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Vice President, Research (META)
IDC
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Senior Manager, Events
IDC
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Senior Manager – Solution Engineering
BMC
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Vice President
FDS
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Country Manager
FDS
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Country General Manager
AWS UAE & RoMENA
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Managing Director, Middle East South
SAP
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CEO
Zero&One
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Ali El Kontar, Founder and CEO of Zero&One, has over two decades of IT and Telecom expertise. His dedication to technology, knowledge sharing, and fostering talent underscores a people-centric approach. Leading Zero&One, he positioned it as the first AWS partner in MENA, attracting PwC investment and securing a 5-year strategic agreement with AWS. Ali envisions Zero&One as a dynamic force, anchored in a people-centric philosophy.
Chief Information Officer
ZMI Holdings
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Group Head of Digital Transformation, AI & Robotics
The Kanoo Group
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Executive Director of ICT and IT Security
American University of Sharjah (AUS) (UAE)
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Head of Artificial Intelligence & Data Science
ADNOC Distribution
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Mr. Awad Ahmed Ali El-Sidiq (Chief Data Officer of the year 2023 , Award Winner of Best AI Project Implementation for Energy and Utilities Sector 2022 – 2023,2024,2025 & Award Winner of Oracle Worldwide DBA Excellence Award for EMEA Region at Open World USA 2013) is Head of Artificial intelligence & Data Science at ADNOC Distribution – U.A.E, Key Member of AI & Analytics Community and Big Data Worldwide Leader Program.
With more than 20 years of IT Industry experience in architecting and managing large enterprise Analytics Applications and Advance AI Solutions for delivering services to more than 10,000 users and millions of customers across all ADNOC Distribution businesses.
Pioneer in Implementing BI & Advance Analytics (AI/ML) Solutions in Oil and Gas industry in Middle East & Africa region (MEA). His dedication and initiatives has been recognized globally. Has led major AI/ML Use Cases Development and Deployment with huge Business Revenues and Benefits.
One of the First Globally to Implement and Consolidate Successfully Enterprise Critical Production Databases using Oracle Exadata , Exalogic and Private Cloud Appliance in EMEA Region. Holds Master Degree in Management Information Technology from Heriot Watt University
Director of Investment Data Department & Chief AI Officer (CAIO)
Ministry of Investment (UAE)
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Assistant IT Director–Enterprise Solutions
Dubai Integrated Economic Zones Authority
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Dr. Fayid Kadambodan is a trailblazing digital transformation leader and the Assistant Director of Enterprise Solutions at the Dubai Integrated Economic Zones Authority (DIEZ). He has led several large-scale digital initiatives that unified systems, enhanced operational efficiency, and elevated employee experiences across multiple entities.
A strong advocate of AI-enabled governance and data-driven decision-making, Dr. Fayid combines strategic insight with hands-on expertise to unlock real business value through digital innovation. His leadership continues to shape the future of smart workplaces and sustainable digital ecosystems in the UAE.
Chief Data & AI Officer
Department of Culture and Tourism (UAE)
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Dr. David Millan is a seasoned Digital & AI executive with extensive international experience in transforming complex organisations, driving disruptive innovation, and building high-performing teams. His career spans leadership across Digital, Data, and Artificial Intelligence—consistently delivering measurable business impact.
He currently serves as Chief Data & AI Officer at the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi, where he leads the organisation’s Digital & AI transformation. Previously, he was Chief Data & Analytics Officer at B2Holding in the Financial Services sector, and before that held senior Data and AI leadership roles at renowned global companies including Unilever, Vodafone, Telefónica, and Etihad Etisalat.
Dr. David is also the author of a book, holder of several patents, and author of multiple scientific publications in Artificial Intelligence. He is a frequent speaker and panellist at international conferences, and brings a wealth of academic experience as a lecturer in several universities and business schools around the world.
Group Chief Technology Officer
EMSTEEL
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Vladimir Arshinov is Group Chief Technology Officer at EMSTEEL. Where he is responsible for managing the Group’s technology operations, overseeing new technology implementations, and strategically planning the utilization of technology.
Arshinov brings to his role two decades of professional extensive international experience spanning over seven countries in IT and digital transformation.
Before joining EMSTEEL, Arshinov held the position of Chief Information Officer at SIJ – Slovenian Steel Group in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Prior to that, he contributed his expertise to various roles at United Metallurgical Company in Moscow, Russia, including the position of Corporate Digitalization Program Management Officer and Group Supply Chain Officer.
He holds a Master’s degree in Automation Engineering from the National University of Science and Technology (Moscow University of Steel and Alloys).
Group Chief Information Officer
Bukhatir Group
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IT Director
PRIME Health
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Synopsis: In this panel CIOs explore how AI agents will disrupt business and organizational models, accelerate automation, and transform applications into agents. The discussion covers technology architecture changes, data and infrastructure needs, and the rising importance of AI governance. Panelists share strategies CIOs should adopt to prepare for the agentic AI era.
Ranjit Rajan
Vice President, Research (META), IDC
Aditya Kaushik
Chief Information Officer, ZMI Holdings
Latifa Al Shehhi
Director of Investment Data Department & Chief AI Officer (CAIO), Ministry of Investment (UAE)
Mohamed Sadawy
Group Chief Information Officer, Bukhatir Group
Dr. Fayid Kadambodan
Assistant IT Director–Enterprise Solutions, Dubai Integrated Economic Zones Authority
Jaleel Rahiman
IT Director, PRIME Health
Stand a chance to be one of five lucky winners of exclusive Montblanc prizes!
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Position your brand at the forefront of Türkiye’s CxO community. This results-driven platform is designed to maximize engagement and ROI for solution providers.
Directly engage with qualified technology buyers and influencers across Türkiye.
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Moderator
Ali Çakıroğlu
CTO, BELBIM
Speaker
Altuğ Soydan
IT & Digital Transformation Director, OTOKAR
Speaker
Aydın Çetin
CSDO, Demirören Medya
Speaker
Tayfun İşbilen
CIO, İSKİ
Moderator
Tunç Şenyol
Global IT Director, Hayat Holding
Speaker
Burcu Batı
CFO, sahibinden.com
Speaker
Mert Uygur
CMO, Arzum Elektrikli Ev Aletleri
Speaker
Nursel Ölmez Ateş
HR & Corporate Communications Vice President, Borusan Holding
Speaker
Ayşegül Gürkale
CHRO, Enerjisa Üretim
Muhammed Şeref Badur
Solution Manager, Eclit
Konur Alp Tolan
Sales Manager, Eclit
There is a rush to AI: there are many AI projects that are being customized and under development, with big investments made in time and resources. Yet, only a small portion of them are in production.
Considering AI, Gen AI, Agentic AI, and LLM project developments are fairly new and include a lot of trial and error, keeping development efficiency and quality under control, and moving them to production tell us: Observability is the catalyst to roll out cost-efficient, high-quality, high-performing projects.
Headlines cover high investment for AI. Soon, we will be seeing more headlines of abandoned, cancelled, or delayed AI projects. Dynatrace comes to rescue both development and operation of AI projects end to end.
Osman Özdemir
New Products Manager, ASEE
Moderator
Kaan Konak
CIO, Aksigorta
Speaker
Emre Yüksel
Head of Information Security & Systems, Anadolu Hayat Emeklilik
Speaker
Engin Kavas
CTO, Aydem Enerji
Speaker
İsmihan Baysal Anderson
IT and Automation Director, İstanbul Sabiha Gökçen Airport
Moderator
Dr. Emre Sert
Digital Transformation Director, Sabancı Üniversitesi
Speaker
Ali İnal
CIO, Enerjisa Üretim
Speaker
Serdar Kiraz
Chief Intelligence Officer, HepsiFinans
Speaker
Mehmet Ufuk Dokuzluoğlu
Group CIO, Zeren Group Holding
The list is in surname-alphabetical order.
IT Director
Alliance Healthcare Turkey (Cencora)
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Global Digitalization Director
Kordsa
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IT Director
Aydem Perakende
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Head of IT, Growth Emerging Markets
Glaxo Smith Kline
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CIO
Burgan Bank
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IT Director
Flormar
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CIO
Makbul
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CIO
Vodafone Turkey
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CIO
AgeSA Hayat ve Emeklilik
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IT Director
Türk Tuborg
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CTO
Türkiye İş Bankası
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CIO
Allianz
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IT and Automation Director
İstanbul Sabiha Gökçen Airport
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CIO
Anadolubank
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CIO
Mercedes Benz Türk
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Mr. Bezmez who graduated in 1993 from Boğaziçi University with a bachelor degree in Mechanical Engineering, received an MS degree in Operations Management at Michigan Technological University in 1995. He began his professional career in 1996 at AT Kearney Management Consultancy as Associate Consultant. In 1998, Mr. Bezmez joined Mercedes Benz Türk A.Ş. as Project Manager. After 3 years, he moved to Stuttgart to work at DaimlerChrysler AG as IT Analyst. In 2003, he returned back to Turkey to work at Mercedes Benz Türk A.Ş as IT Manager responsible for Processes & Applications Buses and Trucks. In 2010, he moved back to Germany, Mannheim to take the responsibility as the Global Head of IT for Order and Production Steering at Daimler AG/Evobus. In 2013 Mr. Bezmez has been assigned to the CIO position of Mercedes-Benz Türk A.Ş. At the same time, Mr. Bezmez is lecturing at Koç University Management Information Systems.
CIO
Zorlu Enerji Grubu
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Chief Product Officer
Sahibinden.com
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CIO
Kredi Kayıt Bürosu
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Abdullah Bilgin is the Executive Vice President responsible from Information Technologies at the Credit Bureau of Turkey. Prior to that, he worked at Yapı Kredi Bank wearing many hats for 21 years such as Director of IT Systems and Network Departments, and in Self-Service Banking department at Alternative Distribution Channels managing the network of Yapı Kredi’s 3.000 ATMs. Before joining Yapı Kredi, he worked at John Deere Credit, Inc (Wisconsin, USA) for six years as Systems Manager. Mr. Bilgin received his BS Degree in Computer Engineering from Middle East Technical University and his Masters Degree in International Relations from University of Istanbul.
Chief Digital Technology Officer
Borusan Mannesmann
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CIO&CDO
Vakıf Katılım Bankası
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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.
CIO
Neova Katılım Sigorta
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Director, IT & Logistics
İpekyol Group
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CTO
Çalık Holding
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COO
Aksigorta
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CIO
DHL
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CIO
Yurtiçi Kargo
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CIO
Mavi
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Head of IT
Hugo Boss
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CIO
Kibar Holding
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IT President
Yıldız Holding & CEO, Yıldız Tech
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Head of IM/IT & Process Improvement
Metro C&C
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CTO
Pegasus
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Head of IT & Digital Business Management
Enerjisa
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CTO
A101
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EVP, Infrastructure & System Management, Executive Commite Member
Intertech
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Chief Technology Officer
Sigorta Bilgi ve Gözetim Merkezi
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CIO
Akbank
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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.
Head of Information Technologies and Solution
Sanofi
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CIO
İSKİ
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Member of Board
Acıbadem Teknoloji
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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.
CIO
Koç Holding
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IT Director
Tiryaki Agro Foods
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CTO
Aydem Enerji
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CIO
Turkcell Global Bilgi
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CIO
Eczacıbaşı Group
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CIO
Aksigorta
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Head of IT
Uludağ İçecek
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CIO
Sanko Holding
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CIO
Abdi İbrahim İlaç
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CIO
Anadolu Sigorta
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CIO
Nobel İlaç
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Vice President, Global Head of Digital Platform Services
BSH Home Appliances Group
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CIO
AXA Sigorta
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CIO
Arkas Holding
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CEO & CIO
Yapı Kredi Teknoloji & Yapı Kredi
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CDO
LCWaikiki
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COO
Odeabank
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CIO
Cengiz Holding
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CFO
Hugo Boss
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CIO
Tüpraş
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Global IT Director
Hayat Holding
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IT & Digital Transformation Director
OTOKAR
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Director of Operations
Yemeksepeti
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Head of Group IT
Evyap
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IT Director
Atasun Optik
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CTO
Koçtaş
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IT Director
Alarko Carrier Sanayi
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IT Director
Bosch
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Head of IT Operations
Halkbank
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General Manager-Technology, Product and Supply Chain
Arzum
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VP, Analytics & Data Governance
Yapı Kredi
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Bora Uzum received BSc in Computer Engineering from Ege University in 2000, and MSc in Computer Engineering in 2011 from Gebze Institute of Technology; specialized on Man Machine Interaction and Usability. Between 2000-2012, was in charge as Software Engineer, Team Lead and Manager responsible for various domains such as Corporate & Commercial Loans, CRM, Core Banking, Risk Management, Data Warehouse and Enterprise Architecture Management in Tekstilbank (ICBC). During 2012-2013 period, was CIO and founding member of Phillip Capital Turkey. He was the Head of CRM Analysis Department of Yapı Kredi Bank, Information Technologies & Operations group between 2013-2016. Since 2016, is Vice President of Yapı Kredi Data Governance Office.
CTO
Gürok Holding
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General Manager, Norm Digital & Technology and Digital Transformation Director
Norm Holding
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Head of International IT – Region (TR/RU/RO)
Tchibo Türkiye
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CTO
Boyner Büyük Mağazacılık
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CIO & COO
Fibabanka
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Chief Digital Officer
Borusan Otomotiv Grubu
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CIO
Zorlu Holding
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Group CIO
Zeren Group Holding
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CTO
Kazancı Holding
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CIO
Çelik Motor
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CDO
Demirören Dijital
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Technology and Digital Business Development Group President
Zorlu Holding
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CIO
Enerjisa Üretim
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As new-age IT projects continue to proliferate, CIOs, CTOs, and their teams are embracing cutting-edge strategies to add intelligence to the ever-growing volume of data, foster a culture of innovation, and accelerate their digital infrastructure road maps. The innovation train is moving fast. To stay ahead, organizations must elevate their skill sets and tackle pressing challenges to fully leverage transformative technologies like AI and zero trust.
The IDC CIO Excellence Awards & Symposium in the UAE celebrates the country’s visionary IT leaders. The 2025 award-winners will share how they’re leveraging technologies like generative AI, automation, and quantum computing to drive innovation and transformation across their organizations.
This comes at a time when enterprise IT decision makers are navigating an increasingly complex tech buying landscape. According to IDC’s 2024 Role and Influence of the Technology Decision Maker study, major disruptions since 2023 have pushed organizations to monetize innovation and build distributed, cloud-native systems designed for scale and resilience, powered by AI and GenAI.
The IDC CIO Excellence Awards & Symposium is more than a recognition platform. It is a strategic gathering of the UAE’s top tech minds, offering inspiration, collaboration, and a glimpse into the future of enterprise technology.
Through the IDC CIO Excellence Awards 2025, 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 100: Recognizing Excellence in IT Leadership in UAE
Important Dates:
The final deadline to submit nominations – November 10, 2025
CIO Excellence winners to be individually notified by email from November 10, 2025 onwards
ManageEngine is a division of Zoho Corporation and a leading provider of IT management solutions for organizations across the world. With a powerful, flexible, and AI-powered digital enterprise management platform, we help businesses get their work done from anywhere and everywhere – better, safer, and faster. To learn more, visit www.manageengine.com
Zero&One is a leading AI & Cloud Solutions expert that leverages the innovative capabilities of the cloud to help customers build new revenue streams, increase efficiency, and deliver incredible experiences. Founded in 2017, Zero&One has since evolved into a full lifecycle cloud adoption enabler. As an AWS Premier Consulting Partner, the company brings unmatched AWS expertise to support organizations throughout their digital transformation journey.
SUDO Consultants, the leading AWS Premier Tier Services Partner in UAE and KSA, helps businesses digitally transform their operations with the power of the cloud. We help you leverage the full potential of the cloud to streamline and automate your business processes, reduce operational costs, and gain a competitive edge.
SUDO Consultants, headquartered in Dubai and operating a regional office in Riyadh, supports clients across the US, Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. As an AWS Premier Tier Partner, we help you build, migrate, and manage applications on AWS. We also enable data driven decision making by integrating advanced data platforms, analytics, and AI solutions on AWS.
Integra is a multi-cloud and on-premise infrastructure, data, and digital transformation partner that helps organizations modernize technology with clear business outcomes. With two decades of experience, Integra works across public clouds, hybrid and sovereign environments, enabling customers to migrate, modernize, secure, and operate their platforms at scale.
Through deep expertise in cloud platforms, open-source technologies, DevSecOps, Data, and AI, Integra focuses on building resilient, compliant, and future-ready solutions, always working backwards from the customer to deliver measurable value, agility, and long-term trust.
Today’s CIO has two main goals: pushing innovation fast with tools like Generative AI and, at the same time, making sure the basic cloud setup is strong and reliable. These priorities work hand in hand, forming the foundation for innovation and lasting business growth.
JW Marriott Hotel Marina
66 Al Marsa St – Marsa Dubai – Dubai Marina – Dubai
Explore award-winning case studies across industries showcasing cutting-edge technologies and impactful solutions that delivered tangible business outcomes.
Connect with fellow IT leaders, exchange ideas, and build relationships with peers who are driving change and shaping the future of enterprise technology.
Witness the celebration of IDC’s Future Enterprise Awards winners. These are the individuals and teams who are not just talking about the future—they’re creating it.
