Biography:

Dr. Hisham El-Sherif is a leading authority in Telecommunications and IT in Egypt, the Middle East and the developing world. He is considered to be a central player in guiding Egypt and the Arab world into the Information Age. Currently, he is Chairman of IT Investments - a holding direct investment company with subsidiaries in networking and Telecommunications, software development, IT systems Integration, Media and E-business. El-Sherif is also a force in driving the building of the Internet backbone in Egypt through his role as founder and Chairman of Nile Online. To date, IT Investments Group is comprised of 42 companies.

Co-founder and Chair of the Advisory Board for the Cabinet Information and Decision Support Centre from 1985-1999, Dr. El-Sherif was directly responsible for building 1500 centers and creating more than 40,000 jobs in the information industry, as well as creating the first centralized repository of information required to support effective decision-making at the national level. Under his leadership, IDSC was selected as one of the top 100 IT organizations in the world.

Dr. El-Sherif is a creative builder of Institutions and Organizations. He is directly responsible for building more than 29 technology related organizations, among them RITSEC, a regionally recognized leader in software engineering, multimedia, education, training, culture-ware and the information highway. The training institutes he helped build trained 300, 000 users by 1999, 1100 MBAs and 11, 000 executives.

Extending his message beyond national boundaries, Dr. El-Sherif is a commissioner of the Washington-based Global Information Infrastructure Commission. He chaired a task force that developed the "Africa Information Society Initiative" that has been adopted by all African countries. He actively served and contributed to the global development agenda, jointly with the World Bank (Info Dev), UNDP, WIPO, WTO, ITC, UNCTAD, ILO, etc. In addition, he has initiated and helped to implement more than 700 programs and projects in Egypt and the Middle East, the US and Europe. Dr. El-Sherif has been featured in various newspapers, magazines, radio and television programs all over the world.

Dr. El-Sherif's interests and sense of social responsibility extend beyond technology. He has been appointed as the Chairman of the Advisory Board of the renowned Egyptian Museum, Chairman of the "Egypt Internet Society," Member of Council of the "Motherhood and Childhood" and Chair of Children with Special Needs Initiative. He is a member of The Opera Fund, Egypt Culture Fund, and "National Board of Archaeology," and is a member of the Board of the Future Generation Foundation (FGF). He served as a member of the US-Egypt President's Council until 2002 and has been a professor at the American University in Cairo since 1991.

Globally recognized for his achievements, Dr. El-Sherif has received several outstanding awards, among them the World First Prize in Information Systems from SIM in 1998, the Franz Edelman award for Management Achievements and its Application in 1989, and the IFORS Operation Research Third World Prize Award in 1987. In addition, the President of France awarded him the French Knighthood in 1991. Closer to home, H.E. the President of Egypt awarded Dr. El-Sherif the First Order Medal of Science and Arts in 1999. Dr. El-Sherif received his Ph.D. from MIT in Business and Engineering.

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