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
For more information and live updates on our speaker programme, follow our Summit Events - Dubai LinkedIn page
If you are interested in a speaking opportunity for our 2026 Summit, please contact Kairen.Lewis@summit-events.com
Speakers & Abstracts
2026 speakers below
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.
Dr. Don Vimal
Head of Human Resources - UAE, Middle East, & North AfricaAmerican Express
SPEAKER
Ai vs Human Coaching
Biography
Dr. Don Vimal is a Visionary Human Capital Architect and a highly respected executive with over 22 years of progressive leadership experience across the MENA, UK, and South Asia regions. As the Head of Human Resources for American Express MENA, he operates daily at the intersection of strategic agility, talent development, and digital transformation—the precise challenge facing the global C-suite today.
The Authority on AI + Human Coaching
Dr. Vimal is uniquely qualified to deliver this Master Keynote, merging deep academic rigor with practical, high-stakes enterprise experience. His expertise moves beyond theory to provide a proven strategic blueprint for scaling leadership capacity:
• Bridging Psychology and Technology: With a background in Business Psychology and Doctorate, Dr. Vimal specializes in the essential human element of transformation, guiding executives on when and how to leverage AI to augment the irreplaceable trust, intuition, and empathy provided by human coaching.
• Architect of Scalable L&D: As a practitioner who has designed and executed comprehensive coaching and leadership development initiatives for global organizations, he understands the imperative to transition L&D from an expensive luxury to a scalable, continuous engine for the entire organization.
• The Ethical Governance Mandate: Recognized for regulatory excellence and operating at the intersection of people experience and ethical governance, Dr. Vimal provides the C-suite with the necessary framework for risk mitigation and trust-building when deploying AI—addressing data privacy, bias, and compliance (a key concern for financial and global leaders).
• The ROI Focus: His experience as an Excellence Award Team Leader and a Certified Six Sigma Professional ensures his methodology is rooted in measurable performance and strategic business KPIs.
Dr. Vimal's Master Keynote is essential for any executive seeking to transform their leadership development strategy into a verifiable, data-driven competitive advantage for the next decade.Presentation Outline
Why This Session is Your Most Critical Investment
Traditional coaching is high-impact but low-scale, creating a dangerous leadership capacity gap that slows growth and innovation. Meanwhile, AI promises scale but struggles with the essential human elements of trust, ethics, and emotional transformation.
This session moves beyond the simplistic "AI vs. Human" debate. You will gain a strategic blueprint for synthesizing the best of both worlds. Leave with an evidence-based model to democratize personalized development, drive measurable behavioral change, and achieve an unprecedented ROI on your leadership budget.
Core Deliverables: Your Executive Action Plan
In this session, you will acquire the strategic frameworks and evidence to immediately act on:
• Quantifying the Gap & The Evidence: We will rigorously quantify the cost of your current leadership capacity gap and provide an analysis of the proven strengths and weaknesses of both AI and human coaching, backed by the latest research.
• The Strategic Integration Framework: You will learn framework for strategically combining human and machine intelligence, effectively turning AI into your most powerful coaching diagnostic and reinforcement tool—freeing human coaches for their highest-value, transformational work.
• The ROI Toolkit for the C-Suite: Master a practical guide to moving beyond "coachee satisfaction" to a Tiered Evaluation Model that links coaching efforts directly to strategic business KPIs (e.g., leader attrition, project acceleration, employee engagement scores).
• The Implementation Roadmap: A concise, step-by-step implementation plan for piloting and scaling an integrated AI ⊕ Human coaching program in your organization, complete with governance and ethical best practices.
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.
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
Register your interest in the 7th HR & People Development Summit
4-5 February 2026
JW Marriott Hotel Marina, Dubai
Submit your name and email address and a member of the Summit team will send you further details including:
- the confirmed list of attendees
- instructions on how to apply for a delegate place
- sponsorship options