Speakers 2013
H.E Maitha Al Mahrouqi,
Under Secretary – Ministry of Tourism, Sultanate of Oman
Arab Aviation and Media Summit 2013 is held under the Patronage and attendance of H.E Maitha Al Mahrouqi, Under Secretary – Ministry of Tourism, Sultanate of Oman who is an experienced travel and tourism executive.
H.E Salim Nasser Said Al-Aufi,
CEO of Oman's Public Authority for Civil Aviation
H.E Salim Al-Aufi is the Guest of Honor for the Arab Aviation & Media Summit.
Mr. Andrew Gordon
Director Strategic Marketing and Analysis Market Forecast Airbus
Andrew Gordon moved to Airbus’ headquarters in Toulouse in 2001 and today he is Director Strategic Marketing and Analysis. As part of this role, Mr. Gordon is responsible for facilitating the production of the Airbus Global Market Forecast, which details future demand for all civil aircraft of 30 seats or more. Prior to this appointment he worked for British Aerospace Airbus as part of the Forecasting & Market Evaluation Team, where he was involved in providing analysis for many of the market and product-related decisions including the A380 project. In 2001, at the creation of Airbus as a single entity, Mr. Gordon moved to Toulouse, to work directly for Airbus in the Market Forecasting & Research Group, now part of the Strategy and Co-operation team. Mr. Gordon began his career with BAE/Airbus in 1991 and prior to that he worked for one of the United Kingdom's largest banks. He
Mr. Wayne Pearce
Chief Executive Officer
Oman Air
Educated in Australia at Macquarie University Sydney, and Scotch College in Western Australia, Mr. Wayne was appointed as Chief Executive Officer of Oman Air on 3rd January 2012. Before that he worked in Abu Dhabi for 4 years with Etihad as the ‘’Chief Strategy and Planning Officer’’ and with Qantas Airways both as a Senior Executive in the Strategy and Planning Division and managing large commercial divisions in UK/Europe and Asia. Wayne also ran the UK Company “Gold Medal International Plc”, the largest distributor of scheduled leisure travel in the UK at the time. While being the CEO of Oman Air, there has been a significant improvement in operational reliability, and extra fleet orders.
Mr. Adel A. Ali
Group Chief Executive Officer
Air Arabia
Adel A. Ali is well known for being at the forefront of the development of modern aviation. His innovative achievements and contribution to air transport and tourism sector in the wider Arab world are globally recognised. He managed to transform Arab aviation in October 2003 when he set up Air Arabia, the Middle East and North Africa’s first low-cost carrier (LCC), opening up a market niche in the region whose existence few had suspected. The pioneering aviator drove Air Arabia’s growth in the next 10 years into the largest low cost carrier in the MENA region, as well as the first publicly owned airline in the Arab World and it’s largest by market value.
Mr. Awadh-al-Ketbi
Chairman, AKC Consultanty
Representative of ICCA
He spent the majority of his 20 years career in executive operations with DTCM (Dubai Tourism and commerce marketing), starting from Manager Missions (delegations) and Events, then Executive Director Dubai Convention Bureau to Executive Director Heritage Sites and Events.
Among his many contributions and awards Awadh gained a remarkable and exceptional experience into the tourism and hospitality sector into the GCC and was voted to represent Middle East and Africa as a Board Member on the Board of Directors in International Congress and Convention Association. He also represented Dubai Convention Bureau on Best Cities Board of Directors.
In addition to that, was a member of Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF) and Dubai Summer (DSS) Surprises organizing Committee and started the first summer official destination package with about 80 hotels participating.
AKC is a regional ICCA office in the Middle East since September 2012.
Mr. Antoine Medawar
Vice President, Middle East & North Africa
Amadeus IT Group
Antoine was appointed Vice President Middle East & North Africa in November 2009. In this role, Antoine is responsible for managing all Amadeus business related to travel sellers and buyers in the region. 17 Amadeus local offices are reporting directly to his team. Previously, Antoine was the Managing Director, Hospitality Business Group. In this role, he was responsible for Amadeus's worldwide hospitality business, covering Distribution and IT solutions such as Property Management Systems, Central Reservation Systems and Revenue Management Systems.
The Amadeus Hospitality Business group is comprised of over 400 professionals across 5 continents, dedicated to delivering a unique set of specialist hotel IT solutions and expertise - combined with the power of the Amadeus global distribution system. In 2005 Amadeus acquired Optims, a leading European provider of hospitality IT solutions. Antoine was the founder, President and CEO of Optims which was originally created by a Management Leveraged Buy-Out from Accor in 1986. Antoine grew the company from €1m to nearly €32m revenues by the end of 2004. He was integral to successfully launching Optims on the Paris Stock Exchange (Nouveau Marché) in 2000.
Prior to founding Optims, Antoine was in charge of the IT strategy and implementation at Accor hotels from 1982 until 1986, and has also worked in the hotel industry in various management roles.
A French citizen of Lebanese origin, Antoine holds a degree in Hotel Management and a DESS in Finance and Information Systems. He speaks fluent French, English and Arabic
Mr. Michael Herrero
Area Manager for Gulf Area
IATA
Michael Herrero is the new IATA Area Manager for the Gulf Area, with the mandate to represent and serve member airlines on industry topics including government policy, safety, security, environment, distribution, financial services and any other service to simplify the air transport industry and help the industry to boost profitability. Michael has been with IATA for nearly 7 years, holding different positions in Madrid, Geneva and now the UAE. Michael was the Manager, Strategy & Business Development for the Industry Distribution and Financial Services division before his appointment as Global Head of Customer Experience. Prior to joining IATA, Michael worked as a Consultant with KPMG in the Business Transformation & Strategy Services unit.
Mr. Shubhodeep Pal
Head of Operations and Innovations
Simpliflying
Shubhodeep Pal is the Head of Operations and Innovation at SimpliFlying. He has been leading Product Development, Marketing and Business Development since December 2010 from the headquarters in Singapore. His writings have appeared extensively on SimpliFlying as well as revered industry outlets such as Airlinetrends, Tnooz and Loyalty360. He has considerable experience working in the social media sphere, having also conducted a workshop at the Ministry of Home Affairs, Singapore. He has written an introductory e-book for social media newbies and has previously interned at theEconomist Intelligence Unit (EIU) as well.
Mr. Alan Devereux
Managing Director
CaveChalk Social Media
Alan Devereux is Managing Director of Cave Chalk, a social media community management and training company.
Alan has trained more than 1000 individuals since January 2011 to use social media for marketing, recruitment, HR, and business development purposes. Alongside his role at Cave Chalk, he is a lecturer for The Digital Marketing Institute, has taught at EDMI Institut, given talks to Dubai Internet City, at Dubai Knowledge Village Training Week, Arab Health, The Digital Media Forum, and The Social Media Forum.
Cave Chalk’s training clients include UAE government departments, a global airline, banks, recruitment companies, law firms, public relations and marketing companies, energy companies, and more (details on request).
Prior to Cave Chalk, Alan worked as Communications Officer, Executive Producer (radio), PR Account Manager, Market Researcher, and has ten years Middle East experience.