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Disruptive Change: Impact and Challenges

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Join us at the 13th World Islamic Economic Forum and discuss the impact and challenges of life-altering disruptive ideas as well as technologies, with some of the finest minds in the world today.

Explore solutions and possibilities on how you can best benefit from this dynamic development.
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Speakers

Tan Sri Dato’ Abdul Ghani Othman

Tan Sri Dato’ Abdul Ghani Othman is an economist. He was a lecturer at the Faculty of Economics, University of Malaya and became the dean for the Faculty of Economics and Administration. He served as a member of the senate, member of Parliament and a minister in various Malaysian government ministries.

His last position was as chief minister of Johor and chairman of the board of directors of Johor Corporation. He’s currently a non-executive director and chairman of the board of Sime Darby Berhad (SDB).

H.E. Dr Saad Eddine El Otmani

In 2017, Dr Saad Eddine El Otmani was appointed as Head of the Government of Morocco. He practiced medicine as a general practitioner until 1990 and as a psychiatrist at Berrechid Psychiatric Hospital until 1997 before moving to the private sector.

He served as deputy secretary general of the Party of Justice and Development and as secretary general of the party until 2008 before being assigned as president of the National Council of the party.

He was also elected member of the House of Representatives for four successive terms between 1997 and 2016 and was assigned as vice president of the House of Representatives. He was also vice president of the Committee of Foreign Affairs and National Defence within the same council. He was minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation.

He was a founding member of the Movement for Reform and Renewal and member of the executive office of the Movement for Unification and Reform. He was a member of the executive office of the Association of Graduate Scholars of Dar El Hadith Al Hassania and founding member of the Moroccan Association for the History of Medicine. He is also a member of the Ethics Committee for Biomedical Research at the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy in Rabat and Hassan II Foundation for Scientific and Medical Research on Ramadan.

He has published several books and dozens of articles that appeared in many national and international magazines. He studied medicine in the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy in Casablanca and obtained a PhD in general medicine. He received a specialised diploma in psychiatry from the University Psychiatric Center, Casablanca.

He has a bachelor’s degree in Islamic sharia from the University of Sharia in Agadir Ait Melloul and obtained his higher education degree in al-fiqh and its origins from Dar El Hadith Al Hassania in Rabat. He has a postgraduate certificate in higher education in Islamic studies from the Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences in Rabat.

Essa Al Ghurair

Essa Al Ghurair serves as the chairman of Al Ghurair Resources. He oversees the diverse business activities including manufacturing and marketing of edible oils as well as legumes and trading of food grains, oils and meals. He has been the main driver to encourage the group to invest in the energy and petrochemicals sectors. He now leads the group’s initiatives through Trans Asia Gas International to develop projects in the oil and gas, power generation as well as petrochemicals sectors, mainly in the Middle East and North Africa Region.

He graduated from the San Diego State University in California, United States, in business administration and holds major positions within the Group and its joint ventures: Chairman of Al Ghurair Resources LLC, Trans Asia Gas International LLC, Essa Al Ghurair Investment LLC, Tharawat Advisory Board and Tharawat Family Business Forum; Director of Al Ghurair University and National Cement Co. PSC, and; Board Member of Dubai Chamber of Commerce & Industry.

Sharbini Suhaili

Sharbini Suhaili is currently the group chief executive officer of Sarawak Energy that provides electricity to over 640,000 domestic, industrial and commercial customers, as well as bulk power to energy intensive industries in Sarawak and export customers. He worked for Petronas and Royal Dutch Shell in upstream production, asset development, planning, strategy and commercial as well as business development. He holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from University of Leeds, United Kingdom and a master’s degree in business administration from Henley Management College, United Kingdom.

Dr Yeo Tiong Chia

Dr Yeo Tiong Chia is the chief executive officer at Sarawak Biodiversity Centre (SBC) which, part of its function, documents traditional knowledge of the indigenous communities of Sarawak as well as the research and development on natural products to discover its useful applications. Through systematically collecting samples from the rainforest, Dr Yeo and his team continue to build up one of the most diverse natural product libraries in Malaysia. This library is available for research collaborations to discover novel compounds for drug discovery, health and industrial application. He received his Bachelors of Science in Biochemistry at the California State University in 1991 and went on to work at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, after. He obtained a PhD in immunology in 1993 from the University of Washington in Seattle where he attended graduate school.

Dr Soraya R. Ismail

Dr Soraya Rahim Ismail is the franchiser of Boost Juice Bars in Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei. She has a PhD in Chemical Engineering from Imperial College, London. She worked for 10 years in international management consultancy, Accenture, as a global expert in CRM for Oil and Gas clients. She quit the corporate world in 2009 and brought in Boost Juice Bars to Malaysia. Today, she has opened more than 100 stores across Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei. She employs over 800 people and sells over 125,000 drinks per week.

H.E. Professor Dr Ernesto M. Pernia

H.E. Professor Dr Ernesto M. Pernia is the secretary of socioeconomic planning at the National Economic and Development Authority, Philippines. He is also professor emeritus of economics, having served as professor and chairman at the University of the Philippines.

He has nearly two decades’ worth of work experience at the Asian Development Bank (ADB). His experience there covered investment climate and productivity, economic growth and poverty reduction, education and health, human resource development, and regional economic cooperation in Asia.

He served as a regional adviser on population and employment policy for Asia and the Pacific with the International Labour Organization. He is also on the board of a number of NGOs involved in education and health concerns, population and development, and care of street children.

He received the first award as Outstanding Young Scientist (economics and social sciences) from the National Academy of Science and Technology. He was also selected by the Philippine-American Academy of Science and Engineering for the 2015 Science Lectureship Award.

He is a prolific writer, having authored a number of books and journal articles. He obtained his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, on a Ford Foundation scholarship and a Smithsonian Institution dissertation grant.

Daniel Sieberg

Daniel Sieberg is the co-founder of the News Lab at Google and an official spokesperson for the company. The aim of the News Lab is to collaborate with journalists and entrepreneurs to build the future of media. Prior to joining Google in 2011, Sieberg covered science and technology for a variety of news outlets including CBS News, CNN, ABC News and BBC News. His first book, The Digital Diet, has been re-printed in several countries and is considered one of the first books to address the issue of managing technology in a healthy way.

Sieberg’s stories have appeared before millions of viewers. He has also written for numerous publications including the Vancouver Sun, Toronto Star, Salon, Washington Post, Huffington Post, CNN.com and the Discovery Channel’s site. He has hosted three shows in past including Tech This Out! for ABC News, Next@CNN for CNN and G Word for the Discovery Channel. He has also travelled to more than 62 countries and spoken at events in many of them.

He has interviewed the likes of Christiane Amanpour, Ted Koppel and Bill Gates.

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