The Judges Role
Score written entries
Each entry is around 2,100 words and takes approximately 20 minutes to read and score. This score is weighted at 50% of the total score.
Score the finalists’ presentations
Each finalist will be given 25 minutes to present and answer questions from the judges. This score is weighted at 40% of the total score.
Provide written comments to entrants
This valuable feedback helps companies validate the great work that they are already doing and where they can improve.
Scoring of Entries
The purpose of the ARCET Global scoring model and criteria is to ensure that business stories, teams and leaders are scored accurately, effectively and independently. Giving both entrants and judges confidence that the winners are deserving.
Our scoring model is endorsed by the University of Chester Business School giving you confidence that all entries will be evaluated in a vigorous and thorough manner.
The University of Chester’s stellar commitment to Entrepreneurship and business excellence, echoes ARCET Global’s commitment to improve businesses around the world.
Awards Scoring Method Certified by the Customer Institute
Written Entry
50%
Final Presentation
40%
Overall Score
10%
Each criteria scored 1-10 (10 being the highest score)
After all the presentations, judges score the overall entry out of 100 so they can reflect on which story captivated them.
Scores are aggregated and given a percentage.
Finalists who score within 3% of the highest marks of that category will be winners.
Judging Panel
Meet the judges who will be bringing their industry knowledge and category specific skillsets to assess the entrants. Each judge is carefully vetted to ensure impartiality and all judges sign a confidentiality agreement. Judges are selected based on their business experience and qualifications. Each panel has a cross section of experts to ensure the evaluation is thorough.
Graham Shapiro
Chairman of Judges - CEO, GSD
Graham Shapiro is an award-winning inventor, designer & digital entrepreneur. A Fellow member of The Chartered Society of Designers and Chartered Institute of Marketing. Entrepreneur in Residence and on the advisory board for The Business Research Institute at The University of Chester. Ambassador of Innovation for The University of Cambridge. Graham invented the interloopmailer® and Reggie®.
Juhi Yasmeen Khan
Founder, JYK; CSR & Charity Initiative Expert, Dar Al Ber Society
Juhi Yasmeen Khan is a humanitarian, a philanthropist. a social activist, an entrepreneur and a
fashion guru with a passion to work for the welfare of the underprivileged in the society.
She is the CSR & Charity Initiative Expert at Dar Al Ber Society, UAE’s oldest and semi
government charity organisation.
Dr Nour El Deen Reda
Digital Marketing Director / Managing Partner, BrandBourne
Nour is a Highly Influential Real Estate Multi-Channel Digital Marketing and Communications Expert consultant who has demonstrated the ability to lead diverse teams of professionals to new levels of success in a variety of highly competitive, cutting-edge markets, and fast-paced environments.
Mahmoud AlBurai
Senior Advisor, Real Estate Regulatory Agency of Dubai
Expert in Real Estate and City Planning, Mahmoud is part of many International and Regional Committees focusing on developing happy and sustainable cities. In addition to this, he is also a graduate of LSE and currently studying at the University of Oxford.
Amin Issa
Six Sigma & Change Management
Accomplished senior professional with over 35 years of experience holding senior leadership positions in international organizations with diversified fields of experience, including transformation programs design and execution( change leadership), customer relations, Process management and improvement through six sigma, sigma lean and Project management through leadership of the PMO office, certified COPC deployment in customer experience, certified professional from GWU as a KPI professional and Balanced scorecard Master professional
Leith Hoffensetz
General Manager, HTJM Real Estate Consultancy
An expert real estate lawyer with over 25 years experience in real estate development and operations. Leith has worked for multi-national corporations in Australia and UAE and is best known for her practical and common-sense approach solving all your real estate issues. Leith is at the forefront of the real estate industry in the UAE.
Nisreen Abu Hadba
Customer Experience & Quality Director
Nisreen N. Abu Hadba is a senior level professional with more than 19 years of experience in Customer Experience Management, Quality of Service, Customer Journey design & validation, Voice of Customer and Employees Insights, Quality & BPMI, EFQM Excellence Model, Project Management, Sigma Lean processes improvement tools, Products Launch Process, and COPC Performance Management International Standard Implementation.
Nikki Moss
General Manager, Capita Dubai Limited
A customer and people centric, inspirational leader with a proven track record of improving business performance, people engagement, customer satisfaction and profitability of Customer Service departments alongside operational implementation of significant transformation activity such as business process re-engineering, new workflow systems and offshoring/repatriation of processes.
Philippe Mathijs
Co-Founder and Director of Coaching, Reach Outstanding
Philippe Mathijs is the co-Founder of Reach Outstanding, a company which specialises in bespoke experiential learning, combined with powerful coaching. Philippe background consists of 25 years of experience in the business side of corporate, now focusing on his passion for coaching.
Mohamad El-Hinnawi
Customer & Digital Experience Expert
Mohamad is a Customer Experience Advisor and Consultant, focusing on research, development, training and delivery of Customer Experience Management frameworks and solutions.
He has more than 15 years of experience in consulting and cross-functional leadership roles and had several engagements with organizations in the United States, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, UAE, Oman, Kuwait and Sudan.
Mandarr Agshikar
General Manager, Ajhinkkya Fze
Mandarr is an EFQM Certified Assessor with more than Three decades of experience in Sales & Marketing, Relationship Management and Business Excellence. He has been in UAE for the past 15 years and has worked with Market leaders across various industry verticals. Mandarr has also been providing Marketing & Business Excellence Consulting Services through Ajhinkkya FZE. Currently he heads Ajhinkkya FZE, UAE as General Manager, is an Executive Committee Member of the Continual Improvement Sub- Group of Dubai Quality Group and, a Member of Emirates Green Building Council. He is also the Director – Middle East Region for Air Movement and Control Association (AMCA) International Inc.
Matteo Boffa
President, SWISS BUSINESS COUNCIL ABU DHABI
Matteo Boffa is a 28-year-old Swiss Social and Environmental Entrepreneur. He is a member of the boards of various international companies/projects in the field of sustainability and innovation .His motto: "Don't spend to destroy, invest to create!"
Kiran Jehan
Group HR Lead, Pharmatec pvt Ltd
Kiran brings with her 16+ years of experience in HR advisory and management of best practice people strategies for organisations, businesses and customers across public and private sectors. Skilled in designing HR strategies and contributing to the organizational effectiveness that generate quantifiable results. A few of the industry sectors tapped across Middle East are Banking & Financial Institutions, Energy, Marine, Oil & Gas, Engineering, Utilities, FMCG, Pharmaceutical, Health Care and Telecommunication.
Craig Lee
Customer Experience (CX) Strategist & Advisor
Customer experience strategist and business transformation advisor; Advisory Board member and international keynote speaker. Supporting executive teams of Fortune 500 companies and SME’s to design and drive significant customer experience programmes with impact. Craig has worked on customer centered change in the financial services, telecoms, luxury retail, technology, education, hospitality, healthcare and travel sectors. Craig is Customer Experience Director at Activate Experience and more recently held the position of Customer Experience and Brand at Emirates. He is based in Dubai and consults internationally.
Andrea Piccin
Partner & Managing Director, GRS
Andrea Piccin is Partner & Managing Director of GRS Research & Strategy Middle East, the leading research company for Exhibitions, Visitor Attractions, and Large Events. The company is specialised in Customer Experience Optimization, Customer Satisfaction, Mystery Shopping, Market Outlooks, and Data Science. He is married and proud father of two wonderful babies
Lina Yahya
Head of Service Excellence, RAK Bank
Lina Yahya joined RAKBANK in 2003 and has held several managerial positions within the Bank before becoming the Head of Service Excellence in November 2015. In the past four years, she was a key player in redefining the customer experience strategy and service quality goals and objectives into a journey of excellence. She partnered with both internal and external stakeholders including the Dubai Economic Department, to help build an ethos of customer focus and engagement across various channels through the implementation of various programmes and initiatives.
Robert Di Franco
Senior Vice President-Projects, Al Hamra Real Estate Development
Mr. Robert Di Franco, MBA BEng SOE MICE PM, Senior Vice President- Projects at Al Hamra Real Estate Development, having a wealth of global experience in developing, managing and constructing a large portfolio of internationally Branded , Hospitality Projects in the 3star and 5star Luxury Category , F&B, Retail including Malls , Royal Properties , Mixed Use, Infrastructure and Residential Projects.
Effectively manage full project life cycles, $multi-billion budgets and global resources including subject matter experts.
Aklilu Admekom
Director of Talent & Career Development, Two Seasons Hotel Management
Aklilu is a CIPD Associate Member and holds an MBA from University of Wolverhampton as well as a BSC in Computer Science from HILCOE University. He is also a graduate of CIPD, Intermediate Diploma in Learning & Development. Aklilu is awarded ‘Certified Hospitality Trainer (CHT®)’ from American Hotels and Lodging Association (AHLA) in 2016. He is currently leading the Talent Management and Career Development Program in Two Seasons Hotel Management company. Aklilu has won the prestigious ‘Presidents Award’ in 2012 from Starwood Hotels and Resorts company for his outstanding role in leadership development program. In 2016, he has completed his NLP Master Practitioner qualification from American Board of NLP.
Helen Tung
Barrister/ Founder, NewSpace2060
Helen Tung is a barrister and NewSpace Legal Futurist. Her background is in commercial law with specific expertise in litigation, maritime and aerospace. Helen has spoken extensively on LegalTech at the International Bar Association and worked with startups including NewSpace startups.
She spent 3 months at NASA Ames, is part of the Hague Working Group on Space Resources and instrumental contributor to the Maritime Autonomous Regulatory Systems Working Group (MARSWG) on shipping standards. She is the UAE Representative for the Moon Village Association, Co-Chair on IAA Symposium on Visions and Strategies for the future; Co-Chair of joint session on space debris and space operations IAF (UAE 2020) and Vice Chair of the Enterprise Risk Management Committee of the IAF with a view of developing best practices and future standards.
Victoria Alcober
Creative Energizing Officer, HighSynergy (ActiveEngagement)
Victoria has spent the last 15 years supporting companies to have happier employees. Passionate advocate of creating the best conditions to allow people to grow, learn and thrive. Linguist by education and Historian by vocation, her initial steps in Research and Marketing led to an endless curiosity to find out what’s “behind the scenes” in hundreds of organizations. HR and Employer Brand Consultant, facilitating the quest for new and innovative practices and fostering top-notch ideas to improve the quality of offerings within small and large businesses.
Eiman Abdul Rahman
Senior Operations Officer, Tawam Hospital
Eiman Al Abdali is a Senior Operations Officer at Tawam Hospital; assists in planning, organizing, and managing operational improvement projects and initiatives. She holds a Master of Science in Quality & Safety in Healthcare Management from Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland 2009. She has facilitated many internal and external quality excellence awards.
Khaled Nabhan
Head of Customer Experience,
Bank Audi, Egypt
For over 13 years banking experience, supporting with Master degree in banking- finance & certified lean Six Sigma BB, PMD & Data Analysis, Nabhan was responsible for overseeing & reshaping the customers journey through all bank’s touch & digital points, By applying new models & Group Strategy that aimed to enhance & Sustain external & internal CX to not only meet but exceed all expectation that makes their lives significantly easier & better.
Souraj Salah
Process Improvement Manager, Abu Dhabi Ports
Dr. Souraj works at Abu Dhabi Ports. He has 20 years of experience in logistics, contracting, retail, services and manufacturing. He published one book and 20 papers. He is certified as LSSMBB and QHSE Lead-Auditor. He won the ASQ-UAE-Quality-professional-Award.
Dee Burrrowes
Mindset Strategist and Transformational Coach, The M.I.N.D.S.E.T. Strategist
Dee Burrowes, Professional Coach, NLP Practitioner, Speaker, Teacher supports you to gain more confidence to be more effective at bringing happiness into your life. Dee believes that life is too short not to live authentically. Her mission is to help individuals to unleash their full potential in every area of life in a supportive manner to increase productivity and eradicate stress.
Muhammad Zeeshan Haider
Strategic Marketing Professional, Noor Takaful
10 years of diverse marketing experience, PhD Scholar (Marketing) and an active member of the American Marketing Association (AMA).
Anas Almarie
Social Media Trainer for Corporates & Governments, PWC
Anas Almarie is a social media faculty at PwC’s Academy Middle East, in parallel he is the Director of Social Media Solutions & Training specialising in government and corporates at Social Station. Almarie is a media guest, contributor, author and keynote speaker across Asia, Middle East & Africa.
James Duthie
Owner, Touchpoints Consulting & Communications
A seasoned communications expert with nearly 30 years experience across Europe, Asia Pacific and the Middle East. He has worked with many blue-chip companies to develop their brands in international markets. He has developed world-class customer engagement programmes for several of the region’s biggest brands.
Mohsen Malaki
Digital Transformation
Mohsen has over 19 years of experience covering emerging markets, across strategy, planning, and execution roles. Mohsen’s industry expertise spans telecom, media, digital, and technology. He is an expert in corporate strategy, corporate performance management and the XPP and Balanced Scorecard Norton-Kaplan methodology.
Brijesh Dhruve
Chief Environment Officer, ENOC
Mr. Brijesh holds a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering with Post Graduate Diploma in Environment & Sustainable Development and MBA in Environment Management. He is a Lead Auditor in ISO 14001 & 9001 with over a decade of experience in implementing, maintaining and auditing Environment Management System. He is certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and also a certified Energy Auditor from Bureau of Energy Efficiency, Government of India.
Sudipt Shah
Founder & CEO, Digital of Things
For over 15 years, Sudipt has led digital initiatives in companies such as IBM, Lloyds Bank and Emirates. A British national, Sudipt relocated to Dubai in 2016 and is the Founder of Digital of Things, the region’s first pure-play UX consultancy.
Samie Al-Achrafi
CEO, Marmalade Fish
Samie is an award-winning speaker, author and facilitator. He is recognised as one of the world's leading authorities on organisational values and culture change
He is known for his progressive learning interventions that transform organizations and embed lasting change. Samie has worked with leading organizations around the world such as Walt Disney World, Emirates Airline, HSBC, Merck and MSD to create alignment around purpose and deliver on ambition.
Amruta Kshemkalyani
Founder, Sustainability Tribe
Amruta Kshemkalyani is founder of Sustainability Tribe, a sustainability management consultant and a highly influential speaker and coach. Originally a mechanical engineer, she is a green buildings expert. Over last 13 years Amruta is contributing to sustainable development in the Middle east as well as helping businesses in sustainable transformation for a positive impact. Amruta is also raising social awareness about sustainable living and sustainable solutions for the last 10 years.
Fadi Al Khazali
HR Specialist, The Ministry of State for Federal National Council Affairs
Certified international assessor and Team leader of an EFQM evaluation team. Worked with various consultancy, training and development institutions, and has considerable scientific and knowledge experience in the field of excellence, institutional development and human resources, as well as the areas of enterprise gap analysis, self-assessment, standard audit of international certificates and awards, human resources audit and training needs analysis.
Marc Karschies
Managing Partner, Karschies, Ceron & Alred Consultants
Marc Karschies is considered one of the leading global experts on integrated Customer Experience (CX), Customer Service (CS), Service Quality (SQ), and LEAN Management. Marc’s international cross-industry advisory and training activities include Corporate and Service Strategy, Customer Experience Management, PMO Setup, Design Thinking & Innovation, and integrated KPI & Measurement Systems.
Dr. Anil Pillai
Director, Terragni Consulting
Dr. Anil Pillai is a behavioural expert and deeply emphasizes the importance of using behavioural insights in organizations. Dr. Pillai says “Understanding how people think, behave, decide and act, plays a large role in predicting their choices – choices of who they buy from, who they work with, who they engage with and who are they loyal to. Organizations who wish to build experience and engagement as a key competitive differentiator, need to acquire this learning
Adrienne Doolan
CEO, Green Touches
Adrienne Doolan is the CEO of Green Touches, a professional consulting & environmental service provider of sustainable Facility Management (FM) in the Middle East. Combining a genuine passion for the environment, promoting a sustainable way of life and working with integrity, Green Touches, was founded in 2015, striving to bring an entirely new concept to the Facility Management industry in the Middle East, creating awareness & ‘disruption’ within this industry by eliminating the use of toxic chemicals, promoting water saving, energy saving, recycling and working towards achieving environmental sustainability along with health & wellness in the workplace.
Lynnette Abad
Director, Research & Data, Property Finder
Lynnette's core professional passions are technology and real estate. She has spent her career in the technology sector for over 20 years and has specialized in the PropTech industry for the last 11 years due to her passion and experience in the real estate industry in the U.S. and Dubai.
Currently, she is the Director of Research & Data for the Property Finder Group providing strategic direction on real estate data intelligence in the UAE. Previously, she was instrumental in building the tech stack, business plans and regulatory outreach for Property Monitor amongst other real estate digitalization efforts in Dubai.
Nigel Owen
Communications Strategy Consultant
Nigel has 20 years’ experience managing reputation through effective communication strategies. He has previously led communications teams at the world’s largest bank and today advises global tech companies, as well as supporting the region’s biggest banking merger.
Dawn Ketteringham
Founder, Comhar Consulting
Dawn Ketteringham, CCXP is a certified customer experience specialist, helping companies to attract new business and nurture loyal, satisfied customers with first-class service. Founder of Comhar Consulting, Dawn has over 20 years’ frontline experience and understands why customers chose the brands they do. Dawn has worked with a range of high-profile, multicultural clients around the world and customer experience is always key. She supports businesses to stay ahead of the competition with customer experience strategies to develop first-class service cultures.
Maria Sillanpaa
Founding Director, Sustainability Advisory
An internationally recognised sustainability leader with nearly 30 years of cross-sectoral experience across 5 continents and over 40 countries.
Shadi AlSwairki
Head of Hospital Services, Bupa Arabia
A high Medical and Operational Professional with superb leadership skills, impressive record of growth and success for more than 13 years of experience in Operation Excellence and Customer Experience Management in the healthcare sector. I firmly believe in passionate and inspirational business leadership which energizes both organizations and individuals, helping people and organizations to be among the best in all aspects and this is my motivational fuel
Ciarán Kelly
MD MEA Region, FCM Travel Solutions
Ciarán is currently the Managing Director of FCM Travel Solutions, parent company of Flight Centre Travel Group, in the Middle East and Africa and brings over 17 years experience from the global travel industry with his experience gained from Europe, Middle East and African regions. Ciarán brings experience, passion and dedication to his position as Managing Director for the 25 other countries he oversees in the region and collaborates daily with colleagues around the world of 100+ countries where FCM has a presence. Over the last 7 years, Ciarán has been responsible for FCM's growth and expansion into key markets across the region and is focused on delivering a highly-professional yet tailored approach to business travel management for the Middle East and Africa.
Nellie Swanepoel
Freelance Consultant - Sustainability & Leadership Development, JDC Exec
Knowledge is power and gaining as much as possible to share and develop others to reach their best possible potential is my driving force of success. Teamwork makes the dream work. I am a highly accomplished, dedicated leader in sustainability and an environmentalist with exceptional leadership skills and subject matter expertise in water & process treatment, seizing opportunities, leading from the front, with a strong passion for creating new business models keeping in view the implications for all associated parties.
Manjula Karthikeyan
Managing Partner, Makfree Consultants
Manjula Karthikeyan is a Human Resources and Business Excellence Management professional with 30 years of experience in leadership roles in multiple industries. As Founder and Managing Partner of Makfree Consultants, Manjula supports organizations in assessing and setting up their people strategies, HR systems, business excellence and strategic management systems.
Ghulam Ali
Managing Partner, EPIC Consulting
Ghulam, amongst the first Certified Customer Experience Professionals in the region, has over 19 years' experience across CX, strategy, operations and technology consulting, financial/ technology audit and governance. He formed EPIC to help organizations build customer centric cultures through customer journey mapping engagements and workshops.
Jani Viswanath (PhD)
Artist/ Humanitarian/ Philanthropist
Born to a South Indian Brahmin family in India,Jani spent her childhood in Afghanistan.
As a daughter of an educationist & a diplomat, her exposure to multiple cultures and countries have shaped her personal growth & artistic sentiments.
Jani is multi lingual and fluent in 6 languages. She has a Phd in Management & Brand analysis.
After almost 2 decades of a successful corporate career in Brand development,buying & Retail, Jani decided to give up Corporate Life and founded the NGO HEALING LIVES . She now focuses on the NGO & her other passion - Art.
Charles Bennett
Chief Executive, NextTen Innovation Solutions Limited
Charles Bennett is a change specialist passionate about using the customer experience agenda to help make deep and lasting impact on the way organisations operate. He is also the founder of the Customer Experience and Service Association Middle East. It is dedicated to helping companies specifically in the region to take advantage of new ideas, learn the latest next practice change thinking and use it to accelerate results arising from customer centricity initiatives.
Andrea Hanyecz
CX Leader, Budapest Bank
Senior Customer Experience Manager of Budapest Bank. A Certified Customer Experience Professional and a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt and has spent over twenty years in business improvement in GE Capital and Budapest Bank in various positions in Finance, Quality, Operations, Customer Service and Marketing. She is passionate about driving cultural changes to transfer organisations towards customer centricity. Earned CCXP in 2018.
Roger Addy
Senior Drilling Engineer, Tullow Oil
Senior Petroleum Drilling Engineer with Tullow Oil. A Chartered Engineer with nearly15 years experience in engineering technology and operations.
A certified member of the UK Energy Institute and the Society of Petroleum Engineers. He also holds an MBA in Petroleum Economics and Finance.
He is passionate about Science,Technology, Business and Operational excellence.
Garry Murray
CEO, PLACE Community Managers
Hard Working, dedicated Property & Real Estate professional with multiple years experience across Facilities Management, Property Management, Owners Association Management and Sales & Lease of Residential, Commercial and Mixed Use low and high rise property.
Customer and Client focused with a determination to provide quality service to achieve customer satisfaction.
Jorge Castellote
Co-founder, Innoway
Jorge is co-founding partner of Innoway. Before that he spent more than seven years in Palladium, a boutique consulting firm specialized in Strategy Execution. Jorge is a dynamic and independent business management consultant with more than 16 years of international experience. Proven track record of delivering world-class strategy and innovation related solutions in several assignments in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
Mohanad Alwadiya
CEO, Harbor Real Estate
Senior Advisor & Instructor, DREI
An award-winning real estate professional and entrepreneur, popularly known as the “Wolf of Real Estate” and the “Oracle” of Dubai’s real estate industry and has become a fixture discussing property issues on local TV and radio.
Balakrishna Murthy
Sr. Manager- CX Capability Building, Majid Al Futtaim
Bala helps Organisations to visualise Customer Experience (CX) as a value driver and enables to develop relevant competencies to meet current needs and the required capabilities to meet future needs of customers. He has led several successful engagements in Customer Insights, CRM and CX for brands in Automotive, Healthcare and Hospitality sectors for over two decades in the Middle East region. Bala is an accredited practitioner of SCHEMA® - Customer centricity framework, and a Certified Customer Experience Professional (CCXP) committed to the highest levels of professional and personal excellence.
Ayman Alawadhi
Managing Director, The Corporate Group
Ayman is Group Managing Director of The Corporate Group overseeing subsidiaries responsible for delivering one-stop-shop platform offering professional services related to business setup solutions and enabling both FDIs and foreign companies to do business in UAE and the region.
Brooke Cowling
Co-founder & COO, Digital of Things
With more than 12 years of experience, Brooke is an expert at helping businesses reach their audiences through understanding the customer experience. She has worked with not-for-profits to large multinationals, and has delivered results on five continents, across 80 countries.
Ian Golding
Customer Experience Specialist
A certified Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt, Ian has spent over twenty years in business improvement, working hard to ensure that the businesses he works for are as customer focused as possible. A highly influential freelance Customer Experience consultant, Ian advises leading companies on Customer Experience strategy, measurement, improvement and employee advocacy techniques and solutions.
Talat Sheerazi Goldie
Group HR Director, Bukhatir Group
Talat has over 30 years of Human Resource experience, and has worked in a leadership
role in various industries from Telecom at Paktel to Oil and Gas at BP , Aviation at
British Airways, Financial Institutions at ABN AMRO Bank and Pharmaceuticals for
GlaxoSmithKline.
In addition for the past ten years or more Talat has worked in primarily the Private
Equity, Construction and manufacturing and Real Estate Development sectors in the
UAE, in Corporate HR leadership roles.
Aida Sahraoui
Founder & CEO, WONE
Aida Sahraoui is the Founder and CEO of WONe, a global digital performance marketing consultancy firm with strong roots in the GCC. Through WONe, Aida’s goal is to deliver beyond the scope of work in order to solve any strategic, technical and operational digital problems clients may have. Passionate about psychology, Aida is amazed every day by how digital technologies and machine-learning are transforming both corporate and individual decision making.
Tiago Costa
Regional Head of Outsourcing & Permanent Placement, Dulsco
With 13 years of experience, Tiago has occupied the positions of Board Director, Country Manager and Regional Head in various countries across the GCC and Europe, has worked in the largest global staffing agencies. Tiago holds a degree in Clinical Psychology and a Master in Neuropsychology.
Christo van Wyk
Area Director of Middle East and India, Meltwater
Christo van Wyk is currently the Regional Director India & Middle East at Meltwater, a global leader in Media Intelligence and the SaaS industry. Christo has 10 years experience in building and scaling business across the Emerging Markets - India, Middle East & Africa.
Christo believes that “pairing top talent and tech is important to localizing your strategy and building a unique client experience.”
Christo combines global business expertise with that of Customer Experience. Christo previously worked as CX Director at an EMEA level, rolling out product and performance strategies across the region.
Rima Ahmed
CFO and Regional Director of Shared Services, Manpower Group
A graduate of Harvard Business School, Rima is a business leader with 17+ years’ experience in multinational companies across Europe, the Caribbean, and the Middle East in the last 10 years. Being a people leader, Rima provides strong leadership, problem-solving, team building & project management skills, in her current role as Senior Leadership Team Member of ManpowerGroup Middle East. Rima is also the Regional CFO, Director of Corporate Services and Leader of Right Management, ManpowerGroup’s Career and Talent Management brand.
Robert Keay
CEO, Ethos Integrated Solutions
Robert Keay is a Customer Experience and Customer Happiness Expert with 40+ years’ experience.
Author of 2 Books, Speaker and Golfer.
Faran Niaz
Customer Experience Specialist
Highly experienced Customer Experience & Digital Transformation specialist. Change Management Expert with over 25 years of experience in Banking / Financial Services including successful establishment and running of Alternate Channels, Call Centers, Customer Service Units, Complaint Resolution Units & Quality setups for Citibank, Mashreq Bank & Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank. Global Customer Experience Judge and speaker on various platforms as an industry expert. Faran has led ADIB win ‘Best Bank in Customer Experience’ in UAE for last 7 consecutive years. An achievement of un-parallel proportions.
Faran is also a talented and an Award winning photographer. His photographs have been exhibited in UAE, Thailand and Italy.
Ali Malik
Head of Customer Experience, StaticA
Ali Malik, CCXP is a Certified CX practitioner, consultant, trainer and VOC platform enabler. Representing Static-A, CX Research and Strategy firm, Ali is helping organizations in designing & implementing CX Measurements, Mystery Audits, Omni-channel Voice of Customers, NPS, CX Strategy, CX Training’s and enabling Customer Centric Cultures
Moaza Kayaf
Director of Undersecretary Office, Ministry of States for Federal National Council Affairs
Moaza Ali Kayaf, Organizational Excellence Professional who has spent 16 years in improving processes and organizations. She worked as expert in government entities, Dubai Police, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of States for Federal National Council Affairs. She holds Master’s of Science in Organization Excellence from Hamdan Bin Mohammed e-University, Diploma of Government Performance Expert from American University of Dubai and Diploma of Organizational Excellence Expert from American University of Sharjah.
Francisco Lafuente
Co-Founder, Innoway
I am the cofounder of innoway and a startup coach at meddy.
I help organizations transform their businesses generating, testing and validating innovative ideas in the market fast and cheap using design thinking, lean and agile techniques.
I coach early stage startups about fast idea validation in the market. Additionally, I support startups with early stage investment once they can prove initial traction following design thinking and lean techniques.
I have experience with S&P500 organizations threatened with disruption. I have helped them reduce uncertainty and time to market for new products and services.
Saad AL-Qahtani
CEO, SocialTech
Saad AL-Qahtani is a Saudi entrepreneur who co-founded a number of local and GCC companies, working in several leadership positions in the government agencies, where he founded digital media departments for a number of government and educational institutions that have been recognized as the best practice implementation and strategy at local and GCC levels. He served as head of the new media department at King Saud University, where he founded and managed the department for four years. He founded the New Media Department of the Ministry of Labor and served as director of the Department and was praised as the best strategy and implementation of a Gulf government sector in digital media.
Sam Achampong
Regional Head MENA, CIPS MENA
Sam is a procurement professional with extensive experience in Procurement and Supply Chain management across the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region. He has held Senior Procurement and Strategic Sourcing roles for organisations such as Majid Al Futtaim, Abu Dhabi Municipality and Nakheel in the Middle East; MTN across Africa; and Land Securities in the UK.
An active member of the procurement fraternity in the MENA region, Sam is Regional Director of the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS) for the Middle East & North Africa Region.
Hessa Al Ghurair
Director - Human Capital, General Civil Aviation Authority
Hessa Al Ghurair is a highly-regarded expert, speaker, advisor and writer in the field of human resources, business, finance and aviation. Known for her refreshingly candid and insightful talks, she is a frequent keynote speaker in regional and global conferences
Dr. Alex Jones
Professor of Leadership and Strategic Management, American University in the Emirates
Dr. Jones has a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Leadership from an ACBSP global business accreditation accredited university with a focus on Critical Thinking and Leadership and a Master of International Business (MIB). He has extensive experience in business development, both nationally and internationally. He has worked managing worldwide publishing for Macmillan, Palgrave Macmillan, WH Freeman, and Worth Publishers in different countries including Dubai, the United Arab Emirates and the GCC.
Hassan Mohammad
CEO, Multifarious
Hassan, Founder and CEO at Multifarious Experience, is a CCXP – Certified Customer Experience Professional and a CXPA (Customer Experience Professionals’ Association) Recognised Trainer Provider (RTP). He is nominated as a rising 30under30 CX superstar by CX Network and also sits on the Leadership board/serves as Executive Director at the Customer Institute.
Hassan works at the forefront of innovation and has developed his approach over 7 years working with organisations internationally ie UK and the Middle East across sectors such as Healthcare, Insurance, Engineering and the public sector. He is a passionate advocate of using cross-cultural collaboration to co-design innovative experiences with customer and employees and building capacity within organisations for CX, design and innovation.
Jasmina Popov-Locke
Director of Programme and Research Development, MODUL University Dubai
Forward thinking, education professional, strategist and public speaker, with over fifteen years of experience in aviation, tourism and education sectors. In her current role, Jasmine looks after all aspects of corporate and governmental engagement and development of strategic projects with International organisations, large corporations and public sector in the UAE, focusing predominantly on professional education, research and education consulting.
Ali Raza Mehboob
Head of Marketing, Noor Takaful
Over 22 years of experience in marketing and brand building with banking, insurance and Takaful.