The Team
Giorgio Ungania
Born and raised in Rome he started with the music biz where he has been working as a sound engineer / producer for various recording studios. Later he joined the broadcasting industry as audio post manager for Orbit TV . At the same time he had experiences in music, TV and feature films production He moved to Dubai in 2004 and joined Dubai Media Incorporated for the launch of One TV, Sama Dubai and the new Sport Channel. He joined SAE International in 2006 as Corporate Training and Marketing manager with the mission of providing Arab corporations with updated training in new media production workflow and technologies. In 2007 he has been selected by Apple Inc. as Apple Distinguished Educator for the Middle East. He loves and lectures about technology and new media, he sleeps with his macbook pro on his chest and he is pretty much in line online 24/7. He was born in one of the oldest cities in the world but he loves Dubai because he is sure that the best still has to come.
James Piecowye
Like a modern superhero James Piecowye has a double identity, he works by day as an associate professor of communication and media sciences at Zayed University in the United Arab Emirates. By night James is the host of a popular talk radio show called Nightline where the issues impacting the UAE are investigated. He hides in disguise by wearing Hawaiian style shirts ( of which I am told he possesses hundreds) and lives among us unnoticed while he changes every individual he crosses, one by one, showing them the path to “knowledge” and then fighting at night against the system to keep freedom of speech and media true their cause.
Natascia Radice
A product of modern society is a confused being of many skills and not one solid vocation. An experienced New Media Project Manager, she worked on the launch of various mobile memorabilia such as the first 3G network, the Microsoft online training portal for windows mobile and even briefly implemented CRM systems for the billionaire Thor Bjorgolfsson. However true passion has always been in the art of storytelling through whatever medium, so she started first graduating in Acting at the Method Studio in London, to get a BA in Humanities and Media and an MA in Management of audiovisual technologies to then fall back in the passion of storytelling as a filmmaker. After completing a long list of specific training, including a directing Masterclass with Spike Lee, she is now dedicated to the production of original content/formats for tv, web, mobile as a writer/director.
Habiba Hamid
Habiba Hamid manages ziha.ae at the Court of Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, is on the board of tbl.com.pk, writes for gulfnews.com and has forthcoming research at dsg.ae on GCC aid policy towards fragile states.
She worked for the Ruler of Dubai's Executive Office, Lord Davenport, the UK/US government, in Baghdad's Redzone, London, Jeddah, Washington DC, Chicago, Amman and Sarajevo. She has an MSc. In Development from SOAS/SAS and was elected on the national committees of nus.org.uk, npc.org.uk and ulu.co.uk, whilst as Governor of bbk.ac.uk she helped revise UK education funding. She is a British/American of Trinidadian and Cape Malay origins.
Mahmoud Abu-Wardeh
Mahmoud is a technology and media veteran who has spent way too much time staring (sometimes productively) at various types of screens and monitors, from the early orange-on-black text-based terminals all the way up to multimedia production suites.
Mahmoud is a co-founder of Baraka, a company that is focused on encouraging innovation and social entrepreneurship in the UAE and the wider region. Recently, Mahmoud has been spending most of his time heading up the development of a new social networking platform, Zeedna (the one that this website is running on). Zeedna is being used by Baraka to build social networks for some of its own projects as well as its clients. When he does venture outdoors, Mahmoud escapes the Dubai sun by going underwater where, as a PADI instructor, he introduces people to the wonders of the underwater world.
