About MRMW MENA









Driving CX Insights and Market Research in the Middle East
Merlien Institute is proud to bring its global MRMW conference series to Dubai in 2025! With over 18 years’ experience running some of the world’s best customer insights in Europe, Asia and North America, we are proud to host the 2nd MRMW conference in the MENA region based on the insistence and continued interest from our community.
Every year MRMW brings together forward-thinking clients, innovative agencies, and technology disruptors to discuss the latest trends and innovations driving the industry forward. Now more than ever, creative thinking and out of the box solutions are needed.
The unique MRMW concept allows for a diverse range of participants and topics at each conference, offering local trends as well as a global perspective.
View replays from MRMW EU

Hear from innovative thinkers – keynotes, panels, roundtables, and interactive discussions.

Network with senior executives through speed-networking and one-to-one meetings.

Find strategic partners and discover the latest tools and technologies to power your business.
Our Featured Speakers

Marketing insights & strategy professional with 18+ years of diverse experience within the CPG domain, across Asia, Middle East, and African markets. Fortunate to have worked on some of the global iconic brands like Oreo, Cadbury, Tang, and Philadelphia. An avid storyteller with proven ability to provide a behavioral view for a very black and white data. As the regional strategy & insights lead, passionate about building a team of curious & agile thought leaders.


With over 20 years of experience, Amanda is a seasoned design leader with a proven track record of building high-performing teams and delivering impactful results for leading global brands. Currently Head of Design for Retail Banking at Mashreq, a leading bank in the Middle East, Amanda leads designers, researchers, and copywriters across the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Egypt, Pakistan and India. Under her leadership, Mashreq has the top-rated banking apps in the UAE.


Strategic and results-oriented professional with 10+ years of experience in consumer insights, CRM, predictive analytics, and market research. Proven expertise in driving omnichannel, data-driven strategies that optimize customer engagement, brand performance, and revenue growth. Adept at leading cross-functional teams, managing complex, multi-market projects, and delivering actionable insights that shape digital transformation and brand strategy. Deep industry experience across luxury, beauty, and retail, with a strong track record of influencing senior stakeholders and fostering a consumer-centric, insight-led decision-making culture.


Ankesh has over 20 years of experience across India and the Middle East, and has led transformation through insight-driven strategy, real-time VoC platforms, and a passion for humanising experiences. His work has empowered organisations to grow, uplift team morale, and build meaningful customer relationships.
He was recognized in the Top 250 Global Insights Professional by Esomar, Top 100 Global CX Thought Leader, and ranked in top 10 CXMStars™️ in 2025.


Ashish currently serves as Global Director of Strategy and Consumer Insights at RBI for FireHouseSubs, Popeyes and TimHortons. He is a passionate & visionary insights entrepreneur with broad international experience and projects done in Europe and Asia, across multiple FMCG industries and client /agency/consultancy side. Credited with over one-and-a-half decade of rich, substantive and dynamic experience in the Analytics and Consumers Insights. During these years, he found innovative solutions to esoteric problems, thus creating a formidable impact in the industry. Widely travelled and learnt the ropes of consumer insights by working across geographies such as India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Switzerland where he was physically stationed.

Mohamed Soliman is a distinguished marketing leader with over 22 years of multi-market experience across flagship global and regional brands. He's driven growth for industry giants like PepsiCo and Coca-Cola, while shaping transformative strategies for Savola Foods and its powerhouse, Al-Kabeer Group. As Head of Marketing for Al-Kabeer in GCC, Mohamed recently spearheaded a comprehensive brand reimagining across six core frozen food categories (Meat, Chicken, Vegetables, Fruits, Dough, Seafood). This initiative significantly boosted Al-Kabeer's image, awareness, endorsement, and competitive positioning. His MRMW MENA presentation will explore the vital move towards extending brand collaborations beyond Limited Time Offers, focusing on building enduring regional partnerships


Jackie leads the Insight function for Nestle across the MENA region. Her passion is in bringing human centred design into commercial decision making, and she has been on this mission for the last 20 years driving Insight and Strategy for various organizations including Mondelez, Pernod Ricard, John Lewis Plc, Ferrero and Kantar Consulting across MENA, London and Singapore.


Deepti feeds her passion by turning emerging market complexity into clarity, strategy, and growth. Her journey spans about 18 years, largely in the Middle East. Working across multiple sectors that include FMCG, Technology and Financial Services has helped her develop a diverse view on consumers as well as organizations. She is currently engaged with Philip Morris International to champion Regional Insights for Asia, Middle East and Africa. Her latest drive focuses on blending global brand vision with local nuance. She is also an Executive MBA candidate at Kellogg School of Management (Batch of 2026).

Featured Topics
FROM NOTEBOOKS TO AI: THE TRANSFORMATIVE JOURNEY OF CRM IN THE MIDDLE EAST
- Delving into the shift from manual CRM practices to AI driven personalization
- Bridging data silos and engagement gaps to strategically shape future customer loyalty
- Exploring how AI, personalization and innovation are set to transform customer experiences across industries
- Adapting to evolving customer expectations in an increasingly digital and connected world
EXTENDING BRAND COLLABS BEYOND LIMITED TIME OFFERS:
- Unlocking enduring value & growth via sustained brand collabs.
- Exploring actionable strategies and innovative frameworks for cultivating brand alliances that resonate.
- Navigating pitfalls and understanding the critical watchouts and common missteps that can derail brand collaborations.
- Understanding the anatomy of a Champion Collab
KEEPING ON THE CONSUMER PULSE: HUMAN EXPERIENCE MEETS AI AT SCALE
- Showcasing Nestlé’s Consumer Pulse program which blends continuous human insight with the power of AI to drive agile, real-time decision making
- Effectively leveraging AI to enhance—not replace—the human experience in understanding consumer and shopper needs
- Embedding consumer-centric insights across all business functions, not just marketing
- Exploring practical examples of scaling empathy and responsiveness across a global organization
REDRESSING YOUR INSIGHTS CAPABILITY & DEVELOPMENT
- Securing roles and maintaining space despite the emergence of tech & IT in insights & analytics
- Performing ¨in spite of¨ resource resets: budgets, layoffs, evolved team profiles, tech onboarding and outsourcing
- Riding the wave: repositioning the value of the function and elevating to your business stakeholders
HELPING GLOBAL BRANDS DRIVE LOCAL RELEVANCE
- Showcasing illustrative examples of success / failure
- Identifying strategic differentiators
- Establishing a framework to identify and apply to various situations
- Implementing healthy insights practices to support the journey
SCALING SMART: EMPOWERING ORGANIZATIONS WITH A SELF-SERVE INSIGHTS MODEL
- Scaling insights impact without scaling headcount by building internal capability through a structured, repeatable framework
- Identifying commonly recurring project types to target high-demand, low-complexity work suitable for decentralization
- Equipping teams for success with clear, actionable guidelines that enable consistent, self-directed execution
- Demonstrating tangible business value through improved speed, reduced costs, stronger decisions – and a real-world case study that proves the model works