Essa serves as Chief Technology Officer at Ooredoo Kuwait, where they lead strategic planning, development, and implementation of cutting-edge technologies to drive innovation and enhance the company’s telecommunication infrastructure. With 20 years of experience in the telecom industry, Essa has a proven record in managing large-scale network deployments, 5G rollouts, and the integration of next-generation technologies such as IoT and AI. Previous to their role as CTO of Ooredoo Kuwait, Essa was Director of Radio Access and Network Planning, where they successfully launched 5G, 4G, and 3G Networks, IP and Transmission works, including end-to-end management of Ooredoo Radio Network evolution, country-wide. They also played a key role in the continued development and execution of strategic objectives driven by Ooredoo Group, with its recent strategic announcement of establishing the largest Tower Company in the MENA region, which feeds the demand for environmentally friendly solutions and sustainability. Moreover, Customer Experience was at the heart of their strategies deployed for Network Anomaly Detection using Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for critical use cases, to deliver seamless performance on all application levels.

Salem Almulaifi is Advisor to the Minister of Commerce and Industry, State of Kuwait, where he contributes to shaping the national digital economy agenda. He focuses on enabling innovation through regulatory modernization, secure digital infrastructure, and scalable technologies. With deep experience in both government and private sector advisory roles, Mr. Almulaifi plays a key role in aligning economic development strategy with emerging technology adoption—especially in AI, cybersecurity, and trade enablement.

Dr Dari Alhuwail is an Associate Professor at the Information Sciences Department in the College of Life Sciences, Kuwait University, an Adjunct Faculty member at the College of Medicine at the University of Dundee, and an Advisor to the Minister of State for Communication Affairs, with a significant experience in digital health, digital transformation, strategic leadership, and data governance. Dr. Alhuwail is a Fellow of the International Academy of Health Sciences Informatics, a Fellow of the American Medical Informatics Association, a co-founder of the Kuwait Health Informatics Network, and a member of the Kuwait Health Informatics Association. He also is a Health Informatics Consultant, Data Security Officer, and a member of the Data Governance Council at Dasman Diabetes Institute. He served as a member of the Digital Health Technical Advisory Group at the World Health Organization. Dr. Alhuwail obtained his Ph.D. in Information Systems with a specialization in Health Informatics from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and earned his master’s and bachelor’s degrees from the University of Arizona. He has over 15 years of working experience in industry and various labs around the world. Recently, he won the Jaber Al-Ahmad Prize for Young Researchers in the field of Natural Sciences and Mathematics.

Jyoti Lalchandani is a seasoned business executive with more than 25 years of experience in emerging markets across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). In his role as IDC’s Group Vice President and Regional Managing Director for the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa (META), he has been instrumental in establishing IDC’s presence in the region – first, through the initial expansion of the Dubai headquarters and then by spearheading the development of IDC offices in Johannesburg, Istanbul, Riyadh, Casablanca, Lagos, Nairobi, and Cairo.
Jyoti is responsible for the planning, development, implementation, and coordination of IDC’s market intelligence and advisory services, sales, conferences and events, go-to-market services, and office development activities across the META region. As a respected authority on emerging market tech trends, he is also regularly invited to speak at major industry events throughout the region and is frequently quoted by both the national and international media.
His field of expertise includes key tech areas such as cloud, analytics, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things, and he is well known for providing guidance on digital transformation strategies for the entire C-suite. He is a trusted advisor to senior executives in the supplier/enabler space across the ICT ecosystem, as well as to tech buyers from the CIO and line-of-business communities.
Starting at IDC’s CEMA (Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa) headquarters in 1995 in Prague, the Czech Republic, Jyoti served as IDC’s regional consulting manager. In this role, he headed several country-based project teams that advised local and multinational IT vendors on issues relating to entry strategy, competitor analysis, ROI analysis, distribution and partner evaluation, and market segmentation. He later took on the additional responsibility of overseeing the CEMA software practice, in which he was responsible for overseeing all related research (applications, system infrastructure, and tools) and advisory work across emerging EMEA countries.
Before joining IDC, Jyoti served on the national board of international non-profit organization AIESEC, where he managed the association’s partnership agreements with leading Indian conglomerates. He graduated from Loyola College, India, where his studies focused on strategy management and business policy. He later attended a corporate-sponsored program at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts.