Madiha ‘Madi’ Naz is the team captain of the first ever all female esports team in the Middle East. She is also the first Pakistani female to pursue esports as a career.

Rebecca is the Research Director at KidsKnowBest, leading research in the key behaviours that impact kids’ development and helping brands develop global strategies to engage family audiences. Since joining KidsKnowBest, Rebecca has worked with brands such as Cartoon Network, eOne, Hasbro and Viacom.

Robbie is CEO of BLAST, the global esports media network delivering world class entertainment experiences. From broadcast studio shows, arena events, digital platforms or top-class multi-platform content, BLAST create’s the most exciting, exhilarating and euphoric moments in esports. Prior to BLAST, Robbie was Vice President Digital, EMEA, running digital partnerships for The Walt Disney Company. Robbie joined Disney in April 2015 as Managing Director, EMEA for Maker Studios (acquired by Disney), where he oversaw all business operations for Maker EMEA. Before joining Disney, Robbie worked at Google based in Paris and London, where he occupied three different positions – Head of Branding & YouTube Solutions across SEEMEA; Head of Mobile, SEEMEA and Head of Mobile France during his four and a half year tenure. Robbie joined Google in July 2010 through Google’s acquisition of AdMob. From 2007-2009, he headed Digital Sales for Euronews. Robbie is a graduate of French and Politics from Leeds University and has a Certification from Stanford in Advanced Project Management.

An award winning entrepreneur and angel investor with more than 8 years in the esports and gaming industry, Saeed Sharaf is also regular guest business analyst on SkyNews, CNN and other reputable outlets.

Koert Bakker is an internationally respected researcher, strategist and customer experience specialist. He began his career as a pioneer in co-creation at leading agencies in Amsterdam and then expanded his skills into evidence-based design with top digital agencies in New York, Boulder and San Francisco. He recently returned to The Netherlands to head up strategy at the PwC Experience Center in Amsterdam, where he focuses on solving important problems for people, business and society.

Panagiotis is an entrepreneur with Computer Engineering background, keen on technology oriented companies and the startup scene. Panagiotis loves making communications and has a soft spot for marketing and advertising. He started his career in 2012, when he co-founded Brainbow Development (http://www.brainbowdevelopment.gr/), a web & mobile agency based out of Patras. Currently, he is part of Susurrus (https://www.susurrus.io/), the leading influencer marketing platform in EMEA, where he serves as the CEO of the company. As the CEO he takes care of the business development and his main focus is making Susurrus a global platform. In parallel he was curating the Open Coffee Patras meetings, the monthly events for the local community of tech startups (2013-2017). A TEDx speaker also and a Startup Weekend Organizer.

Moe Minkara is the founder and Executive Creative Dircetor of mink, a content driven marketing communications agency with a love for branding & design! Today Mink is a team of 30 multi disciplinary creative communicators with offices in Dubai and Beirut. Prior to opening up his agency, Moe held posts as the Executive Creative Director of Leo Burnett MENA and as the Regional Executive Creative Director at Memac Ogilvy responsible for the Levant & North Africa region. Moe has over 20 years of experience in advertising from the Middle East to London and then Zagreb where he was the Creative Director of Bruketa & Zinic and a co founder of Brandoctor. His experience has won him numerous awards from around the world such as the New York Festivals, Epica, London International Awards, Art Directors Club, D&AD London, MIAF-Moscow, Clio, Dubai Lynx, Red Dot, and many more. Along the years he was also a Jury member at various international advertising festivals.

Basim is a Political Science and International Affairs graduate from the Lebanese American University class of 2014. He was awarded the prestigious scholarship Tomorrow’s Leaders by MEPI. Following his graduation, Basim became a Lazord fellow at AUC’s Gerhart Center. This fellowship helped him kick off his professional career in 2015 as a Program Officer at Drosos Foundation, a Swiss donor organization. He joined Sowt in January, 2021as Business Development Manager. Basim has special interest in politics, sports, music, traveling and cooking.

Rob Beswick has been with the Virgin brand in the region for over 10 years. He is currently the Managing Director for Virgin Mobile UAE where he is leading the first fully digital mobile brand, pioneering digital innovation, with the goal of making the digital mobile experience even better for customers. Following two years as Chief Commercial Officer where he led the digital transformation and commercial growth strategy, he is now responsible for overseeing all strategy, growth, operations and talent management. Under his leadership, Virgin Mobile UAE has grown incrementally year-on-year and has been consistently recognised for its digital transformation and benchmark customer experience. It has received accolades for Best Customer Experience by Telecoms World for two years (2019, 2020), Innovation of the Year by Arabian Business Technology (2019) and Best Customer Service Provider by Telecoms Review Excellence Awards (2020). Prior to joining Virgin Mobile UAE, Rob held the position of Group Vice President for Brand at Virgin Mobile Middle East and Africa for seven years. Here, he was responsible for leading the successful launch of Virgin Mobile in the region, as well as the management of digital strategy, multi-channel retail, customer experience, and the brand and marketing strategies across all markets. Ahead of joining Virgin Mobile, Rob was Group Marketing Director for Lycamobile, leading the launch of the brand in 12 markets over six years.

Tanya Ponomareva is a Creative Director based in Amsterdam. In her work, she’s focused on delivering smart, human-centric concepts that can contribute to positive change in the world. She is on a mission to transform the advertising industry into a better, more inclusive, equal, mindful and diverse place. She helps to build sustainable brands on a genuine foundation, giving a new generation of consumers a real communication value. As a leader, she encourages creatives to develop ideas that bring more common sense to the industry, as well as purpose-driven work to the world. She works with strategists, creatives, designers and producers to deliver the best quality on every project, establishing trust-based, long term relationships with her clients. Having worked at agencies across the globe, she is a true global citizen. She has launched creative unicorns across seven different countries, and has worked with a wide range of high-end brands. She has also won numerous prestigious international, regional and local awards including Cannes Lions, D&AD, Epica Awards, Eurobest, New York Festival et al.

Carolina Brandão is an all-around producer that went from her home country Brazil to NY and Los Angeles before landing at BUCK in Amsterdam. From Hollywood to Fashion Week, she has previously worked on feature films, – the Tribeca award-winning Saturday Church and the yet to be released directu debut from Charlie Day’s El Tonto – cooking shows, documentaries and many fashion campaigns with stars like Gisele Bundchen and Milla Jovovich. In advertising, she produced the Google Cloud Docu Series in partnership with NASA and the first-ever fully digital VR convention, Facebook Connect, besides other major projects with clients like Google, Apple, Amazon, L’Oreal, Johnny Walker and many more.

Aref is the mobile business manager at MBC Group, managing the mobile apps portfolio of MBC and MBC Partners, as well as WIZZO Mobile App, the biggest Arab gaming community platforms in the Middle East & North Africa with 12m+ downloads.

Stefano Fallaha is the CEO & Founder of Podeo بوديو , one of the fastest growing media-tech companies in MENA. Podeo is a podcast platform that enables creators & publishers to record, host and distribute their podcasts on global podcasting directories, including the Podeo app which has been named the “Netflix of Arabic Podcasts”. At the age of 23, Stefano is on the list of Forbes 30 Under 30 and has landed recognition from global press publications and international investors backing Podeo’s vision of localizing the digital audio ecosystem.