ECN online event: GCC populations and demographics - an expat exodus?

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.

Dr. Nasser H. Saidi is the former Chief Economist and Head of External Relations of Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) and Executive Director of the Hawkamah-Institute for Corporate Governance and The Mudara Institute of Directors at the DIFC between 2006 and 2012.

In these capacities he conceived and developed the role of the Chief Economist of the DIFC providing strategy & advice to the DIFC and Dubai Government; acted as spokesperson & developed a series of broadly disseminated publications, and promoted the DIFC internationally. He established and developed the external relations of the DIFC with international financial institutions (IMF, OECD, IFC, World Bank, MIGA) and international financial centres. Dr. Saidi designed and set-up DIFCSTAT, a secure, inter-active, on-line, web-based, registration, reporting and statistical system for DIFC entities. As founder and Executive Director of Hawkamah Institute for Corporate Governance, he developed the regional institute to bridge the corporate governance gap through advisory services, research and advocacy.

Zahabia Gupta is an Associate Director in the Sovereign Ratings team at S&P Global Ratings, covering several Middle East and Africa sovereigns.

Before joining S&P in 2017, Zahabia worked at Moody’s Investors
Service Dubai for two years in the Sovereign Ratings Group. She has also worked at Zurich Insurance Group Singapore as an underwriter covering credit and political risk and started her career at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Singapore.

Zahabia holds an MSc. in International Relations from London School of Economics, and a BSc. in Social Sciences from Singapore Management University

Nuno is a Principal and leads Mercer’s Talent line of business for the MENAT region (Middle East, North Africa and Turkey). Nuno has been based in Dubai since 2008; he transferred from the Mercer Lisbon office where he joined in 2005. In his current role, Nuno leads a team of highly qualified consultants that support organizations throughout the region and across a variety of products and services (data, insights and consulting) that addresses their most complex talent challenges.
Nuno began his career at Deloitte Consulting in the Strategy and Operations service line and later worked for companies in the energy and real estate sectors, including Shell, before joining Mercer.
Nuno holds a BA in Economics from Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão (Lisbon). He attended the Leadership and Strategic Change summer course at the New York University in 2005.