Dr. Ahmad Sami Abushaikha is a founding faculty member. He received his BS in Petroleum Engineering and his BA in Economics from the University of Texas at Austin in 2004. In 2006, he received his MS in Reservoir Geosciences and Engineering from "Institut Français du Pétrole". From 2007 to 2009, he worked at TOTAL Research Centre at Pau, France and at Qatar Petroleum. In 2013, he received his PhD in Petroleum Engineering from Imperial College London. From 2015 to 2017, he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Stanford University specializing in discretization schemes for fluid flow in porous media.

Ra'ed is a Senior Advisor at QatarEnergy, he is currently leading strategic growth project, in addition to providing domain expertise in digital transformation and talent management.Before joining QatarEnergy, Ra'ed worked for 22 years at Shell, where he held various roles across the Netherlands, Norway, Oman, and the UK. His last position at Shell was the Principal Technical Expert and lead for Integrated Reservoir Modelling, where he advanced reservoir modelling standards and practices.Ra'ed holds a Ph.D. from Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, and Executive MBA from the Rotterdam School of Management, Netherlands, focusing on strategy and digital transformation.

Mansour Belhadj is a seasoned business leader with extensive expertise in the energy industry, particularly across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. He currently serves as the General Manager at Microsoft, where he is responsible for driving business growth in the energy and resources sectors across CEMA regions (Central/Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa). With over 30 years of experience, Mansour held regional, pole and global executive roles in major engineering, technology and software corporations before joining Microsoft. Mansour holds a master’s degree in computer engineering and a master of advanced studies in engineering sciences from EFREI engineering school and Paris East university. He is also a graduate of the Harvard Business School’s Executive EducationGeneral Management Program.

Dany Rahal is a highly experienced professional with over 20 years of expertise in digital technology and its implementation within the energy sector. He holds a postgraduate degree in engineering, specializing in telecommunications, from École Supérieure d'Ingénieurs de Beyrouth (ESIB Beirut). Additionally, he has earned two master's degrees: one in networks and cybersecurity from École Nationale Supérieure des Telecommunications (Telecom ParisTech) and another in management for the oil and gas industry from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh. Since joining SLB in 2000, Dany has taken on various roles in technical consulting and project management throughout Europe and Africa. In 2010, he was appointed Deployment Manager for SLB's next-generation reservoir simulator, INTERSECT, a global position based in London. From 2014 to 2018, he led SLB's software business in the Middle East, later transitioning to the role of Global Deployment Manager and Head of Product Management for SLB's Cloud offering, Delfi, also located in London. As of July 2022, Dany holds the position of Vice President, overseeing SLB's digital business in the Middle East and North Africa region from Dubai. In his personal time, Dany enjoys fine dining, outdoor activities, and traveling with his family.

Vincent Natoli is the president and founder of Stone Ridge Technology(SRT). He is a computational physicist with 30 years experience in the field of high-performance computing. He holds Bachelors and Masters degrees from MIT, a PhD in Physics from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a Masters in Technology Management from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He worked for ten years in research at ExxonMobil before founding SRT in 2005. Stone Ridge Technology pioneered the use of GPUs in commercial reservoir simulation. Its flagship product, ECHELON, leads the industry in performance. 

Ahmed has 20+ years of experience on subsurface development. Worked for 10 years in QatarEnergy’s operated onshore and offshore fields, in various roles in the operations and studies teams, including integrated reservoir models studies with various consultants and IOC partners. He joined Maersk Oil Qatar (Maersk Oil Research andTechnology Team MORTC) to work in the Long Horizontal Well Modeling team in 2013. In 2015, he joined QatarEnergy’s Non-Operated Field Development team as Head of Al-Shaheen Development, therefore overlooking the full cycle of Al-Shaheen operator ship transition/transfer to North Oil Company (NOC). He joined NOC in 2020 and took over the role of VP Reservoir andGeosciences in Oct 2020. Assigned back to QatarEnergy as Manager, Non-Operated Oil Development & Tech Support as of May 2022. He was appointed as Manager, Offshore Operated Oil Field Development in May 2024.

Haytham has more than 22 years of experience in the Energy Industry, where he held numerous technical and leadership positions. He worked for major Energy companies such as Ras Gas Company, Dolphin Energy and Qatar gas Company working on the largest single non-associated gas field in the World, the North Field. In January 2021, Haytham Abdulaziz Al-Meer appointed as Chief Subsurface Officer (CSO) of QatarEnergy LNG. As CSO, Haytham ensures a sustainable production growth and maximization of value from the North Field by managing all aspects of hydrocarbon production (i.e.,Well Construction, Well Management, Reservoir Management, production Optimization, etc.) to ensure sustainable growing production and maximize the value from the North Field for the benefits of the State of Qatar and Shareholders. Furthermore, he manages the development planning activities associated with the North Field Production Sustainability and the North Field Expansion Projects. Haytham holds a B.Sc. in Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering from New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, USA. Mr. Al-Meer serves as a member of board of director of Qatar Steel Company.

Benjamin PIGNOT works for TotalEnergies as the Geosciences Manager of the Al Khalij field in Qatar, as well as the Reserves Manager for TotalEnergies’ oil & gas assets in Qatar. Benjamin has over 14 years of experience in oil & gas. Since joining TotalEnergies in 2011, Benjamin has taken on various positions as reservoir engineer and geoscientist in Qatar, France, USA and Argentina. Benjamin holds a Master's degree in Metals & Energy Finance from Imperial College London, and an engineering degree from Arts et Métiers ParisTech.