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Sreejith Purushan has over 18 years of total experience, beginning his hospitality career in 2005, Sreejith started out as a Guest service agent in Starwood Hotels and worked various Food & Beverage positions in 5* Hotels & Resorts in Starwood, Taj, & Rotana around Middle East and India until 2011,

Sreejith has been with the Radisson Hotel Group for over 11 years and in 2017 became the F&B Manager at Radisson Blu Hotel, Dubai Deira Creek, the first 5* hotel in Dubai. The hotel includes 15 Food & Beverage outlets and Banqueting facilities which includes 2 Ballrooms, 18 Meetings rooms and Outside Catering Operation that can cater for up to 4000 people

Most recently, Sreejith was promoted as Director of Food and Beverage at Radisson Blu Dubai Deira Creek in 2019, taking over Meeting & Events Sales and the Hygiene & Stewarding Department in addition to his Food and Beverage role. He is responsible for the financial performance and operations of Food and Beverage - 15 Outlets (10 Restaurants / Cafe & 5 Bars), Meeting & Events Sales Proactive and reactive team, Meeting & Events Operations - 2 Ballrooms, 18 Meetings rooms and Outside Catering Operation of 6 units that can cater for up to 4000 people or multiple caterings and Back Of the House- Hygiene Manger & Stewarding Team. Leading a team of 132 employees and team consists of 10 Managers, 8 Assistant Managers and 114 Team Members Throughout various projects he has taken on and his constant involvement in the operations, Sreejith constantly demonstrates his passion for hospitality, his quality focus and leadership abilities. He balances excellent analytical, strategic and leadership skills, fostering personal development, quality experiences, customer satisfaction and a results-oriented focus within his team.

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Rikhsibay Tursunov is a highly motivated and passionate professional with over 25 years of experience in the hospitality industry working with luxury hotels. Before becoming a well-known individual with high emotional intelligence, he was merely a little boy in the village who was trying to provide for his family at the young age of fourteen. Trying multiple business ventures like selling vegetables in the bazaar and Samsa at the animal market helped him learn the true meaning of patience, perseverance, discipline, and genuine communication through connection. Now, emotional intelligence, empathy and understanding are the three main pillars that drive his leadership style. Over the years, Rikhsibay's communication skills and friendly personality have brought together multiple teams by creating an amicable, open, and reliable working environment for all. His eagerness towards mentoring the younger generation and empowering employees to grow stems from his lack of mentors when growing up. This is why, presently, Rikhsibay is constantly looking for new ways to share his knowledge, experience, and advice with anyone interested so they can have someone to turn to for guidance. The accomplished, results-driven business leader from the Luxury Hotel & Leisure sector is now working towards sharing his experience and knowledge of creating a comfortable, efficient, and lively work environment.

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Gordana brings years of experience in the hospitality industry, and a passion for all things wine and beverage to the team.

Born and raised in Serbia, Josovic studied music and dancing in her youth, before focusing on getting a degree in travel business and receiving her Bachelor's degree in Belgrade. Her participation in traditional Yugoslavian dance provided the opportunity for her to travel and explore Europe, and through these journeys she first discovered her passion for wine.

After moving to the United States Gordana first spent time in Hawaii, where she further developed her knowledge of the wine and restaurant business. Her career continues in San Francisco where she served as a Wine Director at Epic Roasthouse, Beverage Director at Paula Leduc Fine Catering and a Wine Director at San Francisco Wine School.

Through her participation in numerous highly-acclaimed wine competitions, she has been able to travel extensively to many of the world's greatest wine regions, resulting in the cultivation of close relationships with top producers and wine professionals from around the world.

Gordana holds the French Wine Scholar and Italian Wine Scholar with Highest Honors credentials from the Wine Scholar Guild, the Hospitality Beverage Specialist Certificate and Certified Specialist of Wine with the Society of Wine Educators, the California Wine Appellation Specialist from San Francisco Wine School, and the Advanced Sommelier with the Court of Master Sommeliers.

Josovic moved to New York City where she worked for the Thomas Keller Restaurant Group. She is currently in charge of the wine program for Atlantis Dubai, while preparing to sit for the Master Sommelier Exam.

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An industry power house Panchali Mahendra has over 5 years as Managing Director of Atelier House Hospitality and experience in restaurant consulting and operations with 19 years of demonstrated history of working in the food & beverage industry along with 10 years in the Middle East. Skilled in Concepts, Feasibility, Food & Beverage, Business Planning, Operations Management, and Turnkey. With a strong consulting professional background with a Post Graduation focused on Guest Services Management from The Oberoi Center of Learning & Development and a Gold Medalist in Hospitality from the University of Huddersfield, UK & IHM Aurangabad. Mahendra won her first 1 Michelin star as a restaurateur for her home-grown restaurant 11 woodfire in Dubai in partnership with a Dubai celebrity chef. One of the only women to receive this award in Dubai, she is also the second India woman to be accredited with this world-renowned honor. Mahendra was also the first woman to receive Golden Visa in hospitality by the UAE government. Mahendra has also featured in Power 50 in 2020 and 2021 and Power women list thrice, 2020, 2021 and 2022 and been nominated for multiple awards across various channels and listed in multiple leaders and achievers list including caterer, CEO magazine, Entrepreneur magazine, CMO Asia. She has conceptualized, operated, and opened close to 65 restaurants internationally which is one of the highest ever done with huge success rate. Restaurants under her umbrella include Marea, 11 woodfire, Mohalla, The Host, Tides Bar, RSVP in Dubai and Mohalla and Morini in KSA. She is also working 4 major projects for 20223 opening.

Her Achievements so far:

Awarded 1 michelin star for her recent restaurant 11 woodfire in Dubai and Marea being the recommended list.

conceptualized, developed and manages successful concepts like Michelin star Marea, DIFC: Mohalla, D3, 11 woodfire, Dubai: The Host, Dubai, Mohalla KSA, Morini KSA, Tides Bar DIFC and about to open French restaurant RSVP in Dubai

conceptualized, developed and manages another successful brand The Host along with 6 Emirati women who all are powerhouses

first woman in hospitality to receive the Golden visa

awarded Middle East leaders award by CMO Asia

achieving women by CEO magazine

Achieving women by entrepreneur magazine

recipient of many accolades

Franchise Mohalla to KSA royal family as a complete buyout

initiated and working on the talks to start growing impossible vegetables using hydroponics.

Featured in multiple channels for talk shows, radio and media for the role in F&B Industry

Supports women empowerment in hiring and partnership

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Naji Haddad is the General Manager of the MENA for Deliverect, the leading SaaS solution that simplifies online order management for restaurants. He leads a fast-growing team across commercial, technical, and customer support functions, helping thousands of large and small restaurants across the globe thrive and grow.

With +10 years of experience in Food and hospitality, Naji has a clear vision of how the industry is changing, in 2018 he started a company that partnered with several food tech solutions such as online ordering, digital menus and online reputation management, Their role was to help those restaurants and take them through the journey of digital transformation by assessing what they need and providing the right solutions accordingly.

Since joining Deliverect in 2020, Naji has been contributing in multiple active roles in reshaping Digital Food across MENA, he also serves as an advisor to the board of the UAE restaurant group and speaker in mega F&B forums (Gulfood, Hotel Show,..etc.)

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Co-Founder & CEO of KLC Virtual Restaurants, a multi-brand virtual restaurant company operating more than 50 virtual brands across a network of over 20 cloud kitchens in Kuwait, UAE and Qatar.

Former partner at Talabat, one of the largest online food delivery platforms in the MENA region that was sold to Rocket Internet in 2015.

Partner at Faith Capital, a Kuwaiti based venture capital fund which focuses on e-commerce business that have high growth potential.

Graduated with a degree in Management from Royal Holloway University of London in 2011 and obtained a Master's degree in Management in the MENA Region from SOAS University of London in 2012.

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Ahmad Al-Zaini is the Co-Founder and CEO of FOODICS, the leading cloud-based technology and payments platform for restaurants in the MENA region, based in Saudi Arabia, which he co-founded in 2014.

Ahmad is a serial entrepreneur by nature, with Foodics actually his third venture. He sensed the lack of technology in the Food & Beverage (F&B) sector back in 2014 especially in the ordering process, and with restaurants also facing many other operational challenges. He consequently built on this idea and developed a whole tech stack over time and a fully integrated ecosystem.

Ahmad thrives on introducing new technologies that change how people interact and connect with their favourite food brands. Today, FOODICS is an end-to-end restaurant management and fintech ecosystem that empowers F&B owners and merchants to run their operations more seamlessly and efficiently, thereby fast-tracking their own business growth in the process.

He also successfully raised $170 million in the largest SaaS Series C funding round in MENA led by Prosus, one of the largest global technology investors in the world, and Sanabil Investments, a PIF-owned investment company focused on private growth investments in various stages of the business cycle. Other investors included Sequoia Capital India and existing investors including STV, Endeavor Catalyst and Vision Ventures.

With more than 600 employees, Foodics has grown from its Khobar beginnings, to now have 8 offices across Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait and The Netherlands. Formally licensed as a Fintech company by the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA), it caters to every segment of the F&B sector from traditional dine-in restaurants, cafes, quick service restaurants, bakeries, food trucks through to cloud kitchens.

As an entrepreneur, Ahmad has been recognized widely, as recipient of the prestigious Forbes Award for Entrepreneurs Shaping Saudi Arabia's Future and as a high-impact entrepreneur by Endeavor Global.

Having recently completed a Harvard Leadership course, he remains very active in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. He is a board advisor and business consultant for several companies and an angel investor himself in several tech startups.

Under Ahmad's leadership, Foodics has successfully processed over 6 billion orders through the platform, making it one of the most promising SaaS companies to emerge from the MENA region.

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A visionary and award winning entrepreneur, Walid Hajj has defined his unique imprint in the food and beverages business creating innovative concepts that have disrupted the industry and established his credentials as a pioneer in F&B concepts that integrate advanced technology with exceptional service.

Walid launched Lavoya, a premium restaurants operator, in 2021. Established with the purpose of significantly transforming dining experiences, Lavoya introduces new and experiential casual dining concepts to reshape the F&B industry in the region.

In one year only, Lavoya launches 3 hugely popular franchise brands in the region:

Joe & The Juice: a global healthy eating lifestyle brand ofjuice bars and coffee shops around the world from London, to New York and Paris, with an astounding record setting Dubai launch as the 2 first stores rank #1 and #2 among 300 worldwide locations.

Dave's Hot Chicken: latest LA born street food sensation backed by celebrities like Drake and Samuel Jackson, also breaking a global sales record in its first week of operation in Dubai.

Barbar: an iconic 45 year old Lebanese street food brand, with Dubai (Hessa Street) and Riyadh (Tahlia Street) outlets ranking Top 2 in the system.

Prior to establishing Lavoya, Walid demonstrated his entrepreneurial acumen with the founding of Cravia, one of the region's leading food and hospitality groups that brought world class franchises to the Middle East, including Zaatar W Zeit, Five Guys, Cinnabon and Seattle's Best Coffee.

From selecting and negotiating with brands, to creating and achieving operational excellence, Walid has been the driving force behind the amazing growth story of Cravia. Since its inception in 2001 and under his strategic direction, Cravia has grown from strength to strength. Today, the company's portfolio includes more than 100 franchised restaurants and has presence in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar and employs over 3,000 employees. In 2016, Walid stepped down from his role after Fajr Capital, a private equity firm, acquired a majority stake in Cravia. He continues to be known as the Founder of the group and has become a highly sought after speaker at industry conferences and summits around the world.

In his early career, Walid was a Brand Manager at Procter & Gamble for two years and Vice President of Operations for his family business, United Group, in Saudi Arabia. Walid holds an MBA degree from Harvard Business School in the US and a bachelor's degree in Industrial Management from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Saudi Arabia. He is married and has three children.

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With almost 30 years' experience in the hospitality industry in Australia, Asia and the Middle East, Naim is the Chief Executive and Founder of Gates Hospitality, a home grown hospitality group based in the UAE, with award winning concepts such as folly, Bistro Des Arts and Reform Social & Grill.

Having led a wide spectrum of both operational and senior positions throughout his career, Naim was Managing Director for both Six Senses and Minor Hotels prior to setting up Gates Hospitality in 2010; two roles (amongst many others) that allowed him to gain significant operational and commercial experience as a leader, as well as nurture significant owner and stakeholder relationships.

Naim has been based in the Middle East for more than twenty years, and so has witnessed tremendous industry growth and gained a deep cultural understanding of the ways of the region, allowing him to support businesses and owners, and be a credible and respected voice of authority for the industry.

As well as his day to day role, Naim is on the boards of various hospitality businesses such as The Middle East Food Forum, UAE Restaurants Group, Almont Global, Australian Business Council and others.

A visionary and yet clear and direct leader, Naim is passionate about nurturing local and regional talent, and is known to have to supported and guided many hoteliers, chefs and restauranters as a mentor throughout his career.

Now, leading a team of 700 colleagues across Gates Hospitality, he is considered one of industry's most respected spokespeople and a God father figure, nurturing the careers of many new faces of the future.

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Mohamed Fayed is a tech disruptor, global entrepreneur, digital advisor, visionary, and mentor. He is the CEO and co-founder of GrubTech, one of the UAE's fastest-growing tech startups that enables cloud kitchens and restaurants to successfully manage end-to-end operations using state-of-the-art digital tools and capabilities.

Under Moe's leadership, GrubTech's client portfolio has grown rapidly to span fifteen countries, managing millions worth of food orders for large organizations like Delivery Hero's Talabat (including Expo 2020), and other international food chains like California Pizza Kitchen, Dunkin Donuts and Paul's.

Leveraging over 20 years of experience, Moe pioneered omnichannel solutions with the launch of MamasandPapas, and Gap in the GCC, and successfully introduced the region's first 2-hour e-commerce delivery promise. He also launched and managed the region's largest luxury online marketplace Ounass.

Besides serving as the Senior Vice President of Omnichannel at Al Tayer Group for 12 years, he held an executive position in multibrand Fortune 100 retailers such as Macy's, where he used his expertise to grow the Product & IT, Logistics, Planning, Supply Chain, and the E-Commerce divisions.

Mohamed is a global citizen and holds a Bachelor of Science with dual majors in International Business and Marketing from Florida International University - College of Business, USA. His commitment to digital disruption earned him several awards, including a place in the Caterer Middle East's Power 50 list of 2021.

Mohammed has been featured in regional and international media such as Entrepreneur Magazine, Arabian Business as well as Gulf Business, and has also been invited as a keynote speaker at prestigious events like Amazon's Summit. He speaks and contributes on topics about adoption of robotics, impact of labor shortage, creation of an intersect between technology wearables and how orders are placed online, and Artificial General Intelligence, just to mention a few topics.

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Seymone is a qualified Journalist from South Africa with extensive experience in social media marketing. Before joining Hotel & Catering News Middle East as the Editor In Chief, she covered the news for the BBC, CNBC Africa, Forbes Africa, and Forbes Woman Africa magazine. She was recognised at the Sanlam Excellence in Financial Journalism Awards for her investigative aviation print story and her gamification television story. Seymone has been telling stories and creating content for a decade now and is just getting started.

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Aby Sam Thomas is the Editor in Chief of Entrepreneur Middle East, a business magazine catering to the region's entrepreneurs and business-minded readership. In this role, Aby writes and edits for Entrepreneur Middle East's monthly print publication, as well as for its website, www.entrepreneur.com/me. He is especially interested in stories on startups and the people behind them, and finding out how they put a successful enterprise together. Before working in the media sector, Aby was an analyst programmer with Accenture, where he worked with J. P. Morgan Chase's investment banking arm at offices in Mumbai, London and New York. He holds a Master's Degree in Journalism from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York.

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Judit Toth is the CEO and Founder of Vivere Hospitality, a Dubai based hospitality management company providing strategic and innovative solutions to hospitality businesses. With an international business background and a passion for positive market disruption, Judit has over 12 years of experience in hospitality, real estate, business development and education.

She has previously worked with prominent firms like Jumeriah Group and Dubai Holding and implemented high-level business strategies for iconic destinations. She holds an MBA in International Hospitality Management from The Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management and a FinTech certification from INSEAD. With these accreditations, she is combining her passion for hospitality & fintech by bringing technology solutions into the industry. In her free time Judit is always up for learning new skills, she is currently working on bettering her polo skills aiming to become a polo player to represent women in the UAE polo sector.

Awards;

2014Winner of the Rising Star of the Year award by Daman Corporate Health Awards

Developed an Executive Wellness Program which was tailor made for leading companies like DU Telecommunications and Mashreq Bank to serve their C-level executives focused on corporate wellbeing.

2022 "The Hotelier" Women SME Leader of the Year 2022 by Mastercard Women SME Leaders Award

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Uwe Micheel was born in Celle, Germany. He is married to wife Annette, who was born in Kehl and they have 2 boys: Paul, who was born 1989 and Max who was born 1992.

His career was set when he was 12 years old, always helping his mother in the kitchen, and attending cooking classes at that time designed for young girls only. Chef Uwe was born in Germany where he spent most of his childhood and did his two and a half year's apprenticeship as Restaurant Chef in Celler Hof boutique hotel in Celle city near Hanover. After one year of working at the hotel Schwarzer Bock in 1978 (Hotel founded in 1486), which is now managed by Radisson Blu, Micheel served two years in the army service as a chef in the officer restaurant.

He joined the InterContinental Hotels Group in 1981 in Berlin, Germany, a year later he moved to the UK as the Chef de Partie Saucier in Hyde Park London, Michellin Star Restaurant Le Souffle and afterwards shifted to Bahrain for three years. Relocated to Korea as member of the opening team for the Grand InterContinental Seoul, three years later got appointed as Executive Sous Chef for the opening of Yokohama Grand InterContinental. Since 1993 he has been working in Dubai, holding a post of Director of Kitchens at Radisson Blu Hotel Dubai Deira Creek.

Joined Emirates Culinary Guild in 1993 and became Emirates Culinary Guild General Secretary from 1994, ECG Chairman from 1996 and President from 1999 until present.

After more than 40 years cooking experience, he still hasn't selected his favorite dish. Selected dishes for various occasions depend mostly on his mood. But Micheel is always ready for a good German sausage or packet of Haribos any time of the day or night.

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House of Pops is on a mission to spread happiness sourced from nature, one pop at a time. Our all natural, five ingredient healthy snack pops are up to 94% fruit, handcrafted with love. Our products are 100% natural, following UAE consumer demand for healthier, tasty snacks and treats. Our brand is steeped in six value propositions - purity, wellness, sustainability, creativity, customisation and quality. Try one today and experience true happiness.

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Judith has more than twenty years experience in the hospitality industry, working closely with senior management to achieve unprecedented results by taking an innovative and disruptive approach to traditional revenue management. Most recently, Judith was the Senior Vice President of Revenue Management & Distribution with responsibility for the Atlantis, One&Only and Mazagan brands, encompassing resorts, hotels, F&B outlets.

spas and attractions. At Kerzner, Judith was responsible for developing commercial strategy and a culture towards revenue optimisation that yielded double digit growth across key income streams by obsessively focusing on the efficiency of system and data capture, by optimising available inventory and finding creative opportunities for new revenue streams. Judith's track record shows that she is not content to manage revenue and is always looking for novel ways to maximise profitability whilst ensuring that profit potential across all income streams is realised. Judith believes passionately that with the right education, training and focus on unrealised growth opportunities, revenue management should be an indispensable tool for any executive team in the hospitality sector. Whether it's new openings, re-flaggings, or an unforeseen crisis, Judith has the experience and skills to help steer a company through the most challenging times and actually create opportunities for income when others would be happy to maintain the status quo. In all her roles, Judith has worked successfully within an organisation to become a trusted strategic advisor on commercial activities in addition to leading highly effective teams able to achieve revenue optimisation and development of best-in-class distribution platforms. With the launch of Black Coral Consulting, Judith is excited to use her wealth of experience to help her clients thrive and succeed in what are unprecedented times.

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Seymone is a qualified Journalist from South Africa with extensive experience in social media marketing. Before joining Hotel & Catering News Middle East as the Editor In Chief, she covered the news for the BBC, CNBC Africa, Forbes Africa, and Forbes Woman Africa magazine. She was recognised at the Sanlam Excellence in Financial Journalism Awards for her investigative aviation print story and her gamification television story. Seymone has been telling stories and creating content for a decade now and is just getting started.

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Pocket Trainer was created with the understanding of each and every pain point from the perspective of Janos Laszlo, a Food and Beverage veteran and the visionary behind PocketTrainer. Having accumulated over 15 years of experience in the Food and Beverage industry, Janos has seen it most. He has gained his robust perspective through wearing every possible hat within the industry, from food runner, waiter, bartender, event organizer, general manager and corporate trainer, and has hosted some of the most renowned names in the world he saw exactly what is needed in order to provide the best experience for clients from all over the world. He has laid down service foundations for leading brands, curated trainings for 7 different departments, helped to open 7 successful restaurants across 5 countries, and has won Best Restaurant titles 29 times just within the last 10 years with his teams.

When it comes to his passion, it boils down to one thing being of service. His aim is to give back to his beloved Food and Beverage colleagues, by sharing his deep knowledge and experience. Throughout his career, he has been making notes on what better looks like within the industry and how to equip his colleagues with the tools needed to provide excellent service to clientele and guests, while managing the disconnections between management and staff. Today these notes are the foundation of PocketTrainer. Holistically improving the image of your company by being forward-thinking in saving time, money and paper through PocketTrainer, and also by enhancing and streamlining information for your greatest asset your people.

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As Director, Business Stakeholders and Government Relations at Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DCTCM), Sultan Hassan Mohammed Almteiri serves as the key interface between Dubai’s Department of Economy and Tourism (DET) and its network of stakeholders and partners in the government and private sectors in Dubai, with a focus on ensuring continuous collaboration to foster growth across the business and tourism sectors.

Having worked in the sales and marketing field for 15 years, Sultan has a wealth of experience in strategy, communications and business development. Prior to joining DET, Sultan was Director Commercial, Royal Jet Group – Abu Dhabi, providing strategic direction and generating and managing the revenue and profit targets through the company’s UAE-based sales force. He had previously worked as the Project Manager – Engagement Department, Minister of State Office (Emirates Competitiveness Council).

Sultan is particularly credited for his valuable contribution towards initiating and building on the dialogue between DET and partners during the unprecedented global challenge and securing their support to help Dubai remain a safe, open and accessible destination. As part of his responsibility to establish relationships with public and private sector entities, Sultan also oversees planning and implementation of regular engagements with stakeholders including the ‘City Briefing’, a bi-annual event of DET that provides partners with updates and an overview of the tourism industry in Dubai.

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Anthony is currently the Sales Lead for Foodics and he has more than 10 years of experience in a highly competitive market across multiple verticals such as SaaS / Software & Travel. He has spent the last 7 years setting up commercial teams for startups based out of Dubai. He has led numerous sales teams and worked on strategic partnerships, portfolio management and product-led growth.