Media Leaders Summit Middle East 2023

Alan is the co-founder of HBM Advisory, which partners with news providers to help them maximise the value of their digital content. He advises publishers and other subscription businesses on aligning

Adam Roberts is the Digital Editor of The Economist, based at the headquarters in London. He is responsible for overseeing all digital journalism at the publication, both the daily output and the longer term transition to new forms of storytelling. He has been in this role since 2021. He joined The Economist as a writer in the Foreign Department in June 1998, with a focus on developing countries and transnational issues. From 2001 to 2005 he was the Southern Africa correspondent, based in Johannesburg. Subsequently he was the News Editor of Economist.com, in London. In 2010 he became the South Asia correspondent, based in Delhi, before moving to Paris, in 2015, to be the European business correspondent. From 2018 he took over as US Midwest correspondent, based in Chicago.

Charlie Beckett is a professor in the Department of Media and Communications. He is the founding director of Polis, the London School of Economics’ international journalism think-tank. Professor Beckett is currently leading the Polis Journalism and AI project. He was director of the LSE’s Truth, Trust and Technology Commission that reported on the misinformation crisis in 2018.  He was an award-winning filmmaker and editor at LWT, BBC and ITN. He began his career on the South London Press and ended it as a programme editor at Channel 4 News where he covered major stories such as the terrorist attacks on New York and London.

Christer Solbakk Johnsen is an Editor and Head of Editorial Development at Adresseavisen, Norway. He has been in the industry for more than 20 years, working in various roles across the newsroom. With a keen interest in new technology and its impact on journalism, Johnsen has been at the forefront of leading digital transformation and integrating AI and robotics into Adresseavisen’s operations.

Hamoud is the editor in chief of Fortune Arabia, a Majarra brand. As chief content officer, he leads content, Hamoud is responsible for managing content production following the highest standards across all of Majarra’s websites including Harvard Business Review Arabia, Popular Science Arabia, MIT Technology Review Arabia, and Nafseyati in partnership with Psychologies.

As a Partner at Innovation, Juan Senor has directed projects all over the world helping news operations to re-invent their products and stay relevant with shifting audiences. He has worked and advised hundreds.

Kathrine is executive editor for live news and digital development in the Norwegian broadcaster NRK. She is a true digital first media executive with experience from a number of Norwegian media houses the last 20 years, including BA, VG and TV2 and the last 11 years in NRK. Here she has been working with digital news both as reporter and in various leader positions such as desk editor, deputy news editor, executive front page editor and now as head of live news and digital transformation of the newsroom and news story telling. She also established NRKs first editorial climate change group, working with climate related news topics.

Majed Al Suwaidi was appointed as the Managing Director for Dubai Media City (DMC), Dubai Studio City (DSC) and Dubai Production City (DPC) in March 2016.

Marium Chaudhry is a journalist based in Pakistan for the past 14 years. She has been affiliated with Pakistan’s biggest news network Geo News as a senior executive producer, launching and producing

She is responsible for all WAN-IFRA activities in the countries of the Middle East, working closely with the company’s members in that region. Previously she has held various leading positions at WAN-IFRA.

A journalist, writer, speaker, and media expert. He is currently Chairman Of The Board Of Directors of the UAE Journalists Association and the current Assistant to the President of the General Union of Arab Journalists, the founder and President of Jusoor international center for Media and Development, and currently editor- in-chief of Jusoorpost website, he is the former editor-in-chief of Al Ittihad newspaper, and Former Executive Director of Editing and Publishing at Abu Dhabi Media Company, and former editor-in-chief of National Geographic magazine Arabic version, and former editor-in- chief of AlRoeya newspaper, he assumed responsibilities that were not limited to managing operations and prominent media brands such as Al-Etihad Newspaper, Zahrat Al-Khaleej Magazine, National Geographic Magazine, and Majid Magazine, but instead went beyond developing digital business in the publishing sector in Abu Dhabi media.

Nandagopal Rajan is Editor New Media and Business Head at IndianExpress.com, one of the largest online news media groups in India. He has been a journalist for over two decades and a writer for more. He not only helped bring about more synergy between the print and digital editions of The Indian Express, but also evolved new storytelling methods and added new sections such as Technology and Lifestyle. He also conceptualised and launched four digital editions including ieMalayalam, ieTamil, ieBangla and more recently ieGujarati. He writes on technology, gadgets and everything related. His podcast Our Own Devices gives listeners an insight into latest trends in the world of tech, as explained by the biggest names in the industry. He has worked with the India Today Group and Hindustan Times and is an alumnus of Calicut University and Indian Institute of Mass Communication, Dhenkanal.

Steffen Damborg (MBA) is a digital transformation specialist with 10 plus years of experience in all aspects of running an online business in the media industry. He is a former Digital Director and Chief Development Officer at the leading Danish publisher, JP/Politikens Hus, and is currently focusing on Digital Transformation for global media organisations accrued from his knowledge of working extensively in the Scandinavian market. His digital transformation experience includes different aspects of online media management, strategic development and emergent approaches towards new sustainable digital business models in the disrupted Nordic media market and beyond.