Heather Mitchell

Unilever Hair Care

Global Head Of PR And Social Media

Heather has nearly two decades of PR and social media experience, currently leading earned media strategies for Unilever’s global hair care portfolio, including TRESemme, Dove Hair, Toni&Guy and Clear, among others. She previously lead PR and social media for Unilever’s personal care brands in the US, including award-winning and sales-generating work on AXE and Suave. Some of her achievements at Unilever include revolutionizing how the company measures PR by creating a proprietary qualitative measurement system and creating one of the industry’s first and most successful community management strategies in the social media space. Prior to Unilever she held PR roles at Gatorade and Jim Beam Brands, and began her career at PR agencies working on P&G, Mattel, the 1996 Olympics and many other consumer brands. Heather was named the 2012 PR Person of the Year by PR News for her innovative and industry-leading work at Unilever.

Jamal Al Mawed

Gambit Communications, UAE

Founder and Managing Director

Emirati/British/Palestinian hybrid with over 13 years’ experience handling the PR and Communications of multinational brands overseeing more than thirty countries, Jamal’s career before founding Gambit Communications took him to senior roles at leading brands such as Rolls-Royce Motor Cars and the Dubai Properties Group.

Pioneer in Social Influencer Engagement, Almawed has spoken at over 20 PR and Marketing summits across the world and is a university guest lecturer, senior judge for industry panels, magazine columnist and guest radio speaker for literary book reviews.

Selected by The Holmes Report in the prestigious EMEA ‘Innovator 25’ list for 2019 alongside names such as Greta Thunberg, and in the PR Week Power Book 2019, while in 2016 he was named by The Huffington Post as one of ‘Ten to Watch’ in the Middle East MarComms Industry. Early in his career he was the recipient of the MEPRA ‘Young Communicator of the Year Award’.

Alex Malouf

Schneider Electric

Corporate Communications Director MEA

Irina Pashina

SAP SE

Certified Leadership and Team Coach | Leadership Culture & Development Expert

Irina is a certified coach (PCC, CPCC), a seasoned mentor of individuals and teams, a leadership expert, and a leader specialized in transformation. Her passion for people development, leadership, and public speaking took her to five continents, where she inspired and drove change in various industries such as technology and non-profits. 
Leading a content strategy function at SAP, the market leader in enterprise application software, she feels fortunate to shape superior customer experiences with a focus on digital transformation. Irina also builds bridges to people leadership topics such as a transformation to a newly established leadership culture. Her ability to connect with people across cultures and functional areas has been a key factor for meaningful connections and success in all her roles.
A requested speaker on leadership and communication topics, Irina is a transformational leader who inspires and helps people discover more, develop, and bring about a positive change in the world.

Piers Rosenfeld-Schreiber

BT

Corporate Affairs Director, Business

Piers is an international expert in reputation management. He currently leads corporate affairs team for Business at BT, with operations in over 70 countries. Previously he headed corporate communications for Jumeirah, the luxury hotel group, headquartered in the UAE. As an advisor on corporate affairs and crisis communications he has undertaken international assignments for many public and private sector organisations. His earlier career included leadership positions in a listed Dutch telecoms company, Ogilvy PR, The Rowland Company (Saatchi & Saatchi) across central and eastern Europe and as PR Officer for the European Commission in Prague. A Cambridge graduate, with an MBA from Strathclyde, he started his career as a university lecturer in France and the Czech Republic.

Esra Erkal Paler

Elsevier

EVP Global Communications

Considered to be one of Europe's most prominent communications professionals, Esra has a wide experience in building corporate reputation through communications, media relations and public affairs across various industries. She currently heads the Corporate Affairs function at Coty.  Previosly, she was Head of Global External Affairs at AstraZeneca. Prior to that, she was Director of Corporate Communications and External Affairs at L’Oreal, and Head of Corporate Affairs at Unilever. Esra is also the Chairwoman of the British Skin Foundation.

Hussein Dajani

Nissan

General Manager - Digital and Customer Experience (CX) Transformation - Africa, ME, Turkey, & India

Hussein has over 18 years of solid holistic Omnichannel Marketing Communication experience in the space leading and building seamless Phygital Customer Experience Journeys within multinational agencies (JWT, Leo Burnett, and TBWA) and Fortune 500 companies (Virgin Mobile, Red Bull, Nissan Motor Co.), across the Middle East, Africa, Turkey and India region.
After a 2 years stint with hug digital, as its Chief Digital and Operating Officer, which he grew exponentially till he lead to its sale to WPP, Hussein joins Nissan Motor Co. as General Manager Digital and Customer Experience for Africa, Middle East, India, and Turkey, for Nissan and Datsun brands, to be responsible for its Digital Transformation. Furthermore, Hussein plays an active role in the advisory council of the World Marketing Congress, as a Director with the Customer Institute, and as an expert advisor in ISMA (International Social Media Association).
 

Anne Nosko

Diageo

Director - Culture, Media & Futures

Senior leader with nearly 20 years of leading integrated brand marketing and strategy, with emphasis in FMCG, beauty and BAL leadership. Global experience building capability, organizations and growing client business in Asia, Eastern Europe, Middle East, Africa and the Americas. Results-obsessed “problem-solver” with proven ability to manage large clients, attract new business and deliver profitable growth. Known for delivering transformative leadership, consistent incremental revenue, and award-winning integrated creative for clients and agency.