As the Chief Digital Officer of Crayon MEA, Dr. Dani Abu Ghaida is focused on helping Middle Eastern governments and large companies play in the exciting $12 Trillion Global Digital Disruption Economy. Dani is leveraging his extensive years of regional MEA experience, his Silicon Valley network, and his global exposure to help digitally transform organizations in the region to meet their economic diversification targets and to create meaningful impact in their ecosystem.

He has 25 years of experience and a track record as a successful technology professional, global C-level executive, and a digital transformation leader. During the last two decades, Dani has been part of, lead, or advised large organizations on major digital transformations that reshaped the trajectory of their businesses.

He leverages his technology strategy and IT execution expertise to drive the digital transformations that could deliver both short-term improvements as well as long-term value. He has held multiple leadership positions including three CIO roles and a Group PMO role with a public giant telecom group (MTN Group), a Global CIO role with a multi-billion-dollar private design and engineering company (Dar Group), and an executive Technology Consulting role with a multinational advisory firm (Ernst and Young).

Dani took on senior leadership and digital transformation roles at a country level, a regional level, and a global level as well. Dani is a regional advisor for a strategic Silicon Valley advisory and CVC services firm (Mach49), that helps large corporates develop a pipeline and portfolio of successful new industry-agnostic ventures – many of which have been successful ventures in the energy space. He is also a founding partner of Silicon Valley based VC firm (Reaction) that invests in ventures born out of the Stanford ecosystem, and focused on AI, IoT/Robotics, and environmental sustainability.

Dani holds a Doctorate in Business Administration, a Master’s and Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, and he is a Stanford GSB (Graduate School of Business) Alumnus. He is also a member of the MIT and Oxford Alumni networks.