Ron Thomas

Human Capital Institute

International Country Manager: Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific Region

Ron Thomas is the Managing Director of Strategy Focused Group an international consulting firm based in Dubai. He is a visiting executive faculty member at the Global Human Resources Leadership Institute at Howard University School of Business in Washington, DC. He is also a senior faculty member of the Human Capital Institute, covering the MENA/Asia Pacific & Africa Region.
Ron is the former CEO of Great Place to Work-Gulf and CHRO of Al Raha Group, based in Riyadh. He holds certifications from HCI as Global Human Capital Strategist (GHCS), Master Human Capital Strategist (MHCS), and Strategic Workforce Planner (SWP) as well as New York University. Prior to consulting, he worked in senior level roles for IBM, Martha Stewart Living, Xerox HR Services [HR Consulting] in the US.
He has been identified as one of the top 5 HR/Leadership thinkers in the Middle East by CIPD.  He received the Outstanding Leadership Award for Global HR Excellence at the World Human Resources Development Congress in Mumbai, and was named as one of the 50 Most Talented Global HR Leaders in Asia. As a consultant and management educator, he has worked with companies such as Central Bank of Nigeria, Iran MTNCell, King Faisal Hospital-Jeddah Saudi Electric Company, BASHRM, JLT [Saudi Arabia], Dubai Tourism, American Hospital of Dubai, Dar Al Riyadh, Gulf Bank-Kuwait, Boybyan, Kuwait, CIMB Bank and Singapore Government Civil Service.

Torben Pedersen

Novo Nordisk

Senior Project Manager, Digital Transformation, Global HR

Torben Pedersen, is currently in charge of the Digital Transformation of Global HR for Novo Nordisk. Previous to this role he was in charge of the Oral Launch Plant in Novo Nordisk and an SVP HR Partner where his main field of work was the optimization of the core HR processes leading up to talent recruitment and developing and implementing a new talent management process.

Ramakrishna Movva, Phd.

Chrysalis Consulting Solutions

Founder & CEO

Ramki performed various HR leadership roles in a career spanning over three decades. He last held the Executive VP & Head of Strategic HR and Organizational Capabilities position at Emirates NBD. INSEAD Business School published a case study on the HR transformation he facilitated at Emirates NBD. Previously, he worked with PwC and Unilever. He recently founded Chrysalis Consulting Solutions that provides consulting, coaching, learning, and advisory services in organizational and leadership development.

Ramki had the opportunity to conceive and execute organizational culture change initiatives and design new-age practices relating to leadership development, performance management, high potential talent, and succession programs. Besides, he trained and coached senior leaders and high-performing teams from diverse cultures to help them be at their best. 

He has a doctoral degree from California Institute of Integral Studies, USA, a postgraduate diploma in Occupational Psychology from the University of Surrey, UK, and a Master’s degree in HR from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, India. In addition, he is an International Coach Federation certified leadership and team coach. 
Ramki lives with his family in Dubai. He replenishes his inner self through long walks, mindfulness practices, music, and gardening.

Sergio de la Calle

Telefonica Universitas

Programme Director& Faculty

Comic artist by vocation, Sociologist by accident, HR expert by profession. I’m also a bit masochist as I have been working in HR for twenty years. A bit of recruiting & on-boarding, a bit of Direction by objectives & performance, a bit of Compensation, a lot of Engagement & culture change programmes and many HR platforms implementated. Currently pretty excited in the position of Programme Director& Faculty at Universitas, the leadership corporate University of Telefónica.

Sergio Snyder

Marriott International

Area Director Human Resources, UAE, Oman and Lebanon Premium and Select Brands

Sergio Snyder started his career with Marriott in 1991 and has worked in three continents, and 25 different countries over his 32-year tenure with the company.  He has held several HR Leadership roles throughout his career with Marriott both on Property and above Property. In 2007, he became the Regional Director of Training for Continental Europe and in April 2011 moved as Area Director of Human Resources for Easter Europe where he worked for 7 years. He joined Western Europe in November 2018 and Western Europe and Maghreb in 2020 as Dir of HR Operations before moving to his current role in the UAE. He is fluent in English and Spanish and is a graduate of Westminster College in London, the London Institute, and a member of the Institute of Personnel in the UK (CIPD)

Andre De Wit

Leadership Academy Amsterdam

Dean

Andre De Wit until recently served as Vice President Learning and Capability Building for the Carlsberg-group, an internationally Beer-brewing company with 45.000 employees and factories in 40 countries mainly in North, Western & Eastern Europe and Asia. Carlsberg, which has his home base in Copenhagen Denmark, is currently the 3rd biggest beer-brewing company in the world. Previously to joining Carlsberg Andre was the Group Director Learning at Metro A.G, Developer and Facilitator of Cultural Transformation Program at Friesland Campina, CEO MCC Croatia at Metro Cash and Carry and CEO IKEA Iberica.

Laurien Adriaenssens

Nestle

Lead People Data Scientist

Nestle built a global People Analytics framework to support fact based decision making and started the Analytics journey in a global and highly complex environment (from reporting to fact based and predictive people analytics). Laurien joined Nestlé in 2015 after obtaining a Master degree from Ghent University, Belgium in Statistics and Organisational Psychology. She currently works as Lead People Data Scientist at Nestlé at the headquarters in Switzerland, where her focus is the use of predictive modelling in Corporate HR Analytics. She will share examples of how statistical models, more extensively used in other fields, are applied within the HR space to drive better people decisions. 

Saša Oražem

Law firm Rojs, Peljhan, Prelesnik & partners

Senior Associate

Saša joined the Law firm Rojs, Peljhan, Prelesnik & partnerji o.p, d.o.o. in 2001 after passing the bar exam. As an attorney at law she practices  Employment law, Litigation and Commercial law. Saša has been involved as an employment law counsel in many major M&A projects in Slovenia in the past, on behalf of foreign and domestic clients. Her specialization is counselling to clients in the field of various employment matters, from drafting of contracts and employer’s internal acts, to representing clients when solving relations under dispute, either in the litigation procedures or in out-of-court settlement procedures.  Saša’s sound knowledge of the legislation is upgraded with her experiences from business practice and court case law, which are essential to deter legal risks when helping clients to find the best solutions.