Thomas Anderssen
Chairman of the Board, IKED

Thomas Andersson, Chairman of the board for the International Organisation for Knowledge Economy and Enterprise Development (IKED), was President of Jönköping University over the past five years and holds a number of international board and advisory positions, including in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. He is Chairman of the International Entrepreneurship Academy (Intentac), senior advisor of Science, Technology and Innovation Policy in the Sultanate of Oman, is Vice Chairman of division XI of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Science (IVA) on Education and Research Policy, and is a member of the two expert groups to the European Commission on “The Role of Community Research Policy in the Knowledge-based Economy" and “World Class Research Infrastructures” respectively. He is member of the advisory board of the Swedish Agency for Higher Education, board member of the Swedish Programme on ICT in Developing Regions (SPIDER), and serves on the Steering Committee of the Global Forum.

Thomas Andersson has previously been deputy director of science technology and industry at the OECD, where he headed the technology part of the OECD Jobs Study and co-coordinated the OECD growth study, among other activities. He has also been assistant under-secretary in the Ministry of Industry and Commerce in Sweden. Full professor of International Economics and Industrial Organisation at Jönköping International Business School (JIBS) and PhD from the Stockholm School of Economics, where he also became Associate Professor, he has published widely and been a visiting fellow at Harvard University, Bank of Japan, Hitotsubashi University, and the University of Sao Paulo.

Peter Hiscocks
Fellow in Entrepreneurship, Judge Business School, University of Cambridge

Peter Hiscocks has spent a number of years in the private sector, and has worked for Fisons Ltd, TI Research, Scientific Generics and Integral Inc., among others.  Peter was previously Director of Cambridge Enterprise.  Peter Hiscocks is a member of the Strategy & Marketing teaching group.  His research interests include Innovation management; entrepreneurship and new business ventures; organisational design.Peter has taught entrepreneurship and innovation management at the University of Cambridge for many years. He was Director of the Cambridge Entrepreneurship Centre at the Judge Business School and was also Director of Cambridge Enterprise. He currently teaches entrepreneurship for several course at IfM as well as continuing to teach at the Judge Business School. He is managing several research projects on the success factors for new hi tech business ventures.  He is a scientist who worked in business; initially large companies, then consultancy and finally starting his own companies. Peter is the principal inventor on six patents, is Chairman of two early stage companies and is on the Board of three others: he has achieved two successful exits. He is an active business angel and on the advisory board of a VC firm.

Dr. John Bell
Head of Strategy & Partnerships at Philips Research.

As such he focuses on the strategy and partnerships of Philips Research.
In addition, he is responsible for the Research Program Office and for strengthening account management. Before that he was VP Corporate Strategy & Alliances at Royal Philips. In this role, he was responsible for capturing the value potential in the alliances of Philips.  Since April 2003, John became a Professor at Radboud University of Nijmegen holding the Chair on Strategic Alliances. Here he established the Center for Strategy and Alliances (CSA), which is one of the few research centers on alliances around the globe. Before he joined Philips, John was a Strategy Consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers. In addition to being closely involved in many strategy development client work, he was responsible for the global Alliance Centre of Expertise. John started his career as Assistant Professor Strategic and International Management at Tilburg University. Here he wrote his Ph.D. (with honor) on joint ventures and international expansion. John published extensively on strategic alliances in international and national journals and books.

Mohammad Zaqout - Executive Vice President - Head of Personal Banking Group -Al Hilal Bank

Mohammad Zaqout joined Al Hilal Bank in March 2008 as EVP – Head of Personal Banking bringing with him over 17 years of experience Personal Banking sector globally. He was previously the Regional Head of Retail Banking overseeing the Levant and Northern Africa operations at Arab Bank based out of Jordan.

He started his career with Bank of America, San Francisco, USA, in Customer Service and moved on to hold several senior Retail Banking positions both in Standard Chartered Bank and Arab Bank across GCC and Levant. Zaqout holds a bachelors of Science and Business Administration in Finance from the University of San Francisco and is a certified Retail Credit Risk and Investments Banker.

Khurram Hamid
Group Head Group Strategic Projects Group

Khurram Hamid, a renowned global digital industry thought leader. An innovative and provocative thinker when it comes to how to create and apply internet business models within the emerging markets.  A serial corporate entrepreneur, known for creating and leading internal internet start-ups within both Gillette and P&G. He has been credited for leading and creating the Knowledge Management group for Gillette EMEA, and then taking his skills, knowledge and understanding of the internet, he was then tasked to create and lead the Gillette Digital Marketing Organisation for EMEA. Where he developed the first digital marketing partnership globally with Microsoft. After the acquisition of Gillette by P&G he was again tasked to undertake this responsibility to redefine, refocus and expand the Digital Marketing organisation for Procter and Gamble for all brands across EMEA. Most recently he was the Global Head of Mobile Marketing, where he created and lead the global strategy and organisation for P&G globally as well establishing the first strategic partnership with Nokia in Asia. He was also part of the Global Digital Strategy executive team at P&G. He is currently leading two global initiatives around 1) Cloud Computing 2) Digitization of the Traditional Retail Channel.  He is also part of the Connect and Develop team which is P&G's Global external innovation program.  A regular key note speaker on Social and Digital media as well as innovation and entrepreneurism, he was recently awarded the Global Brand Leadership Award from the World Brand Congress for his industry thought leadership within the Digital innovation Space.

Charbel Fakhoury
Regional General Manager - Gulf Region, Microsoft Corporation

As Regional General Manager of Microsoft’s Gulf subsidiary, Charbel Fakhoury responsibilities span across growing our people, business and impact on socioeconomic priorities in the region; instituting a diverse employee culture of leadership and values across the company. Under his leadership, Microsoft Gulf has been voted as the best subsidiary globally twice over a period of three years by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.  He joined Microsoft in December 1998 as the business development manager for the Levant region and then was promoted as the subsidiary general manager in 2003 for eastern Mediterranean countries covering Lebanon, Jordan, Cyprus, Iraq, Syria and Malta; headquartered in Beirut with new offices in these countries with the objective of reaching out to governments, customers, partners and IT professionals to develop their  knowledge economy. In  October 2005, he was assigned the General Manager role of the Gulf region.  His knowledge of the middle east region and understanding of the power of Information technology, has been instrumental in empowering the region’s youth by focusing on programs such as Women in IT and several other education related initiatives in an aim to bridge the gender divide and equip the next generation with the skills they need to thrive in changing economic conditions.

Kamal Hassan
President and CEO, Innovation 360 Group

Kamal is President and CEO of Innovation 360, an innovation management and operation advisory group that works with private and public entities throughout the world. In addition to leading the company’s global operations and customer acquisition, Kamal advises clients on their innovation and business transformation efforts, from strategic planning to execution and follow-up. He also educates clients on how to leverage of creativity and systematic innovation to create new products, services and business models. An advocate for human capital development, Kamal promotes an innovative model for leadership development that recognizes the needs of all stakeholders to develop programs that are inclusive, measurable and executable.  Prior to founding Innovation 360, Kamal spent seven years with Breakthrough Management Group International (BMGI), a worldwide Performance Excellence and Innovation consultancy. As Senior Vice President of Strategy and Consulting Services, he spearheaded the firm’s corporate strategy development and execution, management dashboard and KPIs, international business development, and industry practices. Here, he also developed expertise in a number of strategic approaches to organizational and operational management, including Lean Six Sigma, systematic innovation, business process management, Private Equity, and business process outsourcing. Before this, Kamal held several executive positions in the software and system integration industries, including Director of Business Development for Instantis and VP of Business Development and Professional Services at Komopono.

Ali Al Saloom
Be a Pioneer or Disappear!

An impassioned call to look to the past to build the UAE’s innovative future. Using highlights from his own journey of self-discovery, Ali shows how culture is a crucial in building a solid innovative system. His pride in his Emirati heritage will inspire others to develop their natural innovative talents and use them in their careers. This speech encourages listeners to “be passionately innovative” when searching for solutions or creating new business.