Speakers List

Brian Dickson

Brian K. Dickson is the Senior Vice President, Professional Development and Strategic Partnerships, for the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), the world's largest professional association devoted to human resource management.

Dickson, who serves on SHRM's Leadership Team, has executive oversight of SHRM conferences, training and education, and certification preparation programs. He also leads SHRM's efforts to build strong business relationships with corporations, government agencies, and other organizations. In addition, he develops SHRM's partnership arrangements to create new sales and delivery channels for SHRM programs and services, and leads the Society's business development efforts in the Americas and Europe.

Prior to joining SHRM, Dickson was a Partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting and an Account Executive at IBM. He also served in executive roles at Federal Management Partners and Celerant Consulting.

Prior to entering the consulting field, Dickson served as a Foreign Service Officer for the U.S. Department of State, where he focused on Latin America and trade issues. He also worked at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a non-profit foreign policy research center.

Dickson holds an MS from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and a BS from Wabash College of Indiana.

Mihai Toma

Mihai Toma is the Head of Professional Practice MENA at The KPI Institute, the global authority on Key Performance Indicators research and education. His research activity in the Performance Management field has resulted in the documentation and revision of over 1000 Key Performance Indicators.

• CELCO, Construction materials production, Romania;
• Wadi Al Jizzi Power Company (WAJPCO), Utilities, Oman;
• ARASCO, Food production, Saudi Arabia;
• International Medical Center (IMC), Healthcare, Saudi Arabia;
• Abu Dhabi Retirement Pensions & Benefits Fund (ADRPBF), Pension funds, UAE.
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• Performance Management in Romania Conference – October 2013;
• Strategy Leaders Saudi, Riyadh, KSA – November 2013;
• HR Summit, Dubai, UAE – October 2014;
• Strategy Leaders Saudi, Riyadh, KSA – November 2014;
• Program for Advanced Leadership and Management (PALM), Madinah, KSA – April 2015;
• The Training and Development Show, Dubai, UAE – September 2015;
• Strategy Execution & Performance Forum, Doha, Qatar – November 2015.
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Alex Fraser

 Alex Fraser joined The London Institute of Banking & Finance (formerly ifs University College) as Principal in March 2015 from Cass Business School, City University London, where he was Chief Operating Officer for six years.

Samir Noman

 Samir Mohammed Noman has been President of Microsoft Arabia, since October 2009, bringing 20 years of extensive in-depth experience of top management engagements in a wide-ranging number of disciplines.

Jim Kaitz

 Jim Kaitz is President and CEO of AFP, an association that represents over 16,000 treasury and financial professionals globally. The organization established and administers the Certified Treasury Professional® and Certified Corporate Financial Planning & Analysis Professional® credentials, setting standards of excellence in finance. The AFP Annual Conference is the largest networking event for corporate finance professionals.  He was formerly EVP and COO of Financial Executives Institute, a professional association of over 14,000 senior financial executives representing 8,000 companies in the United States.

Jason MacKenzie

Jason is president of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR), the Chartered professional body for public relations in the UK and the largest membership organisation for PR professionals in Europe.

He is a Fellow of the CIPR and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM).

Jason is also a Founding Chartered Public Relations Practitioner and a Chartered Marketer.

He has has addressed international conferences on the subject of integrated communications and is a visiting lecturer at Birmingham City University and guest lecturer at other universities and training organisations. Committed to continuing professional development, Jason holds CIPR, CIM, IPA and PRCA qualifications and an MA in Public Relations.

Jason is a PR and marketing strategist and trainer and travels internationally as a consultant to private companies and other organisations.

Dr. César Baena

     Dr. Cesar Baena holds a PhD from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Upon earning his PhD, and after a short stint in banking, Dr. Baena became fully involved in academia both as director and professor in MBA, PhD/DBA, and Executive Education programs. Dr. Baena teaches Corporate Strategy, International Business, and Emerging Markets. His research interests and publications have been primarily focused on the internationalization strategy of firms, Emerging Market Multinationals (EMM), entrepreneurship, born-global companies, fund management in energy-rich regions, and oil policy. Along with his involvement in business education, Dr. Baena has been consulting for international companies and startups. Dr. Baena founded a consulting firm in the area of business education advising companies on how to meet the education, training, and skills needs of their employees. Currently, Dr. Baena is Dean and Director of Doctoral Research at International School of Management (ISM), a global business school based in Paris.

Dr Abdulatif Al-Shaikh

Dr Abdulatif Al-Shaikh (BIO), CEO of BAE Systems Saudi Development and Training  

Dr Abdulatif joined BAE Systems Saudi Arabia in 2001 and most recently held the position of Vice President Strategy & Business Development, as a member of the BAE Systems Saudi Arabia Management Board. He has served as a board member of a number of BAE Systems Saudi Arabia partners companies, including AEC, AACC and ISE, and, for the past two years, BAE Systems Saudi Development and Training. Abdulatif is also involved in a number of public and private sector initiatives in the Kingdom and has lectured students at Riyadh’s Al-Yamamah University. 

Lyndon Bird

Lyndon has worked exclusively in Business Continuity since 1986. He is Chief Knowledge Officer for New York based “DRI International” and chairs their Future Vision Committee. Additionally, he edits the quarterly “Journal of Business Continuity and Emergency Planning” for Henry Stewart Publications. He is also well known internationally for his former roles as Chairman and Technical Director of “The Business Continuity Institute”.

He was a member of the original BS25999 Technical Committee, is an advisor to the US publication Disaster Resource Guide and the chief author of “Operational Resilience in the Financial Sector”. He has presented and chaired conferences around the world and is often interviewed and quoted by media on resilience related topics

Dennis O’Donnell

Dennis has a background in business and finance. He has held a variety of senior management positions in industry and possesses a wealth of knowledge in the areas of Management Development and Leadership. He has a Masters from Cambridge University and is a Fellow of The Institute of Leadership and Management and an Associate Member of the CIPD.  Dennis’ key strengths lie in his ability to get to grips with business challenges quickly, and come up with practical, workable and added-value solutions. He has merged his business acumen with his knowledge and skills in the people arena to offer consultancy and real help to all levels of staff and management alike. He is proud to be a founding director of The Oakwood Team.

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