2026 agenda

Keynote presentation: Health as infrastructure: the next phase of workforce health in the Gulf

Workforce health is becoming increasingly connected to organisational capacity, resilience and performance. At the same time, health often remains fragmented across wellbeing, benefits, insurance, occupational health and individual programmes. This opening keynote sets the wider context for the forum: what is changing, where current approaches fall short, and what a more serious approach to workforce health could look like across the Gulf.

• Why workforce health is moving beyond wellbeing programmes and employee benefits
• How health affects workforce capacity, resilience and organisational performance
• What the next phase of employer workforce health could look like across the Gulf

Featuring:

• Diego Carrete, Chief Wellness Officer

Panel discussion: From wellbeing to sustainable human performance

Many employers have moved beyond standalone wellbeing programmes, but the harder question is how to create the conditions for people to stay healthy, adapt and perform sustainably over time. This employer-led panel looks at how workforce health strategies are evolving across resilience, mental health, menopause, leadership, data and technology, and what this means in practice for large organisations.

• How employer wellbeing strategies are evolving beyond programmes and benefits
• What resilience, leadership and workforce health look like in practice across large organisations
• How data, technology and employee insight can support healthier, more sustainable performance

Featuring:

• Standard Chartered Global Wellbeing Lead, Claire Dargue
• HSBC Regional Benefits and Wellbeing Lead, MENAT, Laura Frost
• A&O Shearman Senior Global Wellbeing Manager, Jyoti Choitram

Fireside chat: From wellbeing provision to workforce health governance

Many employers invest in engagement, wellbeing and support services, yet the numbers often show that provision is not reaching employees, changing behaviour or creating enough value. In some organisations, providers are selected because they help satisfy certification requirements rather than because they are clearly understood, trusted or used by the workforce. This fireside chat examines how employers can move from simply appointing providers to governing workforce health more seriously: defining what matters, measuring what works, improving awareness and entitlement, and connecting health investment to organisational performance.

• Why wellbeing and engagement provision often fails to hit the mark
• How employers should evaluate whether a provider is creating real value
• Why employee awareness, entitlement and trust determine uptake
• How HR can use data to strengthen its influence with senior leadership

Featuring:

• Al Tamimi and Company Head of Organization Design & Strategy, Talal AlAbboudi

Panel discussion: Inside the employer: designing healthier organisations beyond programmes and perks

Large employers often fund multiple health, benefits, occupational health, mental health, prevention and insurance services. Too often, these sit across separate teams, budgets, suppliers and measures. This employer-led panel examines how workforce health should be governed in practice: who owns it, what data matters, how decisions are made, and how health investment connects to productivity, safety, retention, cost and resilience.

• Who should own workforce health across HR, reward, HSE, operations, finance and risk
• How employers can connect benefits, occupational health, prevention, insurance, work design and employee experience
• What workforce health measures should reach senior leadership

Featuring:

• Spinneys General Manager Human Resources, Michael Green
• talabat Senior Director People & Culture, Shereen Shaaban

Coffee and networking

Panel discussion: Chronic disease, care access and the cost of delayed intervention

Diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular risk and other chronic conditions create growing pressure across workforce performance, medical benefits and healthcare systems. This session examines how employers, insurers and health-system partners can improve prevention, access and earlier intervention without placing responsibility solely on individuals.

• How chronic disease and delayed care affect workforce performance and healthcare cost
• How prevention, medical benefits and care pathways can work together
• What employers can govern across HR, benefits and operations
• How employers, insurers and providers should share responsibility for earlier intervention

Featuring:

• Emirates Head of Medical Benefits, Lisa Fryar
• M42 Health Manager, Population Wellbeing, Farah Hillou
• Liva Healthcare Chief Commercial Officer, Nour Hussein
• Jumeirah Group Director of Colleague and Medical Services, Gordon Rech
• Moderator: Smart Salem CEO, Amanda Gravitas

Presentation: From claims to capacity

Why employer health strategy must move upstream.

Lunch

Panel discussion: Why people use some health services and ignore others

Health services continue to expand, but access alone does not produce participation, sustained engagement or value. This panel examines what determines whether people trust, use and return to health provision. It brings together perspectives from across healthcare, service design and health technology to explore the roles of evidence, personalisation, environment and human experience.

• Distinguish between provision that exists and provision people will actually use.
• Identify the factors that build trust and sustained participation.
• Decide what evidence and measures should determine whether provision is funded, expanded or stopped.

Featuring:

• Banya Forrest CEO, Artem Avanesov
• MindTune Founder & CEO, Ramzi Shehadeh

Interview: Beyond the EAP: rethinking how employers support mental health

Mental health needs range from everyday pressures to conditions requiring clinical care. Yet employer support often sits across separate benefits, with an EAP expected to cover much of the ground. This interview examines where coaching, counselling and therapy each belong, how employees reach appropriate support, and how employers judge whether their investment is working.

• What an EAP should cover, where it falls short and when other support is needed
• How to give employees timely, confidential access to appropriate support, with clear routes to further care
• How employers should assess quality, outcomes and value across their mental health provision

Presentation: Work design, fatigue and psychosocial risk

Fatigue, burnout, work intensity, manager capability and psychological strain cannot be managed only through individual support services. They are shaped by operating pressure, work design, leadership behaviour, safety culture and organisational accountability. This presentation examines how employers can identify and redesign the conditions that create risk before they become absence, attrition, safety failure or clinical demand.

• Why fatigue and psychosocial risk are organisational design issues
• How work intensity, shift patterns, heat and operating pressure affect resilience and safety
• What employers should measure and redesign before risk becomes individual illness

Panel discussion: What senior leaders should govern in workforce health

The closing panel brings the day back to senior leadership. If workforce health is infrastructure, employers need to know what should be governed, measured, stopped, scaled and funded. This discussion examines what a serious workforce health governance model should look like for large employers in the region.

• Which measures matter: absence, claims, access, prevention, capacity, retention, risk and outcomes
• What employers should stop funding, continue funding or scale differently
• How partners can support governance without turning the agenda into vendor provision

Featuring:

• IHS Towers Group Head, Talent, Performance, & Organisational Effectiveness, Mohsin Siddiqui
• Moderator: Pure Harvest Smart Farms VP Human Capital, Natalie Gleeson

Closing remarks and networking