Speakers

Ibrahim Mohamed Lari, Chief Executive Officer, Injazat Data Systems
Ibrahim Lari is the Chief Executive Officer of Injazat Data Systems, a Joint Venture company between Mubadala Development Company (MDC) and Electronic Data Systems (EDS), an HP company and a leader in global IT outsourcing.

Backed by a degree in electronic engineering, Lari started his career as an IT & Automation Engineer at the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC). He engaged in several senior positions in a number of ADNOC Group companies, the last of which was as IT & Automation Vice President for petrochemical plants company BOROUGE. Lari played a key role as the VP of IT and Automation at Dolphin Energy, a joint venture among Mubadala, TOTAL of France and Occidental Petroleum of the US, where he successfully orchestrated the Dolphin project, one of the largest multi-national gas production & transportation projects in the Gulf

Said Akar, District Manager for South Gulf, EMC
Said Akar is the District Manager for the South Gulf region, a role he has held since January 2010. Based in EMC’s regional headquarters in Dubai, Said is responsible for managing the company’s expanding team in the South Gulf region, developing new services and bringing EMC closer to the customers in his district and enhancing the level of support provided.

Said started his District management career in EMC with North Gulf region where he managed to double EMC revenue in a very short period. Before this role, Said spent three years in the position of Technology Solutions Manager for UAE, Saudi & Gulf & Levant and Pre-Sales Manager - Middle East & North West Africa & Turkey, EMC. In this role Said led a team of consultants providing technical expertise in support of pre-sales activities. He was responsible for developing and maintaining his team’s specialist level technical acumen with assigned practice specialty.

Akar began his career with EMC in 2002 as a Pre-Sales Technology Consultant for Saudi Enterprise Accounts before being promoted to Pre-Sales Technology Consultant for UAE and Gulf Handling Enterprise Accounts in 2006.

During his time with EMC, Said managed to build an in depth knowledge of the business needs and challenges of the customers in the region and managed with his team to provide the customers with the right solutions.

Ghazi Atallah, Managing Director, neXgen Advisory Group
Ghazi Atallah is the MD of neXgen, a company focused on helping Telecom and real estate developers extract business value out of next generation communications infrastructures. neXgen is filling the MENA expertise gap of advisory services that converge Business, Services and Next Generation Technology to help customer acquisition and retention.

Ghazi Was the MD/VP for Cisco’s Service Provider (SP) business in the Emerging Markets theatre that covers Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa as well as Russia and CIS countries, a $1.1B business for Cisco. He was also GM of Cisco’s MENA operations for 3 years, As well as being GM of Cisco Saudi Arabia for 2 years.

Prior to that in Canada, He was Chief Network Architect in the network planning group for Teleglobe Canada, Canada’s international carrier.

Ghazi received his Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Quebec in Montreal, Canada and a minor degree in Business Administration. He also received executive MBAs from Stanford and London Business Schools.

Ghazi Received the Telecom leadership award at the 8th Arab Internet and Telecom conference in May 2006.

He was also named among most influential ME IT leaders in Al Idari magazine’s special issue of TOP 100 ME business leaders in Feb 2006.

Ghazi is a member of the Board of Advisors of SAMENA telecommunications council.

Ghazi is a founding member and board advisor in the ME IT forum and Arab IT Council. He also sits on advisory boards for several Educational institutions including the UAE University IT College.

Ghazi is also a member of the board of directors of the Young Arab Leaders in the UAE.

Col. Kuldeep Bhatnagar, Program Management Consultant, Environment Agency Abu Dhabi
Kuldeep is an ICT professional with over 35 years of technology & business leadership experience and is presently Consultant with Environment Agency, Abu Dhabi Government.

He is ITIL certified, BE (Electrical), MBA, MTech (Computer Sc) from Cranfield UK.

Kuldeep has extensive experience in data centers (DC) business. He has been Data Center Consultant with Equinix (Global leadership position as DC company), du (Telco of UAE), GBM (IBM, ME), Saudi Inteltec (DC Operator), CntrlS (DC Operator), 21st Century Technology (Nigeria’s Telco), and others.

As a Start-up expert, he successfully planned and commissioned and operated three Data Center businesses in succession, and held executive management positions:

• General Manager (IT) and Business Head (IDC) with Reliance Infocom (India’s Second largest Telco) - 100,00 sq ft DC
• Director Operations with ENRON (Fortune 50 company) – set up and operated 60,000 sq ft DC
• Commercial Director with eHosting DataFort (TECOM/Dubai Holding company) – set up and First Tier 3 DC in ME

In his earlier inning, as a Colonel in Indian Army, he has been a decorated soldier with exceptionally illustrious career and won several awards and medals. He participated in military operations, managed network of mission control centers, deployed Decision Support system, commanded a Signal Regiment, been Dean of the Faculty of Computer Technology and worked closely with US DoD on EMI/EMC.

A tenacious leader with determination and objectives focused on optimizing outcomes, he has an innate ability to dissect situations with a discerning outlook for details. He is a passionate DC professional, an incredible strategist with a pragmatic and tactical approach to business operations.

Duncan Clubb, Principal, CS Technologies
Duncan is a Principal of CS Technologies, running the EMEA Data Centre practice. He has over 25 years experience in the IT industry, mostly in the Blue Chip Corporate and Consulting sectors.

Duncan has an extensive in-depth knowledge of IT infrastructure and development, and has led several substantial programmes over the past few years. His experience includes working on some of the most advanced data centres in the region, as well as developing global data centre standards and strategies for some of the world’s leading organisations. His project management expertise is greatly supplemented by his sound knowledge of technology and his solid understanding of technical operational issues.

Michael Collins, Lead Technologist for Data Centre Services, Injazat Data Systems
Michael Collins possesses more than 10 years of leadership experience and as an Information Technology Professional has led multi-disciplinary technical teams servicing diverse clients at the global and regional account level. He has built a strong reputation as a principle-centred leader with a motivational management style. As a results-oriented achiever he has an excellent track record for identifying opportunities for accelerated growth and delivering measurable improvements within service delivery. He has extensive experience in successfully establishing and managing off-shore service delivery centres for multiple global accounts and has participated in numerous customer advisory boards and presented at several technology seminars.

As the Lead Technologist for Injazat’s Data Centre Services, Collins is responsible for developing Software +Services & Cloud computing- related offerings hosted from the region’s first Tier IV design certified Data Centre. He has in depth experience in implementing Process Improvement and Quality Management methodologies including CMM, ISO, QMS and ITIL. He has attained certifications in Microsoft, HP and VMWare technologies. Collins was previously tasked to drive high priority Service Improvement Initiatives to completion within a key Injazat Oil & Gas client as the company’s Service Delivery Manager. Prior to joining Injazat, he acted as the Technical Delivery Leader for Integration Engineering at EDS New Zealand, where he managed a team of multi-disciplinary engineers in providing solutions to General Motors worldwide in various technologies. He was also EDS’ Asia Pacific Software Packaging Leader.

Basel Dalloul, Chairman & CEO, Noor Group
Basel Dalloul founded NOOR Group in 2000 in response to the Egyptian government’s announced goal of becoming the hub of the information technology (IT) industry in the Middle East. As Chairman and CEO, he has set the overall direction of NOOR, introducing the most comprehensive information technology and Internet-related services in the MENA region and changing the ground rules for Internet access, service, speed, and reliability in both the consumer and business marketplaces. In launching NOOR, he has brought the first region-wide, full-service IT development program to the area. A visionary, successful entrepreneur, and widely recognized authority in the emerging digital economy, Basel saw the IT revolution coming and founded Magnet Interactive Group, Inc. in the United States in 1989. Under his direction, the company pioneered new technologies and applications for the Internet and for interactive multi-media in such critical areas as interface design and multi-media integration. During the 1990s Magnet became one of the most respected and successful interactive multi-media companies in the United States, with offices in Washington, DC and Los Angeles, CA and approximately 400 employees. It was acquired by Andersen Consulting, now Accenture, in 2000 and merged into AKQA, Europe’s largest independent Internet development and consulting firm. Magnet’s more than 200 national and international awards attest to its leadership in setting high levels of quality standards and programmatic versatility within the young industry. Prolific in its portal development throughout the business sector, Magnet provided multi-media services and Web solutions to some of the most admired corporations and organizations in the world, including Microsoft Network, America Online, Prodigy, IBM, Mercedes-Benz North America, Nissan, Harvard Business School, Eastman Kodak, DuPont, Merck, Bayer, General Foods, Pillsbury, Kellogg’s, M&M/Mars, PaineWebber, Wells Fargo Bank, Citibank, Bank of America, Twentieth-Century Fox, MCA/Universal Studios, Discovery Network, Univision, Time-Warner, Time-Life Books, National Geographic, The Vatican, and SABIC (Saudi Basic Industries Corporation), and others. Basel was instrumental in establishing industry-wide alliances and strategic partnerships in the US’s fledgling multi-media industry throughout the 1990s, bringing together such companies as Akamai Technologies, Andersen Consulting, Macromedia, Microsoft, Netscape, Twentieth-Century Fox Home Entertainment, and media conglomerate WPP. He has continued this strategy with NOOR, bringing together such global technology powerhouses as Cisco Systems, Juniper, Paradyne, IBM, Microsoft, NCR, and Sun Microsystems to build the Middle East’s most extensive IT infrastructure from the ground up. He holds a Bachelor of Science in finance from American University and a Juris Doctor and MBA from Georgetown University, both in Washington, DC. Basel also studied electrical engineering and computer science at Rice University in Houston, TX, and undertook comparative studies of American and British common law and procedural law at Oxford University in England. He co-taught a course in entertainment law and the Internet at Georgetown University Law Center and is a frequent speaker and seminar leader at IT conferences worldwide. His personal interests have involved him as a member of the American University Board of Trustees; the President’s Council; the Board of Trustees of the Washington Hospital For Women, the advisory council for RIF (Reading Is Fundamental), the advisory council of the Best Buddies Foundation, and the Board of Directors of the Duke Ellington School for the Performing Arts. He is fluent in Arabic, English, and French.

Patrick J. Doliny, Chief Technical Specialist and Technical Delivery Manager, ITQAN
Commissioned in 1982 as a United Stated Marine Corps Communications Officer and a graduate of The FBI National Academy, Ret. Major Doliny obtained his undergraduate studies from Florida International University, He then went on to achieve his MBA from the University of Miami. In addition, Ret. Major Doliny holds several certifications in the areas of Physical and Logical Security and Computer Forensics. A Nationally renowned Instructor and speaker in the field of Information Security and Emergency Preparedness, he has been featured is such publications as the Government Technology Magazine, the National Association of State CIO and National Chief of Police Magazine among others.

Anthony Foy, Group Managing Director, Interxion
Anthony Foy has responsibility for the overall strategic development of the company’s sales and country operations, which are spread across 25 data centres in 11 European countries. His background is in multinational sales management and business development. Before joining Interxion, he was Senior Vice President and General Manager International with Broadbase Software (now Kana Software), where he built the company’s international operations, sales and marketing infrastructure across Europe, Asia and South America and was instrumental in growing the company from startup to IPO and revenues of more than $100 million. Prior to this he was Director, International Sales & Business Development with Red Brick Systems (now part of IBM) and International Sales & Marketing Manager with ATP.

Patrick Le Gentil
Patrick has been a service management professional of eighteen(18) years in ICT industry. Over the past seven(7)years here in the U.A.E. he was formerly heading EHDF’s data centre operations, Since and in more recent years has been with ‘du’ (EITC, PJSC) presently, Director, Network Operations Centres. Patrick is responsible for the operations and service management of all’s du’s National Fixed, Mobile and International interconnect networks. As part of this operational scope is are over 7500 diverse data centres , Core sites, exchanges among several other varying data centre like equipment facilities, across our national footprint. Patrick is also an accredited consultant for the Telemangement’s Forum NGOSS, ETOM Business Process Framework with the ongoing aim to develop innovative ways of driving the necessary operational efficiencies, whilst balancing out the commercial economies and ongoing strategic ecological sustainability of the infrastructure.

Ihab Ghattas, Assistant President Middle East, Huawei Technologies
Ihab Ghattas is the Assistant President for the Middle East region at Huawei Technologies, a leader in providing next generation telecommunications network solutions. Based at Huawei’s Dubai office, Ihab is responsible for driving Huawei’s business in the region besides being instrumental in developing strategies related to marketing, human resources, social activities and administration. Ihab is also responsible for establishing and developing key relationships with clients and operators across the region.

During his previous assignment as Chief Business Development Officer (CBDO) with Huawei Technologies, Ihab was responsible for establishing and developing key relationships with operators across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, as well as promoting and introducing Huawei’s Enterprise Solutions to businesses outside of the telecommunications arena.

Ihab Ghattas is a senior telecommunications professional with over 30 years experience in the telecoms industry. Prior to joining Huawei, Ihab spent most of his career with Etisalat, a leading operator in the MENA region.

During his time at Etisalat, Ihab held various roles ranging from project implementation and operation & maintenance to network planning and project executions for both wire line and wireless networks. He also played a major role in the introduction of Next Generation Networks (NGN) to Etisalat’s UAE network and was heavily involved in the company’s international operations, particularly in the acquisition of PTCL, the Pakistani national operator.

Mr. Ghattas graduated from of Ain Shams University in Cairo, Egypt with a BSc in Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Osama S Ghoul, Managing Partner, Devoteam Middle East
Osama Ghoul is the Founder and Managing Partner of Devoteam Middle East, a part of the Devoteam Group.

An entrepreneur with an impeccable record of driving companies to success, Ghoul has senior management experience in a range of international companies such as FLAG Telecom, Bell Atlantic and Ericsson.

A noted leader and consultant on strategic operational and marketing for the ICT industry, Ghoul is an expert of the issues and trends affecting the ICT markets in the Middle East.

As the Managing Partner at Devoteam Middle East, Ghoul has built an impressive customer base, some the names include major telecom operators such as Saudi Telecom, Mobily, Atheeb, ITC & Bayyanat, government entities such as the Commission for Information Technology and Communications, the Ministry for Communications and Information Technology in Saudi & Jordan, and the Saline Water Conversion Corporation, and some major banks including Riyadh Bank, National Commercial Bank.

With one of the largest networks in the Middle East, Devoteam Middle East has become the partner of choice for the telecommunications and IT sectors. This success can be attributed to Devoteam Entrepreneurial spirit, Specialized focus and Collaborative approach with its customers.

Stuart Hall, Data Centre Simulation Specialist, Arup
Stuart is a specialised Mechanical Engineer with a unique 11 years experience in the simulation of buildings using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). In 2003 he began to specialise in the application of these skills to Data Centres, co-authoring a BSRIA guidance publication:

“Cooling Solutions for IT - A guide to planning, design and operation”.

Stuart joined Arup in 2008 having worked previously for a market leading Data Centre engineering software company. Stuart is developing the use of state-of-the-art simulation techniques for data centres within Arup. He is determined to ensure that Arup’s International Data Centre team remain at the cutting edge of Data Centre Design.

Stuart is committed to improving the efficiency of Data Centres both old and new.

“Stuart will be operating In the Data Centre Surgery on Day 2.”

Ammar Halabi, Regional Manager, Data Center & Virtualization, Cisco Systems International
Ammar Halabi is the Regional Manager for Data Center & Virtualization at Cisco Systems Inc. which has recently launched its Unified Computing System in the UAE as a corner stone of its entry into the compute market together with a wide portfolio of Data Center products and solutions that fall within its architecture for Data Centers -DC3.0. Cisco has recently as well announced a coalition with EMC and VMware with the vBlock architecture at its core. This architecture accelerates the deployment of the private cloud and enables cloud services and resources to be offered on demand and at scale powered by a secure, extensible, SLA-driven, deterministic virtualized data center.

In his 17 years of experience, Ammar was a Regional Manager for Cisco’s enterprise business and a Client Executive for Strategic Accounts. He won –amongst other awards- two regional manager of the year awards at Cisco. Prior to that he had started and lead the regional operations for Extreme networks as Country Manager for the Middle East and Africa, and was before that a Sales Manager at Compaq Computer for their networking business in the MENA region. During his career, Ammar has consulted on many major projects in the region and has helped various customers transform their business in a range of verticals. He had the privilege of working with Transportation & Logistics, Finance, Manufacturing, Oil & Gas, Education, and Healthcare sectors.

During his career, Ammar has been through business management and leadership professional development including the Emerging Leader Program. He has also been through condensed programs in coaching, conflict resolution, negotiation skills, communication skills, personal impact, exercising influence, cross cultural behavior and a range of sales focused curriculums. He is a Computer and Communications Engineering graduate from American University of Beirut.

Andrew Harrison, Director & Group Leader, Arup
Andrew Harrison holds global responsibility for the Science and Industry business sector and Financial Services/Mission Critical business sectors across Arup. He leads a technology focussed multidisciplinary group in London.

With Andrew’s leadership the International Mission Critical team (a worldwide group of Arup professionals dedicated to Data Centre projects) is well coordinated demonstrating a track record of delivering high specification Data Centre projects on time and on budget.

Andrew is an extremely experienced mechanical engineer and has a been responsible for the design and project management of data centre, financial services, science, industrial and transportation projects in Europe, North America, Asia and the Middle East throughout his 22 years of service at Arup.

“Andrew is on the judging panel for the Data Centre Europe Awards and will be hosting the Data Centre Surgery on Day 2”

Mike Hastings, Associate Electrical Engineer & Accredited Tier Designer, Arup
As true expert in Data Centre Electrical Engineering Mike Hastings has over 20 years of experience with mission critical data centres, switch sites, and bank trading activities.

Mike specialises in the design of high voltage and low voltage fault tolerant distribution systems. He is frequently involved with trouble shooting for mission critical facilities where the confidentiality of the client must be respected.

As an Accredited Uptime Institute Tier Designer, Mike provides specialist technical input to Arup’s Data Centre projects. His projects, scattered throughout the UK, Europe, Middle East and ROW, have earned him great respect throughout the industry.

“Mike will be operating In the Data Centre Surgery on Day 2.”

Martin Hayward, Associate, Simmons & Simmons
Martin is an associate in the Simmons & Simmons Middle East technology law group and is based in Simmons & Simmons' Abu Dhabi and Dubai offices. Martin advises both customers and suppliers on a wide range of technology, outsourcing and communications issues with a particular focus on data centre contracting, cloud computing and virtualisation.

Tarek Jaber, ITSM Gulf Expert Community, Novell Middle East
With more than 10 years experience, Tarek is an expert in datacenter management, designing, consolidation and green initiatives. He graduated as an Information System Engineer with a specialization of Software Engineering. Since joining Novell, he has helped many major IT organizations to build their datacenter future strategies toward a modern service driven, green datacenters.

Ronald Van Kleunen, Managing Director, Globeron Security
Ronald van Kleunen is the founder and Managing Director of Globeron Pte Ltd, based in Singapore and manages the daily business operation since 2003. He has 11 years of experience in designing IT/Network Infrastructures, IT/Network Services and IT/Network Operations, including Security and Management aspects, ranging from Enterprise level environments to home environments, addressing scalability, security and IT Service Management.

Globeron provides Certification training for the Service Oriented Enterprise Profession (CSOEP) covering DataCentre + Infrastructure + Processes + Security + Management.

Simon Lee, Managing Director, Sapience Capital
Mr. Lee has over 15 years of experience investing in the private markets with a deep focus on information technology, data communications, and energy companies in the US, Western Europe and Asia. He has been a General Partner at several notable investment firms including Sapience Capital Partners, Infotech Venture Partners and Baker Capital. Within IT, Mr. Lee has led a number of successful investments in the internet infrastructure space, including Interxion, the largest neutral data center provider in Europe with 25 facilities covering 11 countries. He is currently active in the Middle East and North Africa, having founded and serving as a Board Member of an emerging technology infrastructure company focused on the MENA market. Mr. Lee is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and the Harvard Business School.

Kevin Miller, Customer Project Manager, Hewlett Packard
Kevin is an experienced Project Manager with a specialization in critical systems. He graduated as an electrical engineer, with a specialization in power systems and a major in critical system availability. He is skilled in project management and has developed design augmentation of major data centre projects throughout the UK and Europe. Prior to joining HP CFS, Kevin acted as a sub-contract project manager for the UK’s first low energy data centre to ensure the end facility achieved the energy and redundancy targets set by the design team whilst maintaining cost and programme requirements and still provided the highest quality facility. Kevin’s goal has always been to operate within a multi-disciplinary environment, focused on providing Clients a quality product, delivered from conception to completion. He now works within HP CFS Middle East, heading the Project Delivery arm, armed with a portfolio ranging from facility assessment to comprehensive design and turnkey new build.

Ian Neale – Arup Gulf Limited
Ian Neale is a Building Services Engineer with over thirty-five years experience in the design, construction, management and maintenance of building services. During Ian’s career he has been involved at most levels of the industry, from a trade apprentice working on the tools, through design, resident engineer, project management, project director and office management roles. Ian has spent many years working for Arup, during which he has worked in many locations worldwide.

In his current position as an Associate Director in the Arup Abu Dhabi office, Ian fulfils a Senior Project Management role and is responsible for coordination of SMEP disciplines and the delivery of integrated engineering solutions for major projects within the region.

Bryce Nelson, Chief Technical Officer, Kulacom Jordan
Bryce graduated in 1999 from the University of Wisconsin with degrees in Computer Science and Business, and has since worked for companies such as Digital River, Boston Scientific, St. Paul Traveler Insurance, and ECMC. In 2008 Bryce joined Kulacom where he oversaw the development the extensive IT, Voice, and Network infrastructure, including the most advanced Data Center in the region.

Bryce is part of the executive team and has led Kulacom Jordan to be one of the most technically competitive companies in the region.

Steve O’Donnell, CEO, MEEZA
Steve O’Donnell is the CEO of MEEZA and is leading the MEEZA team to drive growth and deliver on the strategic objectives of the company. Prior to joining MEEZA, Steve worked in leadership positions for a number of large, global Data Centre and IT organisations including First Data Corporation, British Telecom, Cable & Wireless, Deutsche Bank and Lehman Brothers.

Steve has an international reputation in the Data Centre industry and, most recently, was Managing Director for ESG, a professional services firm guiding global clients such as HP, IBM, Dell, and other on how to deliver effective cloud services and solutions.

Steve has a keen interest in sustainability and the environment and whilst at BT won a number of awards for leading BT’s 21st Century Data Centre projects.

Nico te Riet, Hitec Power Protection Area Manager, EMEA
As Area Manager Nico is responsible for the EMEA activities of Hitec Power Protection. Specialized in bringing cost-effective and highly efficient uninterruptible power solutions to the IT, banking and communications markets, he works with many internationally recognized clients and their consultants. With the 50 years of experience of the Hitec Power Protection organization in Rotating UPS technology he is able to bring added value in projects and sessions.

Prior to Hitec Power Protection, Nico worked for more than 10 years in the International Telecommunications Group of the Royal KPN as Sales & Marketing Manager and Director Wholesale. He holds a Degree in Computer-Science and Economics.

Karl Roe, Director of Strategic Alliances, MEEZA
Karl Roe is the Director of Strategic Alliances at MEEZA with a focus on working with strategic partners to deliver MEEZA Cloud Services to businesses throughout the MENA region. During his career, Karl has held various board and senior sales positions, gaining over 15 years proven experience in successfully delivering outsourced service value propositions to SMB and Enterprise markets using commercial and open source software.

Before joining MEEZA, Karl worked with Microsoft where his key focus was to provide market, customer and partner analysis and idea generation for Cloud business case development, Cloud business solution development, and Cloud Computing business sales. At Microsoft, Karl was instrumental in founding and developing the EMEA Software-as-a-Service market. Karl delivers the reality of Cloud solutions with clarity and precision and with highly defendable commercial reasoning.

Fawwaz Qadan, Business Unit Director, Enterprise Storage, Servers and Networking, HP Enterprise Business
Fawwaz Qadan is Business Unit Director of Enterprise Storage, Servers and Networking for the Enterprise Business at HP Middle East. In this role, he is responsible for the development and delivery of server, storage and networking solutions in the company’s Business Critical Systems, Industry Standard Servers, Infrastructure Software & Blades, StorageWorks and ProCurve Networking business units.

Qadan’s team includes Business Critical Systems, Industry Standard Servers, Infrastructure Software, Blades and ProCurve Networking. This portfolio provides the foundation for HP’s Converged Infrastructure. The Converged Infrastructure is HP’s solution for the next-generation data center that enables CIOs to rapidly shift technology resources to meet changing business needs.

In his previous role Qadan led the Technology Services (TS) business unit of HP Services Middle East (ME) which is focused on Hardware and Software maintenance, customers Education, High Availability services, Networks, Microsoft, Technical Consulting services and multi-vendor support activities.

Since 1989 Qadan held various senior Management positions for Middle East in Digital Natcom, Compaq Computer and Hewlett Packard - among them HP Service Manager In Saudi Arabia, Compaq Global Services Manager and HP director and General Manager.

He earned a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, University of Missouri-Columbia, 1988

Stefan Sadokierski. Associate Mechanical Engineer & Accredited Tier Designer, Arup
Stefan Sadokierski is a brilliant mechanical engineer with over 9 years of professional experience. He has degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mathematics. He is a Chartered Mechanical Engineer and an Accredited Uptime Institute Tier Designer.

Stefan has designed and delivered building services and industrial engineering projects in the UK, Europe, the Middle East, America and Australia. He currently leads a team of mechanical engineers focused on data centre, mission critical and financial services based projects.

In addition to design consultancy work, Stefan also provides focused consultancy services relating to sustainability and mission critical systems design for clients around the world.

“Stefan will be operating In the Data Centre Surgery on Day 2.”

Jiri Schmidt, Business Development Director, Altron Group
A Business Development Director of Altron Group, responsible for all foreign business development, member of the Supervisory Board of Altron Group. He has over 20 years experience ranging from critical technologies with deep technical background (mainly gensets, UPS, and power distribution architectures), through long time project management experience with standard methodologies (PRINCE2,PMI) to the datacentre architecture and operation high level experience during the last 10 years in Altron. Additionally his significant experience in sales activities plus driving bidding teams and later delivery teams for projects scaling up to £10 Million for complex data centre turnkey solutions bring valuable expertise to all aspects of a data centre, from initial design through to critical facility management.

Alexander Shepherd, Partner, Simmons & Simmons
coming soon.

Dirk de Vos, Technical Director, Skye Group
coming soon.

Steve Wallage, Managing Director, BroadGroup Consulting
Steve has extensive experience in market sizing, entry and strategy projects. With more than 19 years of experience as a technology analyst specialising in the worldwide telecommunications markets, he spent six years as a principal analyst at Gartner Group, tracking the voice, data and IP services markets for the carrier, vendor and financial communities. Steve's career is rooted firmly in analysis. He has worked at 451.com, and earlier at the Northern Business Information division of McGraw-Hill, where he managed the European research team. Prior to this, he was Research Manager of the Telematica programme owned by Logica. He has also worked for IDC in Australia and for IBM's marketing department. He is a regular speaker and moderator at international industry and vendor events and a commentator on telecom and IT issues for business television in the UK and Europe. Steve holds a degree in Business Administration from Bath University, UK.

Guy Willner, Chairman, Data Gardens, Russia
Guy is currently Non Executive Director at Teracothe first provider of vendor neutral Data Centres in South Africa.

Guy worked for Vivendi Group from 1992 to 1998 both in the UK and in Hungary to establish a telecoms operator culminating in a $210million EBRD funding. Willner began his career with Philips NV in Paris working in CDROM, Smart Card and telematics technologies. Guy holds a BScHons Engineering at Oxford Brookes University. He was a co-founder of European-based carrier-neutral data centre company IXEurope, which was bought by US group Equinix in 2007, in a $482 million deal.

Willner, 45, has more than 15 years of senior leadership experience in hi-tech companies. He founded UK-based colocation provider IXEurope in 1998, forging strategic relationships with key accounts as the company's turnover grew over 600% in the first three years. His leadership team grew IXEurope into a London Stock Exchange-listed business, operating 14 large-scale data centres in four countries, before it was bought by Nasdaq-listed Equinix. Equinix is the largest global operator of network-neutral data centres and Internet exchange services. Willner served in a non-excutive role and as president of Equinix Europe until June 2008 and March 2009 respectively.

Yasser Zeineldin, CEO, eHosting DataFort
Yasser Zeineldin is the CEO of eHosting Datafort (eHDF), the region’s leading IT outsourcing and advisory services provider and a member of TECOM Investments.

Under Yasser’s leadership the company is focused on delivering a comprehensive range of IT outsourcing services, carrying out its expansion plans and further improving the value and total cost of ownership for its customers. The industry is witnessing an important transformation to SaaS; Software as a Service, and Cloud Computing and EHDF will be at the forefront of this transformation.

Yasser Zeineldin has over 22 years of professional experience from holding various management positions in the GCC region, Egypt and the US. He is particularly regarded for implementing key technology solutions across the oil and gas, telecommunications, manufacturing, banking, retail and public sectors.

Associated with TECOM Investments since September 2008, Zeineldin was earlier the Executive Director – Business Development, reporting to the Group CEO. He continues to be a member of the Management Committee, Investment Committee and Board Member in a number of investment ventures.

Prior to joining TECOM Investments, Zeineldin was the Regional Director at Microsoft Gulf, responsible for managing multiple teams that are assigned to oversee operations across the government, education, communications, financial, energy and the corporate general business sectors. The Partner Management Group and the Technology Specialists Group additionally came under his purview. He was also a member of the Worldwide Government Industry Core Strategy team, and a member of the Worldwide Partner Executive Council.

Yasser Zeineldin has also been the Regional Manager for the government sector for Microsoft Middle East Africa (MEA) comprising 79 countries. As a senior member of Microsoft MEA leadership team, he was responsible for strategic business development as well as working with various governments in the region to help address their key socio economic challenges. In his capacity as head of Microsoft’s Middle East Solutions Council and Global Alliances, he interacted closely with various industries in the region, and helped shape Microsoft’s strategy to better serve its customers and partners.

Zeineldin has also served as the Regional Marketing Manager for Microsoft Gulf and East Mediterranean, guiding a regional team responsible for product management, public relations, marketing communications, events, customer relationship management, community affairs and other related functions.

Before joining Microsoft, Zeineldin led the communication giant AT&T’s operations in the eastern region of Saudi Arabia. He took up the role after moving back from a special assignment with NCR/Teradata, a global technology company in the US, where his primary focus was on developing the market for Business Intelligence and Parallel Processing Systems in Latin America and the MEA region.

Yasser Zeineldin moved to the Gulf region after etching a successful career graph in Egypt and the US over a period of 6 years.

In addition to a solid background in high end business intelligence and decision support systems, Zeineldin is particularly recognized for his strategic thinking, people management and leadership skills, and has a track record of creating high performance teams and businesses where colleagues successfully realize their full potential.

Yasser Zeineldin has a bachelor’s degree in Telecommunications from the Ain Shams University. He rates swimming, photography and reading as his most enjoyable hobbies.