, securely, and sustainably.
Exclusive Networks is a global trusted cybersecurity specialist for digital infrastructure helping to drive the transition to a totally trusted digital future for all people and organisations.
TrendAI™, a business unit of Trend Micro and a global AI security leader, empowers enterprises, governments, and organizations with proactive solutions designed to inspire innovation and eliminate risk.
Taking the uncertainty out of security, TrendAI™ protects over 25,000 enterprise organizations and millions of individuals across AI, cloud, networks, endpoints, and devices.
TrendAI Vision One™, the only industry-leading AI security platform that centralizes cyber risk exposure management and security operations across on-premises, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments.
Built for the AI age with world-class threat intelligence, TrendAI™ empowers organizations to reduce cyber risk by 92% and prevent threats three months earlier. AI Fearlessly.
SOCRadar is a cybersecurity company that provides Extended Threat Intelligence (XTI) solutions to help organizations stay ahead of cyber threats. The platform combines external threat intelligence, attack surface management, and digital risk protection in a unified environment.
Their services are designed for security teams, enabling faster incident response, better visibility into threats, and proactive defense against cyber risks.
DECE Software, offers a unique solutions for sensitive data discovery, classification, and data governance through its patented platform, GEODI DSPM, which leverages LLM and NLP technologies. Since 2015, the company has been actively engaged in cybersecurity, providing both public and private sector organizations with regulatory-compliant solutions aligned with GDPR, PCI/DSS and DSPM frameworks.
Arena is Türkiye’s leading technology products distributor, connecting the world’s leading technology brands with the Turkish market through a network of more than 5,000 business partners. The company manages an extensive portfolio of products across information technology, telecommunications, consumer electronics, retail, and e-commerce.
Founded in 1991, Arena has remained committed to introducing innovative products and solutions to the Turkish market. By closely monitoring market developments and anticipating customer needs, the company continues to uphold its mission of pioneering industry firsts and delivering innovative solutions.
Arena was listed on the Istanbul Stock Exchange in 2000. On November 29, 2010, Redington, a global technology distributor operating across India, South Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, acquired shares representing 49% of Arena from its founding shareholders. At the time, Redington reported net sales revenue of USD 4 billion. The remaining 51% of Arena’s shares are publicly held.
ESET® provides cutting-edge cybersecurity to prevent attacks before they happen. By combining the power of AI and human expertise, ESET stays ahead of emerging global cyberthreats, both known and unknown—securing businesses, critical infrastructure, and individuals. Whether it’s endpoint, cloud, or mobile protection, our AI-native, cloud-first solutions and services remain highly effective and easy to use. ESET technology includes robust detection and response, ultra-secure encryption, and multifactor authentication. With 24/7 real-time defense and strong local support, we keep users safe and businesses running without interruption. The ever-evolving digital landscape demands a progressive approach to security: ESET is committed to world-class research and powerful threat intelligence, backed by R&D centers and a strong global partner network.
Wguard, with its extensive support and sales team, offers enterprise software solutions in line with today’s rising trends, especially to upper segment institutions in the Finance and Energy sectors. Our solution set includes Monitoring, Inventory Management, Server Dependency Map, Automation, PDPA, Hybrid Cloud Management and Corporate Data Protection and Management solutions.
VAS Bilişim is a strategic technology partner that supports organizations in creating secure, sustainable and scalable IT infrastructures on their digital transformation journey. Our vision is to be among the leading companies in the sector without compromising on product and service quality and to be a strategic business partner that guides the digital transformation of companies. Our mission is to create 100% customer satisfaction with our experienced team and to provide efficient and sustainable solutions for our customers using the latest technologies.
GraphNode builds enterprise application security tools that integrate directly into development workflows. It combines static application security testing (SAST) with software composition analysis (SCA) to give organizations comprehensive visibility into their code security posture. Founded in 2020 and headquartered in Ankara, Turkey, Graphnode serves enterprise clients across financial services, healthcare, government, and technology sectors. The platform is trusted by over 50 enterprise organizations, including 15+ banks and financial institutions.
With 20 years of experience in the IT sector and a decade-long track record of collaboration, SinerjiBT brings together specialized companies with deep expertise in their respective fields to deliver innovative solutions for organizations.
Building on its strong consulting and systems integration capabilities, SinerjiBT addresses organizations’ technology needs in alignment with their strategic objectives, with a particular focus on software-driven and cybersecurity solutions.
Strong brand partnerships, extensive field experience, and comprehensive expertise in delivering end-to-end solutions enable SinerjiBT to stand out in the evolving landscape of enterprise IT. This expertise encompasses the design and implementation of cloud architectures, integration of cloud environments with cybersecurity solutions, hybrid infrastructure design and configuration, compliance with customer-specific regulatory requirements, and integrated software-defined hardware architectures.
Delinea helps organizations reduce identity-based risk while enabling secure, seamless access across the modern enterprise.
As the identity security control plane, Delinea protects every human, machine, and AI identity with real-time, context-aware access. It replaces static privilege with just-in-time, policy-driven controls that maintain security without slowing down the business.
SECRETO is a distributorship structure based on “focus”, which is the main need of brands. It focuses on quality, not quantity, and values solutions. Established as a result of 20 years of distributorship experience, SECRETO operates in cyber security. It has a working principle that is well-versed in Turkey’s channel structure, knows its business partners very well, has strong end-user communication, and supports business partners and end users with its technical infrastructure, knowledge and equipment.
Exabeam is the leader in Behavior Intelligence for the agentic enterprise. As organizations deploy digital workers and confront machine-speed adversaries, Exabeam applies agent-powered analytics to understand and govern the behavior of both human and non-human insiders. With integrated Exabeam Nova cybersecurity agents, Exabeam delivers flexible, industry-proven solutions for insider threat coverage of humans and agents and faster, more accurate threat detection, investigation, and response (TDIR). As the pioneer of user and entity behavior analytics (UEBA) and the innovator behind Agent Behavior Analytics (ABA), Exabeam is trusted by more than 3,000 enterprises worldwide to reduce risk, secure the digital workforce, and accelerate security operations.
Spiron Technology develops AI-powered voice security and authentication technologies that detect deepfakes and AI-generated voices, prevent fraud, and strengthen trust in voice communication systems.
BEAM Teknoloji is an Accredited Cyber Security Testing and Evaluation Laboratory established in 2011. Founded with the mission to safeguard organizations against the complex landscape of digital threats, BEAM has been providing cutting-edge cybersecurity solutions and services working with multiple clients across various sectors and regions and has played a crucial role in bolstering the cyber resilience of critical infrastructures.
Coslat offers products and solutions that exceed quality standards while upholding the principles of honesty and reliability in information security.
Türk Telekom, the leading communication and convergence technology Company in Turkey, provides integrated telecommunication services from PSTN and GSM to broadband internet. As of March 31, 2010, Türk Telekom group companies have 16.4 mn Fixed Access lines, 6,4 mn ADSL connections and 11.7 mn GSM subscribers. Group companies have a modern network infrastructure covering the whole country and offer a wide variety of services to residential and commercial customers all over Turkey. Apart from 81% shares in Avea, one of the three GSM operators in Turkey, Türk Telekom owns 99.9% of TTNET, Argela, Innova, Sebit, Sobee, and AssisTT companies. Türk Telekom also has an indirect minority share in Albtelecom, the Albanian incumbent telecom operator. 55% of Türk Telekom shares belong to Ojer Telekomünikasyon A.Ş. and 30% belongs to Turkish Treasury. The remaining 15% is publicly traded. Türk Telekom shares are listed in Istanbul Stock Exchange since May 2008.
As an independent, nonprofit, global association, ISACA engages in the development, adoption and use of globally accepted, industry-leading knowledge and practices for information systems. Previously known as the Information Systems Audit and Control Association, ISACA now goes by its acronym only, to reflect the broad range of IT governance professionals it serves. ISACA was incorporated in 1969 by a small group of individuals who recognized a need for a centralized source of information and guidance in the growing field of auditing controls for computer systems. Today, ISACA serves 140,000 professionals in 180 countries.

Advanced By
The economics of enterprise compute have fundamentally changed. New competitive dynamics in server processors and AI accelerators, the rise of hybrid-private architectures, and the growing urgency of sovereign infrastructure are reshaping how organizations evaluate, procure, and deploy datacenter technology.
According to IDC, approximately one-third of META organisations had previously cited “lack of GPUs/servers” as a key barrier to AI/GenAI adoption.
For the first time in over a decade, infrastructure leaders have genuine choice in x86 server compute and AI acceleration. This changes the math on everything: power and cooling, storage throughput, software platform complexity, workload consolidation, and long-term total cost of ownership. Organizations that understand these new economics and treat infrastructure as an integrated architectural decision, rather than a component-by-component purchase, will be the ones that extract lasting value from their investments.
At the same time, sovereignty has moved from a policy conversation to an infrastructure design problem. Data residency alone is no longer sufficient. Organizations and national programs across the region are rethinking how compute architecture, software platforms, and operational control models need to be designed from the ground up to deliver genuine sovereign capability.
This event brings together infrastructure leaders, technology practitioners, and industry experts to explore what these shifts mean in practice. Hosted by AMD and IDC, the program combines independent research perspectives, hands-on technology deep dives, and structured peer dialogue, all designed to help attendees make more informed compute and infrastructure decisions in a landscape where the rules are being rewritten.
Join AMD and IDC to gain actionable insights into the new economics of compute, the role of AI acceleration in enterprise infrastructure, and the architectural decisions that will shape datacenter strategy for years to come. This session is designed for infrastructure and technology leaders seeking research-grounded perspectives and peer dialogue on the decisions that matter most. You’ll hear about:
Shahin Hashim
Associate Research Director (META), IDC
Zaid Ghattas
General Manager – METAP, AMD
Shahin Hashim
Associate Research Director (META), IDC
Zaid Ghattas
General Manager – METAP, AMD
Ali Rey
Group Head of Technology Platforms, Emirates NBD
Zaid Ghattas, the Senior Regional Manager at AMD, plays a pivotal role in propelling AMD’s revenues across the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa. He steers the ICT strategy for top-notch customers in the region and champions AMD’s business initiatives. With a distinguished career, Zaid has been privileged to work with leading global IT portfolio vendors, including Intel Corporation, Vmware, Hewlett Packard (HP), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), EPSON, and OKI Printing Solutions. He has successfully executed numerous technology infrastructure projects across 15 different markets, from opportunity creation to seamless execution. Zaid’s professional journey includes a job rotation at Intel Headquarters in Silicon Valley, where he served as a Global Sales Manager within the global Oracle account teams. A highly qualified and passionate entrepreneur, Zaid brings a wealth of experience in diverse business aspects, including crafting successful sales strategies, leadership and people management, as well as go-to-market strategy and account planning. Before embarking on his career, Zaid spent 7 years in Sydney, Australia, where he worked and pursued higher education in Information Technology and Network Engineering.
Ali is an IT Leader with a proven track record of leading and delivering digital transformation projects in banking. With over 15 years experience across the globe in locations including Australia, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. His core competencies include strategy, program delivery, cloud platforms, API’s, security, big data, AI, machine learning, DevOps, CICD and automation.
AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) drives innovation in high-performance and AI computing to solve the world’s most important challenges. Today, AMD technology powers billions of experiences across cloud and AI infrastructure, embedded systems, AI PCs and gaming. With a broad portfolio of AI-optimized CPUs, GPUs, networking and software, AMD delivers full-stack AI solutions that provide the performance and scalability needed for a new era of intelligent computing. Learn more at www.amd.com.
Uncover breakthrough insights from IDC experts and exclusive sessions featuring influential voices transforming technology and leadership today
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Matthew 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.
AI is raising the bar for enterprise infrastructure. IDC keynote session will explore the evolution from traditional datacentres to purpose-built AI factories, examining how compute, cloud, and facilities must adapt to meet the scale, performance, and economics of the agentic enterprise.
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.
Eng. Taha M. Khalifa leads Intel’s Middle East and Africa operations, driving the region’s digital transformation through strategic technology innovation. With over two decades at Intel, he partners with governments, industry pioneers, and technology leaders to architect the future of AI-enabled computing across MEA. His vision centers on democratizing advanced technologies — from edge to cloud — that unlock economic growth and societal progress. Throughout his career spanning the U.S., EMEA, and MENA, Taha has championed breakthrough solutions in engineering, go-to-market strategy, and ecosystem development, positioning the region as an emerging hub for scalable, responsible AI innovation.
Principal Engineer, Member of the EMEA Chief Technology Office
Intel Germany
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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).
As organizations accelerate AI adoption, safeguarding sensitive data while maintaining regulatory compliance and operational trust has become a strategic priority. This session explores how confidential AI frameworks and infrastructure-level controls are enabling enterprises and public sector organizations to securely process, govern, and protect sovereign data across hybrid and cloud environments.
The discussion will examine the role of confidential computing, encryption-in-use, secure enclaves, access governance, and policy-driven infrastructure in building trusted AI environments that align with national data sovereignty mandates. Attendees will gain insights into how organizations can unlock AI innovation while ensuring critical data remains protected, compliant, and under sovereign control.
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.
AI is changing the rules of cyber defence, and security operations need to keep pace. This session explores how SecurityHQ is leveraging AI to strengthen and continuously improve security operations, from the principles of Security Performance Engineering to the intelligence-led capabilities powering our Axcel platform. We’ll walk through how we are moving beyond traditional reactive security to deliver measurable outcomes, faster detection, and smarter response, giving businesses the performance and confidence they need in an increasingly complex threat environment.
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.
Organizations are deploying AI faster than they can govern it, creating a critical Governance Execution Gap — the distance between where AI is being used and where organizations can see, control, evidence, and define it. Without a governed foundation, AI operates outside accountability and transparency, becoming a liability rather than an asset. Closing this gap is essential to transforming AI into a trusted, sustainable, and nationally valuable capability.
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.
As AI adoption accelerates across industries, intelligence must scale seamlessly from the device to the edge and into the cloud. In this session, we explore how Qualcomm is enabling this new computing paradigm through a unified, end‑to‑end platform that delivers performance, efficiency, and scalability across the compute continuum .
Attendees will gain insight into Qualcomm’s device‑to‑edge‑to‑cloud strategy, including how its AI compute platforms support real‑world deployments across enterprise, cloud, and regulated environments. The session will highlight live implementations, ecosystem partnerships, and roadmap evolution, demonstrating how Qualcomm is helping customers and partners scale intelligence reliably, securely, and efficiently everywhere.
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.
Most organizations have access to powerful AI tools — but many still struggle to turn them into real business value. The challenge is not AI itself, it’s the data. Critical enterprise knowledge remains unstructured, fragmented, and often constrained by regulatory and sovereignty requirements, especially under frameworks like PDPL.
In this session, we explore a practical path forward: enabling AI to work directly on enterprise data where it lives — securely, with governance and sovereignty by design. We will also share real-world examples and sector use cases from organizations operating at scale in UAE.

Hosted By
Ayush Mittal
Head of Sales for Data, Analytics and AI services, Middle East, Wipro
Khalid El Hasumi
Partner Development Manager, Google Cloud
Harish Dunakhe
Senior Research Director, Software & Cloud (META), IDC
Most enterprises have run the pilots — now comes the hard part. This session explores how forward-thinking organizations are moving beyond experimentation to operationalize cloud and agentic AI at scale, building the governance, architecture, and organizational resilience needed to make AI a durable driver of enterprise transformation.
Ayush Mittal
Head of Sales for Data, Analytics and AI services, Middle East, Wipro
Data is the fuel for enterprise transformation, but the future belongs to organizations that can make that data act. This session explores how Google Cloud’s Agentic Data Cloud, unified “Chip-to-AI” platforms, and secure Data Mesh architectures are evolving from passive repositories into foundations for autonomous AI agents. Learn how to securely scale data intelligence across subsidiaries and partners, simplify agentic AI adoption, and empower AI agents to drive faster, smarter decisions—all without moving your data. We will dive into how enterprises can leverage the Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform to rapidly build, securely scale, and continuously govern a fleet of data-grounded agents across the enterprise.
Hassan Ahmad
Data Analytics & AI – Practise CE Lead, Google Cloud
This session will explore how enterprises are leveraging Physical AI and closed-loop digital twins to create smarter, connected operations. The discussion will also highlight the evolution of the AI-led Intelligent Enterprise through the use of Predictive, Generative, and Agentic AI to enable autonomous operations and transform key business functions including maintenance, inspection, capital projects, and turnaround management.
Jiji Vijayan
Engineering Sales Leader, Wipro
As enterprises accelerate toward converged operations, collaboration between CIOs and COOs has become critical to unlocking the full value of data, AI, and automation. This interactive discussion will explore the key challenges and opportunities shaping the modern enterprise — from data integration, governance, and OT security to AI adoption, operational ROI, and bridging the gap between IT and plant operations. Industry leaders will share perspectives on investment priorities, organizational readiness, and the future of intelligent, connected operations.
Prajeet Mewar
Vice President – Energy, Manufacturing and Resources, Wipro
Harish Dunakhe
Senior Research Director, Software & Cloud (META), IDC
Hassan Ahmad
Data Analytics & AI – Practise CE Lead, Google Cloud
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.
As enterprises accelerate toward converged operations, collaboration between CIOs and COOs has become critical to unlocking the full value of data, AI, and automation. This interactive discussion will explore the key challenges and opportunities shaping the modern enterprise — from data integration, governance, and OT security to AI adoption, operational ROI, and bridging the gap between IT and plant operations. Industry leaders will share perspectives on investment priorities, organizational readiness, and the future of intelligent, connected operations.
Most enterprises have run the pilots — now comes the hard part. This session explores how forward-thinking organizations are moving beyond experimentation to operationalize cloud and agentic AI at scale, building the governance, architecture, and organizational resilience needed to make AI a durable driver of enterprise transformation.
As enterprises accelerate toward converged operations, collaboration between CIOs and COOs has become critical to unlocking the full value of data, AI, and automation. This interactive discussion will explore the key challenges and opportunities shaping the modern enterprise — from data integration, governance, and OT security to AI adoption, operational ROI, and bridging the gap between IT and plant operations. Industry leaders will share perspectives on investment priorities, organizational readiness, and the future of intelligent, connected operations.
Data is the fuel for enterprise transformation, but the future belongs to organizations that can make that data act. This session explores how Google Cloud’s Agentic Data Cloud, unified “Chip-to-AI” platforms, and secure Data Mesh architectures are evolving from passive repositories into foundations for autonomous AI agents. Learn how to securely scale data intelligence across subsidiaries and partners, simplify agentic AI adoption, and empower AI agents to drive faster, smarter decisions—all without moving your data. We will dive into how enterprises can leverage the Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform to rapidly build, securely scale, and continuously govern a fleet of data-grounded agents across the enterprise.
This session will explore how enterprises are leveraging Physical AI and closed-loop digital twins to create smarter, connected operations. The discussion will also highlight the evolution of the AI-led Intelligent Enterprise through the use of Predictive, Generative, and Agentic AI to enable autonomous operations and transform key business functions including maintenance, inspection, capital projects, and turnaround management.
Al Maha Ballroom
Kempinski Al Othman Hotel Al Khobar
ص ب 840، طريق الملك سعود, Al Qashlah, Dammam 31952, Saudi Arabia
Shilpi Handa
Associate Research Director (META), IDC
How to translate technical cyber resilience into board-level risk language. Covers resilience scorecards, linking security investment to financial risk reduction, regulatory compliance metrics, and how cyber insurance conversations are reshaping security governance.
Ümit Malkoç
CISO, Yapı Kredi Teknoloji
Aydoğan Ovat
Cyber Security Group Manager, LC Waikiki
Hüsnü Tavlaş
Information Technologies Infrastructure Manager, A101
Ersin Uslu
CISO, Eczacıbaşı Holding
Ayşe Yenel
Co-CEO, Kron
Murat Akdağ
Systems Security Manager, Ziraat Teknoloji
Oytun Okman
Senior Systems Engineer, Cohesity
Bekir Hacıbekir
IT Infra Design & Storage Solutions Manager, Vodafone
Bahadır Cem Bilgin
Lead Technology Strategist, Citrix
Burcu Altıntaş
Head of Vodafone Business Technology Solutions, Vodafone Türkiye
Adnan Fakhouri
Customer Success Lead, QuantumGate
Deniz Akay
CISO, Fuzul Holding
Yalçın Bekmezci
System & Cyber Security Leader, Nakitera
Süleyman Petek
Cyber Security Manager, Abdi İbrahim Pharmaceuticals
11:55 – 12:05
Othman AI Dawamenah
Regional Manager GCS, Google
12:05 – 12:05
12:05 – 12:15
Sezgin Aşkın
Business Development Director, MTEK
12:15 – 12:15
12:15 – 12:25
Fatih Boy
Managing Partner, Enterprisecoding
12:25 – 12:25
11:55 – 12:05
Çağlar Çankaya
Business Development and Sales Group Manager, Konsalt
Tamer Sarıtepe
Strategic Solution Executive, OpenText
12:05 – 12:05
12:05 – 12:15
Altuğ Yıldırım
Solutions Architect, Quasys
12:15 – 12:15
12:15 – 12:25
Amjad Alqaisi
Senior Security Sales Specialist, Akamai
12:25 – 12:25
Aytekin Güzeliş
CISO, Allianz Türkiye
Emre Erkıran
CISO, QNB Invest
Nurdan Demirci
Cyber Security Group Director, Aydem Enerji
Uğur Günal
CISO, ING Türkiye
13:55 – 14:05
Açelya Cevher
Country Manager, Vectra AI
14:05 – 14:05
14:05 – 14:15
Burak İnce
Solutions Engineering Lead, Türkiye, TrendAI
14:15 – 14:15
13:55 – 14:05
Kerem Direk
Channel Sales Manager, DECE Software
14:05 – 14:05
Gökhan Köşker
CISO, MNG Kargo
Hüseyin Akbaba
System Techn. & Cyber Security Manager, Tofaş
Onur Akkepenek
IT Security Group Manager, Migros
Vahit Gümüş
Information & Cybersecurity Group Manager, Karadeniz Holding
The list is in surname-alphabetical order.
Gungor Bingul studied Mathematical Engineering at Yıldız Teknik University and MBA at Yeditepe University. In 1997 he started his career as System Network Pecialist at BIM A.S., between 1998 and 2000 worked at Uzel Makina as SAP System Manager. Since 2004 Mr. Birgul is working at Korozo A.Ş. as CIO.
He received his bachelor’s degree in Management Information Systems from Boğaziçi University. He worked as Business Analyst & Project Manager in Turkcell and Türk Telekom (Avea). In 2010, he worked as a Business Development Manager and Miles & Smiles Loyalty Program & CRM Department Manager roles at Turkish Airlines. In 2012, he joined Teradata as Senior Industry Lead and managed Telecommunications and Media sector in Turkey as well as within EMEA region. In particular, he served in the area of large data and analytics solutions for more than 3 years, and was appointed as the Vice President of Digital Services at Turkish Airlines in 2016 January. He managed digital channels & services of Turkish Airlines and Anadolujet brands and the airport passenger systems. On November 1, 2018, he joined Vakıf Katılım Bankası as Chief Information Officer, responsible for information technology and digital banking.
Gökhan Gökçay is Senior Vice President responsible for Digital, Payments and Data Technology in Akbank. He considers ‘information’ as a shared corporate asset and aims to produce solutions generating value and actionable insight. Prior to Akbank, Gökhan was SVP responsible for Information, Customer and Workflow Management solutions in Yapi Kredi, and the head of Financial Services industry in NTT Data Turkey where he delivered transformation programs for leading banks and telcos. He also worked for other technology consulting companies such as CSC and Siemens Nixdorf, and served large corporates such as Lloyds Bank, Barclays Capital and Legal & General. Gökhan has Bachelor and Master’s degrees in Computer Science from Boğazici University.
Proving the business value of AI has become the defining challenge of the enterprise AI era. Traditional ROI models, built for predictable IT investments, fall short when applied to AI initiatives that reshape workflows, accelerate decisions, and create entirely new revenue streams. IDC predicts that by 2027, 55% of G1000 CIOs will be tasked with creating enterprise AI value playbooks featuring expanded ROI frameworks that capture efficiency, growth, and innovation impact. This panel brings together senior CIOs to unpack what those playbooks look like in practice, how to instrument AI investments, communicate value to the board, and translate model performance into tangible business outcomes.
Born in 1967 in İstanbul, Kemal Kaplan graduated from Akdeniz University Electronic Engineering department. He worked in Sony, Netaş, Pimaş and Yapı Kredi Bank as a specialists and in Esbank, Etibank, ZB and HSBC Bank as an administrative. He has participated in various projects about reconstruction, integration of financial organizations, call-centers, credit-cards, ATM and banking applications/technologies and health application/technologies. Besides his studies on mobile technologies, wearable technologies and Research and Development projects, during various seminars he has been sharing his experiences on health technologies with the industry. He works as a technological consultant in some public organizations on behalf of Acıbadem Sağlık Grubu. He’s a member of the Board of Management of Life Sciences and Information Technologies in Health Organization. He currently works as an Information Technologies Director in charge of technological management in Acıbadem Sağlık Grubu hospitals, university and all subsidiaries.
Proving the business value of AI has become the defining challenge of the enterprise AI era. Traditional ROI models, built for predictable IT investments, fall short when applied to AI initiatives that reshape workflows, accelerate decisions, and create entirely new revenue streams. IDC predicts that by 2027, 55% of G1000 CIOs will be tasked with creating enterprise AI value playbooks featuring expanded ROI frameworks that capture efficiency, growth, and innovation impact. This panel brings together senior CIOs to unpack what those playbooks look like in practice, how to instrument AI investments, communicate value to the board, and translate model performance into tangible business outcomes.
Vice President, Global Head of Digital Platform Services
BSH Home Appliances Group
Read bio
Proving the business value of AI has become the defining challenge of the enterprise AI era. Traditional ROI models, built for predictable IT investments, fall short when applied to AI initiatives that reshape workflows, accelerate decisions, and create entirely new revenue streams. IDC predicts that by 2027, 55% of G1000 CIOs will be tasked with creating enterprise AI value playbooks featuring expanded ROI frameworks that capture efficiency, growth, and innovation impact. This panel brings together senior CIOs to unpack what those playbooks look like in practice, how to instrument AI investments, communicate value to the board, and translate model performance into tangible business outcomes.
Proving the business value of AI has become the defining challenge of the enterprise AI era. Traditional ROI models, built for predictable IT investments, fall short when applied to AI initiatives that reshape workflows, accelerate decisions, and create entirely new revenue streams. IDC predicts that by 2027, 55% of G1000 CIOs will be tasked with creating enterprise AI value playbooks featuring expanded ROI frameworks that capture efficiency, growth, and innovation impact. This panel brings together senior CIOs to unpack what those playbooks look like in practice, how to instrument AI investments, communicate value to the board, and translate model performance into tangible business outcomes.
The CIO is evolving from an IT operator into a strategic business leader — using technologies like AI, cloud, and analytics to drive growth, collaborate across the C-suite, and lead organizational change.
Eren Eser | IDC
Associate Research Director, Türkiye
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.
The CIO is evolving from an IT operator into a strategic business leader — using technologies like AI, cloud, and analytics to drive growth, collaborate across the C-suite, and lead organizational change.
Proving the business value of AI has become the defining challenge of the enterprise AI era. Traditional ROI models, built for predictable IT investments, fall short when applied to AI initiatives that reshape workflows, accelerate decisions, and create entirely new revenue streams. IDC predicts that by 2027, 55% of G1000 CIOs will be tasked with creating enterprise AI value playbooks featuring expanded ROI frameworks that capture efficiency, growth, and innovation impact. This panel brings together senior CIOs to unpack what those playbooks look like in practice, how to instrument AI investments, communicate value to the board, and translate model performance into tangible business outcomes.
Mert Oruz
CIO, Arkas Holding
Gökhan Gökçay
CIO, Akbank
Önder Kaplancık
CIO, Zorlu Holding
Şerafettin Özer
CDO, LCWaikiki
11:25 – 11:35
11:35 – 23:45
11:45 – 11:55
11:55 – 12:25
Engin Kavas
CTO, Aydem Enerji
Köksal Küçükada
CIO, Sanko Holding
Altuğ Soydan
IT & Digital Transformation Director, OTOKAR
Zeynep Yasemin Tekşen Altaş
IT Group Manager, Kuveyt Türk Katılım Bankası
11:25 – 11:35
11:35 – 11:45
11:45 – 11:55
11:55 – 00:25
Beste Müminoğlu Güren
Head of IT Emerging Markets & Türkiye, BSH Elektrikli Ev Aletleri
Darço Akkaranfil
CIO, Burgan Bank
Mahmut Şenaltun
Head of Vehicle Software&System&Energy Engineering Department, Renault Technologies Türkiye
Sami Saraç
CTO, Eksim Holding
14:05 – 14:15
14:15 – 14:25
14:25 – 14:35
14:35 – 14:45
14:45 – 15:15
Ethem Topgül
IT Director, Alarko Carrier Sanayi
14:05 – 14:15
14:15 – 14:25
14:25 – 14:35
14:35 – 14:45
14:45 – 15:15
Kaan Konak
CIO, Aksigorta
Emre Deniz
Head of IT, Çalık Holding