In-Person

Middle East CIO Community

Executive Summit

9 September 2025 | Fairmont Riyadh

9 September 2025
Fairmont Riyadh

Collaborate with your peers

Get together with Middle East's top CIOs to tackle shared business challenges and critical priorities facing your role today. Participate in this one-day, local program with peer-driven topics and interactive discussions with your true C-level peers.

Join your peers to discuss the most critical issues impacting CIOs today:

Harnessing AI to Drive Technological Transformation

Achieving Strategic Communication to Enhance Leadership Buy-In

Balancing Innovation and Governance in Cybersecurity

Middle East CIO Governing Body

The Governing Body Co-Chairs shape the summit agenda, ensuring that all content is driven By CIOs, For CIOs®.

Governing Body Co-Chairs

Wissam Al Adany

ADES Group
Group CIO

Saud Al Dhawyani

Emirates NBD
Chief Platforms Officer

Khalid AlMutairi

Maaden
CIO

Sabri Albreiki

Etisalat
Group CIO & CTO

Naif Alotaibi

Public Investment Fund
SVP, Digital & Technology

Carlo Nizam

Emirates Global Aluminum
Chief Digital Officer

What to Expect

Interactive Sessions

Hear from CIO practitioners and thought leaders on how they're solving critical challenges impacting your role today in Keynote sessions, and join smaller, interactive discussions with your peers in Breakout and Boardroom sessions.

Community Networking

Make new connections and catch up with old friends in casual conversations during dedicated time for networking designed to better acquaint you with your Middle East CIO community.

Peer-to-Peer Meetings

Connect with like-minded peers in a private, one-on-one setting through Peer-to-Peer Meetings. You will be matched with peers in your community based on your shared interests and priorities.

Agenda

8 September 2025

9 September 2025

7:00pm - 10:00pm  Governing Body Reception

Governing Body Welcome Reception

Join this exclusive evening hosted by the Governing Body. With a seated dinner and keynote session, this is a can’t-miss opportunity to connect with your peers prior to tomorrow’s Executive Summit.

8:30pm - 9:00pm  Keynote

Powering Trusted Digital Transformation — Resilience by Design

Christian Reilly headshot

Christian Reilly

Field CTO

Cloudflare

Organisations are struggling to keep pace with rapid technological change, increasingly looking to the CISO as the “protector” of innovative transformation. However, securing the digital future requires more than just establishing guardrails. There is also mounting pressure to enable a cyber-resilient approach—one that fosters innovation while achieving more with less.

In this fireside chat, we will explore:

  • How integrating AI into cybersecurity can enhance risk management
  • The importance of collaboration and co-ownership in driving digital innovation
  • Strategy for striking the right balance between innovation and resilience

9:00am - 9:45am  Breakfast Service

9:45am - 10:30am  Gartner Keynote

Mastering the Art of Persuasive Leadership and Communication

Eyad Tachwali headshot

Eyad Tachwali

VP, Global Tech Advisory, CIO Research Group

Gartner

In today’s digital era, CIOs and CISOs must go beyond technical expertise to inspire, influence, and drive change. In this keynote, Eyad Tachwali, VP, Global Tech Advisory, CIO Research Group at Gartner will walk you through the art of persuasive leadership with three essential narratives. By reframing how you communicate, technology and IT security leaders can feel empowered to shape strategy, foster trust, and lead with conviction.

In this keynote, you will understand more on:

  • Harnessing storytelling techniques to influence board-level decision-making and strategic direction
  • Cultivating trust and credibility to unify diverse teams and stakeholders
  • Championing a compelling vision that accelerates digital transformation and organisational resilience

10:30am - 10:45am  Networking

10:45am - 11:30am  Gartner Breakout Session

2025 Mission Critical Priorities — A CIO's Perspective

Deven Pandey headshot

Deven Pandey

MVP, Service Delivery

Gartner

Join Deven Pandey, MVP Service Delivery at Gartner as he sits down with a client to discuss their collaboration and journey towards achieving the organisation's mission critical priorities for 2025 and beyond.  

10:45am - 11:30am  Executive Boardroom

Leverage Intelligent Applications to Scale AI Across the Business

Mohamed Khallaf headshot

Mohamed Khallaf

VP, Saudi Arabia

UnifyApps

CIOs face pressure to align applications to a holistic view of business challenges. An alignment which is often easier in theory than in practice. CIOs must reassess their data quality initiatives and how they communicate with Lines of Business to scale intelligent applications effectively. By making applications truly AI-enabled, through consistent integration, CIOs can maximise ROI from AI investments.

Join this boardroom to discuss how to:

  • Gain a holistic view of business KPIs to streamline application integration
  • Rethink metrics for assessing data quality across your application landscape to ensure greater value from AI initiatives
  • Communicate intelligent application’s value to the wider business for scalable AI adoption

11:30am - 12:30pm  Networking

12:05pm - 12:25pm  Peer-to-Peer Meetings

Peer-to-Peer Meeting 1

12:30pm - 1:15pm  Executive Boardroom

Elevate Cyber Resilience with Security-First Culture

People-centric cybersecurity has never been more critical. Demonstrating the organization's agility in the face of an evolving threat landscape and integrating robust security practices, however, is a tough task. As sophisticated attacks increasingly exploit human error, CISOs must foster a culture of continuous upskilling and rigorous technical testing, crucial for minimizing risk and meeting regulatory demands.

In this boardroom you will put your decision-making skills to the test and discuss how to:

  • Champion a security-first culture to address human error in decision making
  • Understand business impact of technical security decisions to guide targeted and measurable improvements to resilience plans
  • Demonstrate proving and improving cyber resilience focusing on the human capabilities

1:15pm - 2:30pm  Keynote

Seated Lunch and Keynote hosted by Palo Alto Networks

More details coming soon!

2:30pm - 3:15pm  Executive Boardroom

Reimagine Privileged Access for Holistic View on Identity Management

Michael Byrnes headshot

Michael Byrnes

Senior Director, Solutions Engineering

BeyondTrust

Mohamed Ujaimi headshot

Mohamed Ujaimi

CISO

KAUST

CISOs know privileged identities are prime targets for attackers. However, unpatched vulnerabilities and legacy password systems create blind spots, making it difficult to know and defend your most sensitive identities. The surge of AI-powered attacks and demands at board-level for reduced threat windows intensify this challenge. CISOs must gain a holistic view of privilege users to better protect your most critical systems and data.

Join this Executive Boardroom to discuss strategies to:

  • Gain 360 degree view on your elevated accounts to tackle blind spots and reduce identity-based attacks
  • Consolidate access management tools with AI to condense your attack surface and reduce threat window
  • Overcome limitations of security awareness programmes for sophisticated users to balance protection and productivity

3:15pm - 3:45pm  Break

3:45pm - 4:30pm  Keynote

Closing Keynote by the Ministry of Municipalities & Housing, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Eng. Musaed Al-Otaibi headshot

Eng. Musaed Al-Otaibi

Deputy Minister, Digital Transformation and Smart Cities

Ministry of Municipalities & Housing, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

More details coming soon! 

4:00pm - 5:00pm  Closing Comments and Prize Drawing

Closing Reception

8 September 2025

9 September 2025

We look forward to seeing you at an upcoming in-person gathering

Gartner cares about the health and safety of our community. Please review the following recommendations prior to attending the gathering.

Location

Venue & Accommodation

Fairmont Riyadh
More Information

A block of rooms has been reserved at the Fairmont Riyadh at a reduced conference rate. Reservations should be made online or by calling +966 11 826 2626.

Deadline to book using the discounted room rate of 1811 SAR (plus tax) is 5 September 2025.

Your Community Sponsors

CISO Thought Leaders

Program Sponsors

Community Programme Manager

For inquiries related to this community, please reach out to your dedicated contact.

Michabelle Fahed

Community Programme Manager

+971 58 634 0248

michabelle.fahed@gartner.com