David Mandredi

President / Sector Lead
Design and Consultancy Services - Parsons

David Manfredi joined Parsons in November 2018, leading one of MEA Built Environment’s most exciting segments: Design and Consultancy Services. David’s role focuses on maximizing collaboration and consistency between the teams for seamless delivery of our holistic design solutions. He has more than 20 years of experience in delivering professional design consultancy services in the Middle East, Australia and Asia. He is experienced in connecting services to the market and into a global network which embraces the use of technology with its benefits for clients, staff development, design outcomes and project efficiencies. David is an inspirational leader and an award-winning architect with a wide breadth of experience in providing design and construction solutions.

Sherief Elabd

Director of Business Development
Oracle

Sherief is working for the Construction & Engineering Unit at Oracle. He’s part of the Global Industry Strategy & Innovation team and has been having a long track record in enterprise project portfolio management digital solutions from solutioning, organizational readiness assessment to assessing user adoption and customer experience. Sherief is a civil engineer with construction project management background. He’s an Oracle authorized spokesperson and speaker in international and local industry and project management and digital transformation events all over the world.

Riccardo Robustini

Founder and Director
UNICA Architects

In the UAE he has collaborated with X-Architects, has served as the design director of HH and for the Emirati government as Design Manager of the Crown Prince’s Office. As Founder and Director of UNICA Architects, he had the opportunity to design prestigious hospitality projects in the Middle East and Europe, as well as various public buildings, including the design for the new Sport arena and the public and VIP area for the Deep Diving Dubai, the deepest pool in the world. In the last two years he was involved in the design of 2500+ hotel rooms including 3* and 5* hotels, housing projects masterplans and luxury residentials building. Riccardo was also assistant professor at University polytechnic of Milan from 2009-2012 and critics in various universities, including the B.E.S.T of Łódz, the N.A.B.A academy of Milan and the American University of Sharjah.

Mansour Faried

Chief Engineer and Director of Engineering Department
CSCEC Middle East

Mansour leads the Engineering team of the world leading contractor to develop technology driven technical proposals and Engineering solution for running and upcoming projects across Middle East region.
Mansour Holds Master Degree in Construction management from Reading University, with a major specialty in construction innovation, building information modelling (BIM), Virtual construction and in particular 3D printing applications in construction field.
With an extensive knowledge gained over 18 years of participation in large, complex and landmark projects, Mansour has developed his realistic vision towards of Construction industry, and became able to early identify the minor flaws before it rolls up into major business failure, accordingly became able to manage all sizes of projects, and assist different stake holders to take the right decision on the right time.

Joumana Hosri

CEO
Sacotel

Graduated from the SORBONNE University (Paris) in economics she currently holds the position of CEO of SacotelZnshine a JV company between Sacotel and Znshine PV tech a tier 1 Chinese manufacturer of Solar panels ranking 10th globally. This JV has put SacotelZnshine in a leading position as supplier of solar panels in the Middle East market. Under her guidance Znshine has won DEWA tender for solar modules that were supplied for 5000 villas in 2019.

Swapnil Pillai

Associate Research Middle East

Swapnil has more than ten years of research and consulting experience across the construction and real estate sector. During this period, he has worked for private equity funds, sovereign wealth funds, developers, consultants, retailers, government agencies, banks and Real Estate Investment Trust (REITs).

Melani Sabhaney

Partner & Director Design
Interspace

UAE-based design director and co-founder of Interspace, Melani Sabhaney is everything, but your typical interior designer. Growing up in Chennai, India, in a large and vibrant family with three brothers, Melani’s no-frills and no-nonsense attitude define both her personality and design practice.
As an excellent listener, Melani injects all of her projects with a proper balance between creativity and functionality, layering both contemporary and timeless designs with her client’s inputs. Designing with and for the people, she prides herself on creating spaces that truly reflect the taste of her clients.
Since establishing Interspace, Melani and her team have worked on numerous landmark projects in the UAE and India, including the Headquarters for Emirates Airlines (Dubai), First-class Emirates Lounge, interiors for Hilton Beach Resort (Ras Al Khaimah), schools for UAE’s leading education brand GEMS and Pepsi headquarters in Bangalore, among others.
Melani is one of the executive committee members of the recently formed Indian Institute of Interior Designers (IIID) Dubai chapter as well as a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA).

Alastair Mitchell

Director - MEP
Ithra Dubai

Alastair Mitchell has 30 years’ experience in the MEP sector of the Construction industry , working in MEP design, Construction Supervision and Client roles in Middle East, Asia and UK
Alastair has worked in the UAE since 2005 initially as Principal Mechanical Engineer for Hyder Consulting (Now Arcadis) working primarily on Burj Khalifa. He then joined RED Engineering as a Technical Director working on multiple projects in the Middle East and Asia. In 2014 Alastair joined his current Employer Ithra Dubai as MEP Director where he is responsible for delivering the MEP element on a wide variety of Residential, Commercial and Hospitality projects throughout Dubai.

Sanmita Patel

Architect & Senior Designer
AAID

Sanmita Patel is an Architect, Designer and Entrepreneur in the Architecture and Construction Industry, She has a collective of 8 years of work experience in the Middle East and USA.
Sanmita has worked in UAE since 2008 initially as an Architect at KEO International Consultants primarily working on Mix Use Developments, Commercial and Residential Projects. She then did a research fellowship on “Challenges of Public Space Design in the Demographically diverse city of Dubai”. Following which she did her Master’s in Architecture from University of Pennsylvania in USA. In 2014, she worked in New York before returning to Dubai. Sanmita has been working as an Architect and Senior Designer at AAID since 2015. She is also the founder of an informal initiative called the Young Architects Forum Dubai or YAF’D.

Rachael Kennerley

Asset Manager
Savills

Rachael started her career with Savills in the UK in 2010, where she worked as a country house and farm agent in Shropshire, before moving to London in 2011 to focus on the residential market in Kensington and Chelsea. Her career then developed to London Estate Management specialising in development advisory and valuation of residential assets. As a result, Rachael has an understanding of residential property both from a personal and investment point of view and is able to draw upon her knowledge of the city, the historical context of London’s price trends and gentrification of different areas.

Rachael moved to Dubai in January 2017 and has stayed focused on residential property advising investors here in the local market whilst staying close to the UK market.