Connect | MENA // DCD>Keynote Panel: Building competitive AI infrastructure in the Middle East

Dawn is an accomplished engineer and operator who was honoured with a Fellowship from the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2020. Prior to joining Pure her career spanned several engineering sectors and industries including UK Change Director for National Grid across both the gas and electricity transmission businesses; Group Engineering Director for Merlin Entertainments with responsibility for engineering delivery, standards, practices and processes across the worldwide portfolio of more than 130 theme parks, resorts and attractions; Head of Engineering at Gatwick Airport covering the infrastructure and technical services at the airport; and over 20 years as an Engineering Officer in the Royal Air Force where she held various positions including Head of Engineering at RAF Waddington looking after the Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance aircraft fleets and Deputy Chief Engineer for the Air Transport and Air to Air Refuelling aircraft fleets.

She has a track record of developing women in her organisation as well as working to bring more women and girls into engineering and has been the President of the Women’s Engineering Society since 2018.

Dawn now leads the operational arm of Pure Data Centres Group ensuring the delivery of resilient 24/7 operations globally.

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Kamel Tawil joined Equinix in September 2020 as Managing Director MENA (Middle East and North Africa) and he is responsible for developing MENA markets to deliver world class digital infrastructure solutions, building a network dense ecosystem. Prior, Mr. Tawil spent 18 years at Oracle in various leadership roles across ECEMEA (East Central Europe, Middle East and Africa) where he led major digital transformation projects.

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Sunita Bottse is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Syntys, where she leads the company’s strategic initiatives and growth across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). She oversees the development and operations of Syntys’ data centers across five markets, addressing the evolving digital infrastructure needs of businesses in the region.

Under Sunita’s leadership, Syntys is executing a US$1.5 billion investment to expand its capacity beyond 120MW in the coming years, reinforcing its position as carrier-neutral data center leader. Her focus on operational excellence, client success, and future-ready strategies ensures Syntys remains the region’s leading digital infrastructure platform and the trusted partner for public and private sectors driving the digital economy.

With a career spanning over 14+ years in digital infrastructure, Sunita’s journey began in 2011 as Vice President and Executive Committee Member at Ctex (LATAM), where she played a pivotal role in establishing the first Tier IV-certified data center in Latin America. She went on to lead SUPERNAP (Thailand) as CEO, delivering Thailand’s only Tier IV multi-tenant data center and achieving industry-first sustainability milestones, such as the implementation of solar-powered operations.

Most recently she was the Senior Director of Data Center Site Acquisition (EMEA) at Microsoft, where she supported the expansion of Cloud and AI infrastructure across the region.

In addition to her corporate achievements, Sunita is a passionate advocate for sustainability and diversity in the tech industry. She has actively contributed to workforce development, championed women in STEM, and led initiatives such as iMasons Women’s EMEA programs to foster inclusion in the sector.

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Majid AlNaqbi, joined du in 2006 and has 18+ years’ experience within du, where he has played an integral part in various roles he has been performing. He has a vast rich experience in multiple areas that include Technology, Commercial and Customer & Channels team. He has excelled in functions like Transport Network, Fixed Access Network, Network Infrastructure, Datamena & broadcast, managed services, technology operations and in his last role he was heading Customer Operations in the Customer & Channels team.

Currently, Majid is the Head of Data Centre Business at du in the ICT department under the new sub-brand du Tech. He has the commercial acumen and technology knowledge with a customer

experience mindset to drive the Data Centre Business for du Tech at such an exciting time where he in 2024 has been able to achieve major milestones and successfully explore new horizons to achieve the ambitions to grow the business by signing a one of its kind deal in partnership to launch the first NVIDIA supercluster in the GCC. The supercluster in Dubai will leverage cutting- edge liquid cooling technology to enhance AI processing efficiency, sustainability, and performance. The project marks a significant advancement in the Data Centre and AI technology landscape of the region.

Under his leadership, he has recently won an awards for the Data Centre Business in less than one year’s time for, “Innovation in cooling 2024” at Dubai Cloud & Data Centre Convention & Awards 2024 from W.Media. Presently in his role, he is heading multiple data centre locations that are mostly fully consumed taking the Data Centre Business to the next-level.

Majid has a Bachelor’s degrees in Computer Engineering and Masters degree in Engineering systems management from American University of Sharjah.

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