Group Chief Executive of leading global research firm, Echo Research, has more than twenty five years experience in communications and reputation analysis and evaluation

Author and lecturer across five continents, Sandra has contributed to books on professional accountability and corporate responsibility.

Cited as 'among the 100 most influential people in PR in the last 21 years', Sandra is the first international Board Member and Trustee of the Institute of Public Relations (USA), a Fellow of the Institute of Public Relations (UK), Freeman of the City of London Guild of Public Relations, Member of the Market Research Society, Editorial Advisor to the Corporate Communications Journal, and Companion of the Chartered Institute of Management. She has also served as Board Member of the DTI's Business Links and is on the Board of the Finance and Performance Review Committee of the Prince of Wales' International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF).

ISO-accredited and a full participant in the United Nations Global Compact, Echo has increasingly focused on the challenges of corporate social responsibility and corporate governance, with a particular emphasis on helping its client base to understand the views and impact of key stakeholder groups.

She is considered an international leader in reputation measurement, was rated as PR Week's top 100 Influential PR people, and she is a Companion of the Chartered Institute of Management.

Rebecca is a PR veteran with over 20 years experience in both agency and in-house roles. Before moving to the UAE, Rebecca was VP for Communications at Standard & Poor's managing a global team of 30 people before being promoted to an executive position within the McGraw-Hill Companies Information Services segment.

Her previous experience also includes a five year stint as Deputy Director of Communications at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development as well as roles at the brokerage firm James Capel and Binns Cornwall, a UK financial PR agency. Rebecca is currently the executive director of the Middle East Public Relations Association and, as the sole employee, is responsible for all its strategic and operational aspects.

Hania joined the PR industry from the leading pan-Arab publishing house, Al-Iktissad Wal-Aamal Group in Dubai where she was covering a variety of editorial sectors mostly IT, travel and tourism.

Her fourteen years media background and extensive regional experience are reflected in her strong contacts and understanding of the Middle East media culture and dynamics.

Dave has spent the last 16 years working in the international communications industry across Europe, Middle East and Africa with seven years in Athens, prior to joining Hill & Knowlton as CEO Middle East, Turkey & Africa in 2009.

Having begun his career in London with the Holmes & Marchant Group, Dave then worked for the Scope Communications Group and then latterly with Ketchum London, working on a variety of accounts both national and international.

In 1999 he moved to Greece and worked for a short period for the DDB advertising group as Executive Vice President of the group's PR operations before moving to independent PR consultancy CIVITAS in 2000. Over five years the agency grew more than threefold and established itself a reputation for leadership in public relations in Greece.

Dave is a graduate of Edinburgh University and holds an MA Hons degree in Italian, and he is on the Executive Committee of MEPRA (The Middle East PR Association).

Mazen Nahawi is the founder and president of News Group International, a leading provider of business intelligence and media resource services and the driving force behind the ME Measurement Summits.

Mazen started his career in the Middle East as a journalist at Dar Al Khaleej 13 years ago and has since founded Media Watch, a leading provider of media monitoring and analysis services with more than 300 clients worldwide. The company, a member of MEPRA and FIBEP, is the organiser of the first annual PR Measurement Summit. He also co-founded Media Source, publisher of the Middle East Media Guide.

Nahawi is described by fellow measurers as 'a former PR pro turned measurement guru in the Middle East.

Barry Leggetter is the Executive Director of the Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication (AMEC).

Leggetter joined AMEC in 2007 after a distinguished 25 year career in public relations where he was Managing Director of the UK offices of three global networks: Fleishman-Hillard; Golin/Harris and Countrywide Porter-Novelli. He also spent two years working as an Executive Vice President and Strategist for Porter Novelli at its flagship New York office. Leggetter then became Chairman of Bite Communications, a dynamic PR Group specializing in technology.

He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) in recognition of his "outstanding contribution" to the UK PR industry.

David is a veteran of the Middle East PR industry having worked in region for more than 25 years, the majority of them in international agencies in Bahrain and the UAE.

After nine years leading the in-house PR team in Aluminium Bahrain managing internal and external communications he joined Hill and Knowlton, Bahrain. He rose to country manager before transferring to Dubai to head H&K's UAE and Oman operations. In 2005 he left to set up Four Communications' first overseas office and then spent a period at boutique PR agency Borouj Consulting before joining Action UAE as General Manager in summer 2008.

During his time in the region he has acquired broad and extensive experience working across a wide range of business sectors, delivering all types of PR programmes, ranging from aviation, travel & tourism, logistics, B2B, FMCG, consumer healthcare, IT, telecommunications and retail banking. He also has extensive crisis communications experience handling issues for fmcg, aviation, food and oil clients.

With 20 years' PR industry experience, Metrica's Managing Director, Richard Bagnall, has proven expertise in the fields of PR measurement, media analysis and PR planning.

Since joining the company in 1996, Richard has played a key role in building Metrica's award-winning reputation as a world leader in media evaluation. Before Metrica, Richard worked for Saatchi & Saatchi's PR specialists, The Rowland Company, and in-house at the Royal College for General                                       Practitioners

Sunil John has been at the heart of the public relations business in the Middle East for nearly two decades. During this time he has shaped ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller to be the benchmark of public relations consultancy, advising regional governments, international brands and global and local companies.

He has been instrumental in creating the specialised practice team structure in ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller with six areas of expertise – corporate affairs, financial communications, consumer marketing, healthcare, technology and public affairs – all successfully building blue-chip client businesses in the region and internationally.

The success of the company has been widely acknowledged, notably in 2006 when it was named “PR Agency of the Year” by Campaign Middle East. Also in 2007, ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller dominated the Gulf Marketing Review Effectiveness in Marketing Awards for Public Relations, winning two of three awards for its work on the BBC World Service and Emaar Properties

Sunil has been listed Number 25 in the “Arabian Business Expat 50” of the Most Influential Expats in the Middle East. Sunil is the only PR industry figure to be on the list which was released in May, 2009

Sunil serves on the National Advisory Council for the College of Communication and Media Sciences at Zayed University and is the UAE National Chair of the International Public Relations Association IPRA). He is also Vice President of the IPRA Gulf Chapter.

Alexander McNabb is group account director at Spot On Public Relations, based in the agency's Dubai headquarters with responsibility for client services, counsel, management and the profitability of the firm's client account teams in the region. He has worked with information technology, media and communications in the Middle East for over 20 years, a career that brought him to the Gulf for the first time in 1986.

As a co-founder, editor and then publishing director of the Middle East's leading technology media house (ITP Ltd), Alexander launched more than 20 publications into that market over a ten-year period and was editor and publisher of leading regional titles such as Arabian Computer News and Comms MEA. He subsequently launched several market-leading publications in the Middle East children's and lifestyle media markets, including the launch of the region's first retail-tied consumer magazine, Living in the Gulf, for Spinneys..

Alexander is an experienced presenter and public speaker as well as conference moderator, MC and workshop leader. He is a regular commentator on marketing and communications issues as well as emerging technology and communications trends and is a regular contributor to radio, television, print and web-based media. A columnist for Campaign Middle East, Alexander also writes for online media such as Arabianbusiness.com as well as his own blog.

With 15 years of experience in public relations and management, he helped launch Jiwin Public Relations in February 2006. Shorty thereafter, he helped design and launch a global PR campaign for Dubai in 2006. Since then he worked on communications and public affairs programs for Dubai entities including Dubai Holding, The Executive Office, Mohammed Bin Rashid Foundation, Dubai School of Government and DIFC. He also worked with federal ministries including Ministry of Cabinet Affairs, Ministry of Presidential Affairs and Ministry of Labour. He is also specialized in developing and conducting tailored media training and public relations courses in both English and Arabic. Prior to moving to Dubai in 2003, he spent nine years with the World Bank in project management and external affairs. He is a member of, as well as a strategic communications advisor to, Young Arab Leaders.

Sana Bagersh is CEO of BrandMoxie. Bagersh is also Managing Director of Synovetics, a training consultancy that organizes conferences and seminars for healthcare professionals (www.synovetics.com). Bagersh is editor of the newly launched Abu Dhabi Tempo magazine, and occasionally teaches as adjunct professor in strategic communications, at Zayed University.

Bagersh worked in Thuraya from 1999 to 2006, joining before the company launched its first satellite. As marketing services manager for Thuraya, Bagersh set up the marketing communications infrastructure for Thuraya in multiple languages and across all media channels and oversaw campaigns implemented across 110 countries; providing marketing strategy consulting for service providers and streamlining all brand communications, while achieving Thuraya’s marketing goals.

Bagersh is on the HCT ADWC Communications Program Advisory Council providing the college with industry level guidance. She occasionally gives marketing strategy training to marketing managers as part of the Marketing Momentum, an executive training programme co-owned with Select Training. Bagersh is co-founder of Quantum Qabas, a high level networking group based in Abu Dhabi.

Based in Dubai, Tim heads up Impact Porter Novelli in Middle East and North Africa, retaining a hands-on role through strategic planning and executive training. 

During his time in the Gulf, Tim has expanded the client portfolio to include government work – ranging from change management communications to capacity building: major multinationals in the consumer and tech arenas (such as P&G, VW, Nokia, Google); and blue-chip clients in the financial services, real estate, automotive, beauty sectors.

A true internationalist, he spent four years in Paris as technology practice leader building cross-border teams: prior to that he split his time between the UK and Belgium covering pan-European issues and crises, such as Europe’s ageing demographic, nuclear waste management, plastics production and the high-tech sector.

His first, formative five years were spent in London in Government and in Brussels in European Union specialist roles.

Not content with pure commercialism, Tim also teaches public relations at the Business School of the American University of Dubai, and is a Director of the Middle East Public Relations Association.