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Speakers (Breakout sessions/workshops)
     
   Show me the money – cash flow, budgeting for growth and slowdowns, finance tips for non-CFOs  
 
Workshop mini module: Business lifecycle and financing solutions
Nilanjan Ray
Sr. Vice President Head, SME Banking, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank

Nilanjan Ray currently heads the SME business in Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB). ADCB is the second largest bank in Abu Dhabi promoted by govt. owned entities. Prior to joining ADCB in October 2007, Nilanjan had worked in ICICI Bank, Bahrain as Vice President - Corporate & Commercial Banking.

Prior to his assignments in GCC, Nilanjan was heading Asset Products & Credit for ICICI bank, Business Banking (SME) in India. He has also worked in HDFC Bank & IDBI Bank in India in various senior roles in SME Banking, Cash Management & Fixed Income Sales.

He was part of the start-up teams in SME Banking in ICICI Bank & HDFC Bank. He started his career with Agriculture Finance Corporation, Mumbai in Project Evaluation & Monitoring.

Nilanjan holds a post graduate business degree & a graduate degree in Economics.

Workshop mini module: Key to effective cash management in SMEs
Prabhakar Kamath
Partner & CEO Morison Menon Limited

Kamath trained with leading accounting firms in India & then in the UAE, before starting his own professional practice in 1992. He has over 17 years of professional practice experience in the UAE. He took over the mantle of being the Partner of Morison (UAE) Consulting, the consulting entity of Morison Menon Group, in 2006. He is also the CEO & Partner of Morison Menon Limited, the Morison Menon Group entity in DIFC.

He is also manages a FII registered in Mauritius which invests in Indian equities.

Mr. Kamath is a frequent speaker has delivered speeches on various topics International and regional conferences and seminars.

Workshop mini module: Importance of retaining customers during turbulent times
Reggie Fernandes
Director, Gulf Operations, Sage Middle East

Reggie Fernandes is Director – Gulf Operations at Sage Middle East. He is also the founder of the "Accelerate out of the downturn" forum in the Middle East.

Through this forum Reggie and his panel of experts has reached out to thousands of small, medium and large organizations. Their suggestions and recommendations have helped many organizations sustain and grow during the downturn.

Reggie is a business graduate with a wealth of experience in the SME sector that spans over 22 years. For the Small and Medium Enterprises, he is considered as one of the best in ERP and CRM domain. His knowledge and experience has enabled hundreds of SME customers improve their overall efficiency and productivity.

Besides being a vibrant Speaker, this dynamic personality always finds creative and innovative ideas to help you grow your business.

 
   Multi-cultural business dealings – finding common ground and cutting through cultural crossed-signals  
 
Workshop mini module: Tranzeet lounge - An Emirati perspective
Abdulmuttalib Talib Al Hashimi
Managing Director, Next Level Management Consultancy

Abdulmuttalib Talib Al Hashimi is an Emirati entrepreneur, Emiratisation expert, co-founder and Managing Director of Next Level Management Consultancy, an Emiratisation consultancy firm. Al Hashimi holds over 12 years of private sector experience, both as an employee and employer. He is also a member of the advisory board of AIESEC, the international youth empowerment and leadership platform, and is a regular participant in their events where he has been actively coaching young graduates.

Besides that, he judges for the quarterly Dubai Women's College Business Plan and Entrepreneurship competition. Al Hashimi was also a speaker in the 2009 GCC Nationalisation summit. In 2009, he was selected as one of 40 young Arab entrepreneurs for the Silatech project and summit. Silatech is an innovative initiative by H.H Sheikha Moza Al Misnad of Qatar to tackle issues of unemployment and enterprise creation in the Arab world. Al Hashimi is also an Assessor with the Dubai Quality Awards (DQA).

Workshop mini module: Working in a multicultural business environment

Hazel Jackson
Chief Executive Officer, Biz-group

Hazel Jackson is the co-founder and Chief Executive of Biz-group, a UAE-based business consulting firm consisting of companies specialising in corporate training, teambuilding and business strategy. Biz-group was launched in 2010, in a strategic move to align the businesses, encourage cross promotion of services and facilitate regional expansion.

Biz-ability provides experiential business leadership training and development programmes and is affiliated to many of the world's top management organisations. It has the rare certification to tailor the Institute of Leadership & Management (ILM) programme to suit the Middle East market, while retaining the UK qualification.

Biz-strategy is the exclusive licensee in the region for international growth guru and best-selling author Verne Harnish and enjoys access to his company Gazelles, Inc., which serves as an outsourced corporate university for SME companies wanting to manage their growth strategy.

Hazel founded Biz-ability in 1993 to offer business and human resources solutions to Middle East businesses. Ten years later, biz-events was born as an extension of biz-ability, offering quality teambuilding events.

Renowned for her high-energy business savvy, Hazel is the Past President of the UAE Chapter of the global Entrepreneur's Organisation (EO). She has also worked with many of the world's foremost management consultants.

As an accredited 'Gazelles' business leadership coach, Hazel works closely with renowned business author and international speaker (coined 'The Growth Guy'), Verne Harnish, author of famed 'Mastering the Rockefeller Habits'. She has access to a global team of business coaches and attends international summits to ensure biz-ability delivers global best practices for a Middle East business audience.


 
   Planning growth – prioritising human resources, infrastructure, equipment, technology  
 
Workshop mini module: Including your people in the planning phase
Debbie Nicol
Owner and Principal Consultant, business en motion fz llc

Debbie's career has been solely dedicated to embedding life-long learning into organizational behaviour, enabling the people to be business drivers. Commencing her career as a teacher, Debbie soon developed a passion for organizational development, applying it across Hotel Management Companies such as Hyatt, Rezidor and Rotana in property, regional and International leadership roles.

Recognizing opportunity in alternate industries, her own business, business en motion fz llc currently partners with the Banking, Logistics, Oil, Retail, Information Security and Government sectors across the GCC countries, including Saudi Arabia. With GAC, HBI, Al Elm Group of Companies and IATA as key clients, business en motion fz llc adds value to both large corporations and growing, mid-sized companies.

business en motion fz llc and its team of on-call specialists provides highly-skilled project assistance, individually selected for every project. Being in high demand for her own leadership workshops, strategic approaches to sustainable change, executive coaching and public speaking engagements, Debbie's USP is the ability to open minds of those around her. Corporate success has been supported by two Masters Degrees, a Masters in Online Education and a Masters of Linguistics.

A twice-published author, Debbie's strategic, focussed, open-minded, fun approach to growing individuals and corporations gains both sustainable and 'real' results.

Workshop mini module: Infrastructure and technology – advice from an ICT expert's perspective
John Lincoln
Vice President, Enterprise Marketing, du

With over 20 years experience in the USA, Japan, Europe, India, Dubai, Malaysia, Latin America and various others, John has extensive senior expertise in international telecommunications sales, marketing, business development and customer service delivery.

He also has executive experience with general management, marketing, P&L, product development and revenue management responsibilities in both consumer and enterprise segments for both fixed and mobile sectors.

John also has an impressive operational and management portfolio of established proven expertise in incremental business value creation and management of large multi-cultural teams in Vodafone Global in the UK, Japan Telecom in Tokyo, AirTouch in San Francisco and Tokyo, Airtel in Delhi and other telecom and technology companies. Additionally he has extensive large scale business development, M&A and operational project experience across the USA, Europe, Asia and Latin America.

John has a MBA and MS in Telecommunications from Golden Gate University in San Francisco, California, USA.

Workshop mini module: Business applications including cloud
Shuveb Hussain
Head Cloud Computing, K7

Shuveb heads the Cloud Computing and Virtualisation division at K7 Computing, known as K7 Cloud Solutions. He joined K7 Computing as a result of the acquisition of BinaryKarma, a Chennai based start-up that developed virtualisation management products including the successful FluidVM virtualisation management platform, now a part of the K7 Product Line.

At K7 Cloud Solutions, Shuveb heads the development of the next generation of Cloud Computing products that cloud-enable hosting providers and data centres.

Shuveb has nearly a decade of experience in the IT Industry, having previously worked for companies like Novatium, Aricent and Naturesoft before co-founding BinaryKarma. His work experience has taken him from embedded systems to networking and to enterprise IT management systems.

Shuveb has contributed code mainly to virtualisation related Open Source projects and has authored many articles for publications, for example, Linux Gazette and Linux For You. He has also spoken at many events including FOSS.in.

While he is not coding, Shuveb is busy either reading or soldering his next electronics project.

 
 
   
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