Abdulla Mohammed Khalifa Albinali is the General Manager of Qatar Leadership Centre (QLC), with over 18 years of experience in human capital development. He began his journey with QLC over a decade ago as a Program Manager and went on to serve as Director of Administration and Finance before assuming his current leadership role.

Mr. Albinali’s career began in 2006 at Qatar National Bank, where he focused on Qatarization and professional development initiatives. He later joined Qatar Foundation, where he played a key role as Coordinator of Career Services and Employment. During this tenure, he contributed to the development of the Student Employment Program across Education City, establishing policies, defining operational structures, and ensuring that the practices of partner universities aligned with Qatar Foundation’s principal guidelines. His organizational and leadership capabilities were further showcased in his position as Head of Events and Activities at the Qatar Career Fair.

Following this, Mr. Albinali served as a Senior Advisor at the Supreme Education Council, where he led and oversaw the successful implementation of the e-Education initiative, deployed across more than 42 schools covering all levels from kindergarten to secondary education.

Beyond his professional responsibilities, He has demonstrated strong commitment to community engagement. He served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees at Ibn Khaldoun Preparatory School for Boys for four years and has been a member of the Board of Directors at the Arab Academy for the past five years.

Mr. Albinali holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a major in Human Resource Management and a minor in African-American Studies from Eastern Washington University (2006).

Dr. Khalid holds a Ph.D. in Management and Human Resource Management and a Master’s degree in Human Resource Management from the University of Leeds, UK and has obtained a BSc in Administrative Sciences and Economics from the University of Qatar.

Currently, he is the President of Community College of Qatar and has served as the President of Qatar Finance & Business Academy as well as the Director of Higher Education Institute at the Ministry of Education and Higher Education.

Dr. Khalid has been encouraging private investors to establish higher education institutions in the State of Qatar. He proposed and drafted new laws and decrees, such as the reorganization of Community College of Qatar, Scholarships Law, Qualifications and Accreditation body, and Degree Equivalency. He also drove the transformation of the scholarship management service at the Ministry of Education and Higher Education from a paper-based service into a fully electronic one.

Dr. Khalid was a part of boards and steering committees of various academic entities. He was a Member of the Supreme Board, Police College; Chair of Consulting Committee, Academic Bridge Program, Qatar Foundation; and Member of Joint Oversight Board, Calgary University-Qatar, to name a few.

As a scholar, Dr. Khalid taught undergraduate and postgraduate modules at Qatar University and Northumbria University programs offered in Qatar. He also supervised postgraduate dissertations.

Dr Hind Zainal currently serves as Executive Director of Strategy, Administration and Partnerships in the Higher Education Division at Qatar Foundation. She is set to assume the position of President of Higher Education in January 2027.

Dr Zainal brings extensive experience in higher education administration. In her current role, she oversees the management of Qatar Foundation’s partner universities, including Virginia Commonwealth University, Weill Cornell Medicine, Texas A&M University, Carnegie Mellon University, Georgetown University, Northwestern University, and HEC Paris. Previously, she served as an adviser to the Office of the Chairperson and the Office of the Chief Executive Officer at Qatar Foundation, focusing on strategic initiatives, communications, and institutional transformation. She also led the development of Qatar Foundation’s Higher Education Strategy, which was published in 2021.

Dr Zainal holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar, an Executive Master of Business Administration from HEC Paris in Qatar, and a Doctor of Education from the University of Pennsylvania. Her doctoral dissertation, entitled “Perceptions of Civic and Community Engagement Across Cultures: A Comparative Study of American Universities and Their Branch Campuses in Qatar,” examined community engagement initiatives at Virginia Commonwealth University, Georgetown University, and Cornell University, comparing their main campuses in the United States with their branch campuses in Qatar.

Dr Zainal was a member of the inaugural cohort of the Current and Rising Leaders Program at Qatar Leadership Centre, which she completed in 2013. In 2023, she became the first Qatari woman to be selected for the American Council on Education (ACE) Fellows Program.

Dr. Khaled Harras, is the Senior Associate Dean for Faculty, and Professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Melon University in Qatar. He is also the Director of the Hamad Bin Jassim Center for CS and AI Education, and the founder/director of the Networking Systems Lab (NSL).

For more than two decades, he has worked on various areas of computer networks, UAVs, ubiquitous and pervasive systems, edge computing, and AI for systems. Dr. Harras has managed research grants worth 5 million USD resulting in more than 150 refereed publications and 4 US patents. He has won the national best computing research award twice, received two best paper awards, and his work has been featured online in various venues like MIT Tech Review and Tech the Future. Outside of Academia, Dr. Harras has worked at Citrix Systems, and collaborated closely with Intel, Lockheed Martin, and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL). He also worked as an advisor to the Minister of ICT, as well as a Senior Systems Scientist at the Qatar Computing and Research Institute (QCRI).

His Excellency Eng. Mohammed bin Abdulaziz bin Mohammed Al-Meer currently holds the position of the President of Public Works Authority (Ashghal) having been appointed pursuant to Amiri Resolution No. (72) of 2024.

His Excellency has over 24 years of experience in project management. Since taking on the role of Ashghal’s President, he has placed great emphasis on enhancing and accelerating the completion of infrastructure developmental projects and focused on the importance of empowering and enabling young Qatari cadres to assume leadership roles in supervising infrastructure developmental projects, ensuring faster completion and maintaining quality in implementation.

His Excellency supervised vital projects as well as projects related to the Qatar 2022 World Cup, and held leadership positions in the project and construction sectors, where he began his professional career at Qatar Gas Company and progressed to serve as Deputy Director of Engineering Affairs for (Qatar Gas 2) project, from where he moved to Aspire Zone and held the position of CEO of major projects, then H.E. served as CEO of the Katara (Cultural Village) project, and also chaired the steering committee for the Katara Towers - Lusail project at Katara Hospitality, which hosted official delegations for the 2022 Qatar World Cup.

Eng. Jassim Al-Ansari currently serves as Chief Executive Officer of Qatar Rail, a position he has held since May 2026.

He previously served as Chief of Program Delivery at Qatar Rail, which he joined in January 2012, where he worked with various divisions, departments, and external stakeholders to ensure that railway projects were delivered as planned and to the highest standards.

Prior to joining Qatar Rail, Eng. Al-Ansari held several roles in engineering management, operations management, engineering, and maintenance at the Ministry of Municipality, the Public Works Authority (Ashghal), and Makeen Holding.

Jassim Al Ansari holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Qatar University.

Jassim Abdulaziz Al Jassim currently serves as the Acting Secretary General of the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy, where he leads efforts to shape and advance Qatar’s long-term vision for the events sector. In this capacity, he oversees the development of a coordinated national approach to hosting major international events, spanning sports, culture, business, conferences, and exhibitions. His responsibilities include driving sector-wide strategies, coordinating the national events calendar, evaluating event hosting opportunities, and strengthening collaboration across government entities and the private sector. Through this role, Al Jassim is focused on leveraging Qatar’s world-class infrastructure and accumulated expertise to further strengthen the country's position as a leading global destination for major international events.

Additionally, Al Jassim serves as Chief Executive Officer of the Organising Committee for Football Events, overseeing the strategic planning and operational delivery of Qatar’s portfolio of major international football tournaments. In this role, he has built strong working relationships with leading international and continental football governing bodies, including FIFA, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), the Confederation of African Football (CAF), Concacaf, CONMEBOL, and UEFA, working closely with them on the planning, coordination, and delivery of their respective events in Qatar. Under his leadership, the Organising Committee has successfully delivered several prestigious competitions, including the FIFA Arab Cup, FIFA Intercontinental Cup, Trophée des Champions Visit Qatar 2025, and FIFA U-17 World Cup Qatar, further reinforcing Qatar’s reputation for operational excellence and world-class event delivery.

Previously, Al Jassim served as Chief Executive Officer of the AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2023™, leading the successful delivery of a record-breaking tournament. Prior to this, he was Chief Operating Officer of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™, where he oversaw key operational functions and played an instrumental role in delivering the first FIFA World Cup hosted in the Middle East and Arab world.

Al Jassim holds a Master’s degree in Leadership from Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business and a Bachelor’s degree in International Business from Stenden University. He is also pursuing doctoral studies at University College London (UCL), with a research focus on mega-event management, reflecting his commitment to advancing knowledge and best practices in the planning, delivery, and long-term legacy of major international events.

Rory Miller is a Professor of International Politics, Director of the Energy Studies Program and Director of the Small States Research Program at Georgetown University in Qatar. He teaches and researches on small state security, regional security, including Gulf security, alliances, maritime security, energy security, and external intervention theory. He is a Visiting Professor at the War Studies Department at King’s College London.

He is the author or editor of 14 books including Desert Kingdoms to Global Powers: The Rise of the Arab Gulf (Yale University Press, 2016) and The Last Temptation: External Intervention and the Israel-Palestine Conflict (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming). He is co-editor of the Cambridge University Press book series on “Intelligence and National Security in Africa and the Middle East”.

His policy-focused work has appeared in Foreign Affairs, The Economist, Foreign Policy, The New Republic, The National Interest, and The Wall Street Journal. He writes a week column on geopolitics for The Gulf Times.

Dr. Abdulla Al-Etaibi is an Assistant Professor of Political Science and Director of Strategic Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Economic Development at Qatar University. He holds a PhD in Political Science from the Australian National University (ANU), an MSc in International Public Policy from University College London (UCL), and a BA in International Affairs with a specialization in International Security and Diplomacy from Qatar University.

Dr. Abdulla Al-Etaibi’s research focuses on Foreign Policy Analysis, Gulf foreign policy, tribal identity, and national narratives, with a particular emphasis on how these factors shape state behavior and policymaking in the Gulf region. His scholarship has been published in leading academic outlets, including the Journal of Arabian Studies and Middle East Institute Insights, as well as in edited volumes such as Social Change in the Gulf Region: Multidisciplinary Perspectives (Springer). He is also the author of Shifting Narratives and Evolving Roles of Qatari Foreign Policy (Palgrave Macmillan).

His current research explores the intersection of identity and foreign policy, the role of mediator in foreign policy, and evolving national narrative in foreign policymaking.

Jim Krane, Ph.D., is the Diana Tamari Sabbagh Fellow in Middle East Energy Studies and co-director of the Middle East Energy Roundtable at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. He specializes in energy geopolitics, with a focus on oil-exporting countries and the challenges they face from climate action, the energy transition, energy subsidies, and regional conflict. He teaches classes on energy and geopolitics at Rice University.

Krane’s scholarly articles have been published in numerous journals and edited volumes. He is the author of two books on the Gulf region: “City of Gold: Dubai and the Dream of Capitalism” and “Energy Kingdoms: Oil and Political Survival in the Persian Gulf.”

He is a former journalist based in the Middle East, where he also did his PhD research and fieldwork. Krane received his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge, master’s from Columbia University, and bachelor’s from City College of New York.