Speakers

  • Abdulla Hashim
    Senior Vice President, Digital Services, Etisalat

    Abdulla is currently responsible for managing Telecom and ICT Solutions for the business and government sectors in the UAE and across the region. He has been with Etisalat since 1989, starting as an Engineer in the Data Services Department through to being the Chief Engineer, Internet of the Data Services Department. He later became a Senior Manager/Business Development of Internet Business Unit until being appointed as Assistant General Manager/eCompany at the beginning of 2006. He also was responsible for the Management and administration of (.ae), (ccTLD), till 2008. Abdulla has an MS in Electrical Engineering from the University of South Florida, USA. He also serves as a Board Member of Smartworld, an ICT Joint Venture between Etisalat and Dubai World Central.

  • Ethem Eldem
    Sr. Director/M2M Services, Etisalat

    Ethem Eldem has graduated from Austrian High school in Istanbul and completed his BA and MBA in Marmara university, Turkey.

    He started his career in local management consulting companies for executive search, management assessment & training, organizational structuring and joined Pricewaterhousecoopers Turkey managing large organizational development projects for government and private enterprises.

    He started his career in Turkcell, Turkey s leading mobile operator as Director for organizational Development in 2003.

    In 2008 he assumed responsibilities as Group Coordinator. Between 2010-2011 he was responsible for innovation governance, consumer VAS and partnership management of Turkcell. Afterwards he became the Director for whole corporate mobile services including M2M, connectivity services, premium messaging, location based services, enterprise applications.

    As of April of 2014 he joined Etisalat to lead M2M services in UAE.

  • Ghazi Atallah
    Managing Director, neXgen Advisory Group

    Ghazi has over 20 years of experience in the IT and Telecommunications industry. He is the MD of neXgen Group, a management and technology consulting company focused on helping Telecom and Smart City customers realize business value out of technology investments. He takes an active role in projects with leading customers in the MENA region to develop next generation business Models, technology strategy and Go-To-Market strategies as well as within key regional government entities to develop Smart City and National ICT/Digital strategies.

    Ghazi is also a Partner at Liveroute, the first true Cloud/SAAS Service Provider in the Middle East delivering Cloud based Collaboration, Infrastructure, CRM and ERP solutions to enterprises in the ME.

    Ghazi was the MD/VP for Cisco’s Service Provider (SP) business in the Emerging Markets theatre that covers Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa as well as Russia and CIS countries, a $1.1B business for Cisco. He was responsible for defining the strategy and Go-To-Market plans for Service Providers business-both fixed and mobile operators-in a region that includes Cisco’s fastest growing markets worldwide. Ghazi also sat on Cisco’s Corporate SP Business Council that is tasked with shaping Cisco’s SP technology strategy worldwide.

    He was also GM of Cisco’s MENA operations for 3 years, built and lead one of the most effective GTM organizations in the region, Cisco’s highest growth region worldwide. Expanded the business from $100M to well over $500M. As well as being GM of Cisco Saudi Arabia for 2 years.

    Prior to that in Canada, He was the head of multimedia ATM access technology at General Datacom’s R&D labs in Montreal, Canada. Leading a team of engineers in R&D to develop a new product line.

    Previous to that, He was Chief Network Architect in the network planning group for Teleglobe Canada, Canada’s international carrier.

    Ghazi received his Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Business Administration degree from the University of Quebec in Montreal, Canada. He also received executive education through Stanford and London Business Schools executive MBA programs for enterprise. Ghazi Received the Telecom leadership award at the 8th Arab Internet and Telecom conference in May 2006.

    He was also named among most influential ME IT leaders in Al Idari magazine’s special issue of TOP 100 ME business leaders in Feb 2006.

    Ghazi was named among the ‘Top 35 People worldwide to Watch in 2010’ by Realcomm, a leading American research company focused on technology, energy efficiency and intelligent buildings in real estate. Ghazi is a member of the Board of Advisors of SAMENA telecommunications council. Ghazi is a member of the Young Arab Leaders and was previously on the board of directors in the UAE.

  • JP Rangaswami
    Chief Scientist, salesforce.com

    JP Rangaswami is Chief Scientist at salesforce.com, having joined them in October 2010. As Chief Scientist at salesforce.com, Rangaswami focuses on helping salesforce.com’s European customers think about innovative ways to use the real-time, mobile and social capabilities provided by Salesforce apps and the Force.com platform.

    Originally an economist and financial journalist, he has spent the last 33 years working in information technology, primarily in the financial sector.

    He was named CIO of the Year by Waters Magazine in 2003, CIO Innovator of the Year by the European Technology Forum in 2004, European Innovator of the Year by Innovate in 2005; in 2007 and 2008, he was listed in Silicon.com's Agenda Setters as one of technology's 50 most influential people; in 2009 and 2010, he made the Wired 100 and was ranked 18th in 2010. More recently, he was ranked 4th in Computer Weekly’s 2013 list of the most influential people in IT.

  • Mohammed Qadadeh
    Vice President - Head of Government Services, Middle East and North Africa, MasterCard

    Mohammed Qadadeh is Head of Government Services and Solutions (GS&S) for Middle East and North Africa at MasterCard. In his current mandate, Mohammed is responsible for leading MasterCard’s government business, overseeing its expansion strategies and leveraging MasterCard’s capabilities to solve government’s needs for efficiency, social progress & financial inclusion.

    Mr. Qadadeh joined MasterCard in 2001 as Consultant – Business Intelligence, and over a period of 12 years he held a number of managerial roles in the MasterCard Technologies and Operations division where he helped shape MasterCard’s strategy and vision across various platforms, including the MasterCard Data Warehouse, Global Cardholder Solutions, and Rewards.

    Prior to his current role, Mohammed Qadadeh served as Vice President – Technology Relationship Management, and was responsible for expanding MasterCard’s technology reach, reliability and time to markets across all Middle East and Africa divisions. He also served as Director – Global Cardholder Solutions where he was instrumental in developing MasterCard’s Customer Relationship Management platform across multiple call centers throughout the world.

    Prior to joining MasterCard, Mr. Qadadeh served as a Consultant for Supply Chain Management Systems at Anheuser-Busch . His experience also spans across production management systems and medical records platforms at leading companies across the United States.

    Mr. Qadadeh holds a Master’s degree in Management Information Systems and a Bachelors in Computer Science from Webster University, USA.

  • Ramesh Bhandari
    Manager/Product Marketing, Hosting and Cloud Services, Etisalat

    Ramesh is an ICT Professional with over 18 years of experience having served in various Technical and Business capacities in the UAE and abroad.

    For over 12 Years he has been into Wireless Technologies, Enterprise Mobility and Cloud Services domains.

    Ramesh presently manages the Cloud (Pure-Play) Services Portfolio within Etisalat.

  • Sudhir Menon
    Senior Manager, Product Marketing, Security, Etisalat

    Sudhir has 20 years’ experience in the Telecom and ICT Industry of which over 12 years have been in the UAE. Over his 20 year career he has worked in multiple functions viz. Solutions Sales, Consulting, Business Development and Product Marketing. He presently works with Etisalat as a Sr. Manager – Product Marketing handling Security Services.

    Sudhir has a keen interest in Public Speaking and develops his skills with Toastmasters. He resides in Dubai with his wife and 2 daughters.

    Sudhir holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics & Communication Engineering and an MBA in Marketing.

  • York Weyers
    Mobile Solutions, Etisalat

    York works as Centre of Excellence for Mobile Solutions with a focus on the Public Sector, Financial Services and Telecoms for the Middle East and Africa markets.  York has over 15 years experience in the field of Financial Services, Payments and Software, he previously held positions at American Express, Ogone Payment Services, Mastercard and PayPal. York worked as a consultant in the field of Financial Inclusion in Togo, West Africa for an international NGO.

    He holds a BBA and an MBA in International Business from Schiller International University and a Post-Graduate Certificate in Microfinance.