Speakers at the event

HRH Prince Salman bin Hamad Al-Khalifa Crown Prince and Deputy Supreme Commander, Kingdom of Bahrain Kamal Ahmed Chief Operating Officer, Economic Development Board, Kingdom of Bahrain Huda Al Ghoson General Manager, Training and Development Organisation, Saudi Aramco, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia HE Dr Majid bin Ali Al Nuaimi Minister of Education, Kingdom of Bahrain Zenna Atkins CEO, GEMS, UK, Europe and Africa, UK Waleed Al Banawi Vice Chairman of the Banawi Industrial Group, Saudi Arabia Dr Bassem Awadallah Chief Executive Officer, Tomoh Advisory, UAE Mike Benson Executive Director, Ontario Principals' Council, Canada Shabda Birfani Bedi Director - Research, Educational Research and Design: The Gurukul Trust, New Delhi, India Andrew Blair President, International Confederation of Principals, Australia Dr Taddy Blecher CEO of the Community and Individual Development Association and CEO of the Maharishi Institute, South Africa Dr Carol K.K. Chan Associate Professor at the Faculty of Education, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Latifa El Abida Secretary of State for School Education, Ministry of Education, Higher Education, Staff Training and Scientific Research, Morocco Azza El-Shinnawy Education Lead, Microsoft Gulf, UAE Danah Dajani Director, Madrasati Initiative, Jordan Mike Feinberg Co-Founder of the KIPP Foundation, Superintendent of KIPP Houston, USA Edward B. (Ted) Fiske Author and former Education Editor of the New York Times, USA Bill Fowler Director, Global Education, Cisco Systems, Inc, USA Dr Charlotte Frances Cole Senior Vice President, Global Education, Sesame Workshop, USA Sudhir Ghodke Director, Educational Initiatives Christine Gilbert CBE Chief Inspector, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Schools (Ofsted), UK Pr Patrick Griffin Chair of Education (Assessment), University of Melbourne and Executive Director of the Assessment and Teaching of 21st Century Skills project (ATC21S), Australia Pr S Gopinathan Associate Dean, Office of Education Research, National Institute of Education, Singapore André Haardt Founder and CEO, FutureWhiz Media, Netherlands Dr Kathleen Hagstrom Principal,Walt Disney Magnet School, Chicago, USA Pr Seamus Hegarty Chair of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), UK Kaya Henderson Deputy Chancellor, District of Colombia Public Scholls Pr Brigid Heywood Pro Vice Chancellor, Open University, UK Shaikh Hisham Bin Abdul Aziz Al Khalifa Undersecretary for Resources & Services, Ministry of Education, Kingdom of Bahrain Pr David Hogan Principal Research Scientist, National Institute of Education, Singapore Dr Janice E Jackson Independent education consultant, USA Mohammed Jamjoom International correspondent, CNN, UAE Dr Dorothy Penny Jennings Founder/CEO, A.C.T., Inc. - Adults Caring for Teens Dr Kevin Knight Co-founder of the New Zealand Graduate School of Education, New Zealand Anwer Kotob Manager, Vertical Sales Public Sector Gulf & Pakistan, Cisco Systems, UAE

Professor Helen Ladd Edgar Thompson Professor of Public Policy Studies and professor of economics, Duke University?s Sanford School of Public Policy, USA Dan Lea Class Teacher (Teacher of the Year 2009), Gearies Infant School, UK Charles Leadbeater Consultant for innovation in education and author, UK Roberta Linehan Headmistress, Unicorn School, Kew, UK Ewan McIntosh Director at No Tosh Digital Media & Education Dr Hassan Mneimneh Minister of Education and Higher Education, Lebanon HE Shaikh Mohammed bin Essa Al Khalifa Chief Executive, Economic Development Board, Bahrain Dr Mona Mourshed Partner, McKinsey & Company Sheikh Nahyan Mabarak Al-Nahyan Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, UAE Dr Osama Obeidat Head of Monitoring and Evaluation, Jordan Education Initiative, Jordan Jaana Palojärvi Director for International Relations, Ministry of Education and Culture, Finland Pr Marie Parker-Jenkins Professor of Education, Department of Education and Professional Studies, University of Limerick, Ireland Tom Payzant Professor of Practice, Harvard Graduate School of Education Marco Petruzzi President and CEO, Green Dot Public Schools, USA Dr Ari Pokka President, Finnish Association for Principals, Finland Anthony Priest Engineering Teacher, McKinley Tech, Washington DC, USA Greg Royce Rector, St Peter’s Preparatory Schools & College, South Africa Dr Hatem Ben Salem Minister of Education and Training, Tunisia Andreas Schleicher Head, Indicators and Statistics Division, OECD Directorate for Education, France John Scott Chief Executive, Bahrain Polytechnic, Bahrain Nicholas Seaver CEO, Phuket International Academy, Thailand Dan Shine President, 50x15 Foundation, USA Abeer Shubassi Senior Country Officer, Education For Employment Foundation (EFE), USA Kapil Sibal Honourable Minister of Human Resource Development, Government of India Dr Helena Singer Pedagogical Director, Aprendiz, Brazil Tineke van der Steen Teacher of the Year, 2009 (Primary Education), Netherlands Pr Ralph Tabberer Chief of Schools, GEMS Education, UAE Mary Tadros Senior Education Specialist, Queen Rania Teachers’ Academy, Jordan Pr Stephen Joel Trachtenberg President Emeritus, The George Washington University, USA Gever Tulley Co-founder, Tinkering School Jeff Utecht Learning Co-ordinator, International School, Bangkok Dr Tony Wagner Co-Director of the Change Leadership Group, Harvard Graduate School of Education, USA James Willcox CEO, Aspire Public Schools, USA Kelly Yang Founder and Managing Director, The Kelly Yang Project, Hong Kong