Vijay Gandhi is a Regional Director – Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) for Korn Ferry Digital based in the firm’s Dubai office since 2001. The business unit is leading innovative approaches using digital platform for sales effectiveness, talent mobility, talent management and talent acquisition and strategy.

Mr. Gandhi leads his teams to work with their clients in a seamless manner with Korn Ferry Intelligence Cloud technology that delivers actionable results just as fast as the market changes using AI powerhouse to enable people and organizations to exceed their potential.

Mr. Gandhi has worked with human resource teams for over 23 years to provide them with tools, benchmarks, insights and data to help them design high level global HR frameworks and make decisions for local executive teams, remuneration committees and board of directors in public and privately owned companies across different sectors. 

He oversees the commercial activity of the Korn Ferry Digital platform across solutions focusing on Total Rewards, Work, Career & Job Architecture.

Mr. Gandhi has a masters of business administration from Durham University (UK) and bachelor of business science degree from University of Wisconsin-Madison (USA). He joined Korn Ferry in Dubai and has worked in EMEA and Asia region. Mr. Gandhi previously also worked for an HR consultancy in United States (Minneapolis, MN) where his main areas of responsibilities were in project management and account management in Group Health Care division for global professional services firm. In May 2018, honored with Forbes “Top 50 Indian Executives in Arab World”.

Iktimal Daneshvar brings more than 21 years of experience working with many of the world’s leading companies to re-engineer and reimagine their Talent Acquisition strategy, systems and processes. 

Iktimal started her career in Australian State Government Departments working in Public Policy and Corporate Governance. Since moving to Dubai in January 2007, Iktimal has focused on Talent Acquisition and Human Capital, working with leading family conglomerates as well as multinational organizations t transform their talent agenda.

For over 11 years, Iktimal led IBM’s Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) offering across the MEA region. With a particular focus on UAE, KSA, Qatar and Oman, Iktimal and her team have helped organizations develop their employee value proposition, implement new ATS and CRM systems, roll out graduate/intern/technician hiring programs and reengineered and automated recruitment processes. Her teams consistently improved candidate experience and quality of hire, significantly reduced time and cost to hire, all whilst using less than 1% agency support.

Due to her overwhelming success in operational delivery and client satisfaction, Iktimal was promoted to lead IBMs Talent Transformation Service Line for MEA which included RPO as well as HR System Implementation (Oracle HCM and SuccessFactors), Talent Development, HR Consulting, HR Outsourcing and Change Management.

Over the past three years, Iktimal successfully led several large-scale consulting projects in the UAE and KSA with a particular focus on shared services. This included the development of a business case to move shared service as well as its implementation.

Iktimal has also led several programs where clients have outsourced their HR function to IBM where she drove continuous improvement and consistent SLA performance. She has also helped implement ERP systems, with her team leading the impact it will have on existing processes and employee skill and proficiency levels.

Professor James is a leading scholar and policy advisor in science, technology, and innovation. His research centres on corporate technology strategy, innovation governance, and science & technology policy, with a particular focus on the geopolitics and security dimensions of international research collaborations. He currently heads a UK government-funded study-working with the Science & Innovation Network-to assess threats and opportunities in European security research, mapping policy and institutional responses

A seasoned consultant with a rich blend of practical hands-on managerial, Leadership and consulting experience. Shally has worked on a multitude of projects including Leadership Development, Executive and Team coaching, Assessment and Development Centres, performance improvement, organizational audits, and a variety of projects including but not limited to developing, mapping, and rolling out competency frameworks and performance management systems.

Sally has a strong background and an extensive 22 years of experience in training facilitation and coaching leaders within diverse arenas in leading multi-national, local and government organizations. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the English Department of the Faculty of Arts, Cairo University. She is also a Professional Certified Coach by ICF, a certified Professional Co-active Coach by the Coaches Training Institute, ORSC Certified Coach and an accredited assessor by the British Psychological Society. She is a member in the ICF, an affiliate member of Dubai ICF Chapter, a member of the Accelerated Learning Network of Professional Trainers and Educators, and a fellow member in EHRMA.

As a bi-lingual facilitator, Sally has designed and facilitated a variety of bespoke programs using accelerated learning techniques. As an Executive & Team Coach Sally has more than 2000+ hours of coaching completed for a wide range of people ranging from aspiring C-level & Senior Executives and managers to individual contributors stepping up the career ladder

Manar is an Organisational Culture Coach, working with clients to build organizational culture and train on instilling corporate values through leadership programs and team coaching to create commitment across the different layers within an organization, in alignment with the Direction and Vision. She has over 20 years of experience in Personal and Leadership Development and has worked with different sectors and industries both governmental and non-governmental.

Manar is a certified Mindset & Leadership Coach, accredited by IAPCM at a Fellow level, Marshall Goldsmith Certified Stakeholder Coach, Certified International Professional Trainer & Training Manager, NLP Practitioner, TEDx International Speaker, Writer and Mentor, Situational Leadership Certified Trainer, Adaptability Intelligence Coach, Gallup Certified Strengths Coach, MBTI I&II Practitioner, and a LegoSerious®Play® Certified Facilitator. She also holds a master’s degree in Diplomatic Studies.

During her sessions, with a primary focus on the audience, Manar’s customized approach is tailored to match the unique needs of every individual in the room, while keeping both the content and the context intact. She brings forward the skills necessary to make her sessions engaging, interactive, and full of learnings enabling the individual to reflect and pay it forward.

Nicholas leads the EY Parthenon TSE HR M&A Capability for MENA. His experience spans across Government, Infrastructure, Financial Services, TMT, Energy, and Utilities.

With a proven track record of delivering HR Due Diligence, People Integration Planning, Organization Design, and Change Management across more than 100+ deals he is recognized for his rigorous approach to talent management, workforce capacity, and capability assessments. Nicholas is a trusted coach to Executive C-Suite leaders and Board Chairs.

He has significant experience in managing employee transition and movement throughout the deal lifecycle, ensuring seamless integration and alignment.

Nicholas holds Postgraduate Education in International Human Resources from Kingston University London and has completed M&A Executive Education at Imperial Business College, London.

Zahid Mubarik is an internationally acclaimed thinker, writer, speaker, and thought leader on strategic human resource management. He is the CEO of HR Metrics and founder and president of Society for Human Resources Management(SHRM) Forum Pakistan. He has the honor of being the only HR leader from Asia to become a member of ISO Geneva Technical Committee 260 for Developing Global HR Standards. The Committee initially comprised of 11 leading countries, including USA, UK, France, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Austria, Norway, Netherlands, Portugal, and Pakistan. He served as a global Convener of HR Metrics Standards ISO TC 260 leading 31 countries. Zahid also led Pakistan in ISO HR standards development in-person meetings in Washington, London, Melbourne, Rotterdam, Paris, Singapore, Bali Montreal and Tokyo. He has a knack for aligning workforce performance with

organisational productivity in measurable way. Zahid has the honor of being distinguished speaker on HR analytics in in-person international conferences at Las Vegas, Beijing, Moscow, Baku, Hanoi, Dubai and Abu Dhabi. He introduced Global Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Benchmarks Standards in Pakistan and assessed 70+ MNCs and national companies. Zahid served as member of Pakistan Stock Exchange Task Force on ESG Disclosure.