In this role, Rabih leads all areas of Cisco's business across private and public sector organizations and works closely with Cisco's partner ecosystem in the region. Rabih's responsibilities also include driving and forging close relationships with the government and ensuring that Cisco's business objectives and goals are closely aligned. With a key focus around smart and connected communities, Rabih is helping to drive Cisco's Smart City strategy in the UAE and the wider Middle East region.

Rabih joined Cisco in 1996 in Research Triangle Park R&D team in North Carolina. He worked on Cisco's flagship Internet working Operating System (IOS) development on Cisco's core routing platforms for six years, before spending a further six years in a worldwide customer-facing and consultancy role in the Service-Provider Technology Group's Mobile Business Unit.

Rabih has very strong consultancy and architecture credentials focused on mobile products and technologies to accelerate the adoption of IP technologies and mobile. He led a consultancy team that helped grow Cisco's mobile business worldwide, introducing numerous new products and technologies as the mobile world embraced IP and the internet. He moved to the UAE in 2008 to lead the engineering organization for Cisco's emerging theater, he led Cisco's Strategic Accounts business, and was responsible for the service provider segment in the theater before transitioning to the Managing Director role for the UAE.

Along his journey, Rabih has achieved several US technology patents that have helped differentiate Cisco's products and solutions, and has lived and worked in the US, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

Rabih holds a BS in Computer Science from North Carolina State University.

Dr. Aisha Bin Bishr is an Assistant Director General of the Executive Office. Part of her role is to lead the Smart Dubai task force team.

Prior to that, Dr. Aisha worked in the Ministry of Labor as an Assistant Undersecretary for support services responsible for developing and implementing strategic management, partnership development and change management policies. With 20 years of experience in information, communication and technology (ICT) development in public and government sectors, she possesses analytical, coordination, communication and advocacy skills relating to ICT, public reform trends and strategies

Dr. Aisha Bin Bishr holds a PHD in Management, Science, Technology and Innovation and Master of Philosophy (MPhil), Policy and Research on Engineering, Science and Technology from Manchester Business School. A Bachelor of Science (BS), Applied Science (Business Information Technology) from Higher Colleges of Technology , and a degree in Public Finance Management from Dubai School of Government as well as a graduate of Orchestrating Winning Performance from IMD

Dr. Aisha Bin Bishr is a graduate of a two-year young leaders program organized by Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashed Centre for Leadership Development (MBRCLD).

Dr. Aisha Bin Bishr has received many awards; the latest is Middle East Woman Leader in Corporate Management Excellence (2012). In addition, she received an award on behalf of Smart Dubai Initiative like the token of appreciation and recognition to your good self for H.H's admirable future smart city vision and plans from the Swedish Embassy and in collaboration with the Swedish Trade and Invest Council and Ericsson.

Dr. Aisha Bin Bishr represents Smart Dubai Initiative in many communities and conferences such as City Protocol Society as well as at the GSMA.

Senior Vice President Chris White is responsible for the go–to–market strategy, solutions, and global sales for the Internet of Everything (IoE) – Cisco's industry-leading growth initiative.

Chris is a passionate change agent who believes that we live in an era of unparalleled hyper-connective opportunity, yet 99 percent of the things in the world are still not connected to the Internet. He wrote in a 2014 blog, "We stand on the verge of an incredible tipping point as we consider the remarkable possibilities when we connect the unconnected."

Chris is a recognized thought leader on the Internet of Everything and the Internet of Things and has spoken at a number of key events – including TEDxOrangeCoast2014 and the Internet of Things World Forum 2014.

During a Cisco career spanning two decades, Chris has built a track record of launching new businesses and building them into market leaders. In his current role, he transformed five Cisco business units into Cisco's market-leading Internet of Everything growth initiative, as well as building Cisco's No. 1 market share in sports and entertainment solutions and creating Cisco's fast-growing Internet of Things solutions business.

As Cisco's vice president of emerging technologies, Chris incubated and launched a number of technologies, including Cisco's Smart Grid solutions – which help companies manage energy more efficiently – and built it into a global market leader.

While serving as Cisco's vice president of globalization, Chris pioneered Cisco's globalization strategy from his base in Bangalore, India, setting up support for Cisco's growth engine in emerging countries and forming important new partnerships with Wipro, Infosys, and Tata.

Chris holds a bachelor's degree in business from Kingston University in Kingston-upon Thames, London. He is a member of the advisory board of the Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California, Irvine. He lives in Southern California with his wife, Trish, and his children, Elle and Alec.

Follow Chris's tweets @cnwusa, as well as his Cisco blog posts.

Ahmad Chehime is a Strategic Product Sales Specialist focusing on the Cisco's DC SDN Strategy, development and adoption in Emerging Market.

Previously, Ahmad held a Data Center and Virtualization Product Sales Specialist. Ahmad joined Cisco USA in early 2000 as a Technical Marketing Engineer focusing on Service Providers Leased-Lines and Broadband Aggregation Architectures and products working closely with major Service Provider World Wide. Ahmad has extensive experience in Service Provider infrastructure deployments.

In early 2006, Ahmad took on a Product Management role to drive Cisco's next generation Mid-range router portfolio ASR 1000 and Cisco 7x00 business at a global level. In that role, Ahmad led the new Cisco ASR1000 Router development lifecycle.

In 2008, Ahmad Joined Cisco KSA and worked on Mega-Cities projects, and incumbent service provider in KSA; STC. During that time, Ahmad worked on major Enterprise Video, IPTV and network infrastructure projects.

Today Ahmad is working closely with our customers to make their IT as a Service and cloud computing journey a reality by evangelizing the Cisco's Next-Generation DC SDN architecture and strategy.

Ahmed Zaghmouri, A Contact Center veteran, with over 14 years of experience in Contact Center and Customer Experience strategy, technology and operations. He brings his thoughtful and insightful expertise to his clients and partners

Ahmed started his career with Avaya, where he held variety of positions in the services, technical operations and consulting engineering. In his current role with Cisco, Ahmed works closely with the leading organizations across the Emerging Market to help them define, design, implement and deploy their Contact Center business strategies and technology architectures to achieve competitive advantage through superior customer experience.

Ahmed holds a bachelor degree of Telecommunication Engineering from the Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST), Jordan.

Alan has been working with the EMEAR Cisco Data Center & Virtualization team now since joining the company in 2007. Primarily focusing on DC infrastructure switching & Storage Networking but with Cisco's entrance into the Unified switching and Unified Computing space, Alan also has a major focus on infrastructure stack technologies from Cisco, NetApp, EMC & others that incorporate all of these technologies. As these offerings span multiple technologies & disciplines, having a good understanding of Storage, Networking, Compute & Hypervisor aspects is key to positioning this type of technology solution to partners and customers.

Alan has over 20 years of experience in the Data Center environment and has gained knowledge, both as a field engineer and as a technical consultant of various key technologies from IBM & Amdahl Mainframes, DASD, Tape & FICON devices to Open System SAN technologies working at both McDATA and Brocade; and core Routing & Switching, Unified Switching and Unified Compute technologies, using cloud management tools now working at Cisco.

Alberto has been in the I.T. Industry for 16 years. Torralba's focus has been security for the last 12 years. Before joining Cisco, he worked for different security vendors including Trend Micro and Ironport. He has designed and deployed content security solutions across EMEAR for various industries, including: the Government, Banking and Energy.

Andrew Cowley has around 28 years' experience in IT, with the past 20 years focused on Information Security. Before joining Cisco Systems, he worked for various organizations including Lancope and Verisign. He has been responsible for the design and implementation of many security solutions covering finance, government, military, retail, Oil and Gas, and industrial systems

Anver is based with Cisco Systems in the UAE. Anver has been with Cisco for 10 years and has a focus in Data Center and ACI technologies.

Ayman leads the sales and business development initiatives of Cisco security solutions and consulting services to both the Public and Enterprise verticals. He has helped customers achieve their Information Security initiatives by leveraging Cisco as a Security partner and leveraging Cisco unique capabilities in delivering a threat-centric approach to secure their organizations.

Prior to joining Cisco he worked for Symantec as Principal Security Consultant and worked for IT Security Training & Solutions – I(TS)2 as Regional Business Development Manager; promoting information security business to Telecommunication Providers, Financial Institutions and Public Sector (Military, Education & Government).

Ayman has more than twelve years of experience on information security consulting services, solutions and Managed Security Services (MSS) and has also been a guest speaker at various events, seminars and client engagements. He has several information security industry certifications such as GIAC Certified Incidents Handler (GCIH) from SANS."

Bader has been with Cisco for over 8 years and has played a major role in designing some of the largest WiFi deployments in the Middle East region. In addition to his expertise on working with different industries (e.g. education, healthcare, oil & gas, service provider), Bader is also a part of the Unified Access team in EMEA working with Security and R&S teams. Along with his main duty of helping customers and partners design reliable wireless networks, he takes the responsibility of bridging the channel of communication between the field and Cisco's own Wireless Business Unit which may influence future product developments.

He joined Cisco in 2012. Before that he worked as a Consultant focusing on Wi-Fi projects. He has 10 years of experience in RF design, RF site surveys, real time location, Voice over Wi-Fi and troubleshooting. In his current role as a TME he covering public sector global. He assists Cisco Customers and Partners in designing Wireless solutions around location.

Doug is originally from Scotland and discovered a passion for technology by accident. Doug holds an Honours degree in Business Studies from the University of Edinburgh and failed only one course in four years: Computer Science. Clearly the perfect background for a successful career in IT.

Now a 16 year Cisco veteran Doug became expert in new technologies joining Cisco's Voice team shortly after they unleashed IP Telephony on an unsuspecting world and he was involved in a large number of early market wins across EMEA. When Telepresence came along Doug was again attracted by this new and revolutionary technology and again became one the of the pioneers of TP. Most recently Doug was asked to start leading Cisco's sales efforts in the Physical Security space across the Middle East.

Outside work Doug is a keen cyclist, has learned to swim in the last 8 months and has rediscovered a love of running. Currently training for triathlon Doug maintains his technology focus outside of work by testing and writing about many fitness trackers coming onto the market. Doug is married and lives in Dubai with his wife of 30 years and his two children Lisa and Ross.

Robert Pepper leads Cisco's Global Technology Policy team working with governments across the world in areas such as broadband, IP enabled services, wireless and spectrum policy, security, privacy, Internet governance and ICT development.

He joined Cisco in July 2005 from the FCC where he served as Chief of the Office of Plans and Policy and Chief of Policy Development beginning in 1989 where he led teams developing policies promoting the development of the Internet, implementing telecommunications legislation, planning for the transition to digital television, and designing and implementing the first U.S. spectrum auctions.

Before joining the FCC, he was Director of the Annenberg Washington Program in Communications Policy. His government service also included Acting Associate Administrator at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and initiating a program on Computers, Communications and Information Policy at the National Science Foundation.

His academic appointments included faculty positions at the Universities of Iowa, Indiana, and Pennsylvania, and as a research affiliate at Harvard University. He serves on the board of the U.S. Telecommunications Training Institute (USTTI) and advisory boards for Columbia University and Michigan State University, and is a Communications Program Fellow at the Aspen Institute. He is a member of the U.S. Department of Commerce's Spectrum Management Advisory Committee, the UK's Ofcom Spectrum Advisory Board and the U.S. Department of State's Advisory Committee on International Communications and Information Policy.

Eric has held various management positions in the IT industry.

Edward Agostinho is a Consulting Systems Engineer based in Cisco South Africa. He joined the company in 2006 and is responsible for all technical and sales consultancy for Cisco's Internet of Things Product Portfolio in the Emerging Markets region. This portfolio consists of Cisco's Connected Safety and Security, Cisco's Industrial Ethernet, Ruggedized wireless and Smart Grid solutions.

Edward has a National Diploma in Electronics and has achieved numerous IT related certifications including, Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer, Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert and Cisco Certified Voice Professional.

Eric has held various management positions in the IT industry.

In his different tenures, he always sought to position solutions and technologies to enterprises so that they can better achieve their business objectives while managing cost and coping with operational constraints. Enterprises of all sizes and from all segments.

Today, he is working at Cisco Systems, as Enterprise Networking CTO in EMEAR. In his role, and together with his teams of industry technology experts, he aims at fostering and accelerating the market adoption of Cisco's innovations in networking, cloud and security.

His current mission is to help Cisco customers and partners navigating the current IT storm. Industry Megatrends (Cloud, SDN, Video, BYOD, Wired/Wireless convergence, IOT and many others) are having a profound impact on the relevance of IT representing great opportunities for businesses to become more agile.

Eric also graduated from an Executive MBA.

Fayroz Mehdi is the Webex Sales lead for GCC region responsible for driving Workspace business including Jabber, CWMS & CMR and supporting Collaboration business growth for Cisco desktop initiatives.

Based in Doha Fayroz works across boundaries and successfully leads customer engagements and Webex success in countries like Qatar, UAE, KSA etc. His role involves working with Collaboration teams across the region, lead desktop initiatives into transformational accounts and engage with Cisco UC partners for market success.

Formerly with Webex Communications Fayroz joined Cisco India in a sales development role in 2007 spearheading Webex sales growth for the MEA region; with many sales awards and recognition under his belt Fayroz moved to Cisco Qatar to support the growing demand for Cisco workspace and Collaboration business. In his current role Fayroz plays a key role in driving Cisco workspace business into Public Sector and Educational verticals.

A graduate from National Institute of management Fayroz is passionate in selling Cloud based Technology and software solutions. A keen observer and quick learner Fayroz is excited to work on challenging projects.

A natural athlete and sport enthusiast Fayroz has played competitive cricket at district level. When he is not working he spends time on improving his skills in his new found love for cooking.

Hakan has over 17 years experience in designing and building security solutions for mid-size and large customers, including service providers. Prior to joining Cisco Hakan worked for Ericsson as a software systems designer, and as a manager for customer support. Hakan is specialized on Secure Access solutions : Remote Access SSL VPN and Cisco Trustsec (802.1X and guest services).

Wael started his career as an Software Engineer for Lucent Technologies in 1996 where he managed the software development and implementation of Contact Centers for outsourcers in Europe and the Middle East. He graduated from the Technical University of Budapest as a Software Engineer. His hobbies include squash and swimming. Wael lives in Dubai with his wife and two boys.

Hazem Amer is Intel Regional Market Development Director in the Gulf countries.

Hazem role is to create customer preference and pull for Intel's solutions. With more than 22 years of information technology and information security experience, Hazem held several leadership roles in development, analysis, design, security architecture as well as technical sales operations in Egyptian, Gulf and US markets.

Hazem holds a Bachelor Degree in Computer Science and Automatic Control and a Master's in Business administration. Hazem also hold several international professional certifications in software development, security CISSP, ITIL and storage technologies.

15+ years P&L management, Sales & Business Development experience.

Experience in several IoT segments: Smart Grid, substation Automation, Industrial & Oil&Gas segments.

MBA in Marketing Management, M.Sc. in computer engineering, BSc. Electrical Engineering & Automatic Control Systems.

Business Development roles for Africa with Schneider Electric.

Regional Director role with General Electric for MEA.

Lars has been in IT for 18 years and 7 years with Cisco. First as a Systems Engineer in the Netherlands and the last 2 years as a Consulting Systems Engineer based in Dubai

Mahmoud Ahmed is the Lead Consultant for Cisco's intelligent WAN and enterprise networks across Middle East . In this role he is responsible for helping customers align their business needs with creating solutions that help them drive productivity and impact their day to day operations.

Mahmoud with more than 10 years' experience in the industry has been instrumental in supporting some of the largest enterprise and service provider environments in the region, he has earned a strong reputation in the industry as a trusted advisor supporting Cisco's customers and partners.

Prior to joining Cisco, Mahmoud had held multiple leading positions in Fortune 100 companies including Service providers, Partners and Vendors.

Mahmoud has around 10 years experience in IT, with a special focus on Information Security. Before joining Cisco Systems, he worked for regional security VADs (Value Added Distributors) fulfilling the roles of a information security specialist in several areas. He later on joined Sourcefire (which is part of Cisco now) as a regional Security Engineer for Middle East and Africa with a focus on Next Generation Intrusion Prevention Systems, Next Generation Firewalls, and Advanced Malware Protection. He is currently working for Cisco Systems as a Consulting Systems Engineer for Emerging Markets.

Mohammad is the technical lead for Cisco's Collaboration Architecture portfolio in the UAE . In this role he is responsible to help customer aligning their collaboration business need with customised solution that help them to drive productivity and impact their day to day operation helping them to deliver the next generation workplace fore their end users .

Niels Roine is Business Develop Manager in Cisco Sport & Entertainments Group. He has 25 years' experience in the international media industry and he was six years CEO of the Norwegian Professional Football League. Mr. Roine s expertise and experience in the sport and media is important for implementing Cisco solutions. Mr. Roine has been a board member of media companies in Germany, Switzerland, France, Russia, Sweden and Norway. He is Norwegian and living in Oslo.

Paulo Jorge Correia has a degree in Systems and Computer Science Engineering from the University of Braga in Portugal.

More than 20 years' experience in networking & telecommunication industry. He is currently a Technical Solutions Architect in the collaboration EMEAR CTO team. Paulo Jorge Correia is a frequent speaker at events such as Cisco Live, Cisco Connect and other public events.

Rajendran Purushothaman is the Webex BDM for Emerging region, he was formerly the Regional Manager for Webex Middle East Operations.

An Engineer by profession Rajendran has spent around 20 years in the Industry spearheading Software Sales for International Markets for large part of his career.

He is currently engaged in working with Cisco Webex TSP and on boarding Global Reseller Partners for Webex in the Emerging Markets.

He has rich experience in Web Software and has worked with SAP solutions and Microsoft – 'Connected Learning Community program' for the Education vertical.

His passion is Software & Cloud based solutions and working with diverse teams and challenging projects

Ali has around 15 years' experience in IT industry, most of it is around data centre design, operations and sales. Before joining Cisco Systems, he worked for various organisations including PTCL (Etisalat Opco in Pakistan) where he was responsible to build managed & cloud services portfolio of incumbent operator.

In his current role at Cisco Systems Ali is playing the key role to develop application focused capabilities in traditional Cisco networking partners in Gulf region. Ali is responsible to drive growth in Unified Computing system, Cisco Application centric Infrastructure and to make Cisco the trusted Data Centre partner for its customers.

Shukri Eid is the director of Cisco Consulting Services in the Middle East, Africa, Russia & CIS region. He leads a diverse team of senior consulting professionals who are delivering differentiated value to large customer organizations.

Eid brings to CCS 18 years of business and technology consulting experience, notably in strategy development and implementation. He works extensively in the Middle East with governments and NGOs to help them use ICT to enable national economic and social development agendas. He also works with telecommunication service providers in the region to respond to industry challenges and opportunities with new innovative business models. He is part of Cisco's Leadership Pipeline Program.

Prior to joining Cisco, Eid was a managing consultant at IBM Global Business Services, where he led diverse teams in high-profile strategy engagements in the Middle East and North Africa. Prior to IBM, he was a senior consultant in PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he led several business and IT transformational engagements in countries around the Arabian Gulf. His engagements involved local and federal government, education, financial services, and defense.

Eid has a master's degree in business administration from Strathclyde University and a bachelor's degree in electrical and computer engineering from Jordan University of Science and Technology. He has also tutored MBA students on Exploring International Business Environment and Future Scenarios Planning at the University of Strathclyde in Dubai.

Tony has over 35 years experience in the transport industry in both the client and supplier sides.

Amongst the roles Tony has held include: Operational and Maintenance interface manger for the Jubilee Line Extension, London UK. Business Development Manager, Transportation for Alcatel in the UK & Ireland. Business Development Director, Transportation, for Thales the UK, North America, Australia and Africa. Export Director Thales Transportation, a global role. Tony is currently Cisco EMEAR's IoE/IoT Transportation Business Development Manager, supporting all elements of Cisco's growing market presence in this very important sector.

Tony is married with 3 children, holds a Masters of Arts in Transportation Policy & Management, and is a Fellow of the Institution of Railway Signal Engineers. Tony has been an active speaker for many years in the transport circuit. Recent conferences he has spoken at include, 2007, 2008 Aus Rail; 2008 metro's for Australia ; 2009, Metrorail Australia; 2011 WUTC Singapore;2013 CBTC users conference Hong Kong, 2013 SITC Singapore, 2013, ITS, California USA

As the Collaboration Sales Manager for UAE, Wael is responsible for Cisco's Collaboration and Business – Video Strategy, Sales and Channel Business Development.

Wael joined Cisco in 2006 initially as a Business Development Manager for Unified Communications and Contact Center for the Gulf region. During his career at Cisco, Wael has led the sales development of many of Cisco's Unified Communications and Wireless products including TelePresence, Unified Messaging, Contact Centre and Webex (voice, video, and data conferencing), IP Video conferencing, Telephony and Wireless Telephony. Wael has also led the Unified Communication business development for various verticals including Healthcare, Aviation, Education, Oil & Gas, Defence and Hospitality.

Wael is a key player in developing the Services Provider business for Cloud Collaboration Solution - HCS, Hosted/Managed Telephony, Hosted/Managed TelePresence and Hosted/Managed Contact Center. Wael represented Cisco in many seminars and events in the Gulf region addressing Collaboration and Cloud Services.

Wael started his career as an Software Engineer for Lucent Technologies in 1996 where he managed the software development and implementation of Contact Centers for outsourcers in Europe and the Middle East. He graduated from the Technical University of Budapest as a Software Engineer. His hobbies include squash and swimming. Wael lives in Dubai with his wife and two boys.

Yasser joined Cisco in 2005 during the creation of the Connected Real Estate team in the Gulf Region. Since then, he has been a key member of the worldwide "Smart+Connected" initiative at Cisco starting in the GCC, Emerging Markets, and EMEA regions. As part of the Smart+Connected Communities Business Development team, he has actively led S+CC engagements in the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and Europe. Prior to Cisco, Yasser has held a variety of management, sales, presales, and engineering roles with several multinational companies including Hewlett-Packard, Fastlane, and SITA. He holds a B.Sc degree in Electronics and Electrical Communications and is based in Munich, Germany.

Wael joined Cisco in 2006 initially as a Business Development Manager for Unified Communications and Contact Center for the Gulf region. During his career at Cisco, Wael has led the sales development of many of Cisco's Unified Communications and Wireless products including TelePresence, Unified Messaging, Contact Centre and Webex (voice, video, and data conferencing), IP Video conferencing, Telephony and Wireless Telephony. Wael has also led the Unified Communication business development for various verticals including Healthcare, Aviation, Education, Oil & Gas, Defence and Hospitality.

Wael is a key player in developing the Services Provider business for Cloud Collaboration Solution - HCS, Hosted/Managed Telephony, Hosted/Managed TelePresence and Hosted/Managed Contact Center. Wael represented Cisco in many seminars and events in the Gulf region addressing Collaboration and Cloud Services.

Wael started his career as an Software Engineer for Lucent Technologies in 1996 where he managed the software development and implementation of Contact Centers for outsourcers in Europe and the Middle East. He graduated from the Technical University of Budapest as a Software Engineer. His hobbies include squash and swimming. Wael lives in Dubai with his wife and two boys.