Dr. Sabri Al-Azazi Ex-Assistant Governor

Central Bank of The UAE

Topic introduction


Personal profile


Dr. Sabri Al-Azazi is an executive, technologist and a scientist with over 28 years of experience in the IT, AI, Information Security and financial and insurance services industries.

Dr. Al-Azazi was the Assistant Governor/Operations of the Central Bank of UAE. Previously he held many positions such as the Executive Director of Operation Sector at Emirates Identity Authority (EIDA now called ICP), Group CIO of Dubai Holding, EVP/Chief Information Officer (CIO) of Al Hilal Bank, the Senior Advisor / IT and Industrial Technology (OT) for the Chairman of Department of Municipal Affairs (DMA). Earlier in his career Dr.Sabri established the Information Security practice/department in Etisalat, Dubai Holding as CISO. He also founded a security company providing security services to public and private sectors. He introduced the concepts of honeypot, steganography as part of cryptography, and different techniques of hiding a message.

His broad experience in IT/OT, AI, data management and science, and project management in various industries such as Oil and Gas, Military, Telecommunication, conglomerates, banks and financial services regulator. It helped him in developing different IT and Information Security Target Operating Models (TOM), Job descriptions of various roles and strategy.
He is also a Board Member of many organizations and companies such as ICTFUND (Board member for 14 years), etc.
Dr. Al-Azazi remains active in both industry and academia. He taught Information security and IT strategy courses as an adjunct Professor in AUS and UWOD. He is active in R&D in various technological fields as Complex Theory and Organizations development using IT and Information Security in Cranfield University/UK. He was able to solve many issues for organizations involving People, Process, and Technology (PPT), Data Analytics, BI, AI and structural/functional factors. He is currently developing knowledge in Psychology and Neuroscience to solve organizational issues, resilience and operational challenges.

Dr. Sabri is a public speaker and entertainer at various conferences in the UAE and abroad. He was the first UAE National to attain the highly prized CISSP (Certified Information Security Systems Practitioner) professional certification. He is an authority in the fields of IT and Security. He holds many certificates from Oxford, MIT and IMD.
Dr. Al-Azazi is a musician, poet in classical Arabic, Astronomer and enjoys many sports as Tae Kwan Do, Table Tenis, cross Fit and boxing. Being a multitalented person assists in having a strong will of learning and being an active participant in the journey of innovation and scientific discovery.