
Middle East CISO Community
Executive Summit
9 September 2025 | Fairmont Riyadh
9 September 2025
Fairmont Riyadh
Collaborate with your peers
Get together with Middle East's top CISOs 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 CISOs today:
Harnessing AI to Drive Technological Transformation
Achieving Strategic Communication to Enhance Leadership Buy-In
Balancing Innovation and Governance in Cybersecurity
Middle East CISO Governing Body
The Governing Body Co-Chairs shape the summit agenda, ensuring that all content is driven By CISOs, For CISOs®.
Governing Body Co-Chairs

Basim AlRuwaii
Saudi Aramco
CISO

Alex Constantinidis
QNB
Group CISO
What to Expect
Agenda
9:00am - 9:45am Breakfast Service
9:45am - 10:30am Gartner Keynote
Mastering the Art of Persuasive Leadership and Communication

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
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
Hosted by UnifyApps

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
Apply to Participate
Apply to participate in the Middle East CISO Community Executive Summit.
Gartner facilitates exclusive, C-level communities by personally qualifying and understanding the priorities, challenges and interests of each member.
Our selective approach maintains the high quality of the network and ensures top-level discussions with peers from the world’s leading organizations.
Each application will be reviewed, and once your participation is confirmed, you will have access to year-round community programs.
Location
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.
Community Programme Manager
For inquiries related to this community, please reach out to your dedicated contact.