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.

Claudia Rohde

Mast-Jägermeister SE

Head of HR Development

After her Ph.D. in physics, Claudia started her professional career as a consultant with McKinsey. She entered the HR world at Bahlsen, a premium cookie producing company. Today Claudia is responsible for the whole HR development range at the Mast-Jägermeister SE, home of the world famous liqueur. There she is implementing tools to create a strengths-oriented mindset.

Her scientific approach lead to an HR development concept, which is based on findings from Positive Psychology and other related fields. Combining this with her profound HR experience she creates tools and processes, which enhance the success of employees and the company. The development of people and organizations is her passion.

Jo'Anne Bartnicke

Unilever

Global Change Manager

Jo is a Global Change Lead for People Experience at Unilever, and is passionate about revolutionizing the employee experience across key moments that matter throughout the employee lifecycle. Jo is from Cape Town, South Africa and has worked in various roles within HR including Capability, HR Business Partnering, Reward and Change Management as well as in a diverse number of locations around South Africa, Ghana and currently London.

Azad Navaz

BMW AG

Head of Qualification, Training & Retail HR

Azad Navaz is the Head of Qualification, Training & Retail HR at BMW AGMW for Africa and the Eastern European Region. His overall responsibilities include employee Attraction, Selection, Development, Retention in the BMW Group Retail Network in 36 countries across the region with a strong focus on Recruitment and People Management Culture. 
In his previous role in BMW Azad was the Training Manager for the Asia Pacific Region responsible for identifying training needs, developing training content and training delivery for the whole region. Azad is also the recipient of The Prince Philip Medal awarded to an engineer of any nationality who has made an exceptional contribution to engineering as a whole through practice, management or education. 
 

Lorna Leydon

Twitter

Senior HR Business Partner

Lorna is currently a Senior HR Business Partner, EMEA at Twitter. She has over a decade experience working in various HR and Commercial roles in a number of industries, including Professional Services, Pharmaceuticals and Technology. 
Lorna has worked across many markets and regions, where she has led various people initiatives, with a strong focus on creating a fulfilling work environment where people can be at their best. 

Stephanie Fastre

Superbet

Director, Talent & Culture

With 25 years of experience in psychology, people, and organizational development, Stephanie Fastré has built a career transforming talent strategies and fostering innovative workplace cultures. At Google, Stephanie built, scaled and sustained effective cultures of learning, innovation, creativity, and community to all levels of employees. She is well-known for creating unique innovative business solutions - she is the kickstarter of Google’s acclaimed globally scaled communities of learning: "g2g" Googler-to-Googler peer-to-peer learning platform, and Google's global "Manager Communities" platform for manager development. She drove Google’s well-known team development approaches, and globally led the CSI:Lab, Google’s flagship creativity and innovation learning program. 
At Netflix, she stood up and led the Talent Management team for EMEA, and supported the business and wider Talent and HR teams, focusing on agile talent development and learning strategies across onboarding, employee engagement and listening, personal growth, team cohesion, culture and feedback, people management and leader development, executive coaching.
Earlier in her career, Stephanie also worked in a variety of roles at McKinsey, Columbia University, Alcorn McBride, Action, and QVC - you might have seen her on the occasional TV show ;). She is a trained actor, business mentor, and executive coach.
Originally from Belgium, Stephanie grew up in the USA, Germany, France, and the UK. She has three sons and one daughter, who inspire her lifelong learning journey.

Talha M. Siddiqui

Merck Group

Senior Project Manager Healthcare

Talha works at the Strategy Realization Office (SRO) of the Healthcare division of Merck KGaA—a leader in science & technology, headquartered in Germany, with more than 53.000 employees in 66 countries. Talha began his career in sales and marketing in India, and has since lived in the Middle east, UK and Germany, working with various multinational organizations and startups. The focus of his work has been strategy execution with emphasis on people engagement to the defined strategy. He is motivated by using data and analytics in innovative ways to address challenging questions; both on hard financial and essential non-financial components of a business. Talha has earned degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Business Administration. When not solving complex business problems, Talha can be found running marathons ‘just for fun’, something he firmly believes gives him the calmness to operate in an ever-turbulent business environment.

Rochana Jackson

Facebook

EMEA Recruiter, Global Marketing Solutions Team

Rochana is an international Recruiter and Talent Acquisition specialist, who has headed up the In-House Talent teams at global advertising agencies including Apple's advertising agency, and is currently at Facebook recruiting for the EMEA Sales, Marketing and Creative functions, based in London, UK. With an academic background in Politics and Social Psychology, she is obsessed with understanding people and behavior and use these insights to help influence, inform and consult both internal and external decision-makers. An advocate and promoter of Diversity & Inclusion, she is passionate about ensuring recruitment acknowledges and addresses intersectionality as part of any successful and impactful Talent Attraction strategy.