Tom has more than 18 years of progressively responsible experience managing successful travel retail businesses, predominately in the Middle East and also in Eastern Europe. He has been leading the Muscat Duty Free team since 2008.

Among his significant previous positions, Tom served as General Manager of Dufry Belgrade Serbia, Operations Manager of Beirut Duty Free Lebanon, Operations Manager of Kuwait Duty Free and has held senior retail roles in Pakistan, Bahrain and Russia all within the ARI group. He is a driven strategic thinker with great customer focus and team leading abilities.

Tom is a graduate of Stirling University Scotland, having been awarded an MBA in International Retailing.

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 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!

Nima 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.

Gary Chapman (ACA – New Zealand)  has been a key member of the management team for over two decades.

In his current role – President (Group Services & dnata), Emirates Group – he is responsible for the global operations of dnata, the leading air services provider with businesses in 38 countries worldwide as well as a number of other associated company businesses within the Emirates Group. He is also responsible for the support functions of the Emirates Group (Finance, IT, Human Resources, Medical Services, Legal, Insurance, Performance Development).

Gary is Chairman of Maritime and Mercantile International LLC and dnata Singapore Pte Ltd, and a member of the board of directors for Emirates Flight Catering Co. LLC, Emirates CAE Flight Training, Premier Travel Inn Gulf LLC and dnata’s overseas ground handling operations.

Prior to joining the Emirates Group in 1989 Gary spent 12 years with a prominent Arab trading concern involved in construction and the provision of support services to the oil industry. His assignment postings included the Sultanate of Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, Paris and Houston.

Costas is a Director with Deloitte’s consulting practice based in Dubai.  He specializes in assisting clients in the real estate and hospitality sectors. Since joining Deloitte in 2006, Costas has project managed several large-scale real estate and hospitality consulting assignments across the UAE and the GCC region.

His areas of specialization include strategic planning, real estate development planning; development feasibility; hotel operator selection, and hotel operational/performance improvement reviews. Costas holds a PhD from the University of Strathclyde, UK on hotel feasibilities and valuations and has served, in various capacities, the hospitality and real estate real estate industries for over 18 years.

Rami Madi joined the Chalhoub Group 12 years ago managing the regional perfumes division. Rami brought with him 8 years of experience in the perfume industry in the Middle East region. Rami then moved to the luxury watches, accessories and writing instruments division within the Chalhoub Group managing the local market and duty free shops accounts in the Middle East.

Five years ago Rami was given an assignment and challenging position as General Manager for Traveller Ltd, the Chalhoub Group’s specialized airlines in-flight duty free company adding his 15 years of experience in luxury brands to the in-flight duty free sector with airlines across the Middle East region and has grown the company by 400% in the years under his leadership up until 2011.

David has over 20 years’ airport travel retail experience. After qualifying as a chartered accountant, his innate entrepreneurial spirit lured him into a fledgling travel retail business called Tigers Eye.
He played a leading role in growing the business from a marginally profitable chain of four outlets to its current position as the destination retail market leader in Southern Africa with 65 outlets in Southern Africa and a further 12 in the Caribbean.

Being part of Tourvest, a multi channelled integrated tourism group, David has exposure to most aspects of tourism, however his core experience is destination retail. Whilst many retailers talk about “sense of place”, he believes the real challenge is to create retail experiences that hold “pride of place”!

He is a firm believer in trying to break the step and repeat “cookie cutter” approach to retail. Tourvest’s award winning “Out of Africa” destination outlets are clear examples of how history, imagination, focus and retail passion can differentiate airport malls, adding interest and value to the overall customer experience and significant revenue to airport operators.

Ghanem Mohammed Obaid Al Hajri’s professional career in aviation took off in 1980, when he joined Sharjah Airport Authority, as Manager Administration. He was promoted to General Manager of Sharjah Airport Authority, in 1983. After completion of fourteen successful years he was designated as Director General in 1997.

He earned his B.Sc. degree in Management from Woodbury University, Los Angeles, California, USA in 1979. He obtained his Master’s degree in Airport Planning and Management from Loughborough University of Technology in February 1990.

He enrolled for Doctor of Philosophy in Air Transport with Cranfield College of Aeronautics and successfully attained the same in August 1997 on the subject ‘Sea-Air Cargo Transportation.

Besides holding several other respectable positions, Dr Ghanem Al Hajri is presently a board member in Air Arabia Board of Directors, Immediate Past President & Chairman of the Nominating Committee of Airports Council International (ACI) and holds honorary positions in various international organizations whilst In 2012 February, Dr Ghanem promoted to Chairman – Sharjah Airport Authority & Member of Sharjah Executive council.

John joined Aer Rianta in 1977 having worked with two American Multinationals, Bechtel and Merck Inc. He went to Dubai in 1983 as part of the team that set up Dubai Duty Free and stayed on as Deputy General Manager until 1990.

He then joined Aer Rianta International and held the position of Director and General Manager at Moscow Duty Free which was then ARI’s largest business unit. In 1992 he transferred to Bahrain as General Manager of Bahrain Duty Free. The following year he was instrumental in establishing Aer Rianta International Middle East and held the position of Managing Director until he retired in December 2010. During John’s time at ARIME it grew to become the largest international operator in the Middle East with the greatest geographical footprint and turnover just short of one billion US Dollars.

John was instrumental in establishing MEDFA and was elected its first President in 2001. He has spoken at a number of trade conferences including ACI, The Trinity Forum, TFWA Asia Pacific & GATE ONE2ONE and MEDFA.