Nima Abu-Wardeh, bilingual English Arabic broadcast journalist specialising in Arab issues

She presents BBC World’s weekly business and finance programme, Middle East Business Report (MEBR) and was part of the team that set up the programme. She has reported, produced and presented programmes for Al Jazeera and Dubai’s Business Channel as well as BBC World.

Before joining MEBR, Nima was a regular guest on BBC Radio 4's Four Corners addressing Arab issues, and a guest on BBC World's Dateline London as a regional expert.

Nima is regarded as an opinion leader and in this capacity is approached by think-tanks, the corporate world and government organisations for her insight. She is also invited to give talks as well as participate in off-the-record discussions about the region.

Nima provides consultancy and media training to government institutions and the private sector. She has written opinion pieces for Forbes Arabia and has taught media courses at Zayed University in the United Arab Emirates as a visiting lecturer.

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Vice President non-aeronautical revenues
Abu Dhabi Airport Company

Dan Cappell has experience on all three sides of the Trinity having spent 22 years with Nestle SA the last ten as General Manager of Nestle International Travel Retail before moving to the Middle East in 2002 as Deputy Managing Director of Abu Dhabi Duty Free & Inflight catering.

Dan joined Aer Rianta International Middle East in June 2006 as General Manager Operations and was responsible for Group procurement, commercial strategy and development across the region. Dan returned to Abu Dhabi Airport Company in December 2007 as Vice President Non Aero nautical revenue and business development and was subsequently promoted to Senior Vice President Commercial in May this year. Dan cites playing golf badly, cooking and reading as his main forms of relaxation.

General Manager, Bahrain Duty Free

Garrett has worked in the duty free industry with Aer Rianta International since 1989. During this time he has held  senior management positions in fast moving and environmentally challenging duty free operations in Russia and Ukrain . Since April 2011 he is the General Manager of the multi award winning Bahrain Duty Free.

Garrett is a dynamic, confident and visionary leader who recruits and inspires strong and experienced management teams. In conjunction with these teams he creates great places to work which  become profitable duty free businesses. He believes strongly in maximizing customer value via clearly defined and communicated strategic market management. This gives all performance orientated team members a sense of purpose and direction which in turn will bring added shareholder value.

CEO Chalhoub Group

Anthony Chalhoub is currently joint Chief Executive Officer of the Chalhoub Group and General Manager of four luxury brand distribution companies in the region: Habchi & Chalhoub, the Louis Vuitton joint venture, MAC and Fitra.
It was in 1975 that Anthony joined the Group founded and managed by his father, immersing himself in business life by moving to Kuwait where his parents had already been working for several years developing Franco-Kuwaiti relations. He worked hard to promote and gain acceptance from the prominent names in perfumes, high fashion and jewelry.
Mindful of maintaining the image of the brands that placed their trust in him and to keep France's high profile in the Middle East; he has performed all his functions as Overseas Trade Counselor starting in 1991 and took an active part in the "France in Kuwait" exhibitions of 1991, 1994, 1996 and 2004.

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Global Category Manager/SBD Prestige Products, Procter & Gamble

Uwe Faber has worked for P&G for the past 15 years. He worked on diverse categories in DACH prior to entering the TR business. Initially responsible as area manager for UK/Ire, he later organized and led a Global Travel Retail Trade Marketing organization which largely determines P&G’s channel strategy. Following an interim Management assignment in the Middle East, Uwe was given Global Category Management and Shopper Insights responsibility for P&G Prestige Products.

Based in Geneva, he has developed a shopper based Category Management approach to the fragrance business that is being adopted by numerous top retailers around the world.
Combing shopper understanding and category POS data shared by retailers, he helps these to better profile their equity and win in their market place.

Born in 1951, Gunnar Heinemann grew up in Hamburg.

After graduating from high school he attended the military service which was followed by his studies of Economics in Zurich and subsequent stays in London and Paris.

In November 1978 he entered Gebr. Heinemann as co-owner and is today general partner and member of the Gebr. Heinemann board.

He is married with 2 sons.

Director of Environments, PORTLAND

Lewis joined Portland in May 2006 as Director of Environments and has over 20 years of design consultancy experience working for leading creative agencies in Europe and the U.S. He has a comprehensive track record of leading multi-disciplinary creative teams to design and deliver branded experiences for retail and leisure environments, communication graphics and exhibition spaces.

Lewis has developed a particular expertise in defining, designing and implementing strategic re-alignments for major brands across a broad range of consumer sectors and design disciplines. Currently he is leading a series of key projects for Diageo's Global Travel Retail Team. he has also led projects for Larnaca Duty Free (Cyprus),  Aeroports de Paris, Luxottica, Westfield (UK), Ajmal (UAE) and Shoppers’ Stop department stores in India. Lewis was also involved in our projects for The Nuance Group at Bangalore and Hyderabad airports in India.

Lewis is an avid writer of articles for key retail and marketing publications. He is a regular speaker at industry events and always relishes the opportunity to challenge and debate the burning topics of the day!

Executive Vice Chairman, Dubai Duty Free

Galway man Colm McLoughlin began his retailing career in London in the 1960’s working for the popular high-street chain of Woolworths, before moving back to Ireland to work for Shannon Duty Free. As General Manager of Shannon Duty Free, Colm was part of a team of ten from Aer Rianta (the Irish Airport Authority) who moved to Dubai in 1983 at the request of the Dubai Government, to set up Dubai Duty Free.

Following the successful opening of Dubai Duty Free in 1983, Colm was asked to remain as General Manager of the start-up operation, which in its opening year had a turnover of US$20 million. Colm later became the Managing Director of Dubai Duty Free, which is currently the largest single airport retailer in the world (in terms of turnover) with sales of US$1.27 billion in 2010. Employing 4,000 staff, Dubai Duty Free is widely regarded for having set the benchmark for the duty free industry in the region.

In July 2011, Colm was named Executive Vice Chairman of Dubai Duty Free and its subsidiary businesses, which include The Aviation Club, The Irish Village, The Century Village and the Dubai Tennis Stadium; home to the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. Colm’s remit also includes the soon-to-open Jumeirah Creekside Hotel, located on the Aviation Club grounds, which was developed by Dubai Duty Free and will be managed by the Jumeirah Group.

Under Colm’s direction Dubai Duty Free has become a retailing giant and the recipient of some 200 industry awards. During the course of his 42 years in the duty free industry, Colm himself has been honored with several personal awards.

Partner and Co-founder of m1nd-set - Global Marketing Intelligence & Solutions

Dr. Peter Mohn (42) graduated as a Psychologist and earned a Ph.D. in Business Psychology at the University of Göttingen, Germany. Peter is of Norwegian origin, has lived in Denmark, Belgium, The Netherlands, Finland, UK and Germany and lives in Switzerland since 2002. Peter has been working for various leading global market research agencies since 1993 and has been in top management positions since 2000. He has been specializing in Travel Retail research since 2004 and consults various leading brands as well as shop operators in this field.

Based at Lake Geneva, m1nd-set is specialized in Travel Retail and Airport marketing research & consulting on a global basis. m1nd-set conducts consumer research at airports, at border shops, on ferries and cruises on over 60 markets worldwide for global Travel Retail brands as well as operators, airports etc. m1nd-set conducts quantitative and qualitative research on many different subjects, such as Travel Retail shopping motivation & behaviour, mystery shopping, brand awareness and evaluation, price elasticity (conjoint surveys), promotion effectiveness, observation of shoppers, travel retail exclusive product testing, segmentation surveys etc.

Business Development Manager, IDF

IDF Cairo act as Duty Free retailers, distributors and ship chandlers in Egypt. Sherif joined the company, founded by his father Kamal Toulan, in 2003 after graduating from the American University in Cairo. He started out as Business Development Coordinator until 2005 and is now responsible for managing all new projects within the company. He has acquired several airport retail concessions for IDF and is currently working on developing IDF's domestic subsidiary Global Brands. Sherif is an active member of the American and the German Chamber of Commerce in Cairo.

Deputy Chief Operating Officer, Middle East, Dufry Sharjah

Erik was born in Rotterdam in 1966 and graduated Business Economics in 1989 at the Erasmus University. He accumulated huge commercial strategic experience during positions at companies as Foot Locker, Levi Strauss and Asics, as well on retail as on the wholesale part of the business. Erik moved into travel retail with Dufry Eurasia, based in Sharjah U.A.E., in June 2007. At present time, Erik is leading Dufry’s operations in the Middle East, India and Asia Pacific, where his main focus has been, is and will be, people. It is all about people. Erik believes that if you are able to keep your people productive and happy, you will go a long way!

Executive Director – Deputy Publisher, The Moodie Report

Dermot Davitt is an experienced editor and commentator working in the travel retail media. He joined The Moodie Report in April 2006 as Deputy Publisher and Editor of the company's Digital Print Division. Previously he spent 10 years with trade magazine Duty-Free News International, six of those years as Editor-in-Chief. He is based in Galway, Ireland