Achal Khanna is the CEO of SHRM in India, Asia Pacific & MENA region. SHRM is the world’s largest professional association devoted to human resource & people management. With 340,000+ members in 183 countries, it is the world’s largest HR professional association, impacting the lives of 362 million workers every day.

Achal is responsible for building SHRM APAC & MENA brand, expanding its business, and developing professional relationships with government agencies as well as other HR and business associations.

Dedicated to promoting women’s empowerment, improving work culture, and nurturing leadership development, she works closely with individuals and organizations to advocate for inclusive workplaces where everyone can thrive and contribute meaningfully. Recognized with the prestigious “Best Women Executive in India” award, she continuously strives to push boundaries and overcome challenges.

With over three decades of proven leadership, she has consistently demonstrated the ability to navigate complex business landscapes with clarity and finesse. As Managing Director of Kelly India Operations, she led high-impact strategic initiatives with precision and purpose. During her tenure as Vice President at GE, she championed business growth and innovation through transformative strategies. As Country Manager at Polaroid India, she spearheaded market expansion, reinforcing the brand’s presence in a competitive landscape. Her earlier roles at DuPont, ITC, and the Cosmo Group have further enriched her perspective, providing her with deep, cross-industry insights that continue to shape her holistic and future-focused leadership style.

She is a member of SHRM’s global executive team and also serves as an independent director on the boards of select public and private companies in India.

She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and a Master’s in English Literature, along with an MBA from New Delhi. Additionally, she has completed the Management Development Program (MDP) at IIM Ahmedabad.

Founder and CEO of Tharwah Holding Company (Tadawul: 9606.SR), a Saudi firm dedicated to creating a positive and sustainable impact for people, organizations, and communities. What began as a one-person mission in 2012 has grown into a publicly listed company with a market valuation exceeding SAR 200 million, trusted by ministries, giga-projects, and industry leaders across the Kingdom.

His background combines strategic leadership, operational excellence, and a deep interest in the future of work. He is passionate about enabling transformation at scale, whether through workforce redesign, leadership development, or the integration of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence. He firmly believes that culture and leadership are as critical to success as strategy and execution. Internally, he is focused on building a more empowered and resilient organization where people lead with confidence and learning is continuous.

Outside of work, he is drawn to EVs, emerging tech, and meaningful conversations about the future.

Sid Ahmed Benraouane, is a globally recognized expert in AI governance, ethics, and strategy, I bring over 20 years of experience advising senior leaders in the government and private sector across the US, Europe, and the Middle East. He specializes in crafting and implementing legislative frameworks for AI management systems, risk management, AI trustworthiness, and AI maturity assessment, ensuring organizations navigate the complexities of emerging technologies while maintaining ethical integrity. As a member expert of the USA Working Group 1 at ISO, he contributed to developing many AI standards (42001 Management System, 42005 Impact Assessment, and others). Before that, he led an ISO country Working Group in charge of developing ISO 56001:2024 Innovation Management System.

From guiding the Dubai Government in building its foresight and innovation ecosystem to coaching organizations on AI management systems, He empowers leaders to make data-driven, future-focused decisions. His expertise ensures that organizations remain agile, accountable, and prepared for the transformative impact of AI and emerging technologies.

Business leaders seeking ISO certification, conformity assessment, or guidance on how to put together an AI Governance framework that is complaint with the EU AI Act, and the new ISO Standard 42001 AI Management System, can find step-by-step guidance in his recent book on AI Management Systems ISO 42001 published in 2024 by CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group.

Pallav is a distinguished leader with nearly two decades of expertise in industries like HCM, SaaS/PaaS, HR outsourcing, and recognition and rewards. His deep knowledge in HR technology, Rewards and Recognition programs makes him a sought-after speaker in the HR space. With a strong foundation in consulting, recognition strategy, and HR solutions, Pallav is known for simplifying complex products and translating them into actionable insights for entrepreneurs, HR leaders and professionals. 

His ability to demystify HR technologies, particularly in the recognition and rewards domain, empowers organizations to optimize their HR strategy and boost workforce engagement. Pallav’s extensive experience, combined with his impactful skills, makes him a valuable voice at industry events. He highlights how cutting-edge technologies, and strategic frameworks can streamline HR processes and elevate employee recognition initiatives.

A resolute leader with over 12 years of proven results using operational and leadership strengths to solve specific and complex challenges through planning and implementation of strategies, structures, programs, and processes to enhance organizational culture, engagement and change readiness in alignment with the company’s mission and values. Abdulrahman is extremely talented at developing transformational initiatives in all core HR functions, including building/re-staffing organizations, standardizing performance management practices, overhauling recruiting standards, and restructuring benefits programs.

In Abdulrahman’s current role, he spends his days developing the culture, structure, and capabilities that support the next stage of growth at the Institute of Public Administration. Abdulrahman has a proven track record of diverse experience in translating a deep understanding of the business into human capital plans that build employee engagement, strengthen leader capabilities, and optimize organizational effectiveness.

With a Master of Arts degree focused on Teaching International Languages and Adult Education from California State University, Abdulrahman truly believes in the importance of continuous education and individual growth. Skilled in HR Consulting, HR Transformation, Change Management, Organizational Effectiveness & Culture, and Building Centres of Excellence.

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.