Athar Mian is a 16 year telecoms and networking industry business development veteran. He has mostly worked in the US and Canada with big and small companies. At Verizon in New York, he conceived and marketed the first Internet high speed service for Fortune 500s in 1994 after contributing to international Internet and broadband technical standards. At Nortel, he led a pioneer DSL modem project. His first Silicon Valley mobile telecoms venture was in 2000, and he is now with a 2nd wireless software company and a cleantech company. He is looking at GCC technology transfer and investment management.

René J. Aerdts, an EDS Fellow, is the chief technology officer for the MCI Infrastructure Delivery organization. The title EDS Fellow is awarded to the corporation’s most innovative thought leaders in recognition of their exceptional achievements. As an EDS Fellow, Aerdts helps to develop enterprisewide initiatives that shape the future of EDS. He and his Technology Planning group are responsible for providing technology planning for the mainframe and midrange environments within the MCI infrastructure. They also create and deliver technology plans and implementation strategies for major technologies.

Mr. Abbassi has 15 years experience in the telecommunications, Internet and data communications fields. Mr. Abbassi founded the Arab Advisors Group in 2001. As General Manager of Arab Advisors Group, Mr. Abbassi directs the research and consulting activities of the company in addition to steering its marketing operations. Mr. Abbassi is also a frequent guest speaker at conferences and seminars related to technology, communications and media in the Arab World.

Roman Konovalov

Richard Hodges is the Founder and CEO of GreenIT. In 2004, Mr. Hodges established GreenIT as the first consultancy to combine those elements into a systemic and strategic approach to sustainability for Information and Communications Technology Systems. Mr. Hodges is a frequent speaker at events around the, an author of articles and book chapters, and a regular columnist for Matter Network.

Dr. Rocky Termanini, PhD, CISSP PE

Seyed Ali Emam has been with Nokia Siemens Networks and previously Nokia for over ten years, and is currently the Head of Customer Marketing for the Gulf and Pakistan Region. In addition to his marketing role, he is also the responsible for sharing and representing Nokia Siemens Network's environmental message and vision in the Middle East & Africa Region. Ali started his career at Nokia over ten years ago in Research & Development in Dallas, USA, where he holds a Bachelors of Science in Electrical Engineering and also an MBA from the University of Texas at Arlington and the University of Dallas, respectively. During the past ten years, Ali has held various roles within the organization and has worked in the United States, Europe, Latin America, and is now based in Dubai.

Dr. Zahid Nawaz is a senior executive with 17 years of experience in C-Level Strategy Consulting, Marketing and Business Development across a number of industries. He has worked as Strategy Director at BT, Business Development Director at C&W, Senior Manager in Strategy Consulting at Accenture, Deputy CEO for a Regional Conglomerate in the Gulf and Group Head at Procter & Gamble. He has founded a UK consumer company with outsourcing to Dubai. He has been on the board of a HealthCare organisation in the UK and holds a PhD from the University of Oxford, UK.