For QLC 2020 featured presenters please see this link: https://qatar.thimun.org/featured-presenters-qlc-2020/
QLC 2021 presenters list can be found here: https://qatar.thimun.org/events/
Keynote Speakers
Click each image to see their stories!
Qatar Leadership Conference 2022 Featured Presenters
Dr. Seda Duygu Sever Mehmetoglu
This workshop addresses climate advocacy with the objective of offering the participants a perspective on how we can build effective climate advocacy policy. The workshop includes an interactive analysis of climate advocacy, followed by an hands-on experience for developing policy pitches on climate-related challenges in Qatar. This experience will increase the participants’ awareness on climate advocacy, on localized climate issues for Qatar and options to address these issues.
Nicole Alexander
What does it mean to live creatively? How can we maintain curiosity for the world that we live in? Join this workshop to find out how we can ensure that we are living a creative life, and what it means for our most vulnerable when we shut off our creativity. Many of us are filled with fears and that can damage our sense of curiosity horribly, and damage who we can be. A creative life is a curious life, and it is essential for a leader to curious about the world. When we meet new people, we need to be able to communicate from a place of strength and courage, however we often end up staying quiet rather than building the most interesting conversations! The fears we are filled with bind us and prevent us from living as our most creative and joyful selves! Join this workshop to discover how we can break these fears by breaking down stereotypes, especially around the perception of special needs and inclusion. Join us to see how each of us can be a safe and inclusive space for everyone that we wish to connect with, and learn to ask the hard questions, to help ourselves grow in who we should be.
Dr. Evren Tok
Would you like to approach Sustainable Development Goals through the eyes of street children and homeless? This workshop offers you an alternative mental guide by sharing the actual stories of those who indirectly support SDGs by walking 40 km a day with a load of 60-70 kilograms. This workshop will help participants understand SDGs, empathize with the less fortunate social segments and reflect on their stories as “invisible” SDG promoters.
Jose Saucedo
During this presentation participants will learn about the global and local impact of plastic pollution. They will learn simple and effective things they can do to help mitigate the problem. From educational activities, to active leadership and entrepreneurship opportunities, to being change agents in their community, the participants will identify ways to align their passion with the needs of our society, finding that there’s ways to do things that are good for business, good to offer people professional development and career opportunities, and also good for nature and the planet.
Khadija Elmagarmid
Medical students are famous for being highly stressed and experiencing burnout. They are also famous for a dark sense of humour, and being completely unfussed in the most disgusting of situations. They will probe ALL parts of the human body and have seen more horrific things by lunch than most other students have in their entire lives. On top of that, believe it or not, we worked VERY HARD to get here, and we experience the most incredible moments of the human conditions, from births to seeing patients heal and be able to go back to their lives. It is extremely competitive in medicine, and the stakes are very high. So how can YOU learn from my experience of setting up my profile, applying to and being accepted as a medical student, and how did I do this whilst maintaining my mental health and avoiding burnout? Join my workshop to get tips to how to set up your career profile as a medical student, and how to learn the best tips for creating a healthy work-life balance.
Pamela Helen Leigh Gamble
How can an idea make a change? What pushes for growth, and makes change? The answer to that is simple; it needs teamwork, and it needs L.E.A.D.E.R.S. Good Leaders are authentic and effective communicators, and through their communication, they can enroll others into the idea, making it richer and more impactful with the diversity of input from a strong team. Communication and leadership are interchangeable skills, highly prized across numerous fields. The British Army, for example, is famous for its expertise in leadership. They’ve spent hundreds of years perfecting it, and have summed it up with seven leadership behaviours: lead by example, encourage thinking, apply reward and discipline, demand high performance, encourage confidence, recognise individual strengths and weaknesses and lastly, strive towards team goals. This creates the acronym L.E.A.D.E.R.S. L.E.A.D.E.R.S will be the main objective of this workshop, and participants will get the opportunity to experience authentic leadership tasks based on British military training.
Girish Jain
We may be a good leader but without understanding the role of communication, we can never be able to lead a team. Good leaders need to communicate their ideas and instructions clearly, and also make sure the communication method used is appropriate, without forcing the team for certain actions or without hurting their sentiments. We need to constantly remind the team of the common goals and their value to the organization to motivate them. Every human being is different and think different so one solution fits for all – on a particular individual may not be applicable to others. Once the leader understands the feeling and emotions of the team, it will be easy for him or her to lead the team in a better way. Join this workshop to find out how to practice your emotional maturity in a variety of leadership scenarios and coach each other to communicate better.
Phylicia French
We all know a picture is worth a thousand words, but sometimes, when you look at that same picture from a different angle your perspective shifts. Just like that, the photo worth a thousand words becomes worth a thousand more. Reframing is the ability to transform unhelpful perspectives and create alternative perspectives that lead to positive change, solutions, and productive outcomes. In this engaging workshop, attendees will understand how to become aware of their perspectives, identify unhelpful thinking styles, and learn how reframing can create a positive team environment, cultivates resilience in the face of adversity, strengthens the mind, and contributes to personal, academic, and professional growth. Additionally, attendees will enjoy reframing activities and challenges. Join me to capture your bigger picture!
Sini Parampota
What kind of world do you want to live in? How important is it to you to live in a Just, Equitable and Inclusive world, and how can you choose your career mindfully to be able to contribute to this world? Join this workshop to discover how you can use the SDGs to build a global mindset and develop your skillsets through career planning activities. This workshop will help you find out which global challenges are opportunities, and how your talents can be used to address them. This interactive workshop will give you a foundation of skills to help you move further on a lifelong journey to realize your mission and your purpose.
Abeedah Diab
How can leaders have lasting impressions on their teams? How can these impressions positively affect the productivity and personal growth of team members? In this workshop, participants will explore what it means to be an inspirational leader. This workshop will draw from the presenter’s own experiences in her early professional journey and insights from the management and leadership field to highlight the key attributes of inspirational leaders. By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to (a) identify inspirational qualities in leaders and (b) will begin to hone the leadership and communication skills necessary to become inspirational leaders themselves.
Amy Johnson
Have you ever stopped to think about how you come up with an idea? Do you come up with ideas on your own or in a larger group? Do you best ideas come to you while doing an activity or while taking a shower? Are you shy at coming up with ideas or sharing your ideas with others? Do you keep your ideas hidden and never unleash your ideas to the world? Are you unsure about how to get buy in and implement your ideas? This 90 mini workshop will open your eyes up to a new way of discovering your best ideas, called “thinking inside the box”. The aim is to provide you with a new set of tools for you to add to your skills toolbox. Because everyone, yes everyone, has the ability to come up with amazing and remarkable ideas and implement them!
Cristina Porumb
As young leaders, have you ever struggled to find your purpose? Now is the time when your development as leaders is at its most critical, and the decisions you make now will shape the way you move through the world as changemakers and persons of influence. The way that we plan, communicate and develop is steeped in cultural sensitivity, and we have to be mindful of how we work with our teams to ensure that we are able to make the most of our teams’ potential! Join this workshops to find out how we can identify talent, and lead our teams courageously and with a moral compass. Learn with Cristina how to have the hard conversations and build a values based leadership approach, using the skills she gained from 12 years of experience in strategic human resources.
Yousra Shibeika
In a time where we are constantly surrounded by media, it is important for everyone to know how interact with it. This is because interacting with digital media became a language we speak, write, read, and listen to; it became our second language. Digital media is now an integral part of our lives and as we create our digital footprints, we must consider how one should consume and produce media. Why is it important to verify information we consume? And how do we do so? Similarly, why focus on what we post, and the language tied to it? This workshop will explore the significance a digital trail can have and how to effectively interact with digital media.
Mika Permenter
What does it mean to live creatively? How can we maintain curiosity for the world that we live in? Join this workshop to find out how we can ensure that we are living a creative life, and what it means for our most vulnerable when we shut off our creativity. Many of us are filled with fears and that can damage our sense of curiosity horribly, and damage who we can be. A creative life is a curious life, and it is essential for a leader to curious about the world. When we meet new people, we need to be able to communicate from a place of strength and courage, however we often end up staying quiet rather than building the most interesting conversations! The fears we are filled with bind us and prevent us from living as our most creative and joyful selves! Join this workshop to discover how we can break these fears by breaking down stereotypes, especially around the perception of special needs and inclusion. Join us to see how each of us can be a safe and inclusive space for everyone that we wish to connect with, and learn to ask the hard questions, to help ourselves grow in who we should be.
Iman Abdelbagi Ismail
“You have to know the past to understand the present” – this quote by Dr. Carl Sagan has truly withstood the test of time. However, in this presentation we consider a variation: “You have to know your past to decide your future.” From high school onwards, students and life-long learners will be constantly asked to explain their “purpose” – why do you do what you do? why are your future plans the way they are? and why should anyone support you in these plans? The only way to answer these questions is to draw from our past – to drag a through-line across our previous experiences to explain where we come from, where we’re going, and why any of that matters to who we are today and in shaping who we will become. But that’s the hard part: how do you make logical sense of all your past experiences to show they’re all connected to a singular grand goal? In this session we’ll discuss how to discover those connections, and to find your purpose by rediscovering your past. And together, we’ll rebuild the stories of our histories to define our own futures.
Vahid Suljic
Whether you’re looking for a job, aiming to grow your name recognition, or are just interested in determining how you come across to others, building and maintaining a strong personal brand is important to finding success. Even if you work for a company, you inherently become a representative of their brand out in the world. Especially in this digital age when anyone can search you at any time, you need to make sure you have your best foot forward at all times. In this workshop, you will learn ways to build and maintain a strong brand presence as well as how to connect that brand to your company. You will learn how to steer the conversations others have about you and more importantly, you will be able to better pitch yourself to potential clients, employers, investors and more.
Luma Diab
An interactive and pragmatic session, this workshop aims to educate young participants on the implementation process of the Sustainable Development Goals. The SDG board game will be used as the interactive tool to help raise awareness on what better ways there are in the world to finding solutions to global problems. Players/ Students will be emulating and taking on active roles in society, from Government to civil society/ NGO to private sector representation to innovator/ scientist roles…etc using tokens to place and dices to roll on the SDG board game. Each time a token lands on an SDG, a card question will be pulled corresponding to that SDG by another player for a quick discussion to take place amongst the team and then the current player will have to answer the question by providing with a solution. An exchange of information and finding practical solutions is what all the outcomes of this session will be centered on. After the end of the workshop, young participants are expected to go back home and identify a problem or issue that they would like to focus on in their own respective communities. They should be finding different ways/ activities to tackling the problem by providing with empirical solutions, from raising awareness campaigns and petitions to taking action to help in reducing the impact of that specific problem. These solutions would then be discussed in the next Qatar Leadership Conference via the projects and activities that would have been created then to tackling major world issues of today from a student and young leader perspective.
Dr. Suresh Devnani
“Optimism is a crucial and valuable leadership skill
Optimism fuels the achievement of long-term goals in addition to problem-solving. Leaders that have a positive outlook on the future work harder to accomplish their objectives. Their staff members and teams expend more effort on achieving common goals. Leaders are more inclined to stick with the strategy even in the face of setbacks or sluggish progress if they believe that the desired end is possible. Despite the fact that unpleasant situations are unavoidable, leaders with strong optimism avoid becoming overly pessimistic. Instead, they are more likely to use active and efficient coping and problem-solving techniques, which will ultimately improve performance and health.
Leading with Optimism: Linking Meaning, Connection & Contribution workshop will be studying the benefits of Optimism in Leadership. Then share and practice methods to help students stay optimistic in challenging situations. This will be followed by constructive Q&A for students to ask relevant questions to support their future leadership roles.
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Maryam Aljassim
Welcome young leaders! As a PR and communication manager, I have found great joy in finding out what makes communication stand out and cut through the noise whilst keeping the values of Msheirib in tact. Qatar is a unique place; a Gulf country with a strong voice in sustainability, development and Gender equality. Msherib has been instrumental in being a leading voice in culture and identity, telling the stories of the people of Qatar, all of us here in this conference. The communication of these voices is interwoven into the Story of Qatar, ever evolving, ever growing stronger. We want to build a workshop that will reach out to the youth to empower them to work in hand with us for future leaders who can perfectly represent the country at all levels in different fields. The workshop will focus on strong communication skills, brand positioning, creative thinking, along with teamwork skills.
Mubarrat Wassey
“You can think. You can speak. But can you do both under pressure? As budding changemakers, we must expect and be ready to handle resistance to our ideas. This workshop is designed to train you to deal with seemingly impossible situations. You will learn how to argue and persuade people who oppose you. This workshop will focus on managing stakeholders who may have completely differing interests. You will be challenged to think on your feet, to persuade those with whom you have nothing in common, and to devise strategies to appeal to people with wildly different opinions.
So if you feel ready to be put under pressure, and improve yourself in the process, this workshop is for you.”
Noor Al Thani
Education Above All! This was the rallying cry of H. H. Shaikha Moza when she set up the program; Education Above All. Since then, EAA has educated over 10 million out of school children, and activated a generation of Youth Advocates such as me, Noor Al Thani. I am here to do what youth activists do best; this workshop will teach you how to initiate change in your local community, and then learning to bridge that with the global community. Join me to learn how a youth activist can target gender inequality. This workshop focuses on building public speaking skills, different methods of mass communication to gain a global outreach, and leadership skills. This workshop would also interlink the activism and change sector of the workshop to the Sustainable Development Goals and the importance of localising them to your nation; within Qatar, which can be done through the National Vision of 2030.
Ghoroor Abdulwaheed
“How many of you are dreaming of becoming a doctor? How many of you have dreamed of becoming an MD as a pathway to becoming a person that can help people make an impact on society and help improve the wellbeing of all? Ghoroor Abdulwaheed is here to share with you how to achieve this dream, and also to expand your horizons to other medical careers. Join this workshop to get careers advice on how to best set up your portfolio for acceptance at university, and what activities you can do outside of your studies to help share who you truly are, and who you wish to become; a person in the field of care.
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Ahmad Al-Saygh
Within the past two decades the humanity has faced critical climate issues, from wildfires, to depleting resources, to global warming and more. While the older generations trying to utilize whatever resources left on Earth, the current and future generations will face big challenges to live on this planet. However, with the emergence of green entrepreneurship it has created many great initiatives that addresses global issues and identifies simple and sustainable solutions that can mitigate the negative impacts on the environment. In this workshop, the participants will learn how to have green “entrepreneurship” thumb in finding solutions and implement their new acquired knowledge to become green entrepreneurs.
Samar Naji Khachab
Positions are often associated with leadership. However, this does not guarantee that persons holding such positions really are leaders at heart. Often, such positions can be abused, and the holder of the position can be more interested in their own glory and advantages. These positions are big responsibilities and can either make or break people’s hearts, minds, and souls. The objective of the workshop is to help the audience recognize that leadership is not about getting a big title or glory; instead, it is about bringing out the best in others and using skills to invest in the growth of others in any organization. How can this be accomplished? Leaders of any organization can follow Bolman and Deal’s Four Frame Model: an approach to leadership that keeps an open mind when making judgment calls.
Waseem Ahanger
During this workshop I look forward to sharing my Insights and experience on the Impact of technology on the future of health care. Healthcare is at crossroads of a generation where use of latest technologies are changing the way healthcare service providers are offering the care. New technologies have helped early diagnosis of many deadly diseases by providing early indicator which helps patients to take preventive actions. During our interactions we will talk about AI and Blockchain impact of care settings with focus on below questions: What Is The future Of Healthcare, The Role of Blockchain in Providing Better Access to Healthcare to All, The Opportunities for Community Leadership and Impact Through Blockchain, and finally, How Hamad is leading the Charge in Decentralizing Healthcare
Raja Arerdor
With stories, leaders can inspire communities. This hands-on workshop will focus on the basics of storytelling through comics. Participants will learn the main ways to consider when writing and illustrating a comic story to impact their community and how they can utilize the main three elements that make a great story; goal, creativity and relevance. Participants will also learn the multiple stages of storytelling and how to make their story reach a wider audience and create their comic. Participants who complete impactful comics during this workshop will have an opportunity to be featured as part of the Qatar Reads Family Reading Program.
Hanna Moazam
Our world is evolving and changing incredibly fast. Many of you probably can’t remember a time before being able to access the world at the click of a button, but it’s only within the last 20 years that mobile phones (not even touch screen smartphones!) became mainstream. Being in the middle of such rapid innovation means we can become a little numb, and take things for granted without truly questioning how they work. Artificial Intelligence is one example of a type of technology which is suddenly everywhere – grading your exams, growing your food, personalizing your Netflix recommendations, getting astronauts to space … AI powers more things than you can imagine. Despite the widespread application of AI, it is not a silver bullet. Moreover, it can sometimes be truly detrimental to society if misused or misunderstood. If you want to understand more about the basics of AI, its positive impacts on society, and most importantly, are willing to ask and debate the difficult questions about AI how it can negatively impact our world, then I look forward to seeing you at the session!
Ian Tulley
What does Mental Health mean? As Chief Executive for Mental Health for Hamad Medical Corporation, this workshop will show participants how a nation can build policy to support a mental health plan for it’s people? All participants will be able to join Mr. Ian Tulley to find out Qatar’s plan for mental health.
Kevin Hines
Subject matter expert, suicide survivor and advocate Kevin Hines shares his story of hope and celebration of life. Kevin is a mental health advocate, global speaker, best-selling author, award-winning filmmaker and entrepreneur who reaches audiences all over the world with his story of an unlikely survival and his strong will to live. Two years after he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder (at 19 years of age), he attempted to take his own life by jumping from the Golden Gate Bridge. He is one of only thirty-four (less than 1%) to survive the fall and he is the only Golden Gate Bridge jump survivor who is actively spreading the message of living mentally healthy around the globe.
Sabina Uzakova
This workshop is integral to the development of students who are entering their young adulthood and will provide insight on how one can build healthy relationships with others. Attendees will learn about the foundations of healthy relationships, components that make relationships meaningful as well as various signs that will help individuals recognize unhealthy patterns in relationships.
