One of the world’s best-known men’s luxury brands, dunhill, is to open Alfie’s Restaurant and Lounge in Jumeirah Emirates Towers in Dubai early this year. General Manager of Alfred Dunhill Europe and Middle East, Nader Elmir, talks to TRENDS about the brand and what will be on the table of Alfie’s in Dubai.

With a large number of high-net-worth individuals in the GCC region, there comes a dire need to effectively manage wealth. Managing director and head of JP Morgan’s Private banking team in Dubai, Jim Freeth, talks to TRENDS about managing the wealth of the rich and powerful.

Remember the good old days, when finding movie listings meant flipping through the morning newspaper? Well times have changed, and the fact is that the lion’s share of motion picture fans are now closer in age to your grandchildren than they are to you. What’s more, they’re so technologically savvy that they don’t need to get ink on their hands – they find movie times on their mobile phones. The chief executive of Flip Media, Yousef Tuqan Tuqan, tells the curmudgeonly TRENDS editor Jay Akasie about his company’s new app, and what’s wrong with his iPad.

Governor Joaquin F. Blaya is a member of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), a US Federal Agency charged with all non-military international broadcasting services to promote democracy worldwide. He talks to Jonathan Howell-Jones about the new direction BBG’s Arabic-language television station Alhurra is taking.

The UK-based charity’s chief executive officer tells Ehtesham Shahid what the the largest challenges facing her organization are, and what the Gulf states can do to help.

Professor Soumitra Dutta is the Roland Berger Chaired Professor of Business and Technology at INSEAD and co-author of the recently published book, “Innovating at the Top,” which aims to help CEOs manage growth and develop innovation in their organizations.

The associate dean and senior lecturer in finance and accounting at the School of Management, University of Bradford, was in Dubai recently to teach about corporate finance as part of the university’s executive MBA program – the oldest of its kind in the region. Jonathan Howell-Jones caught up with him to get an expert view of what the Middle East can expect from the financial meltdown.

Timo Ahomäki is the chief scientist and vice president for product management at US-based Airwide Solutions, a mobile messaging and wireless Internet infrastructure provider.

A private developer is hoping to create the West Bank’s first planned municipality.

As GCC Summits go, the 28th, held in Doha in early December, was one of the most significant, yielding an “historic declaration,”Rahman al-Attiyah.