Smartworld announced today the appointment of Obaid Bokisha and Sabri Albreiki as new board members, in replacement of Ahmed Al Awadi and Saeed Al Zarouni.

“We are pleased to welcome our new board members,” said Abdulqader Ali, CEO of Smartworld. “Each one of them provides our board with a unique background and perspective, and we look forward to their expertise and support as we drive digital transformations. We would like also to extend a gracious thank you to the outgoing members of the board for their time and considerable efforts.”

Mr. Obaid Bokisha, Chief Transformation Officer at Etisalat Group, graduated top of the class with a Telecommunication degree from Etisalat College of Engineering in 1998 and immediately joined Etisalat. His early years were in mobile network planning were spent on coverage planning/optimization, introducing new technologies, engineering all activities to enhance mobile networks performance. He was quickly promoted to handle all mobile networks within UAE and support Etisalat’s international footprints. He had the opportunity to participate in designing technical bids for international expansion. He demonstrated skills in optimizing network plans with strong negotiation skills to improve efficiencies and costs optimization. His first role as a board member of Etisalat Nigeria (2008) helped him further develop his investment and commercial sense. Also, he served on other boards like Etisalat Egypt, Zantel in Tanzania, and finally as chairman of Canar Telcom in Sudan. In 2012 he was offered and took over the role of Group Chief procurement and contracts officer. In 2017, he took another role of Chief Business and continuity & Corporate Quality officer and is accountable for the development and implementation of business continuity and crisis management framework for Etisalat. He is a generally well-rounded executive who grew through the technology function with strong knowledge of Telecom industry and was able to gain a significant depth of experience specifically in the telco space and within Etisalat.

Mr. Sabri Albreiki, Chief Information Officer at Etisalat, holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree with honors in Digital Electronics and Master of Science degree in Communication Systems Engineering from the University of Kent, UK. He has recently completed the Advanced Management Program from Harvard Business School. As CIO of Etisalat, he is accountable for applications development, infrastructure, and operations of all IT functions in Etisalat UAE, including Customer Relationship Management, Service Fulfillment, Revenue Management, Analytics, Enterprise Resource Planning, and IT Service Management. He is currently leading major IT and digital transformation initiatives with the objective to improve the organization’s agility, create new revenue streams and enhance customer experience across all touch points. He started his career with Etisalat in 1995 as a graduate trainee in the engineering department where he attained firsthand experience and in-depth knowledge of fixed and mobile networks as well as intelligent networks and value-added services. From 2001 through 2006, he held various managerial positions in network operations, network planning, provisioning, mediation, and applications development. In 2006, he was appointed CIO of Etisalat’s green-field operations in Egypt where he contributed to Etisalat becoming a major player in a highly competitive market. While in Etisalat Egypt, he oversaw the implementation of state-of-the-art real time convergent charging and billing solution that was combined with advanced analytics and customer management applications to drive product innovation and improve the overall customer experience.

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