Khalid is the founder and partner of a number of different companies based in the UAE (Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Fujairah), Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Netherlands. He has devoted 90% of his efforts to establish businesses from the United Kingdom, Denmark and Netherlands in the UAE over the last twenty years.

In addition, Khalid holds a governmental position as an Aviation Consultant focusing on facilitation, aviation standards and economical policy within the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. He has extensive experience in business development, and knowledge of the market needs mainly focused on energy, engineering, manufacturing and aviation sectors.

His recent activities include setting up valve, static measurement devices and aircraft part manufacturing facilities within Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

Scott is a PRINCE2 qualified Project Manager who, prior to joining the Chamber, worked in both public and private sectors, delivering a range of projects from sustainable transport, to contact tracing and e-commerce, all of which have contained elements of stakeholder management and engagement and change management.

Scott’s current role is leading Somerset Chamber of Commerce’s management of the Hinkley Supply Chain which the Chamber runs in partnership with EDF. This involves managing a team to deliver hands-on support and promotion of work opportunities at the largest infrastructure project in Europe, the new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point C, to both local businesses and those further afield. Alongside this, Scott also has responsibility for reporting to EDF the outcomes and results of the work that happens as a direct result of the supply chain team.

With almost twenty years of global supply chain and procurement experience, Sofiya Poland was appointed as the Group Head of Procurement in Al Masaood Group LLC in 2019. She spearheads the procurement and supply chain functions for multiple business units within the corporate support function of the Group. She also imparts training to procurement and supply chain professionals to ensure excellence in the operations.

Sofiya, a British national, played a pivotal role in carving out effective criteria and processes to design and implement the Group’s Digital transformation project. Her solution-driven, can-do attitude has led to significant improvements in the financial bottom line by achieving sustainable savings for the Group. Through effective procurement actions, Sofiya has successfully reduced the addressable spend by 20 per cent annually over the past three years. She has developed divisional policies, processes, standard operating procedures for procurement and supply chain functions in order to maximize benefits and implement best-in-class techniques for multiple revenue streams.

From process redesign to the installation of crucial procurement digital platforms, Sofiya has expertise working on highly challenging procurement transformation projects. Through her experience, she has acquired solid industry knowledge and skills, from theory to execution (S2C, P2P, Spend Visibility, Contract Management and SRM).

Sofiya holds a master’s degree in International Transport Engineering from Azov State Technical University (Ukraine) and was admitted as a Fellow Member of the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (FCIPS) in 2022.

Before joining Al Masaood, Sofiya worked with Etihad Airways as a procurement and supply chain manager, coordinating procurement for numerous essential categories for Etihad flights. She also held mid- and senior-level roles in procurement and supply chain, production/material planning, with Proserv Middle East FZE, Strata Manufacturing PJSC, and B/E Aerospace.

Diana is a certified procurement & supply chain professional. She worked in Lebanon for the leading FMCGs in their industries- Procter & Gamble & British American Tobacco.

She moved to Dubai and worked for two of the renowned tech startups in the region, establishing their procurement department noon.com and heading the procurement department for careem.com.

She is currently working in Dubai as the MEA Strategic Sourcing Lead for Marketing and Sales at Mars, where I am responsible of the establishing strategies for all marketing categories, and for Mars Distributors (more then 50 distributors) across the region, this Distributors project is one of its kind, as we for the first time ever indirect procurement team is heavily involved in managing distributors relationships, improving governance, and negotiating business deals.

Rob Watson is the Director for the Marine Business Technology Centre (MBTC) in Devon. Based in Plymouth, the MBTC supports SMEs to develop the next generation of marine technologies primarily in the areas of assured marine autonomy, clean propulsion and digital oceans. Led by Plymouth City Council, the MBTC is underpinned by world leading research partners in the form of the Universities of Plymouth and Exeter, Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML) and the Marine Biological Association (MBA) and runs Smart Sound Plymouth, a 1000 sq km fully instrumented and managed ocean testing and proving ground. This innovation underpins and forms the focus of the Plymouth and South Devon Freeport.

Rob will be covering the Freeport, the innovation service and the Smart Sound Plymouth testbed.