Archives: Speaker

Chris Rawlinson is the founder and CEO of 42courses.com, the learning company for people who hate corporate learning.

42courses built Cannes Lions’ global online training programmes and has taught teams at Google, Apple, Disney, HSBC, Volkswagen and the UK Government, with a faculty most business schools would envy: Rory Sutherland, Dan Ariely, Sir John Hegarty, Cindy Gallop and Piyush Pandey among them. The platform’s AI personalisation engine, designed and built in-house, adapts every course to each learner’s industry, role and goals.

Before that, Chris was Innovation Director for Ogilvy and WPP in Africa, helping take the network to be ranked No1 in the region for 5 years in a row. He teaches executive boards at London Business School, and in earlier lives hosted a drive-time radio show, flew as a commercial pilot and built intelligent homes for Sting and Madonna.

Ammar Hassan is a CEO of BuyPass.ai. Before this, He was serving as CMO for Daraz and OLX. In the last 15 years, Ammar has developed to be a growth marketing thought leader with his unique views on brand, performance marketing, organizational behavior and data analytics.

At heart I have always been a storyteller. Long before job titles or roles, I was someone who collected moments, memories, and experiences—and tried to make sense of them through stories.

I’ve spent much of my career working as a marketer, facilitator, and communicator, including many years with Unilever, and I’ve been lucky to work with leaders and teams all over the world. What I’ve learned along the way is this: stories do what strategies and presentations can’t. They help people feel, connect, and act. That’s why I believe business storytelling is one of the most important leadership skills of the decade ahead.

It took me a long time to figure out how to do this well. I learned through trial and error, plenty of listening, and a fair few missteps. Today, the thing I enjoy most is watching a leader speak in a way that feels real—and seeing an audience lean forward because they’re genuinely engaged. That moment never gets old. It’s what gets me out of bed in the morning.

My friends like to call me a memory collector. I seek experiences. Every journey feels like a story waiting to be told. I take photographs, but for me they’re less about the image and more about the emotion behind it—another way of telling a story.

I’m the Founder and CEO of Connecting the Dots Consultancy and a Global Partner at Anecdote, the world’s largest business storytelling company. I also serve as Secretary General of the Asian Federation of Advertising Associations (AFAA), sit on the Global Board of the International Advertising Association (IAA), and in 2025, I became Adjunct Faculty at the Asia School of Business, in collaboration with MIT Sloan.

At the end of the day, my work is about helping people engage, influence and inspire with more authenticity, humanity, and impact—one story at a time.

A Zero Award Creative. Still Hunting. Still Hungry.

For two decades, Ahmad has wrangled, written, and produced campaigns designed to move people, not juries. As the force behind Jack of Digital’s in-house creative unit, he built an end-to-end production engine from the ground up to own new spaces and unleash the next wave of hungry, mold-breaking talent.

Ahmad doesn’t chase fleeting, pre-programmed, cross-platform creatives. He engineers platform-specific strategies that demand attention and drive actual growth. Catch him live as he pulls back the curtain on what real, unreasonable creative leadership looks like today.

Sheikh Adil Hussain – GM Beauty & Well being Pakistan at Unilever (Sheikh Adil Hussain, a distinguished marketing leader, has a legacy of transforming iconic brands and driving strategic growth across industries.

As General Manager of Beauty & Wellbeing Pakistan at Unilever, he spearheads category growth, brand innovation, and consumer engagement. Previously Chief Marketing Officer at Tapal Tea, Director Marketing at Shan Foods and Henkel, he played a pivotal role in shaping market-leading strategies and strengthening brand equity across local, regional and global roles in Pakistan, GCC and Germany.

With over two decades of experience, he has held key leadership positions, including Marketing Director & Founding Partner at WUNDERNERF, Board Member at Gillette Pakistan and Fauji Meat Limited, and Visiting Faculty at KSBL and IBA. His diverse expertise across FMCG, beauty, home care, and hot beverages reflects his deep understanding of consumer behavior and brand storytelling.

Beyond corporate leadership, he has shaped the marketing landscape as part of the Pakistan Advertisers Society’s executive council, conducted workshops on Marketing 101 and Effie case writing, and judged Effie Pakistan for six consecutive years. A qualified board director, he further broadened his expertise with a Football Business Management diploma from the Johan Cruyff Institute.”

Rifah Qadri is an award-winning marketing leader and the Executive Director of Marketing & Corporate Communications at easypaisa, where she is leading the launch of Pakistan’s first digital bank. With 18 years of experience across fintech, tech, and retail, she has built purpose-driven campaigns that blend impact with commercial success. Her work has earned global recognition, including the Courageous Client Award at the Caples Awards UK and Industry Leader of the Year at Dragons of Pakistan, and she has served on international juries such as Cannes Lions and Spikes Asia.

Junaid is an investor and entrepreneur.

As CEO of Salt Ventures, he has invested in startups that are disrupting retail, logistics, Fintech, agriculture, health and construction industries in KSA, Pakistan, UAE and beyond.

His latest venture is Caravan Media, is a digital first content platform aimed at building awareness about economic reform and opportunity in the MENA region.

In his previous roles, Junaid served as Managing Director of Careem, and as CEO of Elixir Securities and BMA Financial Services.

He holds a B.Sc in Economics from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

For over 27 years, Shahbaz has been chasing ideas across continents, from Asia-Pacific to the U.S. to the Middle East, living and breathing creativity, design and digital innovation every step of the way. He has cut his teeth at some of the world’s most iconic agencies including JWT, Fallon, Carmichael Lynch, Interflow, Ogilvy, McCann, MRM, Promoseven 360, MullenLowe MENA, and Momentum, learning how to turn bold thinking into business results.

He has worked on global icons such as BMW, PepsiCo, Porsche, Harley-Davidson, Sony, Nike, Turkish Airlines, American Express, Shell, McDonald’s and Zespri to name a few. His ideas have been celebrated on the biggest creative stages including Cannes Lions, Clios, New York Festivals, Spikes Asia, One Show, Epica, The Webbys, and more.

After decades of steering brands within global networks, Shahbaz decided it was time to flip the script. Enter quote un quote, a global independent boutique agency he co-founded to chase fearless, collaborative, culture-led ideas that refuse to play it safe. Today, he is not just making campaigns, but creating impact and proving the most exciting stories are still unwritten