KPMG has announced the judging panel for the Saudi Arabia round of its second annual Global Tech Innovator competition – the winner of which will go on to represent Saudi Arabia competing with 22 other countries and jurisdictions in the global final during Web Summit in Lisbon, Portugal in November. The local finals will take place in Riyadh on 7 September 2022.
The judges
Amal Dokhan
Amal Dokhan is a General Partner at 500 Global MENA overseeing the Sanabil 500 MENA Seed Accelerator program and fund. Prior to joining 500 Global, she was an active angel investor in Saudi Arabia. Amal was the CEO of GEN SAUDI and Managing Director of Babson Global Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership. She was also the Manager of Learning and Design at the Entrepreneurship Center at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, where she co-designed and led the TAQADAM accelerator program and Corporate Innovation programs.
Tala Aljabri
Tala Al Jabri is Venture Partner at HOF Capital. She is an investor in high impact early-stage technology companies in emerging markets. Previously, Tala was a strategy and finance advisor and has worked across the Middle East, Africa, and North America. She obtained her MBA from The Wharton School and master’s in public administration from Harvard University.
Omar Al-Shabaan
Omar Al-Shabaan is an Entrepreneur, Business Developer, and a Consultant with over 15 years of work experience. He is the co-founder and CEO of The Space. He was the Partnership director at MiSK Innovation, a subsidiary of MiSK Foundation, as well as serving as a short-term consultant with The World Bank group on Innovation and Entrepreneurship and was an Advisor for the National Digitization Unit in the Saudi Government. He cofounded The Space, a Saudi company focused on developing and operating coworking spaces, incubators, and accelerators.
Dr. Samer M. Abdallah
Dr. Samer has over 25 years of professional and consulting experience, spanning a range of industries and geographies. He serves as Global Lead Partner and the Head of ICT Sector. He is a renowned expert at major transformational projects, from strategic development to execution. His current focus is on digital transformation and emerging technologies. He has been a trusted adviser to CEOs, senior government officials, and board of directors of leading organizations.
Maz Hussain
Maz Hussain is focused on digital value creation and helps enterprises design answers to big problems and integrates people across multi-disciplinary teams to transform business value. Before coming to Saudi Arabia, he led the Digital Innovation practice for KPMG in the UK. He brings a total of 20 years' industry experience, out of which the last 10 have been focused on digital and innovation. His expertise ranges from creating a compelling vision, developing strategy and high-impact solutions to securing stakeholder buy-in and improving operational effectiveness. He is curious in understanding how the data that we collect can accelerate decision making abilities and drive increased business performance in a disrupted digital economy.
