The 17th edition of CNME’s CIO Leadership Awards came to life recently at the impressive Taj Exotica Resort & Spa, The Palm as the region’s chief information officers and thought-leaders gathered to celebrate innovation.
The 2025 edition of the awards ceremony celebrates the thought-leaders, who embrace opportunity wholeheartedly, and constantly strive for new innovative practices designed to pioneer change.
The awards process involved the CNME editorial team evaluating the nominations from across the region in an in-depth process to decide the most-deserving candidates wh0 demonstrated excellence in technology innovation and business value delivery. These criteria helped to provide a measurable impact for the use of IT within an organisation that paved the way to greater success.
Sponsored by Platinum Sponsors- Hitachi Vantara & VAD Technologies, Gold Sponsors- Logitech, OPSWAT, Pure Storage & Raqmiyat and Silver Sponsors- Cyble & Finesse the event started off with a keynote speech by Rehan Shahid Regional Channel & Alliances Head – Midde East & Pakistan Hitachi Vantara. This was shortly followed with a panel discussion moderated by the CNME Editor Mark Forker. Under the title of Validating Gen AI: How Enterprises and Business Leaders can apply Gen AI to revolutionize their industries the panel featured insights from IT professionals such as Loubna Imenchal from Logitech, Padam Sundar Kafle from Aster Hospitals, Rami Nehme from OPSWAT, Samer Semaan from Pure Storage and Wolfgang Kroj from Hitachi Vantara.
The winners of the CIO Leadership Awards 2025 are:
- Yanal Qasim Alkhasoneh, Abu Dhabi Customs
- Jinson Pappachan, Emirates Policy Center
- Mohammed Khader, emaratech
- Meshal Abdulla BinHussain, Ministry of Finance – United Arab Emirates
- Muhammad Irfan Ali, CAFU
- Alaa Elayyan, Abu Dhabi Commercial Properties (ADCP)
- Srinivasa Narasimaiah, Julphar Gulf Pharmaceuticals
- Saju Plasseril, Dubai National Insurance & Reinsurance PSC
- Major Anas Al Hosani, Ministry of Interior – United Arab Emirates
- Chrish Dias, American Gulf School – Sharjah
- Deepak Selvaraj, Gargash Group
- SV Padmanabhan, United Arab Bank
- Hariharan Balasubramanian, Union Properties PJSC
- Ebrahim Kamalzadeh, Al Nabooda Automobiles LLC
- Hiren Desai, Canadian Specialist Hospital
- Dr. Mohammad Abdulla Alawadhi, Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP)
- Harsh Daftary, Emirates NBD
- Abdulla Al Jallaf, Etihad Water and Electricity (EtihadWE)
- Nagesh Aswartha, RAK Public Services Department
- Hasan Mehdi, Habib Bank Limited
- Sunando Chaudhuri, Modon
- Padam Sundar Kafle, Aster Hospitals – UAE and Oman
- Jacob Mathew, UAE Government Entity
- Aditya Kaushik, Zakher Marine International (ZMI)
- Mubarik Hussain, Distinguished Real Estate (DRE)
- Abdalla Al Ali, Dubai Multi Commodities Centre Authority (DMCC)
- Aus Alzubaidi, MBC Group
- Bilal Lodhia, Dubai Taxi Company PJSC
- Haroon Sheikh, Taha Investment Group (TIG)
- Gokul Gopalakrishnan, Acino Pharmaceuticals FZ LLC
- Shabeer Mangattuparambil, Abu Dhabi University
- Ali Jumaily, Saeed & Mohammed Al Naboodah Group
- Mustansir Aziz, Automech Group
- Her Excellency Dr. Mubaraka Ibrahim, Emirates Health Services
- Shanmughan Shiju, LuLu Group International
- Raziel Humberto Pena Hinojosa, Mediclinic Middle East
- Mohannad Hennawi, NAFFCO
- Bhawna Sajnani, GEMS Legacy School
- Manish Agarwal, M. H. Enterprises LLC
- Sunil Nair, Majid al Futtaim Retail LLC
- Rohit Anand Bajpai, Gulf Islamic Investments LLC
- Sreedhar Suragouni, Sukoon Insurance
- Ramandeep Singh Virdi, Americana Restaurants
- Abdulrahman Khaiwi, Emirates National Schools (ENS)
- Wael El Khatib, ENOVA by Veolia
- Prashant Menon, Metito Overseas Ltd.
- Kapil Matta, Agthia Group PJSC
- Eilif Hansen, Advanced Inhalation Rituals (AIR)
- Dr. Lenish Kannan, Western International Group
