Gudjon Arngrimsson

Icelandair

VP Corporate Communications

Gudjon Arngrimsson has been vice president of corporate communication at Icelandair since 2005. He joined the airline in 2000 as the public relations manager, having previously been the governments millenium commission programme director. His background is in Icelandic print and TV journalism, as well as advertising and PR. He has also written several historical books.

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’.

Tom Webster

CISCO

EMEA Paid Social Media Manager

Alex Malouf

Schneider Electric

Corporate Communications Director MEA

Sarah Walker Kerr

The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company LLC

Regional Director of Public Relations MEA

Sarah currently oversees the PR & Social Media for The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company at a brand and regional level across Middle East, India & Africa. Sarah landed on the shores of Dubai in the mid 90’s to open one of the first luxury resorts in Dubai. A regional expert with a global lens and pioneer of the luxury PR industry, having worked across a number of international and home grown brands engaging the affluent traveler from across the MENA region. Hailing originally from Scotland and is a member of the CIPR UK.

Talal Alrashed

Social Media Influencer

Steffen Ruebke

Henkel Beauty Care

VP And General Manager

Steffen has been traveling the world with us since 2012. He has been a regular speaker at our Marketing Kingdom events all around the world and has delivered cutting edge presentations on the importance of customer marketing in today’s marketing world. Plus, he has worked with big superstars like Heidi Klum and the legendary designer Karl Lagerfeld so he has some truly inspiring stories to share with you.

Figen İsbir

Excel Communication and Perception Management

President

Figen İsbir, the Founder and President of Excel Communication and Perception Management, commits “coaching” position relating to team-game and institutional culture issues for the company along with her active role in strategic planning. Figen İsbir, holding a bachelor degree of Electricity Engineering at Yildiz Technical University, took her first steps to the communications business in 1983 as a copywriter. She worked at Turkey’s most respected advertising agencies including Radar, Fulmar, RPM Radar CDP Europe and Manajans/Thompson at different high level positions. She has pioneered many campaigns awarded by national ad authorities including the first “Crystal Apple” of Turkey. With the purpose of carrying her expertise to the PR sector after high level of research, she decided to contribute to the development of PR sector in Turkey as the founder of the Excel in 1994. Determined to contribute to the progress of PR sector, İsbir has also taken high level positions in well-known associations. She leaded the establishment of Turkish Ad Creators Association as well as being the first Founder Member and President of the association. She also took active role during the establishment of IDA (Communications Consultancy Companies Association) which is a representative of ICCO. İsbir also is a member of IPRA and Public Relations Association Turkey.

Tomas Matesanz

Cruises Lines International Association Europe (CLIA)

Head of Communications and Public Affairs

Senior executive with 20 years of relevant experience in all facets of external, internal and crisis communications, corporate marketing and brand awareness campaigns. Successes include awards, most recent one this year at the International Business Awards, for developing wide-ranging of brand awareness and reputation recovery campaigns supporting new products, public companies and brands, securing media coverage in numerous high-profile outlets, elevating awareness and visibility, public affairs and industry relations efforts, and repositioning of corporate messaging. Expertise in tourist, airline, cruise travel, health, and food industries, as well as communication in Governmental affairs, public companies and administrations. Assistant professor at IE Business School (Madrid), specialized in brand awareness and reputation management. Relevant Experience advising and managing the communication of different Public Administrations and Governments at the highest political level. Public Affairs functions within European Union and European National Governments arena. He currently holds the position of Vice President of Communication and Public Affairs for Europe of the most powerful cruise line industry association, CLIA, overviewing 15 European markets. Tom is responsible for establishing public affairs and communication strategy as well as setting up media relations groundwork operations across Europe under CLIA local chapters, including Brussels before the European Union. Develop long-term and short-term strategies to anticipate and manage a complex array of reputational issues.

Milorad Ajder

Ipsos Corporate Reputation

Global Service Line Leader

Egmont Philips

CX-STRATEGY.COM (o.a. former Global Head of External Communications ING Group)

Founder

Lorne Riley

Dubai Airports

Director, Corporate Communications Communications & Business Development

Ebru Key

Excel Communication and Perception Management

Group Director

Mert Aybar

Excel Communication and Perception Management

Group Director

Özlem Oz

Google Turkey

Communications and Public Affairs Senior Manager

Özlem is the head of communications for Google in Turkey. During 17 years of experience in PR agency world, Ozlem managed corporate and marketing communication projects for multinational companies mainly focusing on energy, broadcast, technology and FMCG. Joining Google as the corporate communications manager in 2012, Özlem drives Googles external communications efforts across corporate, consumer and B2B.

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).
 

Noha Bashir

Facebook

EMEA Team Lead, Blueprint Training

Noha currently leads the Blueprint Training team at Facebook in Dubai. Previously, she was Director of Digital and Social Marketing for CEMEA (Central Europe, Russia, and Middle East & Africa) at Visa. Prior to joining Visa, Noha worked at Proximity/BBDO based in Dubai, where she led the Social Media Department and managed clients such as Visa, Dubai Tourism Authority, #MyDubai Initiative, Axiom Telecom accounts, among others. Before relocating to Dubai In 2011, Noha worked at BBDO Egypt as Public Relations and Public Speaking specialist for 3 years. Noha was also a television presenter at Egypts Channel 1, broadcasting worldwide. Noha has extensive knowledge in digital first strategies, online Influencer engagement and content creation & ignition.