Archives: Speakers

Dr. Christopher Abraham is a PhD in Business Administration (Design Thinking & Innovation) and has three Post Graduate qualifications in HRM, Business Administration (Marketing), Labor & Administrative Law.

He is a Certified Design Thinker from IDEO/Stanford and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (FCIM), UK. He has thirty-five years’ experience in management consulting, marketing, and management education in India, Singapore and the UAE.

Currently he is the CEO & Head – Dubai campus and Sr. Vice President (Institutional Development)at the S P Jain School of Global Management, a Forbes Top 10, Economist & FT Top 100 ranked Business School, with campuses in Dubai, Singapore, Mumbai and Sydney
Dr. Abraham has been a visiting Professor at many leading universities in Australia, USA, Canada, Singapore and UK. Earlier in Dubai, he headed the Executive MBA Program of XLRI, Jamshedpur, one of Asia’s top business schools.

His areas of competence are Innovation, Design Thinking, Behavioural Design,Neuroscience of Decision Making, Future of Education, Science of Happiness, Leadership, Human Potential, Entrepreneurship, Marketing & Strategy.

A much sought after 3 x TEDx and international keynote speaker, he has successfully presented in numerous global forums and has also conducted many consulting and executive development assignments for global organizations, including The World Bank, The Executive Council (Govt. of Dubai), Emirates Airlines, SEWA (Government of Sharjah), Aramex, DHL, P & G, LG, Reckitt & Benkiser, AW Rostamani (Nissan Auto) etc.

Awards & Recognitions

Twice Awarded “Best CEO in the World” in 2018 & 2019, by Indo – UAE Business & Social Forum

Twice winner of the Education Leadership Award – World Leadership Congress 2015 & 2017

Regularly Interviewed in leading TV & Media Channels like CNBC, Dubai Eye, Dubai TV etc.

Regular News Columns and quotes in leading newspapers like Gulf News, Khaleej Times, The National, Times of India, Economic Times, The Hindu, Mumbai Mirror etc.

Positions & Memberships

Honorary Fellow – Leaders Excellence at Harvard Square, US

Advisor – RTA Innovation Lab, Government of Dubai

Global Advisory Board Member – World CMO Council, US

Member of the Board – The Abrahamic Business Circle

Advisory Board Member – CEO Clubs Worldwide

Senior Advisory Board Member –WASME World Association of SMEs (An UNESCO Initiative)

Senior Advisory Board Member – World Sustainable Business Forum, UK

Director – S P Jain Centre of Excellence for the Science of Happiness

Member of the Governing Board – Gulf Marketing Association

Executive Board Member – CIVITAS DEI Institute of History and Archaeology of Jerusalem, Israel

Member of the Board of Directors – Talents of Endearment

Member of the Board – Joblio, An AI enabled ethical recruitment solutions company, US

Member of the Academic Board – World Masters Academy, Italy

Member of the Advisory Board – Economic Times HR World (ETHRWorld)

Member of the CII-Elite Group (SCM) – Confederation of Indian Industry

Conferred as the Knight of Parte Guelfa, Italy representing India for Ecology & Environment

Lee joined NES Fircroft in 2018 and has worked and lived in the region for 10+ years including Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and most recently Dubai. Lee has dedicated his career for the last 20 years to providing tailored solutions for many global and regional clients involved in CAPEX projects with a focus on the Middle East securing a number client contracts that have led to substantial opportunity and growth.

Gary is the International and Special Projects Director of Binnies having recently joined the business from Atkins in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia where he held the role of Infrastructure Business Unit Director.

He is a Civil Engineer with over 30 years of industry experience covering general business management, project and programme management and operational business leadership and delivery.

His experience has been gained from working as client, consultant and contractor at various career stages both in the UK and overseas markets, starting out in Scotland with MJ Gleeson and spending time working for Scottish Water before gaining significant overseas experience in senior roles for Hyder Consulting and Mott McDonald.

Gary is a champion of collaborative working who has a track record of building teams and expanding business growth in multi sector consultancy businesses.

Rob is a business advisor and trusted industry expert with over 30 years’ experience in multiple markets and industrial sectors. Rob has sat on the senior leadership teams and boards of several multinational businesses and had non-executive director roles covering a diverse range of sectors. He has led major growth initiatives and helped businesses transform under PLC, private, and PE ownership environments. He led the RICS’ activities in the AEMEA region and has an intimate grasp of the end-to-end challenges that the built environment sector faces. In his last corporate role as global Chief Growth Officer, Rob was determined to help drive the digital transformation and unpick the technology and data challenges that the built environment sector faces.

He lives in Dubai, UAE, a graduate of Oxford University, still considers himself a competitive sportsman (in mind if not in body!!) and loves drawing parallels between sporting team performance and business team performance.

Rose Armour serves as Head of AUS Sustainability at American University of Sharjah. Rose has led AUS Sustainability in addressing all aspects of sustainability on campus, including community engagement, operational efficiencies, sustainability focused research, and promoting sustainability within the classroom.

Prior to joining AUS, Rose worked in Washington D.C., with the Social Innovation Fund (SIF), an Obama initiative providing grant funding to enable social innovation across America. SIF and its private-sector partners invested over a billion dollars in community programs. Additionally, Rose has worked with the Peace Corps as the Director of Programming and Training in Fiji and as a Program Officer for Small Enterprise Development in Burkina Faso, West Africa. Rose began her career working with rural women’s associations in Morocco. Rose holds a Master of Community and Regional Planning from the University of Oregon and a Bachelor of Arts in Natural Resource Management from the University of Texas at Austin.

Rusty Russell is the Senior Director of Mobility for The Red Sea Global, the developer behind the world’s most ambitious regenerative tourism projects, THE RED SEA and AMAALA, both of which aim to offer emission-free electric and hydrogen transport across the entire destinations.

He is an experienced professional with a diverse background in transportation and mobility
event and project management, including almost 25 years of experience in major international mega-event design, planning, multi-million-dollar budget management and full operations delivery.

As an international events leader in transportation and mobility, who has managed challenging environments including three Olympic Games, two World Cups, two Club World Cups, two Special Olympic World Games, the Asian Games, the Asian Cup, multiple Formula One races and numerous other high profile international megaevents, Rusty has successfully trained and managed multicultural teams to ensure superior performance and successful delivery of operations.

After obtaining his degree in Sports Management, Rusty immediately began working in the field of international mega events. Over the course of his career Rusty has traveled to many locations across the globe to strategically plan, lead, consult and operate transportation and mobility for events of various scopes and scales. He was previously the Head of Transport, Traffic and Parking for Expo 2020
Dubai.

Client Network
Tier I clients across MENA and APAC Clients include SAUDI ARAMCO, SABIC, S OIL, MOTIVA, SINOPEC, PETRONAS, JXTG Nippon Oil Energy, PERTAMINA, CNPC, Chevron Canada, BASF, DuPont, DEWA, ENOC, Dubai Supreme Council of Energy.

Background
He is the leader of the Firm’s OG&C practice and the Global Lead Partner for Saudi Aramco His extensive international experience includes advising most of the leading NOCs and Supermajors on large scale transformation, PMI and Business Turnaround for energy and infrastructure clients across EMEA, Canada and APAC He serves as an advisory partner to the World Green Economy Organization ( and sits, as advising expert on the World Bank’s Benchmarking Group A citizen of Canada and holder of Golden Visa in UAE.

Previous Career
Consulting Partner, CEO, Board Advisor and Senior Executive with a number of multinational companies including Altus origin, PwC, Harris Telecom, Bank of Jordan Group of Companies, Halliburton, Larsen Toubro, Sapura, SAIC and Citigroup spearheading strategy transformation and growth.

Functional Expertise
His 20 years of functional experience in strategy and business operations, digital transformatio n JV operating models and separation structuring, corporate and performance transformation programs He is recognized for his expertise in designing and delivering multi year cost reduction, capital efficiency and operational excellence programs for IOCS and NOCs in Downstream segments Successfully led four of the largest M&A and IPO readiness support programs, and recently, led an industry game changer Petchem acquisition in MENA.

Recent Project Highlights
Supporting a Major Transformation through Downstream carve out: Helping a major OG&C client company through a comprehensive global carve out of their Downstream business ( global asset base, commercial separation, contract redesign between Upstream and Downstream, IT, etc Transformation spread over a period of 2 years, resulting in a major tax savings ( and performance improvement of more than 340 million.

Refining Capacity revamp OG Downstream: Worked with both JV partners to increase asset refining capacity through multi lot contracting strategy focused on integrating their trading platform and expanded sourcing improving production continuity and competitiveness The project delivered 115 M in savings from procurement initiatives and over 425 million of spending base and 78 M capex savings on a related facilities project.

Developing Business Strategy and SBU Operating Models: Led the comprehensive strategy design and rollout for building a major lubricant business, covering benchmarking against peer group, production configuration and supply chain integration, sales and marketing restructuring Generated a client impact of over 132 M between synergy of integrated adjacent operations and direct margin enhancement.

Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) strategy Upstream O&G: Designed reliability centered asset management approach, asset life cycle, and led the integrated asset management strategy roll out aiming at minimal equipment idling, breakdowns and recycling Operational efficiency for the first year alone surpassed 76% from 52% the year before.

Target Operating Model Transformation for a petrochemical company: Led integrated program management over large scale, multi site, phased delivery implementations, integration, outsourcing under onshore, near shore and offshore delivery models for 37 MM budget, transitions of 900 staff and 13 cross functional teams.

Corporate Transformation for an Integrated Oil Gas Company: Spearheaded four corporate renewal, growth, value enhancement and turnaround strategy development and execution engagements across all phases of the project life cycle (i e Conception through Inception Implementation Operations, to Steady Sate for the 5 SBU client The clients have gained better cash management and ROIC, Cash conversion cycle and “nil dry out”.

With a career spanning over 3 decades, Faisal Al Raisi is an accomplished multi-industry senior management executive with expertise ranging across strategic planning, concept creation, project development, management consultation, collaborations and strategic partnerships .

Faisal is someone who takes a vision, makes it reality through sound strategy development and translate ideas into profitable businesses. His strong presence and adept problem-solving abilities always leave an impact.

Currently, as COO & ACEO at Etihad Energy Services, Dubai’s Super ESCO, being a key advocate of green economy and sustainability, he oversees entire company’s operations and plays a pivotal role in organizational development. Accustomed to driving operational efficiency, under his leadership, Etihad has witnessed significant growth and emerged as the market leader in sustainability and energy efficiency industry in the MENA region.

Previously, Faisal held senior management positions with both public and private sectors and served prestigious entities such as Dubai Holding, Dubai Development Authority and Abu Dhabi Capital Group. During his time at Dubai Holding, leveraging his strong background in Project Management, he was instrumental in strategic development of several landmark projects in Emirate of Dubai.

Faisal holds a Master’s Degree in Project Management from Regis University in Washington D.C. USA. He also received executive leadership certification from Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

When he isn’t working, Faisal is committed to giving back to the community and often directly gets involved in CSR activities which means working closely with young college graduates and nurturing local talent.

Samantha’s experiences stems in the corporate realm, spanning various industries and strategic roles. Her expertise encompasses Advertising & Communication, Business Strategy, E-commerce, Startups, Automotive, FMCG, and Food Retail, among others.

Samantha is currently the Strategy & Sustainability Impact Director and also heads the Regenerative Agriculture Venture Programme at Goumbook; aimed at supporting and promoting research, science and nature based solutions in regenerative agriculture practices, a MENAT regionwide initiative.

She has lead a global initiative aimed at fostering startup innovation solutions to address the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and global social and environmental challenges. This initiative, conducted in collaboration with multiple United Nations entities, underscored her commitment to driving positive change on a global scale.

Samantha holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the American University of Beirut. She furthered her academic pursuits with an Executive Masters in Marketing & Sales from ESADE & Bocconi Universities. Additionally, she holds certifications from the “Prince of Wales Business Sustainability Programme” and “Business Sustainability Management” both from Cambridge University and “Leading Sustainable Corporations” from Oxford University’s Saïd Business School programme. Samantha is also trained in ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) principles, recognizing the importance of integrating sustainability into corporate strategies.

Balancing her corporate experience with a strong passion for sustainability and social enterprise, Samantha firmly believes in the symbiotic relationship between purpose and profit. She advocates for a business approach that enables all stakeholders to thrive, fostering positive outcomes for the economy, society, and the environment.