Khaled Bichara Becomes CEO, Orascom, Sawiris Becomes Executive Chairman

Orascom Telecom Holding (OTH) has announced the restructuring of its organization, as Mr. Khaled Bichara becomes Group Chief Executive Officer reporting to Mr. Naguib Sawiris, the Company’s Executive Chairman.

Mr. Sawiris will continue to be directly involved by having overall responsibility in the business with Orascom Telecom Algeria. He will also be leading and directing the Group’s growth and expansion strategy.

Naguib Sawiris in a statement said “I will also remain involved in the businesses with more focus on steering the Group’s strategic growth while guiding and supporting the activities of the senior management team. I believe that the telecom market will see massive consolidation during the coming years, and with the new structure I will be able to devote more time and effort in this direction.” He added.

Mobilink, Mobilink Infinity and Link Dot Net are wholly owned subsidiaries of Orasom, operating in wireless and wired internet and cellular domains.

Below is OT’s Press Release regarding this

In a recently conducted thorough evolutionary strategy formulation process, OTH identified a number of strategic priorities and defined the Group’s transformation strategy. The new structure under Mr.  Bichara’s leadership is designed to align the organization to drive the effective execution of these key strategic and transformational initiatives, while leveraging OTH’s unmatched cost efficiency capabilities.
Mr. Bichara was appointed Chief Operating Officer of OTH in April 2009. He was previously COO of Wind Telecommunications. He brings a wealth of experience in both telecommunication and information technology with a strong management and entrepreneurial experience and has been a member of the board of directors of OTH since 2003.

Mr. Bichara headed the fixed line and portal business unit at Wind Telecomunicazioni S.p.A from 2005 until he was promoted to Chief Operating Officer of the company. At Wind, he played a key and instrumental role in restructuring the company’s organization which led to the successful turnaround of Wind from a continuously loss making company to one of the best performing mobile, fixed line and broadband integrated operators in Europe within a record time span of three years. Prior to joining Wind, he was the cofounder, Chairman and CEO of LINKdotNET (”LDN”), the largest private Internet Service Provider (”ISP”) in the Middle East. In 2001, following successful negotiations, Microsoft chose to partner with LDN headed by Mr. Bichara to launch MSN Arabia, the Middle East’s first global portal, bringing full internet experience of MSN to users in the region. Mr. Bichara earned his Bachelor of Science degree from the American University in Cairo where he is a member of the Advisory Board for the Computer Science and Engineering Department. He is an active member of the Software Community in the Middle East, a founding member of the Egyptian Software Association and the Internet Society of Egypt. He is also a board member of WIND Italy, and various telecom and IT companies.

“The telecommunication business is continuing to grow and evolve at a rapid pace, and we’re reshaping OTH to be a leader in this transformation. Our strategy leverages our core strengths and capitalizes on vastly emerging trends to drive growth and profitability. Khaled is dynamic, energetic and will be able to draw on his successful experience in the restructuring of Wind to gear the Group into a more aggressive period of growth and transform OTH into a more innovative, integrated and agile global company.”

“I am honored and excited to accept the position of Group CEO of Orascom Telecom Holding. I have joined the Group 10 years ago, and I witnessed a great success story. I look forward to working with the OTH team to build upon OTH’s accomplishments and reach new heights” said Khaled Bichara.