Xavi Anglada brings with him over 22 years of experience in strategy, consulting and operations in the FinTech, Media, and Telecommunication industries across Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

Prior to joining Accenture, Xavi was CEO of Cash Credit, an innovative FinTech company offering micro-finance services with mobile telecom operators and other partners, where he led the company’s expansion from Eastern Europe to the Middle East, Far East and Africa.

Previously, Xavi spent almost a decade with Delta Partners Group (a TMD C-level advisory and investment firm) and has held several management roles with Vodafone Spain, Oliver Wyman, and Hewlett-Packard.

Xavi is a native of Spain, and holds an MBA from ESADE in Barcelona together with a MSc in Electrical Engineering and a BSc in Telecommunications from La Salle Engineering in Barcelona. Having lived in 4 continents, led assignments in over 30 countries, he is excited to expand his footprint with Accenture in the Middle East with his wife and 3 sons.

Khaled Al-Dhaher is the Country Managing Director for Saudi Arabia at Accenture since May 2018. He is responsible for managing operations and driving Accenture’s digital consulting strategy in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.  Al-Dhaher brings with him considerable experience in delivering state-of-the-art and innovative solutions in industries ranging from financial services, retail/wholesale and manufacturing to oil & gas and distribution. Prior to joining Accenture, Al-Dhaher was the managing director for Saudi Arabia at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, where he drove profitable growth and market share expansion across HPE business groups. Earlier, Khaled held numerous leadership roles in the technology and banking solutions industries in multinational organizations including Microsoft and Oracle Corporations.

Emmanuel Viale is the Managing Director of the Accenture Technology Labs in Europe and is based in Sophia Antipolis, France. He leads the different R&D activities of the Labs nodes in Europe (Dublin, Tel Aviv and Sophia Antipolis) with a particular focus on identifying and delivering applications of innovative and emerging technologies. He also leads the Liquid Studios in Europe.

Recent R&D areas of focus have been around: Blockchain, Extended Reality (VR, AR, MR, 3D scanning and rendering, wearable devices, etc.), Quantum Computing and Messaging, DNA Storage and Computing, etc. where the evolutions of the technology domains are identified, partnerships with universities and startups established and first proof--of-technology and proof-of-concepts are designed, developed and tested.

Emmanuel holds a degree in Signal Processing and Computer Science from the Ecole Centrale de Marseille, France. He joined Accenture in 1997 and lives in the South of France with his wife and five children.

Since founding Unifonic on 2006, Mr. Ahmed has been leading the transformation of Unifonic from a local SMS reseller based in Saudi Arabia to one of the fastest growing regional cloud communication provider, employing around 100 people and operating through multiple international offices, with further expansion plans across the MENA region. Serving 5,000+ clients, around the region, Unifonic has become a pioneer in Cloud Communications services. In October 2018, Unifonic, lead by Ahmed managed to close the largest round A investment for a technology company in the region closing at $21 Million. The investors include STV, RTF, Endeavor Catalyst, Elm and Raed Ventures.

Mr. Hamdan brings to the task his experience from a 12-years-career at Saudi ICT companies, where he worked in different technical and business consultancy roles.

Basmah AlJedia, is a thought leader, strategic-thinker, with diverse and wide technical experience. Basmah, is passionate with genuine determination and purpose-driven efforts to achieve a sustainable impact that drives technology advancement and innovation in Saudi. As an Innovation Ecosystem Director for Misk Innovation, she leads defining the strategic position and drive innovation in ever-changing digital age.

Basmah, has in-depth experience in the field of Cybersecurity. Recently, AlJedia was an adviser for cybersecurity at the National Digitation Unit and the MCIT building strategies for the cybersecurity ecosystem and ICT sector including cyber resilience, Cyber industry, GRC, capability building and awareness .

AlJedia worked at the Saudi Stock Exchange and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as the executive director of cybersecurity strategy & architecture.

AlJedia graduated from KSU majoring in Computer Science and holds a master’s degree from Carnegie Mellon University in Information Security along with professional certification in the field (CISM, CRISC and others.)

Shahd Attar is leading Accenture Digital Studio in Saudi Arabia, using a design-thinking approach to help clients develop and deliver digital innovations through smart, connected, products and services.

She started her career in technology and communications working for Cisco for 10 years and then for Saudi Telecom Company, where she built and led the Government Relations department in STC. She was responsible for developing, managing and delivering on strategic agreements aligned with Saudi Arabia’s 2030 vision.

Shahd is passionate about encouraging women in technology and is strong advocate and public speaker about the advancement of women in the workforce. She was the regional Co-lead for Connected Women in Cisco. She was also the first woman to join STC in Saudi Arabia in 2016.

As a local community organizer, she co-founded “CellA+”, a non-profit organization endorsed by the Minister of Labor as an initiative for solving women unemployment in the region. She is also an Eisenhower Fellow, where her fellowship focused on women economic enablement in Saudi Arabia.

Hattan currently leads the Entrepreneurship Center at KAUST, delivering the university’s entrepreneurship vision. He believes in young people as change agents of the future and that universities play a key role in creating national economic impact. In his role as an advocate for innovation, Hattan works across the entire entrepreneurship ecosystem in the Kingdom, delivering entrepreneurship training, creating corporate innovation programs, and accelerating startups that will contribute to the national transformation agenda.

Hattan has a diverse background in industry, startups and academia. As a startup co-founder, he brings a successful entrepreneurial background to his role, having navigated early stage growth to acquisition. He has received multiple entrepreneurial awards on both a national and international scale. He also brings a rich background in Information Technology to his role, with experience in system design development and implementation within industries ranging from oil and gas, travel and retail. Hattan holds an MBA from the University of Leeds and a BS in Computer Science from the University of Alabama.

Tarek leads the Fjord studio in the Middle East. He has over 15 years experience in consulting and strategic design working on both corporate and consumer brands.

He has worked closely with organizations and business leaders to define their brand vision and bring it to life through brand experience, product development and internal engagement.

Born in Lebanon, raised in Saudi Arabia and educated in the US, Tarek’s Expertise spans various sectors including: Retail, CMT, Financial Services and Government. He strongly believes that a key to success for brands is taking a human-centered approach to designing every aspect of the customer experience.

Originally from Germany, Thomas began his career in the US after finishing his Master in Design at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA, and spent 10 years at Razorfish in New York where he lead Customer Experience across North America. More recently he acted as Chief Experience Officer at brand consultancy Siegel+Gale before coming on board as General Manager of Fjord, Design and Innovation from Accenture Interacive in Europe.

In his life at Fjord, he splits his time between three main pursuits. Firstly, creating the environment necessary, as well as removing obstacles, in order for his team to be productive. Secondly, managing key client relationships, and building up a Fjord team that spans 6+ markets. Thirdly, working on new business development including speaking at events, interacting with the media, and helping Fjord pitch for new business anywhere across EALA.

A huge fan of simplicity, Thomas loves using design as a process to facilitate people and ultimately create clarity in both form and function. He believes that design is a better approach than consulting because it puts people first. He wants to give people something to smile about, and make the world a better place, and design is one of the few things that has the power to do this.

Dr. Sulaiman Mirdad has 30+ years of professional experience in the US and the Middle East, he was an Advisor to the Minister of Communication and Information Technology (MCIT) responsible for IT industry development. Prior to that he was the Deputy Governor for Information Technology at the Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC), Saudi Arabia. Prior to Joining CITC, Dr. Mirdad was VP for Technology at the Advanced Arabian Systems (Naseej), and Cofounder and Principal Engineer at InfoLibria, a provider of Internet solutions for content distribution and delivery products. With more than 25 years of experience in the field of IT, Dr. Mirdad coauthored a number of worldwide patents, while working at InfoLibria, in the subject of Content Distribution and Delivery. For his achievements, Dr. Mirdad was granted the King Abdulaziz Order of Merit (First Degree) in 2008 by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz.

Dr. Mirdad has a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Boston University. His patented research was one of the first to propose the integration of application and communications layers (known today as Layered Switching), and integration of routing and caching (transparency between networks and applications). He was the first to introduce the concept of Transparent Proxies. Dr. Mirdad received an M.S. in Computer Science from The American University at Washington D.C. and a B.S. in Computer Engineering from King Fahad University of Petroleum & Minerals.

Former doctor who left medical field to pursue his passion in adventures. MBBS, MBA
Founder and CEO of Saati Adventures. A tour operator company focusing on creating unique experiences domestically and internationally
Established on Feb 2017