Speakers

Engineer Sulltan Alharthi works in Abu Dhabi City Municipality as the Head of Sustainable Building Section. He has over 10 years of experiace in sustainability and he is the first emirati green building assessor. Sultan is in charge of applying the Estidama Pearl Rating System in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi which aims to apply the Sustainability and Green Buildings Standards to any new development through its life cycle from Design to construction stage until the project is handed over to the client with the aim of protecting the environment and reducing energy and water consumbtions. Sultan is also a member of Arab Youth Councl for Climate Change. He is also working with different stackholders to engage youth from schools and universities through applying sustainability in their behavours, daily routin and educational projects.

A seasoned architect with particular expertise in sustainable design, Chris Wan focuses on advocating for sustainability and ESG at Masdar City and beyond through outreach, public education, and knowledge sharing.

Wan has worked extensively in sustainability, architecture, and design management in Hong Kong and Abu Dhabi. Previously, he was the head of design management at Masdar, where he promoted a holistic approach to sustainable development that balances environmental, commercial, and social requirements.

Wan has made many contributions to Masdar City. His work has led to the construction of multiple developments that explore the boundaries of sustainable design, including a series of net-zero energy buildings.

Wan holds bachelor’s degrees in architecture from the University of Bath in the U.K.

Dr Bassem Nassouhy is a distinguished climate change and sustainability expert with an exceptional track record in advising various governmental and private sector entities across the MENA region and Europe. With 20 years of experience in the field, Bassem has been instrumental in shaping policies and strategies that aim to mitigate the impact of climate change and promote sustainable practices.

Bassem has participated in over 850 projects for 200+ happy clients worldwide, delivering innovative solutions to complex sustainability challenges. Their deep understanding of sustainable practices and climate change adaptation has enabled them to provide strategic guidance and advice to a diverse range of clients across the globe.

Bassem holds several prominent positions related to sustainability and climate change, including Strategic Environment Advisor for a GCC based environmental authority and Consultant for a governmental authority in charge of natural resources within UAE. Bassem is also the Director of a leading sustainability group of companies in the UK within various offices worldwide, overseeing their efforts to promote sustainable practices and reduce carbon emissions. Additionally, Bassem is an esteemed member of the Advisory Board for a faculty of engineering within MENA region.

As an accomplished keynote speaker, Bassem has addressed numerous international conferences, seminars, and workshops on sustainability and climate change. Their dynamic and engaging approach to presenting complex ideas and concepts has earned them high acclaim from audiences around the world.

Bassem's expertise covers a wide range of topics, including sustainable development, renewable energy, green alternative resources, and climate change adaptation. Their deep understanding of these issues has made them a sought-after advisor for various government agencies and multinational corporations.

With a passion for making a positive impact on the world, Bassem has dedicated their career to promoting sustainable practices and finding innovative solutions to the challenges posed by climate change. Their keynote address at the upcoming international conference in Dubai promises to be both insightful and inspiring.

Elie is the Head of Electricity at the Regulatory and Supervisory Bureau in Dubai. The RSB regulates the electricity, water and district cooling sectors in the Emirate. For close to 10 years at the RSB Elie has been focusing on regulating electricity generation under the Independent Power Producer model, and supporting programmes that foster the building retrofit market and promote energy and water efficiency in Dubai’s built environment.

Elie has over 22 years of work experience and holds a MBA and a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering. He gained his expertise in the energy and utilities sector largely through regulatory and consulting work in the UAE, Canada and Lebanon.

Abdalla Al Aboodi, a seasoned finance professional, joined Emirates Development Bank in 2021, embracing a pivotal role in Project and Corporate Finance function. Committed to the bank's strategic objectives, he actively contributes to fostering industries, promoting entrepreneurship and innovation, and driving economic diversification in the UAE. With a laser focus on key sectors of Food Security, Manufacturing, Renewables, Healthcare, and Advanced Technology, Abdalla spearheads initiatives at EDB that shape the nation's economy.

Having honed his expertise at First Abu Dhabi Bank, the UAE's largest bank, Abdalla's previous tenure as an Executive Director within Debt Capital Markets underscores his proficiency in overseeing syndicated loans and bonds. Furthermore, his extensive experience in Enterprise Risk Management, Finance, and Treasury Audit bolsters his comprehensive understanding of the financial landscape.

Abdalla Al Aboodi's academic prowess shines with an MSc in Finance from the prestigious British University in Dubai, coupled with a BSc in Business Administration from the esteemed American University of Sharjah. With his practical expertise and academic accomplishments, Abdalla Al Aboodi is poised to make a significant impact in the ever-evolving field of finance and banking.

Vineesha, an experienced leader in digital transformation and strategy, has served as the lead for digital transformation task forces and committees, as well as leading digital functions within organizations. With her extensive tenure as a leader, she has consulted with over 40+ government and Fortune 500 companies, providing expertise in defining digital strategies, establishing transformation capabilities, improving government digital services, implementing emerging technologies, and leading large-scale digital initiatives. Her impactful work in revamping digital public services has positively impacted the lives of millions of residents. Vineesha specializes in leveraging AI, analytics, and other technologies to achieve environmental sustainability and governance goals (ESG). Her contributions have earned her multiple accolades, including the prestigious 'Global Rising Star of Technology' award from the UK's top technology jury, the 2022 Middle East Women Leader of the Year in Tech, UAE Digital Accelerator Award, and Best Speaker Award. She has also received recognition from prominent firms such as the Road and Transport Authority and Protiviti for her outstanding work. 

• GENERAL MANAGER  Lafarge Emirates Cement LLC (U.A.E)

Steve Severance oversees numerous projects that balance sustainability and economic requirements, guaranteeing each project meets sustainability, revenue, cost, and schedule targets.

Severance also leads the development of the technology lines of business, including district cooling, mobility, and smart city initiatives. He develops new business models, execution of strategies, and partnerships with leading global companies to implement technology requirements.

He has 20 years of experience in project and program management, strategy consulting, financial analysis, and economic development in the United States, Moldova, and the Middle East.

Severance holds a Master of Business Administration from San Jose State University and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Cedarville University in the United States.

As Head of Sustainability at Dar, Balsam plays an influential role in the development of high-performance design. She works closely with clients to enhance their missions and meet project goals, bringing her expertise in net zero, embodied carbon, integrated design, resiliency, transport, mobility, health and well-being, and green certifications to all of our projects. With over 17 years’ experience in the sustainability field, she has in fact played a leading role in some of Dar’s most sophisticated sustainability projects.

She provides thought leadership on projects sustainability impacts and whole life carbon footprint, and advises clients on developing and delivering ambitious carbon reduction pathways and broader sustainability visioning.

Among her valued assets is that she facilitates, participates and promotes an integrated design process, collaborate with and lead teams to integrate and achieve high performance objectives at buildings, infrastructure and cities scales.

Balsam currently serves as the Chair of the Dar group sustainability council and has reached our audience at scale, through COP27, building awareness and a positive impression of our brand. She is currently leading the group efforts for further exhibiting the group strength on sustainability at COP28.

Samer is Senior Architect, Project Management Professional, LEED accredited professional, WELL accredited professional, EDGE Expert, Parksmart Advisor, TRUE Advisor and Sustainability Specialist with more than 20 years of extensive and diversified experience in the UAE, working for international Consultants and Contractors. In addition to his bachelor degree in Architectural Engineering, Samer has a master degree in Construction Project Management from Heriot-Watt University. His expertise spans from design management, sustainability management, technical coordination to site supervision and support to facility management during operation of the buildings. Samer has remarkable skills in providing technical support to individuals and teams pursuing sustainability rating systems with expert advice on credits and prerequisites. He has contributed to the delivery of many Green and energy-efficient Buildings within the UAE throughout the whole lifecycle of the buildings. Samer possesses a collaborative leadership approach with strategic vision and vast exposure to structural, MEP and infrastructure design and construction. 

Dr. Spanos is a consultant and sustainability expert with 20+ years of experience. As Director of Sustainability of KEO, he provides consultancy and strategy-related services to institutions, investment funds, and real-estate developers. His participation in the development of decarbonization strategies for the real-estate sector starts in the early 2000s.  Nowadays, he collaborates with development and holding companies on the advancement of decarbonization strategies and identifying solutions for ESG improvement potentials. He is a Chartered Engineer and a Member of CIBSE, IMechE, and the Energy Institute. He is also actively supporting academic research, international professional bodies, and regional Green Building Councils.  

Adnan is a member of the senior leadership team of Arthur D. Little Middle East, based in Dubai and leads the Energy and Utilities practice in the region. He has been at the firm since September 2010.

Adnan brings extensive experience in consulting, technology and operations and specializes in corporate strategy, growth strategy, diversification and innovation strategy and management. He focuses on new energy (clean technology, renewables, energy storage, etc.) and emerging technology trends including digital technology.

Adnan advises both public and private-sector clients in the Middle East, Europe and South East Asia over the last 10 years. He advises clients on strategy, technology and innovation related matters, navigating through the energy transition and setting up new businesses for sustainable growth. He covers client in the energy domain (Oil & Gas, Power and Water Utilities), aerospace and defense, ministries and large diversified family conglomerates

Prior to joining Arthur D. Little, Adnan worked as a Project Manager / Process Development Manager in the technology sector with Kyocera in Florida USA for more than 8 years. His responsibilities included leading and managing 2 key product lines in ultra high frequency hybrid microcircuits for defense and telecommunication sector,

Adnan holds a MBA from Indian School of Business and a M.S in Materials Science and Engineering from Ohio State University. He also completed his Bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering from BITS, Pilani.

Hani is an Associate Director at AESG. He is Civil Engineer by background with over 10 years of experience in sustainable design and construction. Hani led the development of KSA’s green building rating system (Mostadam) as well as provided strategy advisory support in relation to its operations. He has been involved in providing strategy consultancy to various developers in relation to sustainable cities and master planning. His experience includes development of sustainability guidelines, policies, as well as implementation of corporate sustainability strategies.

Over 16 years of leadership, management, solution selling and engineering experience in the Energy, Process, and manufacturing segment. I started my professional career by developing complex electrification and power automation solutions for large-scale capital investments in MEA. With Belden, I branched out to nearby application expertise in digitization, supporting the core process automation applications, and secured communication infrastructure for multiple industry verticals in the past seven years. Currently focussing on augmenting manufacturing operations by leveraging digitization tools and the power of data, building on my personal experience in the Japanese manufacturing excellence space acquired well before starting my professional career and investing in data science and machine learning.

Chief Executive Officer, Saloodo!, Middle East & Africa

and Chief Financial Officer, DHL Global Forwarding, Middle East & Africa

Tobias Maier is the CFO for Middle East & Africa at DHL Global Forwarding, a division of Deutsche Post DHL Group that is responsible for DHL’s air, ocean and overland freight forwarding business. In this role, Mr. Maier leverages his vast experience and leadership in finance to build a digitally-savvy team that provides sound counsel to business leaders in the region.

As of January 2019, he assumed the additional role of CEO of Saloodo! Middle East & Africa, the digital road freight platform developed under the auspices of DHL Global Forwarding. Tobias is spearheading the continued expansion of this digital platform that uses logistics technology to accurately match shippers to transport providers across the region.

In her role as Director of Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability at talabat, Dimitra is leading on the design and implementation of the talabat's ESG agenda regionally that includes the focus on three key pillars: giving back to the community, protecting our future and key stakeholders wellbeing. She was previously talabat Director of Talent Development and prior to that has had over six years of strategy consulting experience in the tech space with a  UAE local family group, Al Ghurair Investments. Dimitra gained her BS in Business Administration from Boston University and two Masters degrees - Masters in International Management from IE School Business and Masters in Sustainability from Harvard University.

Farah is an award-winning climate change strategist and co-author of the Middle East regions’ first book on net zero cities. She has 20 years’ experience in the built environment gained in the US, UK, Southeast Asia and most recently the UAE.

Since arriving in Dubai in 2015, Farah has been steering sustainability and innovation agenda in the built environment across the Middle East. Her name is synonymous with implementable sustainability and energy strategies, and she has supported several iconic projects, including the Museum of the Future, Louvre Abu Dhabi, Bee’ah HQ in Sharjah and the Expo 2020 Sustainability Pavilion, to achieve their sustainability goals.

While based in the UK, Farah was heavily involved in creating the energy strategy for the country’s first zero-energy building, Ashmount Primary School, which won the 2015 Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Sustainable Buildings Award.

As an innovator, Farah focuses on implementing best practices in the built environment by applying systems related to the Food-Energy-Water Nexus, biomimetics, the Five Capital model of Sustainability, Liveability, and Inclusive Innovation Frameworks, which will build the foundation of the cities and communities of the future.

Farah is a Chartered Engineer, Fellow of the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) and Chair of CIBSE’s UAE Chapter, LEED and WELL Accredited Professional and Verified Research Expert for the Dubai Future Foundation. Farah is an active advocate of STEM education for future generations.

LinkedIn link profile: linkedin.com/in/farah-naz-fcibse

www.netzerocitybook.com

www.Farahnazsustain.com

Twitter profile: FarahNazSustain

With more than 25 years of international experience across various continents, Riad has advocated his past years to Circular Economy in the industrial sector and has just joined the list of Environment experts while launching his advisory company “ECOsquare” in 2021 in Dubai.

His focus is to provide roadmaps and industrial solutions to Sustainability and Waste challenges within industries and government bodies. During his late role as GM for a waste management division in the cement industry, he helped waste generators divert the waste from landfill. Since 2016, he has been actively promoting sustainable solutions with local UAE authorities, including MOCCAE, from which he was awarded recognitions for his actions along with other entities such as Tadweer and Dubai Municipality. With ECOsquare-(ECO2), he intends to create the bridge and make sure that “ECOnomy meets ECOlogy” challenges.

Prior to that, he took various positions as Product and Process Engineer, Project Manager, Sourcing and Supply Chain Director in Multinational companies. He is also an advisor for infrastructure/cleantech projects at the Swiss Business Hub as well as a waste expert at the Business Finland and regularly participate to Circular Economy panel discussions for which he acts as speaker or MC.

Riad holds a M.Sc in Engineering and Manufacturing from Syracuse University, US and a M.Sc in Material Science and Mechanical Engineer from Ecole Centrale de Lyon, France. He Speaks 5 languages and is convinced that multicultural exchanges are a mind opener and ease collaboration between people. As a scuba diver, he knows how fragile are our Natural resources and hence strive to keep it safe for the next generations. He has been living in the GCC since 2009.

An IT Professional with over 20 years in the IT Sector with experience in the UK, South Africa, Qatar and the UAE. Currently working at Aster Pharmacy Retail as their “Head of IT – Retail GCC”, I have previously been the IT Director at LIFE Pharmacy, Masafi Water and the IT Manager for Al Mana Fashion Group. I have implemented a large number of enterprise level ERP’s and was the first in the world to implement MS Dynamics AX 2012 R3 in Azure. Focused predominantly on identifying IT Business Requirements and implementing solutions to drive change across the business yielding both Financial and Operational benefits.

Anood AlHosani is a LEED Green Associate and a master’s degree holder. She attained her Master’s in Sustainable Critical Infrastructure from Khalifa University, and is currently working as a sustainability engineer at Dar Al Handasah. Anood is an engineering enthusiast, started her journey with pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in architectural Engineering where she then utilized the knowledge she learned to start her first professional role as an architect, she then continued to further enrich her knowledge and expertise through internships and attained a scholarship from Khalifa University to continue her education. Her thesis addressed one of the main issues the UAE, specifically Abu Dhabi, faces today; Urban sprawl, where she carried a qualitative research based on face to face interviews with reputed professionals in the field. She also contributed to “Lifescapes Beyond Bigness” Book curated by Dr Khaled AlAwadi, presented by the National Pavilion UAE at the 2018 Biennale di Venezia. The book is an excursion into the humane and undercelebrated areas of the UAE. Today, she continues to utilize the knowledge gathered into her everyday work through advising actionable strategies to help clients reach their sustainability goals, and monitoring the implementation of sustainability procedure and practices to ensure compliance by the related parties.

Atti Riazi is currently the Senior Vice President and CIO of Hearst Corporation. Prior to this role, Atti was the Senior Vice President and CIO of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. She was also appointed as the Assistant Secretary-General and Chief Information Technology Officer for the United Nations where she served for over 7 years. Additionally, Atti has published many articles and studies, sits on a number of boards, and supports STEM focused schooling for girls.

EJ Bodnar is the Global CXO Marketing Leader at Nutanix where he leads the CXO community and provides IT and business leaders with a place to share experiences, learn best practices, and address their key challenges. EJ was previously the Vice President of Marketing for HP Technology Services and held a variety of other roles at Hewlett-Packard for almost 20 years.

Dr. Langer is the Associate Vice Provost and Director of the Center for Technology Management & Digital Leadership at Northeastern University School of Business. Additionally, he is a Professor of Practice at Columbia University School of Graduate Education. Dr. Langer is also a Best-selling Author, CEO, former CIO, and Advisor to C-Level Executives.