2026 Programme
7th HR and People Development SummitJW Marriott Hotel Marina, Dubai
4-5 February 2026
2026 Topics & Themes
- AI Coaching vs Human Coaching
- Employee Experience and Engagement
- Remote/Hybrid working
- Technology and HR
- HR Data & Analytics for Decision Making
- Reskilling and Upskilling employees
- Succession Planning
- Employee Wellness
- Payroll Automation/Management
- Engagement and Motivation...Neuroscience and the Human Brain
- Multigenerational Workforce
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If you are interested in a speaking opportunity for our 2026 Summit, please contact [email protected]
Speakers & Abstracts
2026 speakers below
Biography
Dr. Corrie Block is uniquely equipped to help top-tier executives and entrepreneurs achieve an optimum work-life blend, elevate leadership performance, and drive exceptional business outcomes. With over 30 years of experience and extensive research as an executive coach and strategy expert specializing in evolutionary psychology and performance neuroscience, Dr. Block leverages his expertise to create meaningful, purpose-driven performance transformations.
Dr. Block’s core focus is meaningful work. Whether training top-level staff in leadership, collaborating with Boards of Directors to develop new strategies, or providing executive coaching for C-Suite leaders, his work consistently results in significant employee experience improvements and measurable business success. His executive coaching (EC) programs have delivered an impressive 1-year ROI ranging between 53x and 901x.
Recognized as "UAE's #1 Executive Coach" by industry leaders such as Dr. Marshall Goldsmith, Forbes, SHRM, CIPD, and others, Dr. Block is a trusted authority in leadership and business strategy. His latest book became an Amazon Global #1 Bestseller in Management, and he holds the #24 spot globally and #1 in MENA on LeadersHum's Biggest Voices in Leadership Power List.
Over the course of his career, Dr. Block has provided strategic consulting for some of the world's most prominent organizations, including Microsoft, the Council of Europe, the UN, SERCO, E&, Atlantis Hotels, Hilton Worldwide, PepsiCo, World Bank, and more. He has worked with tech start-ups, multinationals, and governments across more than 30 countries. While he has experienced failure in two ventures, his entrepreneurial journey includes successfully founding and exiting five businesses, with award-winning product innovations to his credit.
A dedicated practitioner with an "academic addiction," Dr. Block has earned four postgraduate degrees, including an MBA, a master’s in Global Leadership, a Swiss DBA, and a UK PhD—all while maintaining a full-time career. His insights and thought leadership have been featured in esteemed publications such as Gulf Business, Forbes, CEO Magazine, Entrepreneur, MEED, Oxford Journals, and Routledge Academic Books.
Whether through strategic consulting, executive coaching, or leadership development, Dr. Corrie Block remains steadfast in his commitment to transforming organizations and leaders. His question to potential clients is simple yet compelling: "Are you willing to risk a cup of coffee to explore how I can help you?"Presentation Outline
In this keynote, Dr. Corrie explores the fundamental aspects of employee engagement and wellbeing beyond the technological solutions. Drawing from 30 years of experience in strategy, restructuring, and executive coaching, we delve into the importance of meaning, connection, and fulfilment at work. By understanding employees' personal motivations and fostering genuine connections, organizations can enhance productivity, reduce turnover, and achieve higher profitability. This session highlights practical zero-budget steps HR leaders and managers can take to create a more engaged and fulfilled workforce, ultimately driving organizational success.
Biography
Debra and Ken Corey are the co-authors of the best-selling book titled ‘Bad Bosses Ruin Lives: The Building Blocks for Being a Great Boss.’ Although they come from different specialties - Debra from HR with over 20 years as an HR leader and as the author of five other books, and Ken as a seasoned people-centric Engineering Leader - they have similar perspectives when it comes to people, leadership and management. Together they teamed up to write this book, inspire others, and pay it forward by helping others step up their great greatness through their talks, workshops and assessment tools.
Presentation Outline
99.6% of people say they’ve had a bad boss, and 80% of leaders admit they’ve been one. The numbers don’t lie: bad boss traits aren’t rare, and they’re not just “someone else’s problem.” They live in all of us. If we’re serious about changing that, we need to reimagine what it really takes to build great bosses - intentionally, and block by block.
In this session, we’ll tackle the issue head-on through the lens of the 3 A’s: Awareness, Acceptance, and Action - the essential mindset shift every leader needs to make real change. Then, we’ll bring it to life using the Great Boss Building Block™ model: 14 clear, practical traits that form the foundation of strong, human-first leadership.
You’ll walk away with practical tools and proven strategies to help leaders move past unhelpful habits, build capability, and lead in ways that enrich lives, not ruin them.
It’s time to rethink leadership - and rebuild it, one block at a time.
Gabriele Metz
Global Head of Compliance Culture, Communications and TrainingEricsson
SPEAKER
Transform Together: Hands-On Strategies for Culture Change – One Team at a time
Biography
Gabriele is a certified and ICF PCC accredited Organization and Relationship Systems Coach (ORSCC) with more than 25 years of work experience in various HR functions and industries in Europe, Asia, Middle East and Africa.
In her previous role as Global Head of Leadership Transformation with Ericsson, she was leading the evolution of Ericsson's culture, which was one of the CEO’s initiatives. The success of this project has led Gabriele to being recognized as one of Ericsson's top 130 most impactful employees. In August 2024 Gabriele moved to the Legal function where she continues her mission to transform culture with a specific focus on Compliance and Integrity as the Global Head of Compliance Culture, Communications and Training .
Gabriele lives by her purpose which is to “create happy places where people find their voice”.Presentation Outline
Join us for an engaging, one-hour workshop that blends expert insight with hands-on practice. Gabriele will share lessons learned from leading a large-scale culture-change initiative, then guide you through the very tools she uses to spark small shifts that yield lasting impact. You won’t just hear theory—you’ll experience it in action. By the end of this session, you’ll feel inspired, equipped, and energized to catalyze culture transformation from the inside out.
Kevin Thompson
Co Founder & Managing DirectorPEEPL
SPEAKER
Why Employees Trust Doctors More Than HR Processes: From sporadic assessment to continuous care in the age of AI
Biography
Kevin Thompson is a senior talent and assessment strategist who advises large, complex organisations on redesigning strategic workforce planning and talent development in the age of AI.
With experience spanning recruitment, psychometrics, organisational assessment, and enterprise transformation, Kevin works closely with leadership teams across corporate, regional, and state-owned enterprises to move talent practices beyond episodic assessment and static reporting toward continuous, evidence-based capability development.
His work centres on a critical question facing today’s C-suite:
How do organisations build trust, fairness, and workforce readiness when employee expectations are shaped by real-time data, personalisation, and AI-enabled feedback?
As the architect of an AI-enabled talent intelligence platform, Kevin operates at the intersection of:
• human judgement and machine intelligence
• assessment and development
• governance, ethics, and scalable decision-making
Rather than positioning AI as a replacement for HR, Kevin reframes it as an enabler of continuous care — allowing organisations to sense capability earlier, personalise development at scale, and reduce talent risk without increasing administrative burden.
Kevin is known for translating complex ideas into clear, executive-level frameworks, using strong metaphors, interactive dialogue, and commercially grounded thinking that resonates with CHROs, CEOs, and Boards.
His work is particularly relevant for leaders responsible for talent decisions in large, regulated, or high-visibility organisations, where fairness, consistency, and long-term capability are as critical as performance.Presentation Outline
In large organisations — global, regional, or state-owned — talent decisions are often made with delayed data, infrequent assessment, and limited visibility into real capability risk. Assessment tends to occur when hiring, promotion, or problems force it — not when early signals first appear. This strategic session challenges that model.
Drawing on parallels from medicine, data science, and AI, Kevin reframes talent development as continuous care rather than episodic evaluation, and explores why employees increasingly place more trust in external systems — doctors, platforms, and AI — than in internal HR processes.
For senior leaders, this shift has material implications:
• productivity loss from late intervention
• misallocated development spend
• promotion and succession risk
• declining employee trust in “development” programs
The session examines how AI now enables large organisations to:
• sense capability and skill gaps earlier across the workforce
• personalise development at scale across soft and technical skills
• move from static reports to real-time, decision-grade insight
• strengthen governance, fairness, and consistency in talent decisions
This is not a technology showcase or a HR process review.
It is a strategic discussion about workforce risk, capability readiness, and organisational resilience in environments where scale, complexity, and public accountability matter.
Executive takeaway:
The future of talent development isn’t more frameworks or more reports.
It’s continuous care — enabled by AI, and increasingly demanded by employees.
Natalie Gleeson
Vice President Human CapitalPure Harvest Smart Farms
SPEAKER
Wired to Engage: The Neuroscience of Motivation and Human Connection
Biography
Natalie is a forward-thinking Human Capital leader with more than two decades of experience driving people strategies across complex, high-growth environments in the UAE. With an academic background in the Psychology of Work (MSc), she blends deep expertise in strategic HR with a passion for neuroscience and the behavioural sciences that shape how people think, feel, and perform at work.
As Vice President of Human Capital at Pure Harvest, Natalie is leading a cultural and performance transformation that supports scalable, purpose-driven growth. Her approach centres on activating the Future-Ready Set—Emotional Intelligence (EQ), Adaptability Quotient (AQ), and Resourcefulness Quotient (RQ)—as the core capabilities that fuel engagement, agility, and impact. She believes real change happens when people feel connected: to purpose, to each other, and to the future they’re building together.
A passionate mentor, Natalie is committed to shaping the next generation of HR talent through shared learning and practical impact.Presentation Outline
In this session, Natalie explores the brain-based foundations of engagement and motivation, drawing on neuroscience to explain why people connect, perform, and thrive at work. From dopamine-driven goal setting to the role of oxytocin in psychological safety, she demystifies the four key neurochemicals that shape how we experience work. Through practical examples and cultural rituals from her role at Pure Harvest, Natalie shows how leaders can move teams from survival mode to high performance—by designing systems, behaviors, and environments that trigger the right chemistry. Participants will walk away with a deeper understanding of emotional intelligence (EQ), adaptability (AQ), and resourcefulness (RQ) as essential tools for building human-centric, future-ready workplaces.
Biography
Following his bachelor’s degree in computer engineering, Ahmed has joined Shell Egypt since 2004
Since joining Shell, he has worked internationally in various HR areas across the MENA region. Besides Egypt, he served in Jordan, Saudi, UAE, Oman, Tunisia, and Kuwait.
He spent the first decade of his career in technical HR roles (initially as a specialist, subsequently leading large portfolios, and teams) and the latter part is in HR Consultancy leadership roles.
Most recently he led the transition journey in Bapetco where he led the HR team in Bapetco to jointly deliver the modernization agenda related to talent management under the sponsorship of H.E. President AbdelFatah El-Sisi
In 2013, Ahmed became certified assessor where he interviewed and practiced different CBI techniques and managed to bring a lot of good talents into Shell organization. In 2020, he obtained his EMBA degree from INSEAD Business School and CIPD Level 5.Presentation Outline
In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, organizations must adapt to technological advancements, shifting market demands, and workforce expectations. Reskilling and upskilling have become essential strategies to future-proof talent and maintain competitiveness. Reskilling refers to training employees to take on entirely new roles, while upskilling focuses on enhancing existing capabilities to meet evolving job requirements.
This presentation explores how organizations can strategically invest in workforce development to drive performance, engagement, and long-term growth. The need for reskilling and upskilling is driven by several key factors. Digital transformation and automation are reshaping job functions, requiring new technical and soft skills. At the same time, talent shortages and high turnover rates make it critical to retain and develop existing employees. Organizations must also respond to changing customer expectations and global competition. By aligning workforce development with strategic goals, companies can build agility, resilience, and innovation into their core operations.
Uzma Chishti
Group Head of Human ResourcesAl Kabeer Group
SPEAKER
Mentors, Mavericks & Multitaskers: A Generational Journey to Inclusive Leadership
Biography
Uzma’s favourite quote:
“Never stop doing little things for others. Sometimes those little things occupy the biggest part of their hearts”.
Uzma is known for her passion to transform cultures, engage and develop a diverse workforce, especially millennials and help build corporate infrastructure.
She is a certified GRP, Global Remuneration Professional, from WorldatWork-The Total Rewards Association and a Chartered Fellow CIPD. She has lived most of her life in Pakistan but has had the pleasure of living and working in Hong Kong, Japan and now UAE too. She is a well-recognized professional with almost 26 years of diverse global experiences in Human Resources, External & Internal Audit and Education.
Uzma completed her Chartered Accountant’s training, then pursued her MBA in Finance and later undertook a degree in Law. She has been associated with a mix of multinational as well as local organizations, like Deloitte, Springfield School, RASG Chartered Accountants, IBM, Philip Morris International, Arcelik A.S., Coats plc., The Ikigai Group, IFFCO and Al Kabeer Group.
She has had the pleasure to teach 6 to 12 years’ old students as well as engage intellectually with adult learners from BBA/MBA levels, as an educator and as a mentor.
She likes to spend her spare time reading memoirs and biographies and indulge in DIY projectsPresentation Outline
Session Objective:
To inspire leaders to recognize and integrate the strengths of different generational archetypes—Mentors (wisdom), Mavericks (innovation), and Multitaskers (agility)—in their leadership approach to build inclusive, future-ready teams.
1) Same Office, Different Worlds
• Discussion: “In a world where five generations work side by side, what does great leadership even look like?”
2) Understanding the Generational Landscape
• Walking through the five generations in the workplace:
o Traditionalists (Silent Gen), Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z
• Breaking Myths with Data:
o Debunking generational stereotypes (e.g., “Millennials are lazy” or “Boomers can’t adapt”)
3) The 3 Generational Archetypes in Leadership
Mentors
• Represent knowledge, emotional intelligence, business memory
Mavericks
• Represent innovation, risk-taking, disruptive thinking
Multitaskers
• Represent speed, tech-savviness, flexibility
4) Case Stories: Inclusive Leadership in Action
• 2–3 real-world stories:
Highlighting inclusive leadership behaviours:
• Listening across generations
• Creating psychologically safe spaces
• Valuing both legacy and innovation
5) The Generational Inclusive Leader's Toolkit
L.E.A.D. Framework
6) Your Personal Leadership Remix
• Reflection (poll): “What’s one thing you’ll do this week to lead more inclusively across generations?”
7) The Leadership Legacy
• Wrap up:
• Final thought:
o Inclusive leadership is not a trend. It’s the future of sustained excellence.
8) Q&A
Riddhima Kowley
Global Head of Wellbeing and DEINokia Cloud and Network Services
SPEAKER
Yin and Yang of Well-being and Performance
Biography
As the Global Head of Wellbeing and DEI at Nokia Cloud and Network Services, Riddhima is driving forward a research informed strategy that creates a workplace climate where diverse employees thrive, feel supported, and experience equity and inclusion. Her work focuses on fostering regenerative performance and well-being through strategic initiatives integrated with leadership and culture work. Her mission is to bring together well-being and performance in the future of work as she sees them as the yin and yang of business and organizational success.
Her past battles with mental health and burnout inform her work with felt and lived experience. She bravely shares personal stories to connect the human experience and authenticity to her work in the field of well-being and performance. Combine personal experience with her deep expertise in organization development, and you have a systems thinker that influences change across organizations. Riddhima’s expertise as an NLP (neuro linguistic programming) trainer and master practitioner equip her to shape narratives and ways of thinking both at individual and at group levels. Her obsession with neurobiology drives her to bring the awareness of the mind and body in the work she does – connecting individuals’ unique needs to broader programs.
With over 20 years of experience spanning business partnership, culture change, leadership development, and organizational growth, she brings insight into people strategies that promote thriving work environments. She specializes in innovative coaching methods such as equine-guided leadership development and brings a global perspective from living and working across India, France, Egypt, Netherlands, England and now Dubai.Presentation Outline
Plenty of data has started emerging in recent years about how well-being fuels business and organizational performance. Last year’s McKinsey Health Institute published research conducted by Oxford University and Indeed, on how workplaces with the highest well-being scores tend to outperform other stock market indexes. Yet most organizations still separate these two topics and treat them as such. When continuous regeneration of capacity is finally understood as a driver of performance, individuals, leaders, talents and businesses thrive, sustainably. As long as we continue separating the two topics at work, we continue to see a boom and crash cycle repeat itself – burnout, churn and chronic fatigue repeating itself. This in turn impacts innovation, inclusion, and collaboration in the workplace.
Kelly Monahan, researcher at Upwork has shown how the rates of burnout are on the rise amongst AI workers. In this new world, work-life balance has become a thing of the past. Today, we need to learn how to integrate balance into the flow of life and work. And the reframe of well-being fueling performance becomes even more necessary to achieve this integration, to succeed sustainably with our technological advances.
This strategy group will introduce the Fit-To-Play model that NOKIA CNS have been using to integrate well-being into business performance. The three part framework, Fit-To-Play, Fit-To-Play Together and Fit To Keep Playing addresses what people want and need most to feel well at work – individual capacity renewal (in a time of burn out), collaboration and connection (in a time of isolation) and connection to purpose and values (in a time of speed, efficiency and deliverables). NOKIA CNS’s Fit-To-Play model is built on research conducted across over 200 diverse employees and leaders all asking for the same things to feel well at work and therefore be at their best to perform. The strategy group will then dive into the question of how well-being awareness, when integrated into leadership, culture and talent programs of work; can have meaningful impact on performance.
The aim of this strategy group is to leave with shared insight of how peer companies are tackling this challenge, hear each other’s best practices and leave inspired with ideas and renewed energy to carry forward the mission in the AI enabled world of work.
Dr. Juan Swartz
Director / FounderAI Unlox
SPEAKER
Re-Imaging how AI & Science intersect to transform People Development into Performance
Biography
Dr. Juan Swartz is a leading authority in Artificial Intelligence, Digital Transformation, and the Workforce of the Future, with more than 25 years of experience helping global organisations reinvent how their people work, learn, and perform. He specialises in designing future-fit operating models that optimise the balance between human capability and AI automation, enabling HR and People leaders to drive transformation through scientifically grounded, people-centric strategies.
Juan is the architect of multiple proprietary AI-enabled talent intelligence solutions used internationally to predict performance, redesign roles, accelerate capability development, and guide large-scale organisational transformation. His work spans financial services, telecommunications, aviation, retail, mining, and education, where he has led enterprise-wide programmes delivering between $10M and $500M in annual business value while uplifting workforce capability, culture, and strategic alignment.
He has advised executive teams at organisations including Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group, EY, Vodafone, Virgin Atlantic, EE, Gulf Air, Sky, and numerous high-growth companies.
A Chartered Accountant and Chartered Global Management Accountant, Juan also holds an MBA and a PhD in Strategy. His passion lies in equipping HR and People leaders to reimagine their operating models, harness the power of AI, and build workforces that are truly future-ready.Presentation Outline
1. Introduction: How AI can transform People Development
2. The Rise of AI-enabled Individualised Learning
3. Talent Intelligence: The Machine Behind Performance (10 min)
4. Leveraging AI to Quantify ROI: Linking Learning to measurable People & Business Performance
5. How AI ties Learning, Coaching & Knowledge Management together
6. Conclusion & Q&A: How to Start the Journey
2026 Panellists - Facilitated by Rajat Kapoor
We are living in a time where learning has never been more accessible - but also never more overwhelming. Digital platforms now deliver learning in seconds, but the human brain hasn’t evolved at the same pace. Today, learners are experiencing multiple layers of cognitive demand:• Too much content
• Too many screens
• Too little time
• And almost no mental recovery.
The result? Digital overload - disguised as productivity, but experienced as exhaustion.
As organisations, we must ask a brave question: Are we designing learning for human beings… or for algorithms?
The panel discussion is not about rejecting digital. It’s about rethinking digital. It’s about creating psychologically sustainable learning ecosystems where technology supports learning, but does not suffocate it.
Register your interest in the 8th HR & People Development Summit
Date: tbc, 2027
JW Marriott Hotel Marina, Dubai
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