Dr. Andrew Dahdal

Associate Professor, Qatar University

Dr. Andrew Dahdal (LLB (Macq) (Hons)/B Com, PhD (UNSW)) teaches at the College of Law, Qatar University; He is Chair of the Commercial Law Discipline group at the International Association of Law Schools (IALS) and Section Head (Economic Diversification) at the Centre for Law and Development (CLD). Andrew is also an industry consultant that researches and publishes on a range of financial services topics particularly relating to technological innovations. He has taught law in Australia, Europe and the Middle East and currently heads an international project exploring the regulatory changes needed in Qatar to strengthen the fintech landscape.

William Cattan

Senior Partner, Sultan Al-Abdulla & Partners & Co

Mr. Cattan has been active in Qatar since 1995 when he worked in Doha on the project financing of some of the first LNG production facilities in Ras Laffan. He has lived and practiced law in Qatar for the last 17 years.

Mr. Cattan has expertise in a number of specialty areas of practice. These including the energy sector in Qatar. Mr. Cattan is ranked at the highest level — “Band 1, Projects and Energy – Qatar” — in the Chambers Guide to The Legal Profession. He also authored the Qatar chapter in Chambers and Partners’ first edition of a practice guide on global “Energy: Oil & Gas” law published in November 2015, and an updated version published in 2019. Mr. Cattan also has substantial experience with international project finance, bank finance, and equipment finance transactions.

A large part of Mr. Cattan’s practice involves providing advice on the laws of Qatar, including the Qatar Civil Code, and on Qatar law-governed transactions.

Mr. Cattan obtained his undergraduate degree at Dartmouth College and his Juris Doctor at Georgetown University. He is a member of the New York and District of Columbia (Washington DC) bars.

Brenda Connolly

Leadership Facilitator; Changeosity

With over 16 years of leadership experience working in high performing FTSE 100 and Fortune 500 companies, Brenda brings hands-on experience of developing and leading teams, transforming cultures and successfully defining and executing strategies in a volatile world.

Brenda’s style is adaptive, intuitive and co-creative. Her work is underpinned with knowing that when we focus on connecting authentically to ourselves and to one another we transform teams and organisations by enhancing communication, collaboration and creativity.

Qualifications and Accreditations:
Certified Transpersonal Coach – IHE
Cultural Transformational Tools (CTT) Consultant – Barrett Values Centre
HeartMath Certified Practitioner
U Theory Visual Presencing – MIT
Nonviolent Comm. Prac. – CNVC
MTa Learning – Certified Facilitator
Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) Teacher Training – University of Oxford

Julia Onslow-Cole

Global Government Strategies Partner, Fragomen

Julia is a Partner specialising in Global Government Strategies and Compliance at Fragomen. She divides her time between London and Dubai. Julia supports clients worldwide to optimise global mobility strategies, enhance compliance and leverage best practice in all critical immigration-related policies including crisis management. In addition, Julia advises private clients on complex international migration solutions. Before joining Fragomen Julia was a Partner, Legal Markets Leader and Head of Global Immigration at PwC.

Julia has advised several governments on immigration matters. She liaised with the UK government and business on Brexit and has given expert evidence at the European Parliament. Julia was a formal advisor to the Home Office in the UK on business investment and growth and represented business at the UK Prime Minister’s immigration stock take meeting. She continues to participate in stakeholder engagement with the UK government and liaises closely with governments in the Middle East.

Julia is the co-signatory of a number of reports on the impact of migration and is publicly recognized as a thought leader in global immigration.

Dr Mona Al Hajri

Assistant Professor of Constitutional and Administrative Law at Kuwait University – College of Law

DR MONA AL HAJRI holds a PhD from the University of Lorraine, Nancy, France. She has many specialised comparative types of research in the fields of:

• Partnership contracts between the public and private sectors;
• BOT contracts;
• Administrative contracts according to the Kuwaiti Public Tenders Law and the impact of the Corona crisis on the implementation of the administrative contract.

Waseem Khokhar

Global Commercial Disputes Leader – Middle East Region, Reed Smith

Agni Skafidas

Managing Director at OLAM Group

Agni Skafidas, Managing Director at OLAM Group, helps clients thrive through reliable and dependable HR expertise. Agni focuses on sustainable HR solutions including employee relations, HR policies, performance management, total rewards and well-being. Together with her team, she transforms multinational companies and local SMEs through commercially driven and employee-centric initiatives. Agni ensures clients can optimise their HR services through compliant and sustainable practices.

Agni had the opportunity to lead HR teams in operational and strategic roles and served as Director, Total Rewards at Smith & Nephew and set up the HR systems for new country operations at Emirates Airlines. Prior to this, she contributed with her HR expertise to the success of Rockwell Collins, Bord Bia/Irish Food Board and sas Institute, a long-standing Best Place to Work® company.

Agni provides regular training and insights sessions on employment law and HR on various topics which include managing performance, gender and equal pay, compensation trends and practices in the region, data analytics for HR, leadership and introduction to HR for first time managers in addition to customised workshops for in-house clients. Agni is an adjunct faculty member of the University of Middlesex in Dubai, teaching post-graduate HR courses.

Agni holds a Master’s Degree in Business Studies from Smurfit School of Business, University College Dublin, Ireland and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), World at Work, Association for Coaching and the Project Management Institute.

Nouran Ibrahim

Director | Transfer Pricing | Deloitte & Touche (M.E.)

Nouran a Transfer Pricing Director at Deloitte – Saleh, Barsoum and Abdel Aziz. She has 13 years of experience working in tax.

Nouran has assisted a large number of multinationals formulate their transfer pricing documentation, preparing them for potential tax administration queries and requests.  She has also worked with a number of companies on their transfer pricing planning and structuring efforts.

She has worked on a wide variety of transfer pricing documentation projects. These international as well as local transfer pricing transactions covering a variety of industries including, pharmaceutical, telecommunications, consumer products, retail, services, IT, heavy machinery, electronics, automotive, and financial.

Nouran has experience with various services transactions, handling a number of documentation projects defending such transactions as well as planning projects. She has experience on intellectual property transactions including various royalty structures including trade name/trademarks, technical services, and knowhow as well as in exit charge calculations for large buy-in/out arrangements.

Nouran spent the last two years working for the FTSE department in Deloitte London. During this period she worked on large APAs, policy design, and large centralized documentation projects using Deloitte tax technology.

Parag Garg

Senior Manager | Transfer Pricing | Deloitte & Touche (M.E.)

Parag is a Senior Manager with over 11 years’ of diverse experience in advising clients on complex tax and TP issues; strategy, planning and implementation of tax efficient cross border transactions; due diligence; APAs; controversy management; risk mitigation strategies, various planning and compliance documentation.

Parag began his career with Deloitte in 2012 and leveraged his past experience and knowledge to establish Specified Domestic Transfer Pricing practice in the Firm. His strong client relationship, networking, negotiation, management and presentation skills are focused on client service excellence and building new opportunities for the Firm.

Parag is a Chartered Accountant and his experience prior to joining Deloitte has included tax and transfer pricing work. He enjoys listening to music, travelling to hill stations. When he is not at work he can be found at home with his family.

Joy Mukherjee

Director | Transfer Pricing | Deloitte & Touche (M.E.)

Joy is Director in the Transfer Pricing practice of Deloitte in the Middle East Region and is based out of Riyadh in Saudi Arabia (KSA).

Joy is a seasoned TP professional having more than fifteen years of experience behind him. During the course of his career he has worked in various countries including the UK, Vietnam and India. Prior to joining Deloitte KSA, Joy was with Deloitte Australia working as an Account Director in the TP practice at Perth. He has been involved in various transfer pricing assignments including advisory, audit defense for clients and alternative redressal mechanisms like APAs and MAPs. 

During the course of his work he has advised various clients in Energy & Resources, Telecommunications, Manufacturing and Technology industry segments.

His role in KSA involves business development, team management, advising clients on compliance requirements, transfer pricing planning strategies, tax audit support and other advisory work. 

Joy has a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce and a Masters Degree in Business Administration specializing in Finance.