Supreme Advisory Board

Laila is a highly respected global futurist leader with over 18 years of experience in the Government and Private sector. As a renowned expert in Smart Sustainable Cities and Digital Transformation, she has been at the forefront of Metaverse development since 2006.

 

With a strong focus on the Middle East, Laila has become one of the region's leading Smart Cities advisors. She is currently leading an advisory company in smart and sustainable cities, while also serving as an advisor for different global consulting firms. Laila has worked extensively with various UN organizations and has held a Research fellowship in UNU eGov. Additionally, she founded the Smart Cities Ambassadors program, which aims to empower individuals to become leaders in the field.

 

Laila is an award-winning global leader and considered one of the most inspiring and influential women in the Middle East. In 2021, she was recognized as one of the top 50 inspiring women in Oman and the Middle East, as well as one of the most inspiring personalities in Oman. She is a global jury and mentor in different competitions and is passionate about empowering others.

Qais Alsuwaidi serves as Vice President of sustainability at TAQA Group, a role he has held since September 2022. In his role, Qais supports the implementation of TAQA’s ESG Strategy and stakeholder engagement.

 

Prior to his role at TAQA, he served as the Director of the Climate Change Department at the UAE’s Ministry of Climate Change and Environment, where he led landmark national initiatives, including the UAE’s National Climate Change Plan 2050, National Climate Change Adaptation Program, UAE’s Net -Zero Strategic Initiatives, the UAE Climate Change Research Network. 

 

Qais holds a bachelor’s degree in sciences from the University of Melbourne, a master’s degree in international law and sustainable development from the University of Paris-Sorbonne, and a master’s degree in public policy from the Mohammed Bin Rashid School of Government.

With over 20 years of experience in the fields of cybersecurity, AI, and digital transformation, Dr. Mohammad is a futurist and technology/business leader who drives strategic projects and partnerships with e&, a leading provider of cognitive, smart and safe city solutions. He leverages his strength on various industry experience, his extensive knowledge of corporate governance, corporate excellence and innovation, future foresight and accelerations, analytics and big data, and critical infrastructure protection and resilience and PhD in Computer Science to deliver value-added services and outcomes for public and private sector clients.

 

As a Director of Business Development and Strategic Projects, he leads large cross-functional teams to build and deploy AI, cloud, and big data analytics solutions that digitize services, accelerate smart and safe nation transformation, and support the efforts of critical infrastructure owners and operators to manage risks and achieve security and resilience. He is also a strategic thinker, global mentor, and advisor for international companies, technology vendors, and academic institutions, where he shares his insights and expertise on smart and safe city architectures and challenges. He is a member of the Board of Advisors at Abu Dhabi University, British University in Dubai, and Headline Bulletin, and an Adjunct Professor for Doctorate and MBA at Abu Dhabi University.

Jorge Carrasco is a Blockchain and Web3 expert and enthusiast with more than 15 years of experience building and developing lines of business related to emerging technologies. He currently supports clients in developing strategies for enterprise blockchain implementations, advises clients from multinational enterprises to start-ups on their value proposition and product-market fit in the Middle East and gets involved in complex virtual assets regulatory matters.

 

Mr. Carrasco is a prominent member of the Middle East blockchain industry, involved with numerous organizations, events and endeavours across blockchain, NFT and Web3.

Dr. Thierry Lestable is the Executive Director of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Digital Science Research Center (AIDRC), covering multi-disciplinary units such as AI, Telecom (B5G/6G) and (Cyber)Security, within the Technology Innovation Institute (TII) in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

 

Before, Dr. Lestable was Director, heading the e-Mobility & Automotive Business Department from Sagemcom (France), addressing Market and Products challenges raising from Intelligent & Connected Vehicles (Telematics, DMS, ADAS), to micro-mobility (e-Bikes). Dr. Lestable was member of the Steering Committee from FIEV Federation, which represents major Automotive Equipment Suppliers, where he promoted the benefits of A.I for road safety.

 

Prior to Automotive, he was heading the Industrial IoT Business Department, designing and manufacturing connected devices, and platforms for the industry (Smart City, Asset Management, Smart Grid, …), rolling out LPWAN Networks worldwide.

 

Earlier, as Head of IoT Business Development & Strategic Partnerships, he actively participated to the Launch of IoT LoRa™ Alliance, being granted the position of Vice-chair for the Strategy Committee in June 2015, then from October 2015 till 2017 was the Vice-Chairman of the Alliance.

 

Dr. Lestable has +25 years’ experience in the Telecom, Mobility and Energy industry, steering industrial innovation, from spark of ideas to prototypes, products, standards, and systems, rolling-out networks, whilst leading new businesses, within organizations such as Alcatel, Samsung, and Sagemcom.

 

He received both Engg. Degree from Supélec (France) in 1997, and Ph.D, in 2003 from Supélec/Paris Sud-Orsay.

Dr. Lestable is author of 35+ international publications, 20+ patents, editor of 1 Wiley Book on Advanced Channel Coding, co-author in 2 Wiley Books on B3G/4G systems, was Telecom Expert for the European Commission, Eureka Cluster CELTIC, and the French National Research Agency (ANR). 

 

He was Chair of the M2M Expert Group in eMobility European Technology Platform. In 2010, Dr. Lestable was member of the Telecom Steering committee of Systematic, a competitiveness pole, and created the IoT/M2M course in Supélec, where he was visiting lecturer for 7 years. 

Stephen Goldie is the City Planning Advisor at Al Ain Municipality.

 

He has over forty years’ experience in urban planning and design, mostly at executive level.

 

His urban planning and design experience ranges from regional and metropolitan strategy to complex inner-city design, from high-level policy and legislation to seemingly intractable local disputes, and from detailed urban design to complex management issues, including:

Earlier this year Stephen received a 2023 UAE Ministry of Energy & Infrastructure Research & Innovation Award for groundbreaking work on Artificial Intelligence Supporting Urban Planning.