2025 Speakers

Azeem Akhtar is Global Chief Technology Officer at BT International, where he leads a team of global CTOs delivering strategic technology guidance to multinational enterprises. Azeem has played a pivotal role in shaping and evangelising BT’s groundbreaking Global Fabric platform—a...

Ayman Alharbi is responsible for comprehensive management and implementations of the technology infrastructures & enabling other technological initiatives such as smart destination projects. Ayman is a technology consultant for several KSA universities & Smart City Consultant for several...

Abdulhadi Alhassani is VP of Strategy and Business Development at ‎ARABSAT.‎ Mr. Alhassani has been with ARABSAT for over 28 years most of which was ‎spent in the engineering and operations side of the business. Over the years, ‎his mandate included restructuring, operating model...

Ali Benfattoum is a Principal Product Manager for Physical AI & IoT at Amazon Web Services. With 15+ years driving innovation in Applied AI, IoT, Digital Twins, and Cloud Computing, Ali designs and builds innovative products and solutions that help customers solve their business challenges. ...

Mohammed Bin-Hassan is the Managing Director of Khazna AI Data Center in Saudi Arabia, where he leads the company’s strategic expansion into the Kingdom to establish world-class, AI-ready, Blackwell-ready infrastructure. Khazna is the region’s undisputed leader in hyperscale data centers, operating ...

Carlo Corti leads Nokia's Optical Networks Business Center for the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region, bringing extensive expertise and leadership to this critical area. With a distinguished career spanning over three decades, Carlo joined Alcatel (now Nokia) in 1991 as an R&D engineer in...

International Business Development Manager | Mission-Critical Communications & Connectivity Specialist With over 25 years of experience in mission-critical communications and technology, I help organizations design and deploy robust connectivity and communication systems that make a...

George Gao is the President of Huawei's Cloud Core Network Product Line. He has been featured at events like the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in both 2024 and 2025, discussing topics such as 5G-Advanced, AI, and cloud-native solutions.

Ali Jitawi is a seasoned telecommunications professional with over 20 years of experience in the Telecom and IT industries. He possesses deep expertise in 2G–5G technologies, GSM core, cloud solutions, radio, transmission, and IT systems. Throughout his career, Ali has held key leadership roles...

Ashish Ahuja is a visionary leader in digital infrastructure and the Founder and CEO of Sloka Partners, a firm specializing in building networks, subsea cables, and data centers across continents. With over 30 years of experience in submarine communications and network systems, Ashish has a proven...

Omar AlRasheed - Short Biography GM, Commercial Excellence, TAWAL Omar Alrasheed is an expert in the field of telecommunication and infrastructure with over 16 years of experience in multiple organizations within the ICT infrastructure field. He is the general Manager of Commercial Excellence...

Dr Mudar AlBarry is an accomplished telecommunications leader with over 20 years of expertise in both technical and strategic roles. He has successfully driven transformative technology initiatives across mobile and fixed networks within Stc Group’s Technology sector.During his career at...

Ms. Fadwa Saad AlBawardi, is the founder/CEO, FSAB Consultancy office in Digital Transformation. Ms. AlBawardi is a Certified Strategy and Business Planning Professional, with more than 22+ years of working experience. Moreover, she is a certified trainer in KSA as well as with UN Training and...

Dr. Noha Al-Harthi is a globally recognized leader in AI, robotics, quantum computing, and emerging technologies, driving transformative innovation across cognitive city and next-generation digital infrastructure projects. As Head of AI and Emerging Technologies at NEOM, she leads initiatives that...

Dr. Khalid Al Mashouq is a telecom industry veteran with over 30 years of experience in leadership, entrepreneurship, and large-scale project execution. He has played a key role in advancing mobile indoor coverage, particularly in high-profile projects such as the Holy Mosque in Makkah, Riyadh...

Waleed Aloriny is the Internet Center Lead in Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with more than 20 years experience in ICT domain.Previously, Waleed Aloriny held Leadership positions at various telecom and ICT companies in Saudi Arabia as well as...

Omar is currently the GM of Sales and Business Development for Ciena in Saudi Arabia. Prior to that he was the GM of Wholesale at Mobily, GM of Sales at Calix, and Strategic Account Manager at Cisco. He started his carrier in Ottawa Canada as Software engineer in Nortel/Ciena labs.Omar is also a...

Mohamed Bakry, Director of Solutions Engineering at Cisco, has over 20 years of experience in the telecommunications industry. As Head of Solutions Engineering for the Service Provider segment in the MEA region, he leads Cisco's solutions engineering community, managing teams that deliver...

Telecom professional with Wireless Solutions, Strategies and policy making experience of more than 15+ years. Expert for Wireless Solutions and Future Strategies worked on multiple mega projects with complex designs for emerging technologies. Worked as a member of Governments 5G committee for 5G...

Catalin Buliga is currently the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Vodafone Egypt and a member of Vodafone Egypt’s Executive Committee. He joined Vodafone Egypt on December 1st 2022 bringing the company 34 years of extensive experience in the telecommunications sector.Prior to joining Vodafone...

Dr. Rain Du is a telecommunications expert with over 20 years of experience, currently serving as Senior Strategic Product Manager at Ericsson, focusing on indoor radio portfolio and solutions. His previous roles include managing the radio Business Intelligence team and coordinating massive MIMO...

Lotfi Elati leads connectivity and access policy at Meta for the MENA region. He works with regional policy makers and other stakeholders to develop an enabling regulatory and policy environment for connectivity including telecom infrastructure projects and spectrum access. Lotfi has more than 20...

Simon Fletcher is the Chief Strategy Officer of Small Cell Forum (SCF), the global membership organization committed to supporting agile, low-cost mobile infrastructure through small cell products, networks and systems. In his CSO role Simon helps to set the agenda and priorities of SCF, drive the...

Richard Heseltine serves as Sales Director of SOLiD EMEA and is based in the UK, responsible for the pre-sales activities Richard has most recently been in the specialist PCB industry heading up sales for the EMEA region. Prior to that had been in the DAS industry for more than 20 years helping to...

Raoul Jacquand joined ASN (Alcatel Submarine Networks) in early 2025 as VP Strategic Alliances & External Affairs, with the mandate to lead the company’s alliances, M&A and partnerships strategy, as well as its engagement with the industry-wide ecosystem of public & private...

Mahesh Jaishankar has over 25 years’ experience in digital infrastructure, international connectivity and business development. He is currently the Managing Director at CMC Networks, prior to which Mahesh held several high-profile leadership roles, including Senior Advisor at Arthur D. Little, Head ...

Roque Lozano is the Senior Vice President of Network Infrastructure at Nokia, leading IP, Optical, and Fixed Networks, Data Centers, and Webscale solutions in Middle East and Africa.With over 25 years of international experience across Europe, Asia-Pacific, China, and South America, he has been...

Mohammed Alosaimi is a seasoned executive leader at stc with more than 25 years of experience in the telecommunications industry. Possessing broad expertise spanning diverse roles from Network engineering, marketing strategy, business development, brand management, and growth operations.Throughout...

As Global Head of Engagement at Telecom Infra Project (TIP), Vishal sits on the senior leadership team reporting to the TIP Board. He is responsible building a commercially sustainable operation with a broad and active member base, engaging globally with TIP members, industry stakeholders and...

Senior Sales Manager, Orange Wholesale International | Founder, Youth Telco CircleBatool Mazharali is a Senior Sales Manager at Orange Wholesale International, leading mobility and connectivity solutions across the Middle East. Based in Dubai, she drives strategic partnerships with major operators...

AnaMaria Meshkurti is a Tech investor and Strategic Board Member with AMVS Capital. She is also the Co Editor in Chief of Moneys Magazine, a publication featuring investors and entrepreneurs globally. Previously she was the Head of Marketing, Communications and Engagement at the FONGIT (Fondation...

Vicky Messer is VP of Product Management at RANsemi, and leads Product Management, Technical Marketing and partnership activities. She has over 25 years of experience in the wireless industry including Picocom, NVIDIA, Picochip, ALU and Motorola. In 2024 Vicky won Electronics Weekly Woman of the...

Alen Muslic is Chief Innovation Officer at ZIRA Group and General Manager of ZIRA Arabia, bringing over 20 years of international telecom and IT experience across strategy, product leadership, and large-scale transformation projects. With a deep background in BSS architecture, revenue management...

Rami Osman is Managed Service Director at Saudi Net Link, Where he specializes in Satellite , Space and Wireless Communications and has over 19 years of experience in Telecom and Satcom industry. As graduated from computer science engineering combined with MBA degree in project management and...

Karin Raj currently serves as the Chief Technology Officer Europe for Nokia. She has held a variety of senior commercial and technical positions in both Ericsson and Huawei, working across diverse markets such as Asia, Europe, and North America. Karin also has extensive experience from smaller...

As Managing Director of the Service Providers at Cisco Systems, Zayan leads strategy and commercial operations across the Middle East, Africa, and Turkey. With over 24 years of experience in the ICT industry, he brings extensive expertise in driving growth, leading cross-functional teams, and...

Dina Sallam is a seasoned technology leader with over 17 years of experience in Data Management, Data Science, AI, and Customer Experience Management. She currently serves as Head of Data, AI & CVM Analytics at Orange Egypt, where she drives large-scale innovation through advanced data...

Mr. Siddiqi leads the global strategy of NTT docmo business' enterprise 5G and IoT solutions in collaboration with NTT group companies and ecosystem partners. He is currently an Executive Director, Head of 5G & IoT Global Services and serves as the board member of overseas group companies...

Arno Stofberg is an accomplished technologist and solutions architect with substantial expertise in data center infrastructure. In his role at Legrand Data Center Solutions, Arno helps lead the development of integrated, resilient, and efficient systems that support mission-critical operations...

Virginia Teixeira is a Distinguished Solutions Engineer in Cisco's global mass scale infrastructure team, covering SP, web and large enterprise segments. Focused on technology innovation with a business purpose, Virginia is in the forefront of new technology analysis and architectures...

Mehmet Tik is a telco industry expert with over 15 years of experience across the Middle East, North Africa, Turkiye, and Central Asia. As Meta’s Edge Strategy Manager, he leads the “Edge Production Infra & Connectivity” strategy for 27 countries, driving innovative network infrastructure and...

Nigel Toon is the founder of Graphcore and a leading AI entrepreneur. He sits as a non-executive director on the board of the UK Research and Innovation Council and has sat on the UK’s Prime Minister’s Business Council. He has been recognized with numerous industry awards, being ranked No. 1 on...

Nacho Floristan is a Director for Generative AI in Google, he leads the Black Belt team for EMEA within Applied AI Engineering in Google Cloud. Being based out of Dubai, he is passionate about helping customers along pragmatic use cases mainly around LLMs, gen media, Model tuning and Intelligent...

Peter van Burgel (CEO, AMS-IX) Peter van Burgel is a passionate professional with more than 20 years of management experience at various ICT and telecom companies. Since 2018, van Burgel is CEO AMS-IX, one of the largest Internet Exchanges in the world. Before joining AMS-IX, van Burgel worked as...

An engineer at heart, and a builder by mission—turning legacy cost centers into agile, growth-driving platforms that power national digital progress crafting successful PPPs.Building the future of digital AI infrastructure—where data centers become AI factories, sovereign clouds empower...

Yaarob Al-Sayegh is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Beyond ONE Saudi and has more than 25 years of professional experience in the telecommunications and technology industries. By leveraging his extensive knowledge in marketing, business strategy development for broadband technologies, ICT and...

Nadine Akkari received her Ph.D. degree in Next Generation Networks from National Superior School of Telecommunications (ENST, Paris), France, in 2006. She worked as associate professor with the faculty of Computing and Information Technology at King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia from...

Jawad Bentajar is the Head of Product and Business Development for IoT & eSIM at e& Group (Etisalat), a global telecommunications and technology company operating in over 30 markets across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. In his current role, Jawad is responsible for driving product...

Dr. Hajar El Haddaoui is the Director General of the Digital Cooperation Organization (DCO) and has been with the Tech-Diplomacy for over 20 years. Furthermore, Hajar is also a leader with global experience spanning multinational organizations and public sector entities across and works with...

Cairo-born Sherif has spent most of his life in the Middle East region, apart from a period of time spent in London where he earned a Ph.D. in Economics and an MSc in Finance and Economic Development (with Distinction), both from the University of London. Sherif started his career at EFG-Hermes...

With over a decade of experience, Dr. Haider is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Architecture, Computing, and Engineering at the University of East London (UEL). Dr. Haider has actively contributed to shaping UK public policy on regulating the sustainability and energy efficiency of ICT...

Bilal HameedDirector – Interconnection Management, e& (Etisalat Group)United Arab Emirates Bilal Hameed is a seasoned telecom strategist with over two decades of experience in driving national connectivity, infrastructure sharing, and digital transformation initiatives across the Middle...

Ahmed Hegazy is a senior telecom policy strategist and one of the MENA region’s foremost architects of interconnection and infrastructure leasing frameworks. With over 15 years of experience, he currently serves as Interconnection and Wholesale Services Regulatory Policies Manager at Egypt’s...

Tech Leader | Human Connector | Builder of PossibilitiesI’m a technologist at heart with over 26 years of global experience in the telecommunications and tech industry. What drives me isn’t just innovation—it’s the belief that technology should uplift people, connect communities, and create...

Tolga Kilic has 25+ years of experience in telecommunications at policy making and regulatory institutions, challenger and incumbent operators and industry associations. He has gone through the hot topics of the industry such as spectrum auctions, convergence, network sharing and wholesale...

Dr. Eduardo Mateo is the Chief Strategy Officer of the Submarine Network Division at NEC, Tokyo. He leads technology strategy and network architecture activities since 2012. Prior to that, he held a research and development role at NEC Labs America in Princeton, NJ, where he conducted pioneering...

Farhan Mohamed | Strategy Lead specializing in Business Transformation & Corporate Development. Proven leader with extensive experience in the Services and Infrastructure sectors, leveraging deep knowledge of technological trends and market needs to drive growth. Adept at devising innovative...

Ana Nakashidze is the Chief Executive Officer of AzerTelecom, part of NEQSOL Holding, leading strategic initiatives to reshape the digital landscape of the South Caucasus and beyond. With a career spanning leadership roles across telecom regulation, technology development, and international...

Mr. Varisco is an experienced industry veteran in the telecom and energy businesses and has served in many executive roles over his +30-year career. Prior to Cinturion, was the founding member and CEO of an international fiber optic network known as AEC1. This is a high-capacity Trans-Atlantic...

Tolga has more than 20 years of experience in a range of roles in the ICT ecosystem in the Middle East. Prior to joining IDC, Tolga worked as a business development manager in STC’s IoT department for real estate developers and facility operators. Tolga worked for a decade for Turkey’s Information...

Muhammad Yaseen is a distinguished BSS and Digital Transformation Leader with over 25 years of experience in the Gulf region, where he has directly shaped the technology journeys of two of the UAE’s leading operators, du and Etisalat.Renowned for pioneering AI implementation in charging systems, he ...