Ayad (Ed) Sleiman

Ayad (Ed) Sleiman is the Head of Special Projects and former Head of Information Security at
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) with previous responsibility for
managing the university and city cybersecurity function as well as capacity building with focus on
diversity and inclusion in Cybersecurity. He has over 38 years of experience in the IT industry.
Prior to joining KAUST, Ed worked in security program management, executive management, and
deployment of country-scale security management systems at several companies, including Science
Applications International Corporation (SAIC), Informobiliy, Inc., The Orkand Corporation, and
CACI among others. Notable is his almost a decade as the Chief Information Security Officer of
KAUST.
He’s a frequent keynote speaker, panel moderator, panelist, and/or review board member at
numerous cybersecurity and risk management conferences and his claim to fame is The Human
Firewall Program™. In addition, he serves as an advisory board member for world leading
cybersecurity companies. He was recently honored with the “CISO of the Year Award” for his
contributions to the Cybersecurity field.
Ed received various degrees, the last out of which is a PhD ABD in Software Engineering from the
George Washington University in 2014. He is the recipient of 5 CISO awards and holds more
than a dozen professional certifications in the field.

Michael Tran Duff

Mohamed Ujaimi

Mohamed K. Ujaimi – KAUST CISO

Mohamed ia dynamic and business-focused executive leader with over 16 years of experience. He is the Chief

Information Security Officer at KAUST (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology). In this role, he

provides strategic and administrative leadership in all matters of KAUST Information Security and Data Governance

domains and executes KAUST’s Information Security transformation strategy. Previously Mohamed led complex

transformation programs and initiatives in the Information Security and Technology domains in Saudi government

authorities, the private sector, and Aramco. He has a record of implementing effective risk mitigation and cloud

migration strategies to optimize and enhance cyber maturity and digital hygiene while optimizing costs. He is

known for being an entrepreneurial, motivational, and open-minded professional who fosters cross functional

international partnerships that lead to lucrative opportunities and innovative product enhancements. Superior

educational qualifications include a Master of Science in Cybersecurity Engineering from USC. He is committed to

ongoing process and communication improvements to ensure compliance while optimizing technical maturity for a

lowered enterprise risk.

Roberto Di Pietro

Roberto Di Pietro (Fellow, IEEE; Distinguished Scientist, ACM; Member Academia Europaea; Fellow, AAIA) is a

Professor in Computer Science with the KAUST-CEMSE-RC3, KSA.

Previously, he was Professor in Cybersecurity and founder of the CRI-Lab at HBKU-CSE, Doha-Qatar. He also served

as Global Head for Security Research for Nokia Bell Labs.

He has been working in the cybersecurity field for more than 25 years, leading technology-oriented and research-

focused teams in the private sector,

government, and academia (MoD, United Nations HQ, EUROJUST, IAEA, and WIPO).

His main research interests include AI driven cybersecurity, security and privacy for distributed systems (e.g. UAVs,

Blockchain technology, Cloud, IoT, OSNs), applied cryptography, FinTech, Quantum Computing and data science.

He has contributed a few scientific articles to the cited topics, co-authored four books, and registered tens of

patents and patents applications. Other than being involved in M&A of start-ups —and having founded one

(exited)—

,

he is on the Board of research centers and start-ups. In 2011-2012 he was awarded a Chair of Excellence from

University Carlos III, Madrid. In 2020 he received the JeanClaude Laprie Award

for having significantly influenced the theory and practice of Dependable Computing. In 2022 he was awarded the

Individual Innovation Award from HBKU.

He is consistently ranked among the 2% top world scientists since this ranking existed.

His education accounts for an M.S. in Computer Science ('94) and an M.S. in informatics ('03) both from UniPi, and

a two-years post-MS Specialization Diploma

in Operations Research and Strategic Decisions ('03) and a Ph.D. degree in Computer Science ('04), both from

UniSapienza.