Ralph Tabberer is an expert educator with more than 35 years experience in the school sector, in higher education and in government. He was Director General of Schools in England between 2006 and 2009, a post in which he was responsible to PM Tony Blair for the development and performance of 23,000 primary, secondary and special schools in the UK. He held responsibility for a budget of some £34 billion per annum and supervised all policy development and operational delivery affecting government schools.

Before that, he spent six years as Chief Executive of the Teacher Training Agency (TTA) and the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA), overseeing national strategy for teacher recruitment, teacher training and the modernisation of the school workforce. The cutting edge work of the TDA in transforming teacher recruitment was un-precedented and it is highlighted in McKinsey’s 2007 report, ‘How the world’s best-performing school systems come out on top’.

At the end of the 1990s, Ralph had moved from his role as Deputy Director of the National Foundation for Educational Research to lead the UK e-learning initiative for schools. He has overseen programmes to put computers in schools, increase bandwidth, provide high quality content, and broadcast high-quality lessons via Internet, cable and VSAT.

Ralph left the UK civil service in 2009 and moved to the Middle East to join the international private school operator, GEMS as Chief Operating Officer and Chief of Schools. In 2012, after a highly successful period steering GEMS through the recession and preparing it for growth, Ralph established the first of his own businesses, supporting schools. He now owns, co-owns and chairs five educational businesses providing consultancy, solutions, management and HR support for schools and for international school chains.

Ralph is renowned as an education leader who is steeped in classroom practice. As a former teacher and researcher into how children study and learn, he has expertise in curriculum, pedagogy, student assessment, teacher development and the new technologies. At GEMS he supervised schools running the American, UK, Indian, Arab and International Baccalaureate systems.

Ralph is a graduate of Cambridge University and a qualified teacher. In the New Years Honours list of 2009, Her Majesty The Queen invested Ralph as a Companion of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath (C😎 in recognition of his services to teacher training and to schools. He is a visiting professor at the Institute of Education, University College of London and an Honorary Professor at Warwick University. As a former regulator of one of the world’s largest national systems, he is often in demand not only as a business leader but also as a governmental adviser. In the last year he has co-authored reports on low-cost schools in Africa and Asia, and on the expansion of international schooling globally.

Dr. Kiran Nair is the Head of Internationalisation and Partnerships and an Associate Professor at the College of Business, Abu Dhabi University, UAE. With over two decades of experience in the Industry and Academic field, he focuses on nurturing wisdom, igniting curiosity, and fostering leadership through innovative and holistic approaches. A prolific academic researcher, Dr. Kiran's work spans Marketing, Digital Media, Consumer Behavior, AI in Marketing, Sustainability, and Economic Growth. A sought-after speaker and industry expert, Dr. Kiran also hosts the YouTube channel "Books2Boardrooms with Dr. Kiran," where insights from C-level executives and subject matter experts are shared to bridge the gap between academia and industry.

Kumar Verma is the Managing Director of Scholars International Group (SIG), a leading K-12 school operator in the UAE. He is also the Chairman of the Dubai Business Education Group, which aims to enhance the educational ecosystem in Dubai through collaboration and innovation with the government, and a member of YPO MENA Collaborated, a global leadership organization. Currently, he is enrolled in the Harvard Business School's Owner/President Management (OPM) program.

Before SIG, Mr. Verma was President of Digital Root, Inc, an online advertising and technology company in New York City. He was a founding member of NY Angels, a globally recognized angel investment group. His public roles include MBA program mentor, awards judge, and panelist. He holds a BSBA from Georgetown University and a certificate from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Mr. Verma is focused on expanding educational initiatives in the GCC and North Africa region. He was born in Dubai, UAE.

Alejtin Berisha is a serial entrepreneur, educator, and investor; Co-Founder and CEO of UNI- Universum International College, Powered by Arizona State University, Kosovo’s most international and innovative University with over 6,000 students; the Founder of Finnish Schools International, an innovative and disruptive K-12 school network and concept and Founding Partner, Chairman and Investor of Crossplag – AI-powered Originality tool acquired by Inspera. Alejtin also co-founded iziSurvey, an offline and online surveying platform mainly catering to Academia and Kosovo Business Angels Network (KOSBAN), the winner of the most promising Business Angel Network in SEE (WBAF 2014). He taught entrepreneurship, creativity, and innovation in several universities around the world and is the former National Team Leader for Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM).

He produced and starred in ‘The Young Manager’ and “Startups Battle” TV Shows, aired prime-time on National TV. Berisha is a community activist and the Co-Chair of the KOSICT Conference (2016, 2017, 201😎 the biggest tech festival in the Balkans with 2,000 participants, and the Founding Curator of Prishtina Hub (2015) at World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers Community. He is a fellow at New York University and a former Executive Board Member at EAIR – the European Higher Education Society. Mr. Berisha studied at the Universities of Bath and Sussex (UK) and South East European University in North Macedonia.