Conference Agenda

Speakers

- Ahmed El Alfi, Founder & Chairman at Sawari Ventures

Ahmed is a veteran investor and VC from California with over 25 years of experience in top executive and management positions. Ahmed’s investment track record over the last 17 years includes the execution of numerous successful transactions in technology, Internet, healthcare and financial services at various stages of development. He has executed many rewarding exits including several IPO’s on the NASDAQ. He relocated to Egypt in 2006 as the CEO of EFG-Hermes Private Equity. He subsequently founded Sawari Ventures, to which he brings a wealth of experience, superb industry insight and an invaluable international network.

- Feroz Sanaulla, Investment Director at Intel Capital

Feroz Sanaulla is a Director at Intel Capital, Intel's global investment organization, making equity investments in innovative technology start-ups and companies worldwide. The objectives of his team’s efforts are to expand, align and accelerate the frontiers of technology via strategic relationships with companies in the context of driving significantly positive financial returns for Intel. In Intel, Feroz has held positions in marketing, professional services project management, IP development management and mergers & acquisitions. His experience covers Europe, North America, Middle East and Asia. Before joining Intel in 1997, Feroz spent six years as an entrepreneur and co-founded Santech Worldwide Inc., a trading company in Washington D.C. Some of his regional investments include- Sphere Networks (UAE), Vertex Animation Studios (UAE), Conservus International (UAE) and Berytech Technology Pole (Lebanon), amongst many others. Feroz holds an electrical engineering degree from The University of Maryland and an MBA from the Ross School of Business at The University of Michigan.

- Ziad Mokhtar, Principal at Ideavelopers

Ziad Mokhtar is a partner at Ideavelopers - the Venture Capital arm of EFG-Hermes. Ideavelopers manages a $50 million fund focused on technology startups. Ziad is involved in finding and deciding on new investment opportunities. He is also responsible for following a number of Ideaveloper's portfolio companies. Before Ideavelopers, Ziad worked as a consultant for McKinsey & Company where he worked on several projects related to economic development, healthcare reform, and educational institutions. Prior to that, Ziad was the CEO of eSpace, which he cofounded in 2000. During his tenure at eSpace, he lead the development of SalesBuzz, the number 1 mobile salesforce solution in the region, and spearheaded the company's international services business. Ziad earned a Bachelors in Computer Science and Engineering from Alexandria University in 2000, and earned an MBA from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University in 2008.

Moderator

- Hany Al Sonbaty , Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Sawari Ventures

Hany is one of the most experienced VC in the MENA region with over 12 years of experience. Prior to co-founding Sawari Ventures, he was a Partner at EFG-Hermes Private Equity heading their TMT and Venture Capital business. Whilst at EFG Hermes, he managed over USD 200 million of TMT related investments and was involved with many of the region’s pioneering technology companies including Maktoob.com, LinkdotNet, ITWorx, Raya and NextMedia Holdings. Hany was also instrumental in the creation of IdeaVelopers - EFG-Hermes’ venture capital arm – and the formation of its Technology Development Funds, which aim to nurture and grow the next generation of TMT companies. Hany holds a B.Eng. and M.Sc. in Electrical & Electronic Engineering from Imperial College, London

Speakers

- Abdelrahman Mehilba, CEO & Founder at Gawab.com

Abdelrahman Mehilba is a serial investor and founder in the Internet field. Started in the Internet business back in 1997. Co-Founded the largest Arabic Music website, Mazika.com in 1998. Within the first two years of its launch to be one of the top 10 visited Arab websites and became the Only Arabic online entity that legally owns the digital music copyrights by 2011. In 2002 , Mazika.com merged with a group of the biggest online companies in Egypt , like Masrawy.com, Otlob.com and others to form a holding company that was acquired by Link dot Net holding later in 2002 to form the biggest ISP and Online group in Egypt. Co-Founder of multiple successful website like Gawab.com, the only outsourcing and free email solution developed in the Arab world till today, Arabiccards.com, Egypthome IT that owned and managed Alex4all.com, and Banknoteclub.com , a Portal for Papermoney collectors.

- Tarek Amin, Serial Entrepreneur & Head of Digital at Adline Media Network

Tarek is the Group Head of Digital in Adline Media Network one of the biggest independent media marketing network with strong local operations in all major Arab markets. He is a successful serial entrepreneur who founded the first online recruitment and career development portal in the MENA region CareerEgypt.com, that later became CareerMidEast.com. His experience includes being part of the team that established Connect Ads, a partner and Managing Director at alkarma edutainment, and a co-founder of Zanad. Tarek is the Executive Producer and Show runner of the first Arab youth drama series “Aljami3a – The University” and the first thriller drama series “Abwab El Khof – Doors of Fear” both acquired by MBC for regional airing. He is passionate about supporting the startup ecosystem and has served as a mentor for Startup weekend in multiple countries as well as being part of the mentorship network for SeedStartup.com

Speakers

- Rishi Saha, Regional Director at Hill & Knowlton

Rishi Saha is Hill & Knowlton’s Regional Director, Australia, Middle East, Africa, South & Central Asia and is responsible for the delivery of key strategic communications campaigns across this broad region, with a particular emphasis on digital. Rishi joined Hill & Knowlton in August 2011 from the Prime Minister’s Office in the UK, where he was David Cameron’s Head of Digital Communications. In this role, he oversaw the rebuild of the Number 10 website, led social media outreach and engagement for the British Government, and managed key online projects such as the Number 10 Transparency site, Red Tape Challenge and Public Reading Stage. Prior to entering Downing Street, he was Head of New Media for the UK Conservative Party, leading all elements of digital strategy, content production, campaign technology, mobile and social media in the years leading up to the 2010 General Election. His work here won the Conservatives an Orange Award for best use of digital campaigning by a political party. Named in 2010’s Wired 100 List of UK digital innovators, Rishi now leads digital engagement campaigns for brands and not-for-profits across Australia, Africa the Middle East and Asia.

Speakers

- Ronaldo Mouchawar, CEO at Souq.com

Ronaldo Mouchawar has a cumulative 15 years of experience in technology, and business management. Early on, he served as a technical and systems consultant with EDS in the US. In 2000, he spearheaded a consulting company that managed numerous, web and e-commerce projects in the Arab world. In 2005, he launched souq.com the first auction site for the Arab world. Today Ronaldo is the Vice president of Jabbar Internet Group and the CEO of souq.com (www.souq.com) which has grown to be the largest eCommerce site in the region, enabling both B2C and C2C transactions in the Arab world. Ronaldo holds a Master's degree in Digital Communications and a Bachelor degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Northeastern University in Boston, MA.

- Sherif Nassar, Founder & CEO at Nefsak.com

Graduated from the American University in Cairo after which he held positions in several multinational companies. Nassar spent part of his employment career as a veteran IBMer where he was working at IBM Middle East in Dubai. After his return to Egypt he joined Lenovo for few years managing their Egyptian operations as General Manager for the Egypt office. In 2008, Nassar decided to start his own project and founded Web Technology Company which owns and operates www.nefsak.com , the first comprehensive e-commerce website in Egypt. Now nefsak.com has more than 18,000 products and has attracted an investment from Ideavelpers – the leading technology Venture Capital in Egypt - . nefsak.com was built following the amazon.com models and is capitalizing on the huge internet population in Egypt. Driven by his focus for achievement, Nassar aims to take the company to international frontiers over the coming few years

Speakers

- Abdullah Assal, CEO at Offerna

Abdullah is the founder and CEO of Offerna, Egypt’s leading online group buying company. Abdullah obtained his MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business where he lead the Entrepreneurs Club. Prior to business school, Abdullah worked for Alcatel Middle East, where he managed pre-sales activities for mobile wireless carriers across the region. Abdullah was also a cofounder of AMANT Antennas, a wireless design firm. Abdullah is a charter member at Techwadi, a Silicon Valley-based non-profit organization promoting entrepreneurship in the MENA region. He is also a board member of Al-Hoda educational institute. Abdullah holds a BS and MS in Electrical Engineering from Cairo University and Virginia Tech respectively.

- Dan Stuart, Managing Director at Middle East, Living Social

Dan Stuart is the CEO and Founder of GoNabit.com, the first group buying website in the Middle East, and the first globally in Arabic. GoNabit expanded from the UAE to Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt and was acquired by LivingSocial in June 2011. Previously Dan was Chief Possibility Officer at Bayt.com where he oversaw strategy, product development, user experience design and new initiatives, as well as strategic and emerging business development. Dan was also founder and director of Intilaq - Bayt's corporate venture capital arm. Dan holds a Masters Degree in Curriculum, Theory and Learning from the University of Toronto in Canada. He also has an English Literature & History Degree that he quickly followed with an early retirement, spent as a ski and snowboard instructor and a mountain bike guide.

- Ossama El Batran, Co-founder and GM at DareNDeal

Ossama is the co-founder and GM of Dare’n’Deal. Ossama also founded several successful companies in different industries, such as EnLight Market Research and Talent Now Recruitment. Before becoming a full time entrepreneur, Ossama worked in McKinsey & Co where he formulated strategies in diverse industries, such as IT, banking and Health Care, and had exposure in the US, Europe and throughout the MENA region. He was part of the founding team that established McKinsey’s Cairo office. He is driven by making an impact and driving change. What excites him is to explore new and innovative opportunities and adopt ground-breaking strategies. He holds a Master in Development from the University of Cambridge in the UK, and a bachelor in International Relations from Brown University in RI, USA.

Speakers

- Mostafa Abou-Gamrah, Owner at TechnoWireless

Graduated from AUC 87’, Majoring in engineering. Mostafa has a proven track record of building start-ups and opening markets for them, He is passionate about making digital media and social networks in the Middle East a reality. For 12 years, Mostafa held a range of posts with NCR/AT&T in the region, including National Marketing Manager for NCR/AT&T Egypt and General Manager for AT&T Oman and Qatar. He then moved on to become the Founder and CEO of TechnoFann company (producer of Mo3’amreen khamssa , 3essam wel mesba7 ) .TechnoWireless (the largest, wireless application service provider in the Middle East). It specializes in Value Added Services (VAS) e.g. content aggregation, re-purposing, mobile services (SMS, WAP, ODP, I phone, and MMS), interactive broadcasting solutions and Internet implementations. Last he founded TWDA the first digital agency in Egypt.Mostafa has also written two books of poetry , drama for M5 animation , and many articles in the printed media and the web

- Tarek Homsi, General Manager at Diwanee

Tarek is the General Manager of Diwanee, a digital media company focused on creating and distributing content focused on women in the Middle East. Diwanee publishes wikeez.com, 3a2ilati.com and yasmina.com and produces and distributes branded content for leading FMCG multinationals in the region. Tarek has a prior consulting (Booz & Co) and M&A experience focused on the media industry in Europe and the Middle East. Tarek holds an MBA from INSEAD and an Engineering degree from Ecole Centrale Paris.

- Tarek Nasr, Founder / Managing Director at Planet360

Tarek Nasr is the Founder and Managing Director of planet360, a boutique Creative, Digital, Social Media Agency on a planet far, far away (in Mohandessin), working with many brands including Azza Fahmy, Nokia, Mentos, AhramOnline & ZMS. An entrepreneur at heart he started his first business at the age of 18 and is active in the Tech Start-Up field where he is a partner in one start-up and provides several mobile / web start-ups with marketing consultation including Touringa & BackPack. Finally an avid blogger on all things marketing have established one of the top such blogs in the region; “Marketing over Shisha”

- Vadi Efe, Founder / Partner at Dekathlon Buzz

Vadi Efe is the managing partner of Turkey’s leading social media agency, Dekatlon Buzz. Dekatlon coordinates social media marketing & PR strategies of several international companies including Vodafone, Unilever, Philips, McDonald's and L’Oreal. Vadi is also the founder of ortakantin (acquired by Youth Republic in 2009) and okumasitesi (acquired by TİMAŞ in 2009). As a graduate of a german-turkish high school, with a BSc in MIS, Vadi also acquired a Media Informatics masters program from RWTH Aachen, and specialized in international marketing & management at the Berlin School of Economics. Vadi Efe was chosen as the "International Young Interactive Media Entrepreneur" by the British Council in 2010. He was awarded by Webrazzi in 2009 as one of the best online entrepreneurs of. He also won the Golden Spider Web Award of Turkey in 2009 with the localization project of sevenload, Europe’s leading media platform, based in Germany, and which was funded by Deutsche Telekom.

- Zafer Younis, CEO at The Online Project

Zafer Younis is a marketing specialist who is paving new ways for companies to connect with their consumers in the digital space. He is the co-founder and CEO of The Online Project where his team develops and executes social media strategies for Fortune 500 companies and high profile organizations operating in the Middle East and North Africa. Zafer co-founded his first company: Modern Media, LTD, a Jordanian media house that owns and operates two popular radio stations, including the award winning radio station Play 99.6, which received recognition from the US-based National Association for Broadcasters in 2007. Modern Media offers consulting services to regional radio stations, and designs direct marketing promotions for advertisers. Zafer holds a BA (Business Finance) from London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and a BA (Engineering) from the University College London (UCL).

Speakers

- Omar Tahboub, VP of Product at Bayt.com

Omar leads the development of Bayt.com products and in this role, is responsible for defining the product strategy of Bayt.com and leading the product development team to manage the implementation of the strategy. His team has launched in recent months, several key initiatives on Bayt.com that re-define the way in which job seekers and employers interact with Bayt.com. Omar has a wide experience in managing software development teams and projects. He comes to Bayt.com from Oracle Corporation where he took on several senior roles within the Oracle Applications product development organization, such as: Director of Applications Development in Financials, Director of Global Strategy and others. Omar started his career at Andersen Consulting where he led the development and implementation of software projects for clients in the financial and securities sectors. Omar is a graduate of University of Jordan with BSs in Electrical Engineering, and has an MBA from Santa Clara University.

Speakers

- Ammar Bakkar, Group Director, Head of New Media at MBC

Dr. Ammar is the Group Director of New Media at MBC and the General Supervisor of Scenario Creative Production, a comedy production company of MBC Group in Saudi Arabia. Within his job responsibilities at MBC New Media Directorate, Ammar manages MoBC, the interactivity for all MBC TV & Radio, MBC Mobile Projects, MBC Digital Content Unit, etc. Ammar is also responsible for managing commercial relations with telecom operators all over the Arab World on various levels. Ammar has been in the new media industry since year 2000, when he established bab.com, one of the earliest Arab news portals. Later on, he launched several portals until he joined MBC Group in 2003 when he established and managed Alarabiya.net (2004), MBC.net (2006), and then Shahid.net (2010). Ammar is also a columnist on the issues of e-journalism and cyber communication since 1996. Ammar holds a doctoral degree from the University of Oklahoma (USA), where he studied political campaigning on the web and creativity enhancement in media organizations. He has more than 15 years of experience working for the traditional media as a journalist, and a Chief Editor with several Saudi and international publications.

Moderator

- Fawzi Rahal, Head of Digital at Grey MENA

Fawzi Rahal is the Founder of The Next Web Middle East and Regional Digital Director at Grey in the Middle East and North Africa. Born in Lebanon, he started his digital career in the creative field working for Leo Burnett in Dubai before working shortly for McCann Ericsson and then moving to Grey Group and heading the digital arm of Grey MENA. With over 12 years of experience in the digital field in the Middle East, Fawzi has a passion for technology, social media, gadgets, type design and can be often found ranting about the regional and global digital cyberspace.

Speakers

- Brendon Ogilvy, VP Digital Insights at EffectiveMeasure

Brendon has over 14 years experience working in the market research industry, over the last 10 years Brendon has shifted his focus entirely towards online research. Brendon is a former research director at Yougovsiraj and research analyst at Emirates Airline.

- Shady Sherif, CEO at Core Publications

Shady Sherif introduced in 2000 in Egypt, an edgy, groundbreaking, and unprecedented English youth publication - Campus Magazine. He then entered the events industry by creating Ee Entertainment, then into guide magazine with his highly acclaimed Gmag, and finally E7na Magazine. The Fourth addition to the Core Publications Family was Egypt Treasures, and its sleeve, offering non-Egyptians visiting Egypt a sneak peek into what awaits them during their stay. Both Egypt Treasures and Egypt Treasures' sleeve are distributed on Egypt Air Flights with more than 1,500,000 readers yearly. The latest addition is Core Virtual, an online evolution of Core Publications, allowing instant interaction with users. Core Virtual’s aim is to support freedom of expression and to both inform and entertain, with its first online project being Elgomhoreya.tv. Unlike regular television, elgomhoreya.tv is a channel where the content is king- at a time of sensationalist news and unreliable journalism. Current issues are tackled, and many platforms are offered to the south for sharing and discussing.

- Waseem El Tanahi, Founder & CEO at MediaRepublic / Cairo360

Waseem El Tanahi is the founder and Managing Director of Media Republic, the marketing communications agency and digital publishing house behind Cairo360.com, the leading online guide to living in Cairo. El Tanahi has over ten years of experience in marketing and PR gained through agency positions held in the UK, UAE and Egypt. He specialises in a number of areas including consumer technologies, entertainment, publishing, retail and finance. From 2000 to 2007, El Tanahi worked at several award-winning agencies in London including Frank PR, and Indigo Pearl, where he handled communications for several consumer technology clients such as Sony, Logitech, Disney, and Atari. Since its inception in 2009, Media Republic has grown to become a leading boutique agency with big name local and international clients, as well as a driving force in the area of online lifestyle media.

Speakers

- Karim Khalifa, CEO at A Digital Republic

Karim Khalifa’s expertise lies in all that is digital. With over 13 years experience gained in mobile and ICT, coupled with solid marketing and branding expertise, he has an impressive track record of successfully delivering complex and innovative technology and marketing solutions. Karim has pioneered mobile internet from its inception in 2000 with Vodafone Global based in London, and managed the delivery of the first 3G network with Vodafone Egypt in 2007. Notably, Karim championed the creation of the mobile advertising industry in Egypt - launching one of the first comprehensive mobile advertising portfolios in the Middle East in 2008. Lastly, Karim co-founded A Digital Republic, an innovation-led creative digital advertising agency based in Cairo and Dubai. He has also held senior positions in multiple industries worldwide including Vodafone Group, Lucent, Maersk, Hilton Group, and SODIC. Karim is a UK Chartered Electronic Engineer and has an MSc. from the University of Leeds.

Speakers

- Karim Abi Saleh, Co-founder / Managing Partner at Wixel Studios

Karim is a Managing Partner at Wixel Studios, which he co-founded in early 2008, primarily looking at creating quality games and new opportunities from within the Arab world. He has since then assisted in the development of successful online titles like Douma, Furn El Shebbak, Collitical, 'Masr Ayza Min?' amongst others. In addition, he is a former 3D Artist and sound/music technician at DigiPen/AKE. He holds a BS in Computer Science (Concentrated in Computer Graphics and Animation) at NDU, and holds a Diploma in Advanced Character Animation from Animation Mentor in California. He is also a professional composer and guitarist. Carrying titles from lead programmer to Animator to Sound Designer, Karim has seen and experienced the world of game creation and animation from all sides. He is currently managing and working with Wixel Studios to bring fresh and creative ideas to the Arab gaming world.

- Muhammad Ali, Founder & CEO at NEZAL Entertainment

An industry veteran and a proud geek. Started writing games in an early age and released his very first title, "Rescue" for the MSX platform at the age of 15. Upon graduating with a degree in Computer Science from the university of Alexandria, Muhammad founded eSpace along with a group of his colleagues. Muhammad left eSpace after a few years to work as a technical manager at Gawab.com were he was responsible for handling services that millions of users relied upon. He then went back to eSpace as a products manager and then assumed the CTO position. In early 2010 Muhammad started to pursue his long life dream of building great, inspiring games. He founded Nezal and went on to build the greatest game production team out there. Nezal are gearing up for a major release in the near future, one that Muhammad hopes will establish their name in the Middle East social gaming industry.

- Sidar Şahin, Co-Founder & CEO at Peak Games

Sidar Sahin founded Peak Games, the fastest-growing emerging markets gaming company, in November of 2010. Peak Games is focused on providing culturally relevant games in emerging markets including Turkey, MENA, South America and Mexico, and already has 16 million monthly active users. Right before Peak Games, Sidar was a partner in fashion e-commerce startup Trendyol.com. He helped Trendyol.com grow from 3 to 300 people and reach a $100 million valuation within a year. His previous ventures include Funpac, a mobile gaming studio which he set up in 2003. Funpac games were distributed in 30 countries through more than 50 operators and portals. Izlesene.com, Sidar’s second venture was focused on social video sharing, launched in early 2006. Izlesene was the highest value Internet business exit in Turkey in its time. His third venture GameGarden is also a gaming company and was acquired by the Dogan Group, the leading media group in Turkey.

- Steve Tsao, CEO at Tahadi Games

Steve Tsao is the CEO of Tahadi Games, a publisher of online games targeting the Middle East and North Africa region with plans to expand into other territories. The company will be the first mover in many of the game product categories, targeting over millions of Arabic Internet users throughout the region. The company’s management has proven track record of success in both the online games, as well as the Arabic Internet industries. Prior to assuming his role in Tahadi, Steve held positions in a number of international companies such as Corning and DuPont, IP Ventures Group and IP E-Games. Over the past 12 years, he founded multiple online game publishers/operators and successfully launched over 10 online games in markets such as the Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam, and Others.

Speakers

- William Kanaan, New Business Development at Google

William Kanaan, is the Head of New Business Development for Google in the Middle East and North Africa. William is a high tech veteran who has founded and worked for several startups in the Silicon Valley and Canada. He has been a senior software architect and consultant at Netscape, Sun and Fujitsu consulting. During the last 6 years at Google, William worked on Mobile, News and Ads systems. William holds a bachelor degree in computer science and speaks several languages.

Speakers

- Gustavo Fuchs, Director at Windows Phone Division, Microsoft

Gustavo Fuchs is the Mobility Director for Microsoft Middle East & Africa. His responsibility is to drive Microsoft Windows Phone business in the region with OEM, retail, mobile operator and distribution partners creating an ecosystem for Windows Phone. As an industry veteran, Gustavo has more than 15 years of experience at Microsoft, Nokia Siemens Networks and other small Brazilian startups. His areas of expertise are Mobility, Cloud and Software as a Service. Gustavo has lived across 4 continents and is a dual citizen of Brazil and Germany. Gustavo has a bachelor degree from University of Phoenix and most recently has concluded his Marketing specialization at Kellogg School of Business.

- Tarek Mansour, Founder, Developer & Editor-in-Chief at iPhoneIslam.com

Founder of the first Arabic web site dedicated for iPhone news & apps. Tarek was one of the first who developed software for the iPhone OS around the world. He also one of the developers behind Arabization of iPhone & iPad before Apple's officially support Arabic language on iDevices. Tarek founded a company in 2010 for developing mobile applications aimed at enriching the Arabic content in mobile devices with high-end applications, the company already developed dozens of successful applications in the Apple AppStore.

Speakers

- Mohamed El Dahshan, Policy Consultant and Reporter at Al-Masry Alyoum

Mohamed El Dahshan is a consultant on development policy, interested in private sector development, investment climate promotion, and post-conflict reconstruction. He blogs at www.travellerwithin.com. He is also a freelance writer whose articles have been published in a number of outlets including Al-Masry Al-Youm, the New York Times, and Foreign Policy Magazine, and has a manuscript for publication that he should work on instead of tweeting at @TravellerW.

- Ranwa Yehia, Co-founder and Director at The Arab Digital Expression Foundation

Ranwa Yehia is an Arab activist who worked as a journalist in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Egypt and then moved to work in Arab youth education development since 2005. She is co-founder of the Arab Digital Expression Foundation. In the past six years, she has worked with activists across the Arab region to develop a program for digital expression among Arab youth. Her focus is the empowerment of an individual within him/herself and within his/her respective network/s (online and offline) and community to express, share, collaborate and build for a better world. The Arab Digital Expression Foundation aims at promoting the use of information and communication technologies by Arab youth for digital expression and artistic creation. The activities ADEF organizes are conceived through a network of artists and techies supporting and mentoring young talents in the Arab region. Together, this network conceives a free and constructive environment for young Arab men and women to think, deliberate, express, articulate and realize their ideas using ICTs. The outcome is a process of identity-exploration, self-expression and artistic production, which adds to the repertoire of original Arabic digital content.

Speakers

- Khaled Ismail, Founder & CEO at SysDSoft

Dr. Khaled Ismail is the Founder and CEO of SySDSoft, a company focused on the design of wireless communication system modems. In March 2011, SySDSoft was acquired by Intel making Dr. Khaled Managing Director of Intel Mobile Communications. Dr. Ismail worked as Senior Advisor of the Egyptian Minister of CIT, responsible for Technology Development, as well as VP of Engineering of Ellipsis Digital Systems in Carlsbad, CA. He was with IBM’s Watson Research Center in NY, receiving the IBM Invention Achievement Award and the IBM Outstanding Technical Achievement Award in 1997 and 1995, respectively. Dr. Ismail received his Ph.D. from MIT in 1989. He is an IEEE Fellow since 1997 and has published over 160 papers in international journals and holds 22 US patents. He is the recipient of the Eta Kapa Nu “Best Young Electrical Engineer” in the US award in 1994, and the Shuman Award for the “Young Arab Engineer” in 1995.