TechWadi Fall Forum – Palestine High Tech Delegation
By Mohammad ElBibany
 Beyond the melancholy image of a desolate and isolated Palestine lies an inspiring truth. Through the physical and mental barriers shines the world of information technology, liberating consumers and serving as a beacon of hope for a talented young society.TechWadi’s 2011 Fall Forum spoke to the immense potential of the IT sector to expand economic opportunity and inspire change in Palestine. Featuring the Palestinian Information Technology Association (PITA) and a wide variety of other engaging speakers including VCs, Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, lawyers and development practitioners, the event drew a full auditorium and left an inspired and energized audience. Shattering misconceptions and truly testifying to the human spirit, Palestine’s IT industry has capitalized on an educated labor pool and leveraged its proximity to Israel, a high tech leader, to become the fastest growing sector of the Palestinian economy. It is no surprise then that there are over 150 active private companies and over 4500 workers in the Palestinian ICT sector.
At the forefront of this exciting new industry, PITA has taken the lead “to represent the collective interest of the private IT sector in Palestine.” The association represents 56 companies from various sub-sectors and functions as a non-profit, membership-based organization focused on making the IT industry a pillar of the Palestinian economy. |
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After an introduction by Tony Lahlouh, a third-generation Syrian-American at printing powerhouse Lahlouh Inc, the focus shifted to the accomplished Palestinian delegation with talks by Hassan Kassem, Chairman of PITA, and Executive Director, Abeer Hazboun. Both highlighted the existing atmosphere in Palestine, the challenges the region faces, and in particular, the immense quality of technical talent that has led to global firms, like IDS, Oracle, and 3Com, opening R&D branches, as well as Israeli outsourcing to Palestine.Alexis Ringwald then took the floor to discuss her amazing whirlwind journey as a Fulbright scholar turned clean-tech entrepreneur. Highlighted by the New York Times’ Tom Friedman in his column “Yes, they Could. So They Did,” Alexis led a solar-powered convoy of vehicles across India to raise awareness on clean energy research. Struck by the interest of the locals – traffic stops usually ended with local police officers trying to purchase the vehicle – Alexis founded Valence Energy, an energy-use monitoring software company which was later acquired by Serious Energy in the US. Her experiences are a testament to the creative capacity of young entrepreneurs and the potential for overseas companies to make the transition to the US. Her work continues to inspire future entrepreneurs. Shifting the focus to investing and current market trends, Khaled Nasr, Partner at InterWest, gave us a brief yet in-depth dive into current investment trends. Khaled highlighted Software, specifically Consumer Mobile Applications, Cloud Infrastructure, and Big Data, as the hot areas in VC investment. He added Healthcare Information Technology as a potential area of future interest, Khaled discussed investors’ shift away from hardware and semiconductors. The coincidence of MENA industries focus and the hot areas for investment was not lost on the impressed crowd.
Youssri Helmy, Chairman of IdealRatings, evoked a topic of great interest to the visiting Palestinian IT firms – that of IT outsourcing. He shared his experience as co-founder of ITWorx with business expansion in the US (from the company’s base in Egypt), highlighting an engagement model based on forging long term strategic partnerships with its customers. ITWorx has since 1994 amassed a list of industry-leading Fortune 500 repeat customers including United Technologies, Microsoft, Vodafone, and Mellon Bank. Digging deeper into the IT outsourcing business, Nassif Makhlouf detailed the challenges that an IT outsourcer, expanding in Silicon Valley, faces. As Vice President at Harbinger Systems, an Indian IT outsourcer, Nassif provided invaluable advice on building a competitive advantage, recruiting an effective sales force, crafting the value proposition, and running a profitable business.
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| Omar Dajani, Professor of Law and a leading negotiator of the Middle Eastern conflict, and Jess Ghannam, Chief of Medical Psychology at the University of California, San Francisco, led the dialogue on the importance of identity, organization, and cooperation between the wider diaspora.Finally Kamran Elahian, Chairman at Global Catalyst Partners, captivated the audience with his stories of Silicon Valley success, selfless nonprofit work, adventures and optimism in Palestine, and independent entrepreneurial attitude. He left to a standing ovation, a fitting end to an inspirational night of motivation, knowledge transfer, and unbounded hope.The TechWadi Fall Forum has been lauded as deafening success and a fantastic step towards inspiring both the monumentally talented Palestinian entrepreneurs and the astounding Palestinian diaspora to dream big. With investment, mentorship, and training, TechWadi is confident that Palestinians can build a tech and thought oasis of their own. We aim to continue to lead this marvelous initiative across the entire MENA region. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Our speakers painted a picture of hope, youth, and beauty in the final segment of the event. Miriam Abu Sharkh, visiting professor at the Stanford Center for International Development, set the scene by introducing and showing a clip from her documentary, Gaza:Tunnels to Nowhere, about a father’s quest to escape Gaza to attend his daughter’s wedding. Some truly remarkable footage set the scene for visitors who have never been to Palestine.
Thought Leader Profiles:
 Khaled Nasr Partner InterWest |
Khaled joined InterWest’s IT group in 2005, focusing on investments in the communications, enterprise and data center infrastructure sectors, including systems, software and semiconductors. Prior to joining InterWest, Khaled invested in IT companies for Alta Partners. Prior to that, Khaled spent 16 years with startups in the networking and telecom industries. He was president and CEO of FlowWise Networks and general manager and VP at Ipsilon. Khaled received his B.A. and M.A. in mathematics and social and political sciences from Cambridge University.More Information: http://www.interwest.com/interwest-team/khaled_nasr.html | |
 Youssri Helmy Chairman IdealRatings |
Youssri is chairman of IdealRatings. He is an accomplished entrepreneur with more than 20 years experience bringing new technologies to market and growing companies. As co-founder of ITWorx, Youssri grew the company to become the Middle East’s largest software outsourcing firm before its acquisition in 2007. Prior, Youssri co-founded Swan Labs, later selling the company to F5.More Information: http://www.idealratings.com/ | |
 Kamran Elahian Chairman Global Catalyst Partners |
As an entrepreneur, Kamran co-founded ten companies. Six of them have produced a total market cap of $8B, with one slated for IPO next year. As a VC, he co-founded Global Catalyst Partners with investments in the U.S., Japan, China, and India. Underlying Kamran’s vision is the conviction that modern IT can be instrumental in dissolving barriers between nations. This vision is reflected in Schools-Online, a nonprofit he founded in 1996 to connect the world, today with 6400 schools in 36 countries; Global Catalyst Foundation, founded to improve lives through the effective application of IT; and UN-GAID, a United Nations global forum that promotes ICT in developing countries where Kamran serves as Co-Chairman.More Information:http://www.kamranelahian.com/ | |
 Alexis Ringwald Founder Stealth Startup |
Alexis is a leading young entrepreneur in education and clean energy. She was a Founder at Valence Energy, an energy efficiency software startup company, recently acquired by Serious Energy. Selected for “Most Influential Women in Tech” by Fast Company (2010), Yale’s Most Notable Alumni by Forbes (2010), and “27 Female Founders to Follow” by The Huffington Post (2011). In 2009, Alexis co-directed the Climate solution Road Tour travelling 2,400 miles across India in solar plug-in electric cars. Her project was highlighted by the NY Times T homas Friedman in “Yes The Could. So They Did”. Alexis holds an MEM and BA from Yale University and is a Fulbright Scholar.More Information: http://www.fastcompany.com/article/alexis-ringwald |
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 Omar Dajani Professor of Law University of the Pacific |
Omar is one of the nation’s foremost experts on the legal aspects of the conflict in the Middle East. His scholarly work explores the links between international law, legal and political history, and contract and negotiation theory. He also has considerable experience advising governments and development organizations in the Middle East and elsewhere. Omar worked for the PLO from 1999 to 2001, before moving on to become a political adviser to UN Special Coordinator Terje Roed-Larsen, until 2003. He earned his B.A. from Northwestern University and his J.D. from Yale Law School.More Information: http://www.mcgeorge.edu/x7325.xml | |
 Miriam Abu Sharkh Professor Stanford Center for International Development |
Currently, Miriam Abu Sharkh is a Visiting Associate Professor at the Stanford Center for International Development. She is on faculty at the Development Studies Institute at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Before coming to Stanford, Miriam Abu Sharkh was employed at the United Nation’s specialized agency for work, the International Labour Organization, in Geneva, Switzerland. She also worked on the Report on the World Social Situation for the United Nation’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs in New York. She has written on the spread and effect of human rights related labour standards as well as on welfare regimes, gender discrimination, child labour, social movements and work satisfaction.More Information: http://fsi.stanford.edu/people/miriamabu+sharkh | |
 Jess Ghannam Professor UCSF Medical |
Jess is a clinical professor and the Chief of Medical Psychology at the University of California, San Francisco. He also practices at the UCSF Comprehensive Cancer Center. Jess applies his knowledge not only in the scholastic arena, but in the humanitarian one as well. Since the early 1990s, he has traveled to Palestine several times a yearwith the main goal of rebuilding the health infrastructure in the West Bank and Gaza. As a board member of the Gaza Community Mental Health Program, he has established clinics in Gaza City, Jabaliyah, Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah. Jess earned his Masters and Doctorate in Psychology at UC-Berkeley in 1981 and 1984, respectively, and a Masters in Medical Sciences at UC-Berkeley in 1983.More Information: http://www.jessghannam.com/ | |
 Hassan Kassem Chairman Palestine IT Association |
In addition to his role as Chairman of PITA, Hassan is Chairman of the Young Scientists Club and of Dimensions Consulting. He was one of the founders of PITA and PICTI. Hassan worked as an IT Instructor at Birzeit University in the 90s. In 1996, he launched Arab Technology Systems (ATS) which was sold to PALTEL Group in 2006. He holds a Masters in computer science from The American University Washington D.C.More Information: http://www.pita.ps/newweb/index.php | |
 Nassif Malouf Vice President Harbinger Systems
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Nassif is a seasoned professional. In the last ten years, Nassif’s core experience has been in the innovative startup environment where he held leadership positions with early stage software development companies. Prior to Harbinger Systems he served as CEO of Direct Advice. Nassif was also Senior Director of Business Development at Xtime and Vice President of Strategic Alliances at Silicon Valley Bank. Nassif holds a Bachelor’s degree in Quantitative Economics from the University of California at Berkeley.More Information: http://www.harbinger-systems.com/ |