The Qatar Edition of the World CIO 200 Summit and Roadshow was held at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Doha on 22nd October 2019. The Gala dinner, held in conjunction with the CIO networking session was attended by over 80 IT heads and decision makers in the country. The partners of the Qatar edition were; Veritas Technologies, QCS, Nutanix, Rittal Middle East and Finesse Middle East.
The opening keynote was done by Samir Pawaskar, Information Security Expert, Government Agency in Qatar and he spoke on the current cyber security challenges in the age of digital transformation.
The keynote was followed by presentation from Qatar country partner, QCS and was presented by Paresh Mohanty, Head of Business – Cyber Security.
Ian Wood, Senior Director, Technology Practices, EMEA Veritas spoke on how leveraging an enterprise data service platform can help organizations remove data complexity.
In Nutanix’s presentation, Peter Grant, Systems Engineer and Bernard Diab, territory manager of Nutanix spoke about how the company is enabling IT teams to build and operate highly automated private and hybrid clouds. The leaders engaged in some intense discussion on the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead of them.
The event concluded with recognizing the IT champions of 2019, that included the below winners in three categories—Legend, Master and Leader.
| Mohammed Ishtiaq Hussain | Doha Bank | Legend |
| KV Kumar | Qatar Insurance Group | Legend |
| M. F. Khan | Al Mana Group | Legend |
| Samir Pawaskar | Ministry of Transport and Communication | Legend |
| Saeed Rashid Al Kaabi | Qatar Fuel Group | Legend |
| Aladdin Saqer | McDonald’s Qatar | Master |
| Ferdinand Guarin | Qatar Plastic Products Company W.L.L | Master |
| Manojkumar Chandrasenan | North Oil Company | Master |
| Magdy Mansour | Doha Cables | Master |
| Syed Ali | Advanced Construction Technology | Master |
| Faizal Babu Kavungal | Gulf Drilling International | Master |
| Chander Mohan Raina | Wyndham Grand Regency Hotel | Master |
| Anto Pius | Aster DM Healthcare | Master |
| M.G. Amila Gayan | Saraya Corniche Hotel | Master |
| Pasantha Randika Walpola | Amari Doha | Master |
| Saleem Salam | American Hospital Qatar | Leader |
| Rahul Mistry | Kempinski Hotels & Resorts, Qatar | Leader |
| Mohammed Feroz Khan | Cleopatra Group of Companies | Leader |
| Suhail Pilakkandi | Alsarh Holding Group, Qatar | Leader |
| Jihas Abdulkader | Al Jassim Group | Leader |
The World CIO 200 has successfully completed three roadshows (KSA, South Africa and USA) and will be touring 11 more countries in October and November before ringing in the Grand Finale in UAE to be held on December 9-10, 2019 at The Double Tree by Hilton Resort in Ras Al Khaimah.
