AI, Adtech and Me

Ian is currently the Executive Director of the IAB MENA, having worked with other industry leaders to establish it in MENA. He has had the privilege of working in multiple roles across multiple markets over his 20+years. This included leading global clients for Agencies in London, as CEO for an Agency in South Africa and recently as Head of Agency Partnerships for Facebook in the MENA region.

Rachel Smith is co-founder and CEO of ExchangeWire, leading the company’s global operations. Rachel has more than 16 years experience in the digital media, advertising and marketing technology industry. Prior to this, she spent 10 years in the public sector working with policy advisors and elected politicians at both a local and national level in the UK & Australia. Amongst many other things, this included running media, communications & PR functions for local government authorities in London. Rachel holds a Bachelor of Arts in Politics from the Australian National University, and is on the Board of Trustees for the East London based charity, the Bromely-by-Bow Centre.

Shailley brings several years of product management experience in digital advertising at Yahoo and Say Media building products for mobile advertising, ad operations, targeting solutions, and integrating data platforms. Shailley has supported and worked with multiple IAB initiatives in the past, namely MRAID and Mobile Rising Stars specifications. At Yahoo, he worked on creating innovative ad experiences for mobile and tablet platforms as well as native formats. Shailley has a diverse background as a product leader, consultant, and entrepreneur building and sustaining high performing teams at both large organizations as well as venture funded startups like Paypal, Yahoo, Say Media, Serus, Accenture, and PwC. Shailley has an MBA and Chemical engineering degrees.

Leads strategic client relationships across MENA. With over 15 years of experience across media, advertising technology and data, Working with leading brands and agencies to navigate the evolving intersection of technology, creativity and media.

Akshat Jain is Senior Manager, Programmatic Sales MENA at StackAdapt, based in Dubai, where he has led the region since January 2023. With 18 years in digital advertising and B2B sales, he specializes in building out programmatic partnerships and market presence across MENA.

Chris Gregory-Pasha is Senior Director of Business Development at The Trade Desk, leading the Travel vertical across AMET. With 20 years’ experience in digital media and advertising technology, he has held senior roles at Sojern, Tripadvisor and Sky TV, and works with leading travel brands on data, measurement, identity and the open internet.

Gosia Wajchert is a senior digital marketing and ad-tech professional with over 19 years of experience spanning ad tech, digital marketing transformation, investments, and partnerships. She has held senior roles at media agencies including GroupM in London, Omnicom, Publicis, and Mediabrands in Dubai, leading digital investments and partnerships focused on performance, addressable media, and e-commerce. Recognized for developing future-proof media strategies and digital transformation initiatives, Gosia has worked with global technology platforms, agencies, and clients across travel, telecommunications, CPG, and retail. She currently leads Criteo’s business across the Middle East and Africa, focusing on the growth of commerce and retail media solutions in the region.

Daniel has more than 15 years of international experience in advertising research and forecasting. Before being appointed as Chief Economist of IAB Europe, he was Executive Director for Advertising Research at global information company, IHS Markit. Daniel’s research areas span all domains of digital advertising, with emphasis in video, programmatic, platform economics, the business application of AI/ML technologies, agency transformation, and buy- and sell-side optimization.

With deep experience in digital media, publisher monetisation, strategic partnerships, and AdTech, Aladdin focuses on strengthening Nabd’s role as a leading Arabic content and audience platform for advertisers across the region. He is a strong advocate for the value of Arabic content in the AdTech ecosystem, championing more intelligent, locally relevant, and commercially effective ways for brands to engage Arabic-speaking audiences.

ad Bou Saleh is Head of Ad Tech and Operations at DMS, with over 12 years of experience helping publishers, advertisers, and agencies across MENA adopt and scale digital advertising technologies. He works closely with media organizations, agencies, and technology partners on data, measurement, automation, and advertising operations, helping drive growth, efficiency, and innovation across the digital ecosystem.

With over 14 years of expertise in the MENA region, Jad has played a pivotal role in digital transformations across a spectrum of industries, including destination marketing, tourism, telecommunications, automotive, FMCG, retail, and governmental entities. His strategic prowess at Starcom KSA resulted in substantial business growth and winning flagship global accounts. Currently at MMS, he leads a team dedicated to connecting partners with opportunities on MBC Group’s digital platforms, driving collective growth.

Ram Jalan is an enterprise AI, customer experience and digital transformation leader with over 20 years of experience across the Middle East, India and International markets. At Incubeta, he leads AI and transformation initiatives that help organisations convert emerging technologies into measurable commercial outcomes. His expertise spans AI strategy, MarTech, digital platforms, automation, product innovation and data-driven decision-making, with initiatives delivering more than US$300 million in business impact. Having worked with organisations including DAMAC, HSBC, Cisco, BATELCO and Reliance, Ram brings a distinctive boardroom-to-execution perspective.

Vineeta brings close to two decades of advertising experience across India and the Middle East, having worked with brands including Mondelez, Unilever and Kellogg’s, and agencies like Ogilvy, JWT and MullenLowe. Today, she leads a business division at Serviceplan Middle East, bringing together her experience in advertising and brand building with certifications in Artificial Intelligence from INSEAD and Digital Transformation from MIT. Over the years, she has also been part of work that has won at various advertising awards, but for her, great work has always been about solving real business challenges. When she’s not working, she’s usually experimenting with AI-generated videos for her new endeavour or thinking of business ideas that could genuinely help others.

Abdelnabi is currently the head of digital at UMMENAT overseeing the digital product and managing media & data partnerships across the region. Abdelnabi has an overall 16+ years of experience in the industry and managed a large portfolio of clients and industries. In addition to his role at UM, Abdelnabi has been one of the leaders of the IAB Measurement & Ad quality workstreams in the MENA region.

Céline is EVP MENA & APAC at Equativ, leading the company’s business across some of its fastest-growing and most diverse markets. With over 20 years of experience in advertising and technology, she is passionate about transformation, innovation and building high-performing teams.As AI reshapes the advertising industry, Céline is particularly interested in the human side of this transformation , how roles, skills and leadership are evolving, and how we can use technology to amplify, rather than replace, human potential.Beyond her corporate role, she is a passionate endurance athlete and advocate for women’s empowerment through movement, health and community.

Tony is a team coach, leadership advisor and author of the best selling book Generation AI. After spending many years in leadership roles in advertising companies and latterly at Meta, Tony’s firm belief is that focusing on people rather than internal products or processes is the foundation for meaningful change.