Committed to connecting the world

Biographies

Ashraf Abdelwahab Industries Lead, Africa Initiatives, Microsoft Dr. Ashraf Abdelwahab is a full professor of computer engineering, Electronics Research Institute (ERI), Egypt. He received his Ph. D. in 1992, Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University in Machine Learning and Evolutionary Algorithms. He used to teach Computer Science courses in Egyptian and American universities. Member of the Egyptian E-government Initiative since its launch in 2001 managing ERP, and ICT4D projects. In August 2006, he was appointed as the Deputy to the Minister of State for Administrative Development (MSAD), responsible of supervising, monitoring and coordinating E-government and organizational development initiatives. In March 2011- August 2012, he was appointed as Acting Minister, MSAD. Supervised the implementation of many national projects: Family Database, Government Procurement, Courts Automation, and the IT infrastructure for the National Elections (Received the UN Public Service Award, Government Services delivery category, in June 2012). Joined Microsoft in December 2012 as the Corporate Affairs Manager, Egypt & North Africa, then moved in 2014 to Dubai as the Corporate Affairs Director for Egypt and Gulf. In July 2016, he moved to Microsoft 4Afrika initiative as CTO, and currently, He is the Industries Lead, supporting Digital Transformation in Financial, Agricultural and Public sectors.
El Sayed Azzouz Member of the Board and Vice President of NTRA for Spectrum Affairs Dr. El-Sayed Azzouz is currently Board Member and Vice President for Spectrum Affairs at the National Telecom Regulatory Authority (NTRA) of Egypt. He is also Vice Chairman of SG1 on Radio Frequency Spectrum, and he took the position of Vice Chairman of the Radiocommunication Assembly in both 2012 and 2015. He also undertook the chairmanship of the Arab Spectrum Management Team, where he managed the work for WRC-12. Dr. Azzouz continues to participate actively in ITU-R activities including World Radio Communication Conferences and Radio Assemblies, as well as ITU-R Study Groups and workshops. On the academic level, Dr. Azzouz is Associate Professor in Electronic and Electrical Engineering, and has many publications in international scientific journals. He received his PhD in Electronic and Electrical Engineering in 1996 from Strathclyde University, Scotland and has a Bachelor of Electrical and Electronic Engineering.
Nasser Al Marzouqi Chairman of ITU-T Study Group 20 "Internet of things (IoT) and smart cities and communities (SC&C) Mr. Nasser Al Marzouqi is the Chairman of ITU-T Study Group 20 “Internet of things (IoT) and smart cities and communities (SC&C)” which provides a specialized IoT and smart city standardization platform. The work of the ITU-T Study Group 20 is focused on identifying and analyzing emerging applications and global solutions for IoT and smart cities, which will contribute to improving the interoperability of various IoT-based technologies, a key factor in ensuring end-user and market acceptance of IoT solutions. Mr. Al Marzouqi is also the Co-chairman of the United for Smart Sustainable Cities (U4SSC) initiative. The U4SSC is a global smart city initiative which primarily advocates for public policy to encourage the use of ICTs to facilitate and ease the transition to smart sustainable cities worldwide. Nasser Al Marzouqi is currently working for the Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (TRA) in the United Arab Emirates in the International Affairs Division. He also functions as the UAE representative to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and has been closely involved in the major ITU conferences and events. He received his Master’s degree in Telecommunication Engineering from Latrobe University in Australia. The TRA in the UAE has been at the forefront of pioneering developments in the field of ICT and in providing an optimal enabling environment in which the UAE’s ICT sector can flourish. Mr. Al Marzouqi is a firm proponent of converting existing systems to high-efficiency systems, helping to bridge the digital divide and increasing global communication and the transition to smart sustainable cities.
Ramy Ahmed Fathy Director, Digital Services Planning and Risk Assessment, NTRA, Cairo, Egypt, Vice Chairman of ITU-T SG20 on IoT and its Applications including Smart Cities and Communities Ramy Ahmed Fathy is the Director of Digital Services Planning and Risk Assessment at the Egyptian National Telecom Regulatory Authority (NTRA). As the Director of Digital Services, he seeks the development and implementation of sustainable and effective digital services in the Egyptian market. His role at NTRA includes the development of guidelines, regulatory frameworks, viable business models, and effective specifications & technical operating parameters, which ensure efficient and effective services' operation. He is leading the design, and specifications development of intelligent and digital services; addressing interoperability, risk, regulatory impact assessment and services’ market adoption while employing a wide set of tools related to radio network planning, transport design, market modeling, and optimization. Fathy has been actively involved at the different stages of development of various intelligent ICT systems and services, in addition to numerous ICT-for-development and digital transformation initiatives including national broadband networks, smart cities, m2m and IoT enabling regulatory frameworks, smart utilities, eGov, water management, and next generation access planning. His 15 years of experience include projects design, budgeting, and planning of smart cities, enterprise automation, DTV transformation, and Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). Over the past 10 years, Fathy has served in key roles in the international standardization arena. In 2012, he served as the Vice-Chairman of the ITU-T Focus Group of Bridging the Gap between Innovations and Standardization (Focus Group Innovation). One year later, he was elected as the Chairman of the ITU-T Focus Group on Smart Water Management for a period of two years. Currently he is serving as the Vice Chairman of the ITU-T Study Group 20 (SG20) on IoT and its applications including smart cities and communities since late 2015 where he is leading activities related to the standardization of end-to-end architectures for IoT and smart cities, intelligence, mechanisms for the interoperability of IoT applications, security, and identification aspects of IoT systems. Fathy has a PhD in electronics and communications. He has led R&D projects in radio network planning and optimization, cognitive radio systems, video coding, cryptography, DSP/FPGA/GPP based implementations of consumer electronics products and satellite communication systems. He has numerous publications in esteemed journals and conferences, and he's the author of one book in electronics.
Latif Ladid Founder and current President of the IPv6 Forum, Member of 3GPP PCG (Board) since 1999 Prof Ladid is the Founder and current President of the IPv6 Forum, (www.ipv6forum.com), Member of 3GPP PCG (Board) since 1999 (www.3gpp.org). He is co-Chair, ETSI IPv6 Industry Specification Group (including 5G over IPv6) : https://portal.etsi.org/tb.aspx?tbid=827&SubTB=827, IEEE Steering Committee Member: 5G, IoT and SDN, Chair, IEEE ComSoC IoT subcommittee (http://cms.comsoc.org/eprise/main/SiteGen/TC_IOT/Content/Home.html/ ), Vice Chair, IEEE ComSoC SDN-NFV subcommittee: http://cms.comsoc.org/eprise/main/SiteGen/TC_SDN_NFV/Content/Home.html, Emeritus Trustee, Internet Society - ISOC (www.isoc.org), Pv6 Ready & Enabled Logos Program Board (www.ipv6ready.org), Senior Researcher @ SECAN-LAB, University of Luxembourg on multiple European Commission Next Generation Technologies Projects. Member of Future Internet Forum EU Member States (representing Luxembourg). IPv6 Forum Internet Pioneer Award, 2002, IPv6 Life Time Achievement Award, 2016
Safder Nazir Regional Vice President Digital Industries Strategy Safder heads Huawei’s Digital Industry Center of Excellence, prior to which he has held various leadership roles in global ‘blue chip’ companies. With over 20 years of experience across the world in industries from smart cities to telecom B2B services, Safder has enabled global companies to deliver exceptional results in new lines of business. Key to this success has been the innovative use of technology to drive business transformational outcomes. Having held senior leadership positions as the customer, the consultant and the vendor, this 360 degree view combined with over 10 years in the Middle East region gives Safder a rounded perspective of the market, challenges and opportunities. He has worked directly with city and government leaders to help formalize their strategies to enable next generation services to be delivered. Additionally Safder is: -Advisory Board Member for Dubai Silicon Oasis Smart City Program -Associate Rapporteur in the ITU-T Study Group 20 on Smart Cities & IoT -SAMENA Council Working Group Member on Digital Services -Global thought leaders and key note speaker on Smart Cities, IoT & Digital Industries
Neil Sahota IBM Master Inventor and World Wide Business Development Leader, IBM Watson Group Neil Sahota (萨冠军) is an IBM Master Inventor and World Wide Business Development Leader in the IBM Watson Group. With 15+ years of business experience, he works with clients and business partners to create next generation products/solutions powered by Watson. Prior to this role, he was a Thought Leader Consultant and Practice Leader in IBM Global Business Services where he was responsible for the sales and delivery of complex consulting engagements spanning business strategy, new product development, revenue optimization, process improvement, and business and system integration. His work experience spans multiple industries including healthcare, life sciences, retail, travel and transportation, energy and utilities, automotive, telecommunications, media/communication, and government. Moreover, Neil is one of the few IBMers selected for IBM's Corporate Service Corps leadership program that pairs leaders with NGOs to perform community driven economic development projects. For his assignment, Neil lived and worked in Ningbo, China where he partnered with Chinese corporate CEOs to create a leadership development program. He also actively volunteers with nonprofits for event management, fund raising, grant reviews, and site visits. Neil is an active member of the UCI Alumni Association and serves on the Board of Directors for the Orange County Marathon, supporting their work with the OC Kids program in fighting childhood obesity.