Speakers - GovTech Awards 2023

Keynote Speaker

Omar Akar

Vice-President – Middle East and Emerging Africa, Pure Storage

Omar Akar

Omar Akar is one of the most respected and revered IT leaders in the Middle East. Akar has enjoyed a decorated and distinguished career, one which has now spanned 20 years. He has held senior positions with tech behemoths Dell EMC and Huawei. He is now the Regional Vice President of the Middle East and Emerging Africa at Pure Storage. Akar is highly skilled in workforce transformation and is also an expert when it comes to modern data infrastructure. He has also cultivated a reputation in recent years as a thought leader in AI and multi-cloud strategies. Akar brings a wealth of knowledge, expertise and experience to our GovTech Awards – and his insights and perspectives will add huge value to our event.

Panelists

Panel Discussion Topic

Shaping the Future : Trends, Technologies and Triumphs

Adel Alhosani

Chief Information Security Officer, Dubai Customs

Adel Alhosani

Adel Alhosani is an accomplished CISO and cybersecurity consultant with a wealth of experience in the field. With a Master’s Degree in Cybersecurity and numerous security certifications such as CISSP, CISA, CISM, GPEN, COBIT5, and ISO 27001, Adel is well-equipped to tackle complex cybersecurity challenges. He has a proven track record of establishing and leading successful cybersecurity programs, ensuring compliance with industry regulations and standards, and aligning organizational cybersecurity strategies with best practices.

As a respected cybersecurity leader, Adel has received numerous awards, including “Cyber Personality of the Year”, “Government Security Leader”, “Young Information Security Executive of the year” and “IT Professional of the Year”. He is a sought-after speaker and panel member, having participated in events such as the GISEC, GCC Cyber Security Summit, MESA Conference, and MENA BIP Summit, among others.

With extensive expertise in cybersecurity leadership, Adel possesses the skills and knowledge necessary to tackle complex cybersecurity problems and improve existing cybersecurity programs. His expertise enables him to provide valuable insights and solutions to organizations seeking to enhance their cybersecurity posture and drive confident growth through effective cybersecurity management.

Amna Mohammad Alblooshi

Manager – Statistics and Data Analysis, Enterprise Command and Control Department, RTA

Amna Mohammad Alblooshi

Amna Alblooshi is a distinguished leader in the domain of Statistic and Data Analysis. She holds a Master’s in Data Science and is currently pursuing her Doctorate from UK. Amna has held several leadership positions in the field of Quality, Strategy and Excellence. She is leading a team of Data Scientists, Analysts and Transportation professionals in RTA to deliver data backed solutions and use cases for Multimodal transportation system in Dubai.

Arul Jose Vigin

Head of Digital & Data, DIFC Courts

Arul Jose Vigin

Arul is the Head of Digital & Data the DIFC Courts and has over 20 years of rich expertise in technology infrastructure, mobile, cloud and GRC, building his career working primarily with government and the financial sector.
He has been instrumental in transforming the operational and administrative landscapes through digitalisation and pioneering technologies that expedited the DIFC Courts to its industry recognition in the court tech space.
Arul also spearheaded the roll out of the Middle East’s first ‘Smart’ Small Claims Tribunal, a realistically virtual courtroom for dispute resolution, which allows parties to video conference into the courtroom in real time from any global location. Identifying the need for accessibility, convenience and flexibility, this virtual infrastructure was built to bridge the gap in an ever-changing mobile and digital world.
Since 2017, Arul has been part of the think tank Courts of the Future, launched by the DIFC Courts and the Dubai Future Foundation (DFF) with a mandate to explore diverse legal technology topic areas and to provide research and thought leadership on promoting and encouraging contemporary methods of greater accessibility and efficiency to court users across the globe.
This think tank has enabled the DIFC Courts to streamline its major Court tech projects under the ‘Courts of the Future’, pooling talent and resources from global partners and experts across the fields of law, technology, and business, assembled to help courts systems accommodate and leverage emerging technologies.
In 2022, the Digital & Data Department of the DIFC Courts led the production of a global digital vault engineered to help address issues of storage privacy and integrity and security of documents to enable individuals to now transfer this data to one secure location. ‘tejouri’ enables the upload and secure storing of documents ranging from insurance contracts, title deeds, Wills, and financial certificates, to images and multimedia files and can be utilised by all individuals globally.
In conjunction with the DIFC Courts and public and private sectors, Arul is spearheading digital projects, with research combining expertise and resources to investigate handling disputes arising out of private and public blockchains, with regulation and contractual terms encoded within the smart contract. Implications for cross-border data flows, digital and data governance, and ensuring protection and security of information for the business relationships that help drive the digital economy, are now being reviewed with accelerated intent.

Arul quickly escalated from being a Projects Engineer and an IT Security Manager to leading one of the most technologically advanced courts in the world. He completed his Post Graduate Diploma in Information Systems Management in the UK and received certification with the Oxford Blockchain Strategy Programme. Arul also recently completed a certification with Harvard University in Artificial Intelligence (AI). He is presently exploring and testing the emerging technologies like distributed ledger technology (DLT) and AI systems for the DIFC Courts.