Rachid joined Enova in 2017 to lead the Technology & Performance department, which gathers the Energy, Hubgrade, Renewable Energy, and Asset Management functions under one umbrella. As part of Enova’s overall growth strategy, this department drives the company’s technology vision through digital transformation and leadership.

Rachid previously worked for Veolia’s Tools & Methods department in France. Over the past 20 years, his career has seen him lead several projects focused on aligning digital strategy with business and commercial goals in France, the UK, North America, Eastern Europe, and Africa.

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Ekow Nelson has global responsibility for Ericsson’s business with e& Group (formerly Etisalat)
across 16 countries in Middle East Africa and is Chairman of Ericsson Pakistan. Nelson has also
been announced as the Country General Manager of Ericsson United Arab Emirates (UAE).

An experienced global telecom, Tech, and business leader, he has a proven track‐record at the
cutting-edge of technology and innovation with Communication Service Providers (CSPs) in over 50
countries.
Since joining Ericsson in 2012, he has held senior leadership positions in strategy, sales, delivery
and large-scale transformations across the Middle East, Europe, India, and Latin America. He held
senior sales and global telecom and media industry roles at IBM Corporation and led the
establishment of the European mobile business consulting practice at PriceWaterhouseCoopers
(PwC).
Prior this, Ekow spent a decade pioneering early innovations in internet communications services
and led market development and sales across Europe and Asia-Pacific.
He holds degrees in Computer Science and Business Management and is the author of several
publications in telecoms and media.

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At SC&T, he is responsible for Shell’s refining, chemicals and decarbonization technology licensing in the MENA region including Shell’s proprietary Reactor Internals.

He has over 25 years of experience in the hydrocarbon processing industry comprising of technology licensing, conceptual design, and feasibility studies for refineries and petrochemical units.
Gurminder has a Master’s degree in HSE Technology from National University of Singapore, a Chemical Engineering degree from India and has a Chartered Engineer status in UK.

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Hisham Farouk has been part of the profession for over 20 years, and has led the UAE practice for the last nine years. With a focus on innovation, as well as exemplary leadership, he has played a key role in transforming the firm into one of the fastest-growing professional service firms in the UAE.

Across the region, Hisham is well-known for leading high-profile advisory engagements for some of the largest international conglomerates and local groups, mainly across the financial, hospitality, real estate, construction, aviation, fast-moving consumer goods, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and family business sectors.
Hisham has completed a two-term period as a member of the Board of Governors in Grant Thornton International and was a founding member of technology and innovation committee for Grant Thornton International.
Hisham is a Harvard Business School Alumni and values ongoing education, and as a keynote speaker, has delivered a number of presentations globally. He also trains and educates senior executives in some of the largest organisations worldwide.

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Luay Al Shurafa was appointed as General Motors’ President and Managing Director Africa & Middle East in September 2020. In this role, Al Shurafa is responsible for delivering long-term strategic and sustainable growth for General Motors across the region.

Al Shurafa is the first locally born and raised leader for General Motors, bringing a wealth of deep-rooted, regional insight to the position. Beginning his career with General Motors AMEO in 1998, Al Shurafa matches this regional understanding with in-depth expertise of the GM brands and products.
In his tenure with General Motors, Al Shurafa has held several leadership roles across the company in Finance, Sales, Marketing and Customer Care & Aftersales. Most recently, Al Shurafa served as Managing Director of Commercial Operations, where he was instrumental in developing enterprising sales strategies to grow the business across the region.
Al Shurafa also led the company’s sales operations as the Managing Director of Saudi Arabia, spearheading key initiatives designed to drive growth for the company in the Kingdom, GM’s largest Middle East market.
Al Shurafa held the position of Director, Customer Care and Aftersales at General Motors Middle East, a title that he held from August 2011 – June 2015. As Director of Customer Care and Aftersales, Al Shurafa was responsible for leading all aspects of the Customer Care and Aftersales business, including vehicle servicing, customer service and support, as well as batteries, supply chain logistics and vehicle parts warehouse operations.
Al Shurafa holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) and Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA International Finance) from the University of North Texas. In 2014, he completed Harvard Business School’s Emerging Leader Program and, more recently, Stanford Business School of Graduate’s Transformational Leadership Program.

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Professor
Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Professor Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (BUPT)
Professor (Adjunct) KMUTT, NTU (Singapore) and Universitas Indonesia (UI)

Professor Simon See is currently the Solution Architecture and Engineering Senior Director and Chief Solution Architect & Global Head for Nvidia AI Technology Center, NVIDIA Corporation. He is also a Professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Professor in Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (BUPT), and Professor in Universitas Indonesia (UI). He is being conferred as a Distinguished Fudan Scholar in September 2018 by Fudan University, Shanghai, China. Previously Professor See is also the Chief Scientific Computing Advisor for BGI (China) and has a position in Nanyang Technological University (Singapore) and King-Mong Kung University of Technology (Thailand). Professor See is currently involved in a number of International computational, mathematical science projects and national AI initiatives. Recently Dr Simon has been appointed as the Executive Director of the ASEAN Applied Research Centre (AARC). His research interests are in the area of High-Performance Computing, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Computational Science, Applied Mathematics and Simulation Methodology. Professor See is also leading some of the AI initiatives in the Asia Pacific. He is a Steering Committee member of NSCC’s flagship High Performance Computing Conference Supercomputing Asia (SCA) since March 2018. He has published over 200 papers in these areas and has won various awards.
Professor See is a Fellow member of IET, Chairman of TaskForce of IEEE’s CIS Neural Networks Technical Committee, a member of IEEE, SIAM, AAAI, and also on the Advisory Team of AIP (AI Professional Association), International Advisory Board of Institute of Operations Research & Analytics (IORA), Advisory Team of Machine Intelligence and Data Analytics Research Centre (MIDARC), School of Computing Sciences (India) and Board of Studies, MS Tech Programs of Mahindra University and the committee member of more than 50 conferences.
Professor See graduated from the University of Salford (UK) with a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and numerical analysis in 1993. Prior to joining NVIDIA, Dr. See worked for SGI, DSO National Lab. of Singapore, IBM, International Simulation Ltd (UK), Sun Microsystems and Oracle. He is also providing consultancy to a number of national research and supercomputing centers.

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Suraya Turk is the Managing Partner of Legal Circle and moderator for Forbes Middle East/ Tech Voice. Legal Circle is UAE based law firm uniquely positioning itself as a front runner in a variety of practice areas of law in the vital sectors but is most notably known for the support it provides tech start-ups across the MENA region.

An Australian-qualified lawyer with 15+ PQE, Suraya has led law firms and legal specialist teams. She is currently leading and cementing Legal Circle’s strong reputation for being an agile, nimble, adaptive, and innovative law firm that provides practical legal and innovative commercial solutions for clients and navigates the regulatory landscapes.

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Widad joined Emerson as a Marketing Engineer in 2008 and has been steadily promoted since, to
the point where she led the Marketing Department as the Marketing Director from 2014 to 2018 before taking the role of Vice President and General Manager for UAE, Oman,Yemen & Lebanon in July 2018; and becoming the first female Vice President & GM for Emerson in MEA.

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