Hammad Albalawi is currently the General Manager of Tourism Investment joining the Ministry of Tourism from the General Entertainment Authority where Hammad was the Director of Business Development and Outreach securing more hundreds of unique IP’s reaching an audience of more than 10 million in 2018. Most recently Hammad was a core team member in the development of the National Tourism Strategy to open up the Kingdom’s doors to the world. Hammad is now responsible for the investment implementation of this strategy by enhancing regulation for the ease of doing business, developing investment opportunities across the priority sites as well as promoting and attracting investment into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia across the Tourism value chain.

Hammad also acted as the Chief of Staff for His Excellency Ahmed Alkhateeb overseeing operations of H.E. the Minister across the 8 portfolio entities that he serves as Chairman; during this time Hammad was involved in multiple mergers and acquisitions, development and launching of corporate and sector strategies, as well managing HE agenda across all board and administrational responsibilities. Hammad started his professional career with Chicago based A.T. Kearney as a Business Analyst and during his time there won the EMEA Strategy Transformation Award for their work in the Telecommunication sector.

Hammad is a graduate of Masters of Science in Finance from the George Washington University in Washington D.C, during that time Hammad represented Saudi Arabia as the Sherpa in the Y20 platform in Puebla Mexico.

Gregory Surabian is a commercial real estate and capital markets practitioner with 10+ years professional experience across real estate and lodging private equity, development, and investment banking.

In his role as Executive Director of Investment at the Red Sea Development Company, he is responsible for driving long-term strategic value by originating, structuring and executing the Company’s investment and financing strategy across all projects including the Red Sea Project and AMAALA.

Prior to joining TRSDC, Mr. Surabian worked as a commercial real estate acquisitions officer at Anbang International in New York as well as at Citigroup in their Real Estate and Lodging Investment Banking Group where he was involved in ~USD 15B of mergers and acquisitions and corporate advisory assignments and capital markets transactions covering all property sectors. Mr. Surabian has extensive experience in hospitality, office and multifamily sectors across North America and the Middle East.

Mr. Surabian received a B.S. in Accounting from the University of Southern California and received his CPA license while in the audit department of PricewaterhouseCoopers covering gaming and lodging.

Salvatore Lavallo is the Acting Head of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) at the Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO).

Prior to joining ADIO, Salvatore has held roles across an eclectic range of industries and organisations. Salvatore started his career with Invest in Bavaria before founding Trail of Seeds – an NGO promoting culturally inclusive development around the world. He has also held positions at McKinsey and Company, Akemi Venture Partners and, most recently, acted as an advisor for the Tony Blair Institute.

Salvatore also holds the distinct honour of having travelled to every country of the world – one of the youngest ever to do so – as part of his “193Journeys” project where he shared images and stories with over 100k social media followers. The project was featured in Conde Nast, CNN, the New York Post and more.

Salvatore holds an International Baccalaureate from the United World College as well as a B.A. in Culturally Inclusive Development from New York University where he was the recipient of the Martin Luther King Jr. Scholar for Devotion to Service and President’s Service Award.

Hotelier, deeply rooted in hotel operations management for over 14 years. Award-winning General Manager and became the first female Emirati General Manager. Started my career at Burj Al Arab and then Madinat Jumeirah, then moved to grow through the ranks with the pre-opening of two luxury properties, Palazzo Versace Dubai and Address Boulevard Dubai—with a track record of operational strength, performance excellence, financial & commercial acumen, people development, Food & Beverage concept creation. Consistently maintained high financial performance amongst peers in relation to GOP & EBITDA, and for the owners closing the year 2019 with 99% flow-through. Service-quality and Guest-satisfaction oriented; initiated and introduced new commercial and market segment strategy for Vida Hotels & Resort; focused on building teams into strong calibres within their roles for an effective and efficient lean operation. Promoted to cluster General Manager. Currently, pursuing MBA with a focus in International Hospitality Management.

Strong business and work ethics, proven strength in commercial and financial performance and a track-record EBITDA for owners. Developed concepts and amended HR and Standard polices in the business unit. Service to humanity and my nation is a priority, actively involved with Community Development Authorities, Technical & Vocational Education, University curriculum development, and continuous support to UAE’s governmental entities’ local, regional and global initiates in tourism, hospitality and Expo2020.

During my tenure, I become the first female Emirati General Manager in Hospitality since 2018; and won several awards as Best General Manager for UAE and the Continent, 2019, along with Awards for the Hotel and its Food & Beverage Outlets; won The Young Arab Leader Award for Hospitality Impact at AHIC 2019; The Emirates Woman Award-Achiever category 2019; recognised by The David Rockerfeller Bridging Leadership Award for my commitment towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals – Goal 8: economic growth, gender balance at workplace, youth employment and decent jobs for all; and goal 8.7 eradication of modern-day-slavery; and awarded by Asia Society USA as Young Leader for UAE amongst Asia and Asia-pacific young leaders.

My commitment has continued to remain strong for the UAE National Team in Hospitality & Service Industry for WorldSkills International and EmiratesSkills competitions by training the national team, and being chief expert for UAE. I’ve been instrumental in developing Emirati nationals in hospitality, and have designed and developed the national training programme for Emaar Hospitality Group and supported the Dubai College of Tourism in various programmes and partnerships.

Achievements:

• Awarded Young Arab Leader for Hospitality, 2019
• Best General Manager Award in UAE, 2019
• Best General Manager Award Continent Category, 2019
• Became the first Emirati Female General Manager in the history of the region, 2018
• Recognised by The David Rockefeller Bridging Leadership Award for efforts and works
• Sponsored and mentored the training and growth of Service Industry TVET in youth skills development and competitions(WorldSkills International and EmiratesSkills)
• Advocated and influenced the amendments in policies in the company on sustainability and gender-based equal pay and opportunity
• Advocate the introduction of UNSDGs into education in curriculums across the educational institutions
• Advocate of UNSDSN Youth for SDGs with focus on Goal 8 and Mission 4.7

Bastien is currently manages both the performance and development of our operations across Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. Prior to this he served as the Vice President of Operations for the Middle East and Africa.

Prior to joining IHG, he served as Vice President, Sales & Marketing at FRHI MEAI where he was responsible for driving the transition to Accor Hotels Luxe and implementing their new organizational structure. Prior to this, he was VP Sales, Marketing & Development, Russia & CIS at Interstate Hotels, the largest third-party company worldwide operating from major brands including Holiday Inn hotels in Moscow.

Bastien specializes in revenue management, rate structuring, hotel finance and project management, which will allow him to add great value to our operational mix in the Middle East. Bastien has also served as a General Manager in Egypt, in the luxury segment at Sofitel Cairo El Gezirah and was appointed as the Area Manager in 2012 for the Indian Ocean & Eastern Africa for Sofitel Hotels.

An industry veteran, Bastien brings with him over 30 years of experience in managing international hotel operations, with senior management experience in North America, Europe, Russia, India, Middle East, Africa and the Indian ocean.

Being an outdoor enthusiast, Bastien enjoys a range of different water sports; from canoeing and paddling to wake boarding. He is a passionate traveler, and has a host of stories to tell from backpacking across India to trekking in Siberia to sailing in Croatia.

Manus Cranny is the co-anchor of Bloomberg Daybreak: Middle East & Daybreak Europe. He brings 20 years exposure to Global markets, finance and media.

His insight and knowledge built across markets from Futures & Options, Equities, Foreign exchange ,Oil & Commodities drives the Global Coverage.

Cranny has interviewed global business & political leaders Bill Gates Microsoft Co Founder, Cyril Ramaphosa President of South Africa, UBS Group CEO Sergio Ermotti, and Barclays CEO Jes Staley , a host of oil industry CEOS Total, Shell, ENI , Equinor and BP.

In Middle East Agenda moves at Speed & Manus has access to the political and business elite across the region, HE Anwar Gargash Minister Foreign Affairs, CEO Mubabala Khaldoon Al Mubarak, SABIC CEO Yousef Al-Benyan.

Manus began his career as commodity trader, honed his institutional skills at First Chicago Bank (now part of JP Morgan Chase) & Cantor Fitzgerald.

Cranny received a Bachelor of Science degree in Management from Queen’s University Belfast.

Sameer Hashmi is the BBC’s Middle East Business Correspondent based in Dubai. He reports on business, geopolitics & technology from the Gulf region. Sameer took up the role in November 2019 and since then he has reported on a range of stories from the impact Covid-19 on the region to the historic UAE-Israel peace deal and the escalating tension between Iran and its neighbours. Sameer was one of the first international correspondents to interview Anwar Gargash, the UAE’s minister of state for foreign affairs after the UAE-Israel peace deal was announced. He also presents Talking Business – BBC’s flagship business program from Dubai.

Prior to taking up the role in Dubai, Sameer was the BBC’s India Business correspondent based in Mumbai for nearly 8 years. During his stint – he fronted all major business & economic stories from the region, and also reported on key political, social and sport stories. He has covered the Indian national elections in 2009, 2014 & 2019, the Mumbai bomb blast in 2011 & the earthquake in Indonesia in 2018. He has interviewed CEOs of top global companies, ministers, policy-makers & actors including Richard Branson, Nikki Haley, Raghuram Rajan & Priyanka Chopra.

He was also the presenter of India’s Game-Changers series, which aired on the BBC in 2018. The show won the Asian Academy Creative Award for the best current affairs programme about India in 2019. He was also the Relief Presenter of India Business Report – a weekly 30 minute show that used to air on BBC World News until 2016.

Sameer joined the BBC in 2012, prior to which he worked with the Times of India Group in several positions.