General Manager
Microsoft UAE

Sayed Hashish is responsible for overseeing Microsoft’s operations across the United Arab Emirates. As the General Manager of Microsoft UAE, he leads the company’s strategic planning and growth initiatives that enable and empower the country’s digital transformation.

Sayed is an ardent believer in the power of technology to serve citizens, governments, businesses and communities around the world, through transforming education, fostering local innovation and creating employment opportunities, that help fuel a continuous cycle of sustained social and economic development.

Sayed joined Microsoft in 1998 and has been in the Gulf region for more than a decade. Prior to his current role, he was Regional General Manager for Microsoft Gulf. Following the successful launch of Microsoft’s Middle East Cloud regions, he took on the role to continue spearheading the development of the UAE market – the most vibrant and fastest growing in the region. His efforts are focused on accelerating the UAE’s digital transformation and growth, working closely with government organizations, start-ups and other private enterprises to leverage Microsoft’s platform and technologies, and empower the country to achieve more.

Industry Director - Middle East and Africa Region Retail, CPG & Travel
Microsoft Corporation

As Industry lead for Microsoft Middle East and Africa, Ramy Fares’ responsibilities span across one of the most vibrant and diverse regions in the company. His role is to lead Microsoft’s industry focus, across those sectors, covering 79 countries, to enable companies realizing the value of our technology stack to drive economical value through digital Transformation in the MEA region.

Prior to joining Microsoft, Fares worked as a Head of Sales for Convergys in the MENA, before that role, he was the Global Account Director for Ooredoo at Ericsson coming from Oracle & Vodafone.

Fares received a bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering from Cairo University. In 2012 he concluded his MBA at London Business School. Fares is currently enrolled at IE Business School DBA, researching on “Driving Corporate Turnaround through digital platforms”, due to conclude by July,2024.

Group CIO
LuLu Group

Piyush Chowhan is a digital evangelist with a passion for transforming businesses with the use of technology. With over two decades of experience working with global consumer and retail companies, he has an excellent track record of delivering results and creating value across organizations. His vision is creating innovation-focused digital strategies to maximize today’s opportunities and prepare organizations for future disruptions. His passion for working with startups and innovation-led companies has given him the edge to create digital assets for organizations with the use of the latest technologies like Analytics, Cloud, and Artificial Intelligence. He has been a widely recognized leader in digital transformation and has been a much-wanted speaker at over 100 global events. He is an avid writer and his thought leadership is published in multiple magazines and portals.

Enterprise Commercial Director UAE

Since his appointment as the Regional Director for Enterprise Gulf in Sep 2016, Naim has realized the opportunities in Gulf countries (Kuwait/Bahrain/Qatar/UAE/Oman) for Microsoft through developing a team, skills, culture and eco system that can prepare Microsoft in Gulf for the growth expected over the next few years across all commercial industries, while delivering on today’s transformational and growth commitments and opportunities in a consistent manner.

Prior to this (2011 – 2016), Naim as Microsoft Qatar’s General Manager, overseeing Microsoft Qatar operations including investment decisions on growth areas for the company, ensured Microsoft is able to align with the government’s vision around Information and Communication Technology (ICT), and worked to develop a partner eco-system that increases available skills and creates new jobs in the industry. Prior to 2011, Naim spent three years at Microsoft as the Public Sector Director for Gulf, leading this organization and engaging with governments and education policymakers to help them leverage technology to improve citizen services at large.

Vice President RCGTH Industry Solutions Group
Cognizant Technology Solutions

Scott has more than 25 years of combined retail, consulting and system integration experience spanning key functional areas of a retail operation. Experience and background in retail includes: Multi-channel commerce, merchandise & assortment planning, merchandise & revenue optimization, category management, space planning, demand forecasting, allocation and replenishment, inventory planning and optimization, vendor management, and store operations.

Product Consultant
Cognizant Technology Solutions

Client Manager and Product Consultant with 9+ years’ experience in retail planning and supply chain management. Specializing in the areas of inventory optimization, process and project management, customer implementations, and application training.

Assoc. Director
Cognizant Technology Solutions

Solution Architect and Delivery Manager with over 19+ years of hands-on experience on Enterprise Architecture, Technical Architecture, and Program Management in Retail, Banking, Manufacturing and Financial Risk & Compliance domains. Architected Point of Service Solutions, Omni Channel Retail, Inventory Planning suite

Chief Commercial Officer
Sulava Gulf

Tommi has over 20 years of experience from IT industry in multiple different positions in vendors and customers. Before joining Sulava, Tommi worked in Microsoft Finland for 6 years concentrating on digital transformation and helping customers in their cloud journey. In 2017 Tommi joined Sulava to build a business unit of adoption and change management and boosting the adoption of Microsoft Teams in Finland. In 2019 Sulava had an opportunity to work with one UAE based customer in their Teams adoption project. The Teams adoption engagement was very successful and that lead to a establishing Sulava Gulf.

Dynamics Retail and Commerce Solution Architect
TechVista Response: Techvista Systems

Umer is Dynamics retail and commerce Solution architect with over 14 years of industry experience. During his carriers he has led many ecommerce, retail and PLM implementations and integrations for multiple industry verticals. As Microsoft partner he also participated with Dynamics commerce private preview program and worked with core product team. He has also led Dynamics commerce full scale implementation for UK’s top brand for bespoke school uniform and experienced the strengths of Dynamic eCommerce platform.