Tech News
Savills Regional Expansion Bolstered by Key Senior Hires
Savills has continued its rapid strategic expansion with the hiring of a number of seasoned professionals to take on senior roles to lead several functions within the residential agency division, such as off-plan and secondary market sales, international sales, and exclusive projects.
Andrew Cummings, Head of Residential Sales Middle East at Savills,said, “These signature hires are a further demonstration of Savills strategic commitment to the Middle East region. Our leadership position in global real estate derives from the quality of our people. As such, I am thrilled to be joined by such experienced and respected professionals to support the ambitious growth of our business. These latest appointments of top talent in the industry showcase that we are making rapid progress in our ambitious expansion plans for the UAE and the region.”
Alec James Smith has recently become part of Savills as the Director of Sales and Leasing, assuming a pivotal role in advancing the brokerage’s presence in Dubai. Boasting more than 12 years of extensive real estate expertise, Alec has progressed swiftly from his initial position as a leasing broker to handling sales and senior management roles. Currently, he is set to lead a team comprising over 100 agents, overseeing operations throughout Dubai. Notably, Alec holds qualifications as a building surveyor.
Marc Tennant, an experienced negotiator and off-plan specialist, joins Savills with a real estate track record spanning two-decades, half of which were spent in senior roles in Dubai. Tennant assumes the role of Director of Exclusive Projects and Off-Plan in the Middle East. Tennant will lead the launch of a number of new exclusive project mandates. Under-construction properties dominated demand during last year, with 55% of the units sold being off-plan, which amounts to a total of 65,000 off-plan units.
To capitalise on Savills 700 global offices, Filippo Simonato joins as a Director of International Residential Sales. Simonato’s role will liaise with the global Savills network to raise the profile of the Middle East region and drive inbound investment. Recognising the particular importance of investment from China, Lin Zhou has been appointed Head of the China Desk to cater to Chinese demand for property, working with Savills 9,000 employees across 18 offices within China.
The critical role of talent acquisition in a competitive market is entrusted to Amelia Sykes, who is one of the most well-known and respected professionals in her field. Skyes assumes the role of Head of Talent Acquisition for Savills Middle East.
The residential sector in Dubai continues to be active, as per the latest Savills research, showing that it had its best year on record in 2023. Transaction activity grew in the city by 29% y-o-y to an all-time high of 118,200 units. The sustained rise of the Dubai luxury market has also further established the emirate’s position as a global benchmark for prime and branded residences. While the high-end sector of the property market continues to boom, it is expected that we will see a rise in the number of mid-market developers respond to the growing demand for the more affordable sector.
The recent change to the Golden Visa scheme, which removes the requirement for a minimum downpayment for an AED 2 mn property, is more than likely to further fuel the growth of the real estate market. The allure of long-term visas, coupled with the emirate’s stability, world-class lifestyle, and business environment, positions Dubai as an attractive destination for investors seeking stability and long-term residency.
The Abu Dhabi market is also in good shape, as highlighted by the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development in its “Business Activity Report” for 2023, which reported significant annual growth of key indicators, further bolstering the business ecosystem’s attractiveness. The capital’s strong economic growth is underpinned by the stellar performance of the non-oil sector, which accounts for 52.8% of the emirate’s GDP.
Cummingsconcludes, “In just the first month of our expansion we sold one of the most expensive properties on Palm Jumeirah at AED 88 million amongst other deals, demonstrating the ongoing demand for prime property. Savills will soon be launching some new exclusive development projects, whilst at the same time furthering our prime and core offerings across the UAE. This leadership team is well placed to support the growth to 100 agents within 2024, whilst at the same time providing the world class service standards that Savills is known for.”
Tech News
OPTRO LAUNCHES AI-POWERED GRC CAPABILITIES FOR THE MODERN ENTERPRISE WITH AI GOVERNANCE, CYBER RISK, AND CONTINUOUS CONTROL MONITORING

Optro, the leading AI-powered GRC platform empowering enterprises to transform risk into opportunity, has announced several product capabilities to boost the effectiveness of customers’ risk management programs and enable them to innovate with AI confidently and responsibly. These capabilities follow shortly after the company changed its name to reflect what its AI-powered GRC platform enables: a single, coherent view across infosec, compliance, risk, and audit.
“Cyber risk now moves at machine speed, and legacy GRC tools can no longer keep up,” said Happy Wang, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Optro. “By leveraging AI to predict cyber risk, surface real-time insights, and accelerate mitigation, we help organizations shift from reactive reporting to proactive risk defense—building a true system of action that is ready for the AI era.”
Optro’s latest Risk Intelligence report found that AI governance program maturity is advancing, but unevenly. AI adoption continues to outpace AI governance, with 85 percent of organizations reporting they have integrated AI into their core operations or deployed it across multiple functions, while only a quarter report comprehensive visibility into employee AI use. At the same time, only 34 percent of organizations report their AI governance program is strategic and continuously improving. As these challenges become increasingly prevalent across industries, Optro has released the following product capabilities to help customers turn clarity into action:
- Unified AI Governance: Serves as the essential orchestration layer for AI governance. By bridging the gap between policies & frameworks, your AI tech stack, and human oversight, this capability enables a unified, automated approach. We ensure that AI risks are visible, compliance is streamlined, and governance policies are enforceable across your entire organization.
- Cyber Risk: Vulnerability Risk Monitoring: Provides a clear narrative of how a specific vulnerability affects an organization’s security posture and bottom line. This AI-powered functionality enables customers to understand the true business impact of a vulnerability. Included with IT and Cyber Risk Management (formerly IT Risk Management), it’s a paradigm shift in how organizations defend their digital perimeter.
- Continuous Control Monitoring: With AI-driven recommendations for the controls best suited for automation, and a library of ready-to-use monitor templates, teams can bypass manual setup to start monitoring controls immediately. This capability helps customers reduce manual effort, improve consistency, and gain more timely visibility into control performance. By automating evidence collection and surfacing potential issues earlier, teams can address gaps more efficiently and move toward a more continuous approach to assurance.
Tech News
MAGNA AI AND CORVIT NETWORKS FORGE STRATEGIC ALLIANCE TO ACCELERATE PAKISTAN’S NATIONAL AI DEVELOPMENT

Magna AI, Inc., the global integrated‑value‑chain sovereign AI transformation leader established through a partnership between Trend Micro and Wistron Digital Technology Holding Company (WDH) in strategic collaboration with NVIDIA, today announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Corvit Networks (Pvt.) Ltd., a leading technology training and digital services organization in Pakistan. The agreement establishes a strategic collaboration framework to advance sovereign AI infrastructure, platforms, and workforce capabilities aimed at accelerating Pakistan’s national AI transformation.
The partnership combines Magna’s expertise in AI engineering, infrastructure, and governance, with Corvit’s extensive nationwide reach across Pakistan’s government, enterprise, and academic ecosystems. Together, the organizations aim to support the development of scalable and secure AI capabilities designed to enable organizations across Pakistan to deploy Artificial Intelligence (AI) at national and enterprise scale.

This strategic initiative comes at a time when artificial intelligence is emerging as a critical driver of economic growth. According to a PwC report cited by the Saudi Data and AI Authority, AI could contribute up to 5.6% of GDP in economies comparable to Pakistan, potentially generating an AI-driven economic impact of $10–20 billion within Pakistan’s projected $60 billion digital economy by 2030. Globally, annual investment in AI-dedicated infrastructure is projected to reach $400 billion by 2030, underscoring the growing strategic importance of national AI infrastructure for economic competitiveness.
The collaboration will focus on developing the foundational building blocks required to support Pakistan’s AI ecosystem. This includes the joint development of sovereign AI data centers and AI factories designed to support government, public-sector, and enterprise workloads while meeting national data residency and regulatory requirements. Building on this foundation, the partnership will support the creation of next-generation AI applications tailored to priority sectors, including predictive intelligence, agentic AI systems, digital twins, and advanced operational analytics. Security and governance will remain central to the initiative, with enterprise-grade capabilities such as model protection, threat analytics, and AI-driven security operations aligned with national cybersecurity frameworks. Both organizations will also provide end-to-end AI transformation services to help institutions transition from readiness assessments to full-scale AI deployment, while investing in workforce development through AI academies, professional certification programs, and executive education initiatives designed to prepare Pakistan’s talent ecosystem for the AI economy.
“Artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming foundational to economic competitiveness and national innovation” said, Dr. Moataz BinAli, CEO, Magna AI. Pakistan stands at a pivotal moment in its digital transformation journey. Through this partnership with Corvit Networks, Magna aims to support the development of sovereign AI infrastructure, platforms, and talent capabilities that can help organizations across the country unlock the full potential of AI.”
“Corvit Networks has spent decades building trusted relationships across Pakistan’s technology ecosystem,” said Kashif Ul Haq, CEO, Corvit Networks (Pvt.) Ltd. “Combining our nationwide reach in enterprise enablement and technology education with Magna AI’s global expertise in AI infrastructure and transformation, we are committed to helping strengthen Pakistan’s digital capabilities and prepare the next generation of AI-ready talent.”
Tech News
LIFERAY INTRODUCES HEADLESS CMS TO MODERNIZE DIGITAL CONTENT MANAGEMENT


Liferay, a leading provider of Digital Experience Platforms (DXPs), today announced the general availability of Liferay CMS, a fully headless content management system (CMS) designed to help marketing, development, and IT teams create, manage, and deliver digital content across multiple channels from a centralized repository.
Built on the core architecture of Liferay DXP, Liferay CMS combines the agility of a decoupled system with the stability and governance required by enterprise organizations. Whether powering a native mobile app, a customer portal, or a complex web ecosystem, Liferay CMS ensures content remains consistent, reusable, and easily distributable.
“Today’s organizations need agility without losing control of their content operations,” said Julia Molano, Director of Product Management at Liferay. “Liferay CMS builds on Liferay’s decades of DXP leadership to deliver a fully headless offering. It allows developers to work with stable, well-documented APIs while empowering marketers and content creators to manage global content without heavy reliance on IT.”
Liferay CMS introduces Spaces, the platform’s primary organizational units for headless content management, enabling teams to structure asset repositories, manage access, and collaborate more efficiently across departments or projects. Each Space provides a dedicated environment for content creation and management, including support for advanced localization with AI-powered translation tools, making it easier for global organizations to manage multi-language content.
“Across the Middle East, enterprises are moving away from fragmented content systems to unified, centralized architectures that can support scale and speed simultaneously. Headless CMS is becoming a critical enabler in this shift, allowing enterprises to deliver consistent digital experiences across channels while maintaining control and governance. With Liferay’s intuitive CMS, teams can manage content centrally, reduce operational complexity, and accelerate time-to-market and deeper customer engagement’’, noted Moussalam Dalati, General Manager of Liferay Middle East, Africa, and France.
Key features of Liferay CMS include:
- Global Content Visibility: A single view to search, review, and reuse content across regions and brands, eliminating disconnected repositories.
- Headless Architecture: Combines the flexibility of headless deployments with the governance and control of a centralized system.
- Embedded Analytics: Performance metrics like views and downloads are displayed directly within Liferay CMS, allowing teams to validate asset performance at the point of work.
- AI-Assisted Workflows: Accelerates translation, localization, and content review.
- Multi-Site Management: Ideal for franchises or organizations with multiple digital properties, allowing for centralized control while granting team-specific access.
- Unified Collaboration: Dedicated ‘Shared with Me’ areas and advanced access controls ensure all stakeholders work from a single source of truth.
The launch of Liferay CMS reflects a modular platform approach designed for organizations that prioritize an API-first strategy. Because it is built on the same core architecture as Liferay DXP, organizations can start with a streamlined headless CMS today and seamlessly activate integrated capabilities like advanced commerce, page building, or AI-driven personalization as their digital requirements expand.
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