Dr. Riz is the Founder & CEO of Global AI Excellence (GAIX). He is an AI Strategist, AI governance leader, technologist, professor, author, and serial entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience specializing in business and AI strategy, digital transformations, AI governance, risk management, compliance, and AI/ML solutions. His expertise extends to project management, leadership development, and executive education at prestigious institutions, including Harvard, MIT, and the University of Cambridge. As a former Deloitte executive and management consultant, Dr. Riz has empowered the public sector and Fortune 500 companies—including PepsiCo, AT&T, Merrill Lynch, Progressive Insurance, the German Hospitals Group, STERIS Corporation (life sciences and biotech), PARCO (Oil & Gas), and Eaton Corporation—to transform their visions into reality. Moreover, he is an AWS Certified AI Practitioner and AI Early Adopter.

He has held leadership positions, including CEO, Chairman of the IT Board, Senior Executive at Deloitte, and President of the Project Management Institute (PMI) chapter. Dr. Riz has been a keynote speaker and regularly presents at conferences, including those organized by PMI and Intel. He has taught AI strategy, leadership, project management, and entrepreneurship in executive education programs at Harvard, MIT, and the University of Cambridge (UK).

In the last 10 years, Dr. Riz's impactful work with the public sector and large-scale companies has led to cost savings of over $300 million for clients through IT/AI governance, risk management, compliance, program management, and operational efficiencies. Dr. Riz has helped global companies achieve an average of 25% year-over-year revenue increases by formulating and executing business and AI strategies, implementing AI/ML solutions, re-engineering business processes, enhancing business acumen, fostering an entrepreneurial culture, and executing digital transformations. He has enabled organizations to adopt responsible AI while managing risks and complying with applicable laws and regulations.

Dr. Riz has received the "Microsoft Award for Innovative Vision and Dynamic Leadership." He has authored articles on “AI Governance Framework: How to Manage AI Risks and Compliance” and “Managing Projects Successfully through AI and ChatGPT.” He is also the author of "Blue Shark Team-Building: Leading High-Performance Teams during a Crisis," a seminal work offering insights into navigating challenges like COVID-19.

He holds a Ph.D. from SKEMA Business School, an MBA from Cleveland State University, and a B.Sc. in Information Systems from Ohio State University. Moreover, he holds professional certifications, including AWS Certified AI Practitioner, Project Management Professional (PMP), and Certified Scrum Master (CSM).

Dr. Nelson Phillips is the Christian A. Felipe Professor, Vice Chair for Academic Affairs, Ph.D. Faculty Advisor, and Distinguished Professor, Technology Management in the College of Engineering at the University of California Santa Barbara. Originally from Canada, he holds a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering and an MBA from the University of Calgary, as well as a Ph.D. in Organizational Analysis from the University of Alberta. Prior to joining UCSB, Dr. Phillips was Professor of Innovation and Strategy at Imperial College Business School in London, UK where he was also the Associate Dean of External Relations and the Co-Director of the Centre for Responsible Leadership. He was also the Beckwith Professor of Management Studies at Cambridge University’s Judge Business School from 2001 to 2005, and a faculty member in the Faculty of Management, McGill University from 1993 to 2001. He is currently the Co-Editor of Innovation: Management and Organization, sits on the board of governors of the Academy of Management, and is on the advisory board of the Society for the Advancement of Management Studies. Dr. Phillips is also Research Fellow at Cambridge Centre for Social Innovation at Cambridge Judge Business School.

Dr. Phillips serves on the editorial boards of the Academy of Management Journal, the Academy of Management Perspectives, and Research in the Sociology of Organizations. His book Constructing Organizational Life: How Social-Symbolic Work Shapes Selves, Organizations, and Institutions (with Tom Lawrence) was awarded the 2021 George R. Terry Book Award for the book judged to have made the most outstanding contribution to the global advancement of management knowledge during the last two years. In 2018, he was the recipient of the Joanne Martin Trailblazer Award given by the OMT Division of the Academy of Management to recognize scholars who have opened up a new line of inquiry in organization theory.  He was also awarded the European Group for Organization Studies award for the best paper submitted to the 2013 annual conference, the SO! What award for the best paper published in Strategic Organization in 2011, the Journal of Management Studies award for the best paper published in the journal in 2008, and the Richard Beckhard Memorial Prize for the most outstanding SMR article on planned change and organizational development published from Fall 2003 through Summer 2004. In 2021, Phillips was elected a fellow of the Academy of Management.

His research interests cut across organization theory, innovation, and technology, and he has published widely for both academics and practitioners including papers in AMJ, AMR, Annals, Organization Science, Harvard Business Review and the Sloan Management Review. He has also written six books including Discourse Analysis (with Cynthia Hardy) and Constructing Organizational Life (with Tom Lawrence). He is currently working on a book on qualitative methods in organizational research to be published by Cambridge University Press and a book on linguistic methods in management research that will be published by Sage.

Dr. Phillips teaches leadership, strategy and digital business at the graduate and undergraduate levels as well as teaching doctoral courses in organization theory and qualitative methods. He is also active in executive education and has delivered modules for a wide range of corporate clients including the London Stock Exchange, Savills, Barclays, ASDA, Panasonic, the NHS, the government of the UAE, and Kuwait Oil.

He is currently researching how hype around emerging technologies “locks in” technology entrepreneurs, how technology entrepreneurs make the decision to pivot in organizations beyond the founding phase, and how entrepreneurial framing leads to moral legitimacy with key stakeholder groups.

Publications Professor Phillips has written four books: Discourse Analysis with Cynthia Hardy published in 2002, Power and Organizations with Stewart Clegg and David Courpasson published in 2006, and Technology and Organization with Graham Sewell and Dorothy Griffiths published in 2010. He is also co-editor of the new Oxford Handbook of Innovation Management with David Gann and Mark Dodgson. He is currently working on a new book on linguistic methods and is editor of the Journal of Management Inquiry.

Previous Appointments Prior to joining Imperial College Business School, he was the Beckwith Professor of Management Studies at the Judge Institute of Management, the University of Cambridge from 2002 to 2005 and an Associate Professor in the Strategy and Organisation Area at McGill University in Montreal, Canada from 1993 to 2002. Professor Phillips spent six months in 2000/2001, as the Edward Clarence Dyason Universitas 21 Fellow at Melbourne University in Melbourne, Australia and six months as a Visiting Professor at Bocconi University in Milan, Italy. Professor Phillips completed his Ph.D. in Organisational Analysis from the University of Alberta, Canada in 1995.

Dr. Shamayela Hanif is a Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Fatima Memorial Hospital, College of Medicine and Dentistry. She is also a practicing Obstetrician and Gynecologist. She is a graduate of Fatima Jinnah Medical College and has been awarded 16 gold and two silver medals for her academic achievements. She was also awarded for being the best graduate.

She did her post-graduation in Obstetrics and Gynecology from both the Royal College of Obstetrician and Gynecologists London and College of Physicians & Surgeons Pakistan. She also received the fellowship degree from the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists for her services in the field of gynecology. Dr. Shamayela Hanif is also a qualified medical educationist. She is involved in teaching & training of both undergraduate and postgraduate programs at Fatima Memorial Hospital.

Dr. Shamayela Hanif has over 15 years of clinical experience in the field of obstetrics and gynecology with a special interest in high-risk obstetrics, infertility, laparoscopic gynecological surgeries, and young girls health (adolescent gynecology).

Dr Malik is an Associate Professor at RMIT University, Australia. He has more than 20 years of research, teaching, consultancy and construction industry experience by working in the UK, Hong Kong, Pakistan, Australia, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia and the UAE. He has expertise in the areas of Strategic Management, Leadership and Team Development, Innovation and Entrepreneurship (I&E), Design Thinking, Sustainable Development and Operations Management including Project Management, Supply Chain Management, Procurement, Agile ways of working, and Knowledge Management. He acquired his postgraduate qualifications from Loughborough, UK; obtained PGCert from RMIT, Australia; and I&E certificate from Stanford, US. He has published more than 150 papers in refereed journals and conference proceedings.

Professor Alek Agrzeszczak is a finance faculty member at Judge Business School, Cambridge University and at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University. He also teaches finance and accounting at Hult International Business School across Hult’s London, Dubai, Shanghai, Boston and New York City campuses. He was the recipient of the 2017 & 2019 Professor of the Year Awards for the Global One - Year MBA and MIB programs at Hult.

For 15 years, Professor Alek had been working on behalf of Value Discovery Partners, a mid-size private equity investment fund focused on emerging markets, and particularly on South Eastern Europe. Alek headed the transaction execution team at VDP and as such had executed a number of acquisitions in the region, had conducted all exit preparations and disposals of VDP portfolio companies.

Prior to VDP, Alek was a VP in the Telecom Investment Banking group of Salomon Smith Barney (now Citigroup Corporate and Investment Bank), where he worked for 5 years, first in the New York office and later in London. At SSB, he executed a number of advisory, M&A, equity and debt financing transactions for SSB’s American and European clients.

He is a graduate of Columbia Business School, where he received a joint MBA (finance) / MIA (international business) degree. He also holds a M.Sc. degree in Telecom and Electrical Engineering.

Dr Andreas B. Eisingerich is Professor of Marketing at Imperial College Business School and Programme Director of the Full-Time MBA. He holds a BSc degree from the London School of Economics, and a PhD from the University of Cambridge, Judge Business School, where he also earned his master degree. Prior to joining Imperial College Business School, Dr Eisingerich managed the Center for Global Innovation at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business in Los Angeles.

Dr Eisingerich is best known for his work on brand management, consumer engagement, and service innovation strategies. Current research projects are on the gamification of mHealth apps in the context of smoking cessation, reducing the demand for illegal wildlife products, and consumer relationships with brands in different business and industry contexts. Recently Dr Eisingerich published a book together with Professor C. Whan Park and Deborah J. MacInnis called Brand Admiration: Building a Business People Love (Wiley; 2016), exploring how brand admiration can be built, strengthened, and leveraged over time.

Dr Eisingerich’s research work has been accepted for publication at the Journal of Marketing, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of Service Research, Harvard Business Review, European Journal of Marketing, MIT Sloan Management Review, Research Policy, California Management Review, Journal of Services Marketing, and the Wall Street Journal, among others. He served on the editorial board of Ernst & Young’s Performance magazine. Dr Eisingerich co-developed a novel index of innovative firms published by the USC Marshall Center for Global Innovation and manages a Bill & Melinda Gates foundation sponsored global pre-marketing research project together with the World Health Organization, UNAIDS, and the World Wildlife Fund. His work was translated into several languages worldwide, including Chinese, Korean, Spanish, Polish, and Japanese. Professor Eisingerich acts as a reviewer for the Journal of Marketing, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of Service Research, Research Policy, and Journal of Services Marketing, among others. He taught as visiting professor at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich.

Dr. Rodney Turner is Professor of Project Management at the SKEMA Business School, in Lille, France, where he is director of the Ph.D. in Strategy, Programme and Project Management. He is Adjunct Professor at the University of Technology Sydney, the Kemmy Business School, Limerick, and Drexel University, Philadelphia, and Visiting Professor at Henley Business School.

He was introduced to project management working in the process plant industry, working for ICI as a mechanical engineer and project manager in the petrochemical industry. He then worked for Coopers and Lybrand as a management consultant, working in shipbuilding, manufacturing, telecommunications, computing, finance, government, and other areas.

He is Vice President, Honorary Fellow and former chairman of the UK’s Association for Project Management, and former President and Chairman of the International Project Management Association.

Previous Appointments From 1997 to 2005, he returned to the process plant industry as Foundation Operations Director of the Benelux Region of the European Construction Institute. He is a member of the Institute of Directors and Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.

Publications Dr. Turner is the author or editor of sixteen books, including The Handbook of Project-based Management, the best-selling book published by McGraw-Hill, and the Gower Handbook of Project Management. He is editor of The International Journal of Project Management. He lectures on project management worldwide.

Dr. Khalid Ahmad Khan holds a Ph.D. in Project Management and is PMP certified by PMI. He has over 25 years of experience in project management in a diverse range of projects both in the public and private sectors. In the last eight years, Dr. Khan has been involved in deploying modern project management in several public sector mega projects. This work includes planning, monitoring, evaluation and well as developing rules/regulations and standards for public governance.

Dr. Khan has been actively involved in the promotion of Project Management as a profession in Pakistan. He is a founding member and President of the PMI (USA) Lahore Chapter. He was a member of the project team for the PMI PMBOK Government Extension Third Edition. Dr. Khan has read papers and lectured on the need for the use of Earned Value Approach on Public Sector projects.

Specialties: Strategy, Change Management, Project Management, Project Leadership, Governance, Program Management, Engineering Economics, Project Organizational Design

Some Key Clients: Below are some key clients of Dr. Khan. World Bank, USAID, GIZ – German Aid Agency, LUMS, ICI, NADRA, Government of Punjab

Dr. Tayyab Maqsood has made a significant contribution to construction and project management disciplines at RMIT over last 14 years through his leadership roles, research and teaching which has seen these disciplines becoming one of the best locally and nationally. He is currently serving in the role of Associate Dean-Project Management. In this role he is leading the project management discipline in the School. Prior to this role, he served the School as Deputy Head of Learning and Teaching and provided strategic leadership and led highly capable academic teams (with 40+ academic staff) involved in the delivery and operation of six (6) programs (three undergrad programs and three postgrad programs).

He has authored/co-authored over 110 peer-reviewed publications and received several research grants. He has successfully supervised 12 Ph.D. students for their doctoral degrees. He lectures in both undergraduate and postgraduate degree programs in Construction and Project Management and has taught courses related to construction technology, project planning/control (MS Project and Primavera Planner P6), project risk management and honours research. He is a member of the Institution of Engineers Australia (IEAust), Project Management Institute (PMI) and Australian Institute of Project Management (AIPM).

Dr. Tayyab's research areas are:

• Construction and Demolition (C&D) Waste minimisation in housing and commercial industries
• Knowledge Management and Supply Chain Integration
• Offsite Construction (housing and commercial)
• Construction Procurement: Project Alliancing and Early Contractor Involvement (ECI)
• Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Integrated Project Delivery (IPD)
• Disaster Reconstruction and Post-Disaster Project Management (PDPM)
• Construction and Project Management issues in developing countries

Dr. Merwyn Strate is an experienced leader in Higher Education. He was instrumental in building a multi-campus global business school while working with Hult International Business School. This includes building campuses in Boston, San Francisco, London, Shanghai and Dubai. Well versed in accreditation required in the USA as well as the UK, China and the United Arab Emirates.

Dr. Strate was previously engaged in a system wide change initiative targeting Innovation and Entrepreneurship with the Higher Colleges of Technology in the UAE. The Higher Colleges of Technology includes 17 campuses with over 24,000 students. As Program Chair for Business, he had budget and staffing responsibilities with on of the largest programs in the system with over 5,000 students and 240 faculty. Dr. Strate is currently working with the American School of Dubai on a major developmental project This project targets the establishment of innovative pathways in Business, Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

Dr. Merwyn Strate is an experienced leader in Higher Education. He was instrumental in building a multi-campus global business school while working with Hult International Business School. This includes building campuses in Boston, San Francisco, London, Shanghai and Dubai. Well versed in accreditation required in the USA as well as the UK, China and the United Arab Emirates.

Dr. Strate was previously engaged in a system wide change initiative targeting Innovation and Entrepreneurship with the Higher Colleges of Technology in the UAE. The Higher Colleges of Technology includes 17 campuses with over 24,000 students. As Program Chair for Business, he had budget and staffing responsibilities with on of the largest programs in the system with over 5,000 students and 240 faculty. Dr. Strate is currently working with the American School of Dubai on a major developmental project This project targets the establishment of innovative pathways in Business, Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

Dr. Taghreed is a best-selling author, an international educational consultant, women leadership coach, and an international public speaker. Dr. Al-Saraj has extensive experience in researching including being a Post Doctorate at the University of California, Berkeley and Vice-Chair of Berkeley Post Doc Entrepreneurship Program, SHE has lived and worked in various settings around the world: Europe, North America, South Asia, and the Middle East. She has a vast experience with different educational systems around the world including USA, UK, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Japan. Her areas of expertise include research, teacher training, program analysis, problem-solving for different educational institutions around the world, and entrepreneurship. She is trilingual with strong communication skills and a multi-cultural team worker who is highly self-motivated.

Dr. Al-Saraj is proficient in aligning resource requirements to business objectives, restructuring deployments, managing budgets, finalizing matrix and developing procedure flowchart. She is also proficient in automating, customizing, modifying system module updates for generating various status reports. She has expertise in implementing various process improvement initiatives and streamlining processes aimed at minimizing transaction time and enhancing operational efficiency.

Publications

Dr. Al-Saraj is a renowned international author of the best-selling book, The Anxious Language Learner: A Saudi Woman’s Story. (2015). Some of her other major publications include:
• Al-Saraj, T. M. (forthcoming). Foreign Language Anxiety Revisited. Trends in Applied Linguistics. Boston: De Gruyter Mouton. • Dewaele, J.-M., & Al-Saraj, T. M. (2015). Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety of Arab learners of English: The effect of personality, linguistic and socio-biographical variables. SSLLT, 5(2), 205-228. • Al-Saraj, T. M. (2015). Can You Learn a New Language without Being Anxious? Arab Woman Magazine. http://en.arabwomanmag.com/can-you-learn-a-new-language-without-being-anxious/ • Al-Saraj, T. M. (2014). Revisiting the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS): The anxiety of female English language learners in Saudi Arabia. L2 Journal, 6(1), 50-76. • Al-Saraj, T. M. (2013). Foreign Language Anxiety in Female Arabs Studying English: Case Studies. Innovations in Language Learning. DOI: 10.1080/17501229.2013.837911

Masood Said is a Mechanical Engineer with over 40 years of working experience in Project Management, Maintenance and executive management in Oil and Gas industry. He has worked in ExxonMobil, Arabian Gulf Oil Saudi Arabia, Descon Engineering UAE/Pakistan, Fuchs Petroleum Saudi Arabia, National Refinery Pakistan and Pakistan Railways.

Besides Pakistan, he has also worked in Malaysia, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Saudi Arabia and the USA. He has travelled to over 26 countries in connection with work assignments and has extensive experience of working with professionals from different countries and cultures. Mr. Said has successfully led and completed major projects including Design and Construction (EPC) of a 100,000 metric Tons Lube Oil & Grease Blending/filling Plant in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia, major Overhaul of Frame 5 GE Gas Turbines, turnaround/shutdown of oil, gas and petrochemical plants, and de-bottlenecking of processes plants. He was also the project leader for the implementation of ERP system in an oil and gas company and has setup a WAN/LAN/fiber networks connecting multiple locations spread over a vast country.

Masood is a keen learner and has multiple degrees including BSc in Mechanical Engineering, Master in IT, and MBA in HR Management. He has been a member of PMI since 2002 and member of PMI Dallas Chapter and PMI Lahore Pakistan Chapter. He has a number of PMI certifications including PMP, PMI-ACP, PMI-RMP. He is also a Discipline Agilest (DA) and a Scrum Master. He volunteers with PMI and the two chapters where he is member.

Masood is also a member of Toastmasters International since 2004 and has been awarded the Distinguished Toastmaster certification. He has setup number of Toastmaster Clubs in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Masood is a passionate trainer and has been conducting training sessions for PMP and other PMI certification courses since 2010 both in Dallas, TX and Lahore, Pakistan. Besides this he has conducted trainings on ISO-9001, ISO-14001 and other technical subjects in various organizations.

Professor Dr. Azhar M. Khan is an engineer, economist and management specialist. He is an international expert of Project Management, Project Finance and Cost-Benefit Analysis of Projects. He is CEO of Institute of Project Management and Emotional Intelligence. He is also the CEO of Business Masters and Consultants LLC, a Training, Consultancy and Research Company based at Connecticut USA. Dr. Khan is advisor to several organizations working in the areas of project management and technology all over the world. He is an adjunct faculty member at SKEMA Business School, Lille France where he teaches courses in Project Management, Project Finance, Production and Operations Management. He is also adjunct faculty at National University La Jolla California USA where he teaches project management, project accounting and project contracting. He has several PhD students working under his supervision in the management related fields and has given away 26 PhDs to the students all over the world.

Dr. Khan is a fellow of LEAD (Leadership for Environment and Development) USA, Salzburg Seminar Austria, Wilton Park England, Brown University, USA and School of International Training, Vermont USA. He is an international trainer for Project Management Professional Certification (PMP®). He has conducted several hundred PMP® certification trainings all over the world. Dr. Khan is an alumnus of Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta Georgia USA, Harvard University USA and Brown University, Providence Rhode Island USA. Dr. Khan has extensively published for international conferences and journals.

He has co-authored a book HRD Practices in the Public Sector Projects: Federal Government Project Management System [Paperback] By Lambert Academic Press. He is writing another book on “Financial Analysis of Projects”. Dr. Khan has been a mentor, teacher, researcher and keynote speaker. Students trained by him obtain PMP® certification with surety in the shortest possible time.

Dr. Khan lives in Farmington Connecticut with his wife, who is a medical doctor and professor at University of Connecticut Health Center. His two daughters are physicians in the US and his son works as engineer at INTEL after receiving BS, MS and PhD in electrical and Computer Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology.