Robert is the Director of the Economist Corporate Network based in Dubai and covering the MENA region. Robert works closely with network members to help inform their business strategies through political, economic and operational insight and to connect them with their senior leadership peers.
Robert is a business journalist, editor and publisher with nearly 25 years of experience covering a wide variety of sectors, including hospitality, retail, construction, energy and transport, and a particular interest in human capital management.
He is an accomplished event chairman, moderator and speaker.
Robert completed an MBA at the University of Leicester School of Business in 2012 and holds a Bachelor's degree from the University of Nottingham.

HE Abdulla Bin Touq Al Marri was appointed Minister of Economy of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) under the new government structure approved in July 2020. Prior to his appointment, H.E. Al Marri held important positions in the government as a senior, top-ranking official. He was the Secretary General of the UAE Cabinet since 2017, during which he was instrumental in strengthening the interdependence between the federal and local governments. In this role, he also spearheaded many initiatives to get the pulse of the people and know their sentiments, as well as build the UAE’s long-lasting relations with international organizations such as the World Economic Forum. H.E. is also the former Director General of the Executive Office of H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. He was part of the high-profile team that was behind the launch of ‘Area 2071,’ the nucleus of the future envisioned in the UAE Centennial Plan 2071. Furthermore, the UAE Minister of Economy, in his previous post, took part in the unveiling of the Hatta Economic Zone development project and the relaunching of the Mohammed Bin Rashid Center for Leadership Development. In addition, he was the CEO of the Dubai Future Foundation, enabling him to play a vital role in the successful launch of Dubai 10X and other initiatives of national importance. The Dubai 10X initiative, in particular, aims to strengthen the emirate’s bid to become the city of the future. H.E. Al Marri is a member of the Boards of Directors of different federal entities. His memberships allow him to actively support the development of priority sectors in the country such as the Golden Visa initiative, which seeks to attract talented individuals from across the world.
The UAE Minister of Economy holds a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Sheffield in the UK. Also, he is a graduate of the UAE Government Leaders Program and Mohammed Bin Rashid Center for Leadership Development.

Acting Director of the Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Centre Hanan Ahli is currently the Acting Director of the Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Centre (FCSC), a government entity affiliated with the Ministry of Cabinet Affairs in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Centre works on developing and enhancing the UAE’s performance in the sectors of global competitiveness, statistics and data through coordination with partners to implement initiatives and define policies of importance to vital sectors across the UAE. The Centre is considered as one of the most important government sources for national data, and for monitoring the competitive performance of the UAE in global reports, and hold the responsibility for the SDGs in the UAE. In her capacity as the Acting Director of the Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Centre, Hanan looks after a range of policies outlined in the UAE’s National Agenda, with a particular focus on supporting gender balance, promoting favorable business regulations, and strengthening the performance on UAE’s public sector. Prior to this designation, Hanan held the position of the Executive Director of the Competitiveness Sector at the Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Authority (FCSA) (name amended to the Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Centre in 2020), a UAE federal entity created by a Presidential decree in 2015. During her tenure as Executive Director, Hanan focused on supporting the competitiveness of the United Arab Emirates, by enhancing the performance of major economic, commercial and social sectors in the country, through launching initiatives and strategies that aimed at improving the performance of country’s institutions in global competitiveness indexes and reports. Hanan Ahli has extensive experience in business administration, policy-making and financing programs. Prior to joining the government sector, Hanan worked for Mawarid Finance, PJSC, and leading finance operations with the focus on Islamic finance. Hanan holds an MBA from the American University of Sharjah (UAE) and a Bachelor degree in Business Sciences from Zayed University (UAE). She is a graduate of the UAE Government Leadership Program, in the Future Leadership category and Policies Diploma, and has credentials from the London Business School, Institute of Management Development (IMD), and Harvard Kennedy School.

Feras Jalbout is an investor turned entrepreneur. Most recently, Feras served in a dual capacity as an Investor at Wamda Capital – an early-stage venture fund focused on deploying capital into high growth companies across MENA and Managing Director of Aurora Partners, a single-family office based in Dubai with an unconstrained global investment mandate. His work included developing and executing global investment theses in areas of mega growth across public and private markets. In July 2020, he set out to build baraka - a commission-free investment platform for the Middle East. Since then, he has brought together, and now leads, a dynamic team geared towards growing baraka’s vibrant and transparent open investing platform that educates, enables and empowers individuals to take control of their investments. Before embarking on his latest venture, Feras executed and structured hundreds of public and private investments across a 15-year career in investment management. He has experience setting up tailored asset allocation models, multi-generational holding structures and executing investments across a wide range of asset classes including public markets, venture capital, real estate and private equity. Feras is a seasoned board member and active angel investor who has deployed his own capital in dozens of startups to date. His previous employers include Barclays & Standard Chartered where he worked in a Private Banking capacity advising ultra-high net-worth clients on investments. He is a graduate of Carleton University in Canada with certificates from Carnegie Mellon in Corporate Innovation, Singularity University in Exponential Thinking and the Chartered Institute of Securities & Investment in Securities and Derivatives.

Abdulla Almoayed is a serial entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of Tarabut Gateway (TG) – the first and largest Open Banking platform in MENA. He is passionate about creating game-changing digital infrastructures that drive forward the data-driven economy. His vision is to create a collaborative environment for innovation that empowers a new generation and provides financial inclusion for the millions of unbanked, underbanked and underserved populations of MENA.
Abdulla is a frequent investor in the region, providing financial support and mentorship for a range of cross-sector businesses in industries as diverse as healthcare, education, logistics, cybersecurity and FinTech. By founding Tarabut Gateway and through his commitment to development of collaborative digital technologies via angel investment, Abdulla aims to transform the financial services sector in the region.
He holds an MBA from the London Business School and a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management with Honours from the University of Westminster, London.

In his capacity as Head of Group Strategy at DIFC Authority, Christian is responsible to develop and continuously evolve the strategic agenda and initiatives of DIFC in line with the UAE’s commitment to innovation and development of future economies. As part of this vision, Christian also furthers in developing DIFC’s core and future of finance proposition and leading a number of initiatives to move the innovation agenda towards a broader conversation about the future of finance. Christian’s previous experience lies at the intersection of Financial Services, Technology and Innovation. He led the Fintech and New (Digital) Business Building practice for McKinsey & Company in the Middle East. Besides developing future of finance strategies, Christian has built-up several digital Fintech ventures following a build-operate-transfer model and applying Agile, Design Thinking and Lean Start-up principles. He has also led several digital and analytics transformations of large banks and insurance businesses across the Middle East and Europe.

Fadi Moukaddem is the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, for Central Europe, Middle East and Africa region, covering more than 90 countries, and reporting to Visa Inc. CFO. Fadi oversees the finance function, FP&A, Controllership, Sourcing, M&A and Facilities as well as the long-term strategic planning for CEMEA Region. He joined Visa in early 2014. Fadi has over 25 years of experience in financial management and strategic planning, gained in leading global organizations with significant operating scale and complexity as well as wide geographical reach. Prior to joining Visa Inc., he was the head of Financial Planning and Analysis at PepsiCo International - MEA region – and served previously at Nokia Networks as CFO for the Gulf and Egypt Region. Fadi has an extensive hands-on knowledge of the Telecom sector across emerging markets as well as Manufacturing, FMCG, Construction and Payment Technologies. He has successfully led several transformational and strategic projects at Nokia Networks and PepsiCo around Innovation and Productivity. He has also introduced the pay-as-you-grow model for the first time in the GCC region in 2007 within the Telecom Industry. Fadi managed 8 quarters of back-to-back revenue growth at Nokia in the midst of the global financial crisis 2008-2010. He implemented and controlled a very complex financing structure on behalf of a Telecom Provider in Iraq. The structure was a mixture of vendor commercial bank funding as well as Export Credit Agency loans through Hermes of Germany and Finnvera of Finland; which permitted to reduce the political risk of the country and unlock the market potential. Being passionate about it, he is successful in building strong diverse teams which go beyond traditional written roles and responsibilities, to become partners in shareholders’ value. Fadi’s professional carrier took him to 3 continents; Africa, Europe and Asia and 7 countries; Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Italy, Kuwait, Qatar and UAE where he is based currently. A Lebanese in origin, he holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Saint Joseph University of Beirut and a Masters of Business Administration from Manchester Business School in the UK. He speaks fluent French and English on top of his Arabic native language.

Eugene Willemsen is Chief Executive Officer, Africa, Middle East, South Asia. PepsiCo products are enjoyed by consumers more than one billion times a day in more than 200 countries and territories around the world. PepsiCo generated more than $70 billion in net revenue in 2020, driven by a complementary food and beverage portfolio that includes Frito-Lay, Gatorade, Pepsi-Cola, Quaker, Tropicana and SodaStream. PepsiCo's product portfolio includes a wide range of enjoyable foods and beverages, including 23 brands that generate more than $1 billion each in estimated annual retail sales. Over the past two decades, Eugene has been harnessing the power of diverse teams to create high-performing businesses and some of the world’s most resonate brands. Most recently, Eugene served as Chief Executive Officer, Sub-Saharan Africa in 2019 and as Executive Vice President of Global Categories & Franchise Management from 2015 to 2019, where he was responsible for the strategic direction of PepsiCo’s global categories and brands as well as PepsiCo’s global commercial functions, during which he oversaw a period of strong growth. Prior to that, Eugene led the company’s global tea joint venture with Unilever, which operates in roughly 120 countries worldwide, following more than a decade leading PepsiCo businesses in Europe. He has served as Senior Vice President, General Manager for PepsiCo’s South East Europe business, overseeing our operations in 17 countries, including Turkey; Senior Vice President and General Manager, Commercial for PepsiCo Europe, heading up the Marketing & Sales functions across Europe for all lines of business; Senior Vice President, General Manager for PepsiCo’s Northern Europe business; and General Manager of PepsiCo’s snack business in the Benelux and Belgium. Eugene joined PepsiCo from Friesland-Campina in 1995. Eugene holds a BBA from Nijenrode University in the Netherlands, a MSc in Economics from the "VU University" in Amsterdam and an Executive MBA from INSEAD. He previously served as a board member of the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), the AdCouncil and the Dutch Grocery Manufacturers Association, where he served as its Chairman. Eugene is the Chairman of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s U.S.-Africa Business Center and Vice Co-Chairman of U.S.-U.A.E. Business Council.

Helmut von Struve has been the CEO of Siemens in the Middle East and the UAE since May 2020, after spending almost 20 years with the company in leadership roles in Germany, the UAE, Libya and Pakistan. As an engineer and business executive, he is focused on melding technologies – such as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, additive manufacturing, 5G and automation – into cohesive solutions for the infrastructure and manufacturing industries that will help improve our lives and protect our planet. Von Struve has a master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Technical University in Darmstadt, Germany.