Fergi Varghese
Fergi brings specialist hands-on experience in internal, crisis, direct, leadership communications and institutional relations. He led corporate communications at Siemens for its 14-country Middle East region, taking it through intensive periods of reputational change and transformation.
Previously, Fergi was client services head at International Public Relations/Shandwick Golin/Harris. He has worked with clients such as Philips, Unilever, Procter & Gamble, Siemens, World Economic Forum, Groupe Accor, TNT Express, The Disney Channel and Mashreq. On the public side, he has worked with various bodies of the governments of the Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain, among others.
Fergi started his career as a business journalist and has studied at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and the Harvard Business School.
Tari Lang
Tari has advised blue-chip corporations and government clients worldwide in reputation risk scenario planning, change management, reputation strategies and infrastructure development.
Between 1988 and 1995, Tari was Director and subsequently Managing Director of The Rowland Company. She was CEO of Edelman Public Relations Worldwide’s UK operation until 2001 when she left to found ReputationInc, the reputation management consultancy based in London, Dubai and Dublin.
Organisations she has advised include The World Bank, Microsoft, P&G, the UK’s Financial Services Authority and Siemens. In the Middle East this includes the Royal Hashemite Court of Jordan, The Executive Office of Dubai, the DIFC, Dubai Healthcare City, Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation, Dubai’s RTA and Masdar, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Airport International Group (Jordan) and the Emirates Foundation.
Tari is on the Nominating Board of Women of the Year Lunch and Assembly and on the Boards of the National Theatre of Scotland and the Edinburgh International Festival
Fermi Kuruvilla
Fermi brings over 25 years of experience in marketing and communications in the Middle East with agencies such as Publicis and Young & Rubicam.
He was part of Publicis based in Dubai (UAE), where he held led strategy development on brands such as Panasonic, Masafi, Siemens, Philips and Olympus. On the public sector, he has worked with government and semi-government organisations in Saudi Arabia, UAE and Qatar in the GCC; plus, Thailand and Japan, among others internationally.
He specialises in pragmatic corporate culture and behaviour change strategies. He is also a keen proponent of performance management for objective measurement of both target setting and results measurement, to enable better decision making in management.
Fermi holds a Master’s degree in communications from Sheffield Hallam University and a Certificate in Business Strategy from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania
Dr Brian Lang
Dr. Brian has over thirty years’ experience of top leadership in some of the UK’s most important education, heritage and research organisations.
As Chief Executive and Deputy Chairman of The British Library, he led the occupation and final delivery of the British Library in London, the largest and most substantial UK public building of the 20th century and established the digitisation of this major institution.
Between 2001 and 2008, as Principal and Vice Chancellor of the University of St. Andrews, he embarked on a major leadership development programme which made the University one of the top five UK universities. He is now Principal Emeritus of the University.
Brian is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and chairs the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the International Advisory Committee of the International Leadership School. He has completed two terms as Chair of the Heritage Lottery Fund in Scotland and as Deputy Chairman of the UK’s National Heritage Memorial Fund.
He currently advises a number of universities in the US and the Middle East.veen
Naveen Paryani
Naveen is a Marcoms specialist with over two decades of experience on some of the world’s leading brands and organisations. This includes Siemens, Unilever, Nestle, Sony, Renault, United Biscuits, Wipro and Etisalat.
After graduating in advertising, he began his career with the renowned Murthy agency in India. He moved to the Middle East in the mid-1990s with Publicis. He later moved to Siemens where he led and managed the brand for the Middle East region.
Naveen’s specialist expertise is in Marcoms campaign management, production / packaging and SEO/SEM.
Fares Ghneim
Fares is a seasoned communications and corporate affairs professional with two decades Middle East experience and particular knowledge of GCC economic development and of regional energy matters. He has wide-ranging expertise developing and implementing communications strategies, including stakeholder engagement, reputation management, media relations and crisis communications. Fares also has extensive experience establishing communications functions, building teams and implementing policies, procedures and best practices.
Roles he has held include head of corporate communications with the Abu Dhabi-based Masdar alternative energy initiative and managing communications and external affairs for oil major BP in the Middle East and South Asia.
Fares has also worked with the Economist Intelligence Unit as an analyst for the Middle East and North Africa region and as Congressional Liaison Officer with Jordan’s diplomatic mission in Washington DC. He has a master’s degree from the Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and speaks Arabic, English and German