Dr. Amr Badawi is currently the Executive President of the National Telecom Regulatory Authority (NTRA). Before that he was the Senior Advisor to the Minister of Communications and Information Technology. He is handling the development of the Telecom Sector. He is involved in the policy development and in providing support to all the telecom entities such as the ISPs, vendors, etc… Dr. Badawi joined MCIT after a nine year tenure with GTE & General Dynamics. There, he acted as Program Manager and in several other Technical Positions in Support of the Telecom Sector Support and the ICT programs in Egypt. Dr. Badawi is also a professor of Electronics at Cairo University. Prior to his tenure at GTE he founded Telecomp International in Egypt in 1990. He also taught at Cairo University and was a Telecom Consultant for several government and private entities from 1987 - 1995. Dr Badawi worked as a development and system engineer at Aydin Systems, California from 1984 to 1987. Dr. Badawi holds a Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, California and obtained both his M.Sc. and B.Sc. degrees in Electronics Engineering from Cairo University.

SIRKKA JARVENPAA Sirkka L. Jarvenpaa is the James Bayless/Rauscher Pierce Refsnes Chair in Business Administration at the McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin where she is the director of the center for Business, Technology, and Law. During 2008-2012, she also holds Finnish Distinguished Professorship at the Helsinki University of Technology. She is the co-editor in chief of the Journal of Strategic Information Systems. She is the senior editor of Organization Science. She has served as the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Association for Information Systems and as the senior editor of Information Systems Research and MIS Quarterly. She is a frequent contributor in academic and industry forums on inter-organizational innovation, virtual teams, virtual organizations, and virtual communities. Sirkka Jarvenpaa University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business Center for Business, Technology, and Law CBA 5.202, B 6500 Austin, TX 78712 Telephone: 512-471-1751 Fax: 512-471-0587 Mobile: 512-415-8570 Internet: Sirkka.jarvenpaa@mccombs.utexas.edu

Ibrahim Gedeon, CTO, TELUS Communications As CTO, Ibrahim Gedeonis is responsible for technology strategy, network and services architecture and network support systems for TELUS Communications. Mr. Gedeon began his career in telecommunications engineering and research at Bell Northern Research, then Nortel Networks. Mr. Gedeon has held numerous leadership roles in the IEEE and has received several professional awards, including IEEE Canada's Outstanding Canadian Engineer Award. Mr. Gedeon holds a B.S. in electrical engineering from the American University of Beirut and a Master's in Electronics Engineering from Carleton University. Mr. Gedeon graduated with a BE in Electrical Engineering from the American University of Beirut in 1986, and then went on to earn a Master’s degree in Electronics Engineering from Carleton University, Canada, in 1990.Mr. Gedeon began his career in telecommunications engineering and research when he joined Bell Northern Research in 1990 designing signal-processing software in the cryptographic systems division. He moved to Nortel Networks in 1994 as a network design engineer, where he provided technical network design expertise to Nortel Networks customer base globally. He was named vice president and director of Data Network Engineering at Nortel in 1996, and vice president of Internet Brand Management in 1999, where he was responsible for IP/MPLS/ATM standards, engineering, and market development. He was appointed senior vice president of Wireless Engineering in 2000 and led the global engineering team responsible for operations, sales support, and systems engineering. Mr. Gedeon has held numerous leadership roles in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers [IEEE] and has received several professional awards, including IEEE Canada’s Outstanding Canadian Engineer Award.As the Chief Technology Officer at TELUS Communications Inc., Mr. Gedeon, is responsible for technology strategy, network and services architecture and network support systems. In his role he is responsible for the Wireless-Wireline service and network convergence, enterprise applications and network infrastructure strategies and evolution.

Dr. Ossama Hassanein Ossama is a passionate entrepreneur and venture capitalist. Over the last 35 years, he managed over $1 billion of international technology funds in diverse leadership roles as EVP of Berkeley International in San Francisco, Chairman of Technocom Ventures in Paris, President of Newbridge Networks Holding in Canada, Senior Managing Director of Newbury Ventures, and Chairman of the Rising Tide Fund in Silicon Valley. He was chairman or co-founder of eight successful startups including ACC in Santa Barbara (acquired by Ericsson), Algety in France (acquired by Corvis), HighDeal in France (acquired by SAP), Highwave Optical Technologies (Listed on Euronext), NetCentrex (acquired by Comverse), nCipher in Cambridge (listed on LSE), BDNA in Mountain View, and Echovox in Geneva. He served on the Boards of Advisors of Harvard University Center for Middle Eastern Studies and of UCSF Department of Ophthalmology, School of Medicine in San Francisco, and lectured on international business at UC Berkeley, the University of San Diego, Santa Clara University, and the American University in Cairo. He also served on the Board of Directors of Relief International, a non-profit, focusing his efforts on social entrepreneurship and women development in the Middle-East. Ossama received his B.Sc. in electrical engineering (distinctions, first class honors) from the University of Alexandria, his M.Sc. in electrical engineering and M.B.A. from the University of British Columbia. He completed his Ph.D. requirements in electrical engineering at the University of British Columbia, and his Ph.D. in Business Administration at California Coast University. Ossama was born and raised in Alexandria, Egypt were he still maintains close family ties and enduring friendships. He is an avowed fan of Mediterranean history and culture. He is married, has two children, and splits his time equally between California and Paris.