Nidal Abou-Ltaif
President, Europe,
Asia Pacific & MEA
Morag Lucey
Chief Marketing Officer
Jean Turgeon
VP and Chief Technologist,
Software Defined
Architecture
Nidal Abou-Ltaif is one of the regions most respected and celebrated ICT and business leaders, known for his unmatched track record of success, enormous love of people, fierce passion for winning, and desire to help governments and businesses use technology to make a real difference in people’s lives.
In 2003, Nidal joined Avaya as the regional sales leader for the ME. He began a journey of rewiring the business by building a winning team & go-to-market strategy from scratch. He has been instrumental to transform Avaya from a niche voice/IP telephony player to become a business communications powerhouse by market share in the region in Contact Center, UC & Infrastructure businesses across verticals & geographies.
Nidal has a long history with the networking business at Avaya. He was instrumental in maintaining business continuity when Avaya acquired Nortel, and managed a successful integration process in the Middle East, Africa and Turkey.
In 2013, Nidal was the mastermind behind Avaya’s growth in the region’s mid-market business when he developed and led iConnect, a strategic initiative for Avaya globally, aiming at building and driving a channel friendly program for the mid-market.
In early 2014, Nidal was selected to lead Avaya’s newly formed Global Growth Markets theater that includes MEA, Turkey, Russia & CIS, India and SAARC, and China, a challenging market the with highest global growth potential. As president for Avaya GGM, Nidal took the challenge to turnaround Avaya in India, and drive Avaya’s networking business in his geography. In FY14, and under Nidal’s leadership, Avaya GGM led the networking business, achieved impressive growth mid-market with Avaya’s flagship channel engagement program iConnect,, and is currently expanding into territories.
In his 30 years as a sales leader, Nidal has transformed businesses for the 3 companies he worked for: NCR/ATT & Avaya. From 1980 to 2003, Nidal lead various teams at NCR/ATT into new business lines well before competitors ventured into them. His latest role as sales director for ME, North Africa, and Eastern Europe for Infrastructure & Networking business grew to become the area’s most recognized SI/reseller of IT infrastructure, eBusiness & enterprise apps.
Nidal has always been driven by a passion & commitment to build and develop leaders. At NCR, he fostered a culture of self-motivation, agility & integrity. Most of the associates Nidal mentored went on to join & lead successful careers themselves in technology across Middle East & Africa. At Avaya, his team members have been often described as “a pocket of brilliance” within the corporation and the associates Nidal recruits & coaches are widely recognized as some of the highest of calibers across functions.
Nidal has been recognized for his leadership and management skills by a number of organizations, including:
Nidal is based in Dubai with his family and 4 kids and holds an MBA in management.
Laurent Philonenko is Senior Vice President of Corporate Strategy & Development and CTO at Avaya, a leading provider of solutions that enable customer and team engagement. In this role, Laurent is responsible for the development and execution of Avaya’s short- and long-term growth and engagement strategies. As part of his focus on Avaya growth strategies, Laurent has oversight of M&A, Avaya Labs, architecture and consulting groups, as well as the Avaya DevConnect developer program and technology partnerships.
Laurent is a recognized leader and proven visionary in the enterprise collaboration and communications space. Prior to his current role, Laurent served as Vice President, Corporate Strategy and Development for Avaya. Before joining Avaya, Laurent served successively as Vice-President and General Manager of several business units and as Chief Technology Officer for Cisco’s Collaboration Technology Group and before joining Cisco as CEO for Genesys.
Laurent is a graduate of Ecole Polytechnique in Paris and earned a master’s degree in Management Science from Paris University. He holds nine U.S. patents. In his spare time, Laurent is an avid sportsman who enjoys running and biking. His other hobbies include practicing his culinary skills, flying airplanes and reading on a variety of topics.
Jean Turgeon (JT) is Vice President & Chief Technologist for Software Defined Architecture (SDA), Worldwide Sales in Avaya, a global provider of business collaboration and communications solutions. He has more than 30 years of experience in networking design and implementation that spans WAN, LAN and gateway technology, Unified Communications, open system architecture frameworks, data center, campus and branch solutions.
In his current role, JT is responsible for defining SDA strategic direction, working across the Avaya portfolio to deliver on automation and orchestration. He also ensures accelerated growth of Fabric Technology deployments and strategic solutions initiatives. His previous roles in Avaya included Vice President of Worldwide Solutions Engineering, and Vice President and General Manager of Portfolio and Solutions Strategy. Prior to joining Avaya via the Nortel Enterprise Solutions acquisition which included Bay Networks, JT held Senior Network Architecture and Technical positions at AmeriData and Bell Technical Services. He holds an Executive MBA from the University of Ottawa.
Morag Lucey is Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and a member of the executive council at Avaya. In her role, Morag leads the Global Marketing team and is responsible for a variety of marketing disciplines, including distribution channel management, marketing communications, branding, and articulating the customer experience to drive increased demand for Avaya solutions worldwide.
Morag's career spans 30 years in marketing, sales and general management in the technology and telecommunications space. A distinguished leader with a proven history of increasing brand impact, Morag has held top marketing positions with a variety of companies, including BAE Systems, Convergys and SAP. She also has extensive experience leading product management and strategy and M&A functions in prior roles.
Morag returned to Avaya in October 2015. She held previous positions with the company from 2002 through 2007, including Vice President of EMEA Marketing and, before that, Vice President of Global Marketing and Channel Management for small and midmarket business solutions. Prior to rejoining Avaya, Morag was CEO of VirtualCMO Limited, a marketing consulting firm focused on generating short term profitability and long term stability.
Morag spends her free time mountain biking, running, sailing and golfing. In addition to enjoying the outdoors, she and her husband and their two grown children enthusiastically seek action-packed adventures.