Sumaira Isaacs - Managing Director:
Sumaira is a true veteran in the Meetings Industry with over 18 years of experience in the Middle East market alone. She incorporated the MCI Middle East offices and is the Managing Director for the Middle East region for the last three years i.e. ever since its inception. Sumaira has been responsible for thinking the Middle East strategy for MCI and in the last 3 years has developed a multi-talented team which services both the Corporate as well as the Institutional (Not for profit organizations) market place. Under her leadership, there have been number of successful executions and these have included planning and executing over 100 mandates in the last 3 years. She has also been instrumental in building relations with the key opinion leaders in the United Arab Emirates. Sumaira has built a community of like minded people and was one of the pioneers in building the following industry associations, IAPCO, MPI, SITE and ICCA in the city. She has also served on the Board of Directors for the Society of Incentive & Travel Executives (SITE), a Chicago head-quartered organization for industry professionals. Her immense international knowledge, combined with the local insights and experience she has accumulated over the years makes her a very valuable contributor to the growth and development of the Meetings industry in Middle East.     

Clifford Fernandes – Director Finance & HR:
A seasoned finance person with an extensive background in the hotel industry, he is responsible for looking after all the financial aspects of MCI Dubai’s operations. He has been with MCI Dubai since the very beginning and hence, is also responsible for tapping the locally available talent pool to keep its engines running. In the past 20 years of his professional career, he has worked for prestigious organizations like the Jebel Ali Golf Resort and Spa (DUTCO Group) and Madinat Jumeirah (Jumeirah Group). Having ample experience in the field of finance in the Middle East, he clearly understands the regional challenges as well as opportunities. 

Vishal D’Souza – Director Ovation DMC & Operations:
With almost a decade old operational experience in the Middle East region under his belt, Vishal currently heads Ovation Arabia and is responsible for implementing its strategy. He has, over the last 2 years, developed the knowledge and information about the brand in the region. With combination of his regional knowledge and experience he has been able to deliver exceptional projects for both corporate and institutional clients. Since joining the MCI team, he has delivered projects in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman.  In the past, he has delivered similar mandates in Turkey and India as well. His forte is his strong relationships with regional vendors. Prior to joining MCI, he served with Arabian Adventures, the Destination Marketing Division for Emirates Airline. His capabilities enable him to organize and manage small 10 people meetings to big 2000 people events all with the same ease.

Ajay Bhojwani – Director Institutional Division & PCO:
A professional conference person by skill-set, he is responsible for cultivating new accounts and servicing the existing institutional accounts in the Middle East region for MCI. Ajay has been instrumental in developing the Middle East Not for profit mandate of MCI. In addition to his core skill-set, his deep understanding of seminar production, marketing & public relations has been leveraged by a number of International Associations such as HIMSS, SHRM, WAO, IMA etc. in building and expanding their regional plans for the Middle East theatre. His decade old experience spans his work with IIR Exhibition (the region’s largest conference and exhibitions organizing firm) and Global Management Consultants (an HR and Marketing Company.), before he joined MCI. He has in the past, successfully helped conceptualize, produce, and manage many conferences in the Middle East region.

Helen Van Oers – Director Assocaition Management:
A client relationship builder par excellence, she has been with MCI for over a decade now. Her current role comprises of overseeing the strengthening of the Association Management practice in the Middle East region, which includes new business development and integration within the same domain. A seasoned Association Management professional, Helen helped launch MCI’s first operation outside Europe in Singapore and later played the same role for launching MCI’s operations in India. She has helped built communities for Pharmaceutical Engineering (ISPE), Project Management (PMI), Human Resource (WorldatWork) and (SHRM), Facility Management (IFMA), Clinical Research Professionals (ACRP), Venture Capitalists (BVA), Nephrology (ISN) to name a few.

Alexander John – Director Business Development:
With over 12 years of hospitality management experience, he is part of the pioneering team of MCI’s Middle East initiative. He leads the business development effort in the corporate sector for MCI in the region. In the last 3 years, MCI’s corporate division has grown to work with two of the major industries, i.e. Health Care and ICT.  MCI’s corporate division has executed number of mandates both here in the UAE as well as in other GCC countries such as Oman, Bahrain and Kuwait. Alex started his career with the Taj group in India and moved to Dubai in 2000 where he worked with Jumeirah Group and assisted with the opening of the following properties, Madinat Jumeirah and Essex House in New York. He currently serves as the Chapter President of Society of Incentive & Travel Executives (SITE UAE), an international association that works to promotes and addresses the needs of the travel industry.