Oscar Wendel

Oscar Wendel has spent nearly two decades at the intersection of media, capital, and policy - the places where global industries decide what to talk about next, and who gets to be in the room when they do. He has built conference divisions from nothing, launched flagship platforms that now define entire regional sectors, and assembled the kind of speaker networks that take most careers a lifetime to develop. His base is Dubai - the connective tissue between Europe, Africa, and Asia - and his network stretches from London to Riyadh, from Stockholm to Singapore, from the Financial Times newsroom to Fortune 500 boardrooms.

Career Milestones at a Glance

• Founded and built ITP Media Group's conference division - the leading B2B events portfolio in the Middle East
• Conceptualized and launched Fintech Surge and Future Blockchain Summit - now the region's leading fintech and Web3 events
• Recruited Tony Blair as keynote speaker (2013) and built speaker line-ups including ministers, Fortune 500 CEOs, and global technology founders
• Led conference strategy and content for GITEX Global, Gulfood, and Dubai International Boat Show at Dubai World Trade Centre
• Editor-at-Large at MEA Finance - the Gulf's leading banking and finance publication
• Designed and delivered international business summits for the Financial Times' global events portfolio

Get the right people in the room.

Oscar did not begin his career in event halls. He came up through universities in three countries - Uppsala, Stockholm, and Santiago de Chile - with degrees spanning literature, business, and Spanish, after an international upbringing at UWC South East Asia in Singapore. The habit of moving fluently between languages, cultures, and disciplines became the foundation for everything that followed.

His entry into the international events world came through the Financial Times in London, where as Senior Content Manager he designed business summits across Europe, Asia, and the Americas - and contributed editorial reporting to The Banker, part of the FT Business portfolio. It was an education in how the world's most demanding business audience expects to be addressed.

From London, Oscar moved to Dubai - and stayed. At ITP Media Group, the Middle East's largest business publishing group, he founded the conference division from a blank page and built a portfolio of B2B events anchored to the group's leading publications - Arabian Business, Construction Week, and Hotelier Middle East among them. He created new revenue streams through sponsorship and ticketed executive events, and assembled speaker line-ups headlined by figures such as former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair.

The most consequential decade came at Dubai World Trade Centre, where as Senior Manager for Conference & Content he led programming for some of the largest global trade exhibitions in the world. He directed conference strategy and speaker recruitment for GITEX Global, Gulfood, and the Dubai International Boat Show - flagship platforms that draw hundreds of thousands of delegates. He conceptualized and launched Fintech Surge and Future Blockchain Summit, both now the leading fintech and Web3 events in the region. In a market where access is built over years and trust is built one conversation at a time, he built both.

Today Oscar operates independently from Dubai. As Editor-at-Large at MEA Finance, the Gulf's leading banking and finance publication, he shapes the editorial agenda and the executive platforms - roundtables, awards, policy dialogues - that define the regional financial conversation. Through Global Stratalogues he organizes and moderates policy roundtables and publishes research reports, convening leaders across technology, finance, and public policy. He provides content strategy and program development for major exhibitions including the Global Airport Forum and Messe Frankfurt's events in Saudi Arabia, and facilitates multi-stakeholder discussions involving regulators, investors, and industry leaders on emerging technologies and economic policy.

Nearly twenty years in, his most valuable asset is the simplest to describe and the hardest to acquire: when an organization needs the right people in the room, on the right subject, at the right moment - they call him. And the people he calls take the call.