Global CIO Forum successfully concluded Day 2 of The World CIO 200 Summit 2025 – UAE Edition at Fairmont Ajman, convening top CIOs, industry leaders, and technology experts to drive conversations around digital transformation and innovation under the theme “Dawn of a New Decade.”
The day opened with an energizing keynote by renowned speaker Dave Crane, who set the tone with thought-provoking insights on leadership and transformation. This was followed by an inspiring welcome address from Ronak Samantaray, CEO of GEC, who emphasized the summit’s vision and its role in empowering the global CIO community.
Kenneth Lindegaard, CIO of Space42 and the UAE Country Ambassador, delivered opening remarks underlining the importance of collaboration and future-ready strategies in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.
“We’ve gone from managing pure infrastructure to managing everything. We moved from on-prem to cloud, to hybrid… or whatever the next buzzword the big analyst firms come up with to describe the next era. For us, it’s been a journey—and it’s far from over,” he said.
Industry-leading technology experts delivered insightful vendor keynotes, including:
- Charbel Zreiby – Dell Technologies
- Assem Al Achkar – Nutanix
- Ektaa Puthran – BARCO
- Abdul Rehman – SolarWinds
- Samer Semaan – Pure Storage
The agenda featured impactful panel discussions on critical topics such as AI adoption, cloud strategy, smart governance, and ethical innovation:
- “AI or Die? The CIO’s Dilemma in the Age of Autonomous Enterprise”
- “Cloud Exit Strategy: Smart Move or Strategic Misstep?”
- “The AI Dilemma: Security, Sovereignty & Surveillance in Smart Governments”
- “Innovation at What Cost? Balancing Speed, Ethics, and Sustainability in Tech”
Distinguished moderators and panelists included representatives from Mastercard, Dubai Integrated Economic Zones Authority, Etihad Airport Services, Modon, Mubadala, Ghassan Aboud Group, and more.
Special sessions featured:
- Dave Crane on “The CIO’s Guide to Thought Leadership”
- Hemesh Dogiparthi from Exelixi on AI in financial services
- Chih-Hsi Hu from Synology on the future of data protection and smart storage for enterprises.
- Lakshmi Das from Prophaze on data security and API evolution
The day also recognized top-performing technology leaders during the CIO 200 Awards, presented in four categories – Next-Gen, Leader, Master, and Legend.
The summit concluded with closing reflections by the Global CIO Forum’s UAE Ambassador Peter Gesper, highlighting key insights and takeaways from the two-day event.
