Shakir Mubarak Al Araimi

Editor in chief, Black & White

In his 35-year stint with the ministry of information, Shakir has enjoyed a variety of roles, as director of news (Arabic, English; international media, CNN), Oman Television; manager of Radio Oman, English service among others, before retiring as a media relations’ expert.

A sports’ lover, he is a familiar face in Oman’s hiking arena and is a Toastmaster par excellence

Colonel Abdulwahab Abdulkarim Al Balushi (retd)

The former senior member of the police force; former general manager security and facilitation Oman Airports Management Company (OAMC); former acting general manager of Muscat International Airport. Trainer, coach, and motivational speaker.

Khalil Al Khonji

A former president of the Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry, now, chairman of Muscat University; a well-known businessman.

Bikram Vohra

Former resident editor of The Illustrated Weekly; Sunday Standard and Indian Express. A resident of Gulf since 1984; relaunched Gulf News as managing editor; three tenures at Khaleej Times as an editor, City Times editor and consultant. Set up Gulf Today, was editor of Bahrain Tribune and also ran Middle East Aviation Journal.

Priya Arunkumar

Co-founder, project head and managing editor, Black & White. Formerly managing editor, Y magazine and copywriter, PR director, P R and publications’ manager, sub editor, manager PR, events and special promotions, Times of Oman.

Adarsh Madhavan

Co-founder work editor, Black & White. Formerly, work editor, Y magazine and chief reporter, Times of Oman newspaper.

Hatim Harith Al Abdissalaam

A motivational speaker and youth influencer; radio and TV host. CSR Projects In Charge at the Oman LNG Development Foundation; board member of Islamic Information Center.

Anil Wadhwa

Ambassador Anil Wadhwa has served as Secretary East in the Ministry of External Affairs in India and as Ambassador to Poland, Oman, Thailand, and Italy. He is currently a Distinguished fellow with the Vivekananda International Foundation in New Delhi.

Dr Amita N. Vyas

Associate professor at the George Washington University School of Public Health; director of the maternal and child health programme at GW. Founder: Global India Fund, a non-profit organization that inspires global philanthropy and service by supporting innovative health and education programmes in India; co-producer of Girl Rising India (national campaign on girls’ education and gender equality). Champion for women, children, and families in the United States and globally.

Nasra Al Adawi

Published poet of humanitarian and charitable concerns. Nasra’s poetry is an art that can be merged with other artistic media; it only needs a touch of originality and creativity.

Shatha Al Maskiry

Managing Director of Protiviti Oman; author of business articles both in Oman and the UAE; thought leader and active speaker in the region on various subjects including risk management, succession planning, business continuity, talent development; awarded ‘HR Professional of the Year’ Middle East wide in 2015.

Sitara Morgenster

Writer — newspapers and magazines for over 30 years; Times of Oman reporter during the late 1990s. Settled in New Zealand since 2001, working as mosaic artist and writer.

Siegrun Samira Rengert

Runs Filfil & Loomi with a mission to support parents and schools on how to bring up healthy children in Oman. Trained as a vegan chef, she organises farm trips for school kids, food educational sessions in schools and kindergartens, workshops for parents and encourage wholesome cooking for children – all through her social media. She is also a founding member of Slow Food Muscat, an international network, which promotes clean, healthy and fair food for all.
In her earlier avatar, she ran the first cookery school for amateurs in Dubai, known as ‘Cooking Sense’.

Fatma Al Sibani

A young Omani fiction writer to watch out for. Fatma Al Sibani is a student of the College of Education, Sultan Qaboos University. She began dabbling in Arabic fiction, mostly, as she says in, “short stories and few attempts in longer fiction that tackles various themes of family, friendship, sentiments, or monsters in missions”. Her attempts at English fiction, “was more of an act of curiosity at the very beginning” but now, it is her “center of attention” in her current writing journey. A course in creative writing with a “remarkable instructor” gave her the added impetus to chisel her craft further.

Nuwanka Kottegoda

Is a spiritualist caught in an entrepreneur’s world. He has learnt to deftly balance himself between material life and spirituality. Comfortable in both the roles, this Oman born, Canadian Sri Lankan had imbibed the values of three cultures to form a special understanding of his own. He changes costumes with consummate ease as he traverses between a world of investments and entrepreneurship to the realm of spirituality that borders on esoterism.