VADE-MECUM of the Speakers - European Ideas Network

European Ideas Network
Vade-mecum of the speakers
Hazem ABDELAZIM, Member, National Society for Change
Professional Track
Born in 1960, Dr Abdelazim graduated in Systems Engineering from Cairo University in 1982,
with highest honors. He completed his MSc in Applied Mathematics in 1985, and then attained his
PhD in Applied Pattern Recognition and Artificial Intelligence in 1989 both also from Cairo University.
In 2003, Dr Abdelazim completed his MBA from the Maastricht School of Management in
The Netherlands with distinction.
Dr Abdelazim’s professional experience is a blend of Industry and Academia. He is currently an
Associate Professor of Information Technology at the Faculty of Computer and Information Science,
Cairo University.Within the world of academia, he has become renowned for his teaching
and research in the fields of pattern recognition, artificial intelligence, Arabic NLP, and applications of Soft Computing in Financial
Trading of Securities. He also holds a Professional Certificate for Technical Analysis of Stock Markets.
1982 -1986, Dr Abdelazim held the position of Teaching Assistant at the Department of Systems & Biomedical Engineering at
Cairo University.
1986 – 1993 As an Assistant Scientist, and then Associate Scientist, for the IBM Research Center
1993 – 2000 : Executive Director of Sakhr Software , one of the largest regional Software development firms .
2001 – 2007 : Entrepreneur and cofounder of IMAGiNET Software (now CIT MOBiDIV), one of the World’s Top Players in
Arabic Technologies on Windows Mobile Devices.
2007 – 2010 : Appointed as the CEO of the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) after serving as
the Minister’ senior advisor for the Technology Development Sector since May 2007.
Dec . 2010 – May 2011 : Director of Research , Microsoft Corp.
May 2011 – Sep 2011 : CEO of technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center (tiec), ministry of Communication and
Information Technology.
Dr Abdelazim has been recognized for his achievements by being awarded He was
awarded an ‘Invention Achievement Award’ from IBM in 1991 , the First
Scientific Innovation Prize for Arab Scientists (1993), President’s [Egypt] Excellence
and encouragement Award (1992 and 1995), and Student of the Year Award and
Director’s Cup (2003) from the Maastricht School of Management.
Political Track
Abdelazim was one among many Egyptians following up the political scene during the period 2005-2010. The Parliament elections of
2005 was a milestone for many passive and silent Egyptians as it unleashed a considerable amount of forgery , corruption and brutal
force. In addition a disgraceful institutional effort geared towards preparing the ground for the inheritor “gamal son” to take over.
A rising feel of unfairness , injustice and negative sentiment started to prevail and incrementally was capturing the hearts and
minds of many Egyptians. The political playground was totally manipulated by the State Security Authority (SSA), so there was
no any room for practicing any health political activity.
On Jan-feb 2010, in such a gloomy , rotten and fully SSA manipulated political Scene , there was light shed at the end of the dark tunnel,
a noble prize and internationally renowned public figure Dr. El Baradei , returned to Egypt , with a great reform enthusiasm. In the
absence of any ethical role model, Dr. El Baradei Stood out very clearly , as a real Symbol of change . He formed The national society
for change (NSC) and collected near a million proxy for supporters of the Seven legitimate Demands aiming at a real political reform.
Dr. Abdelazim at that time was following up closely the political vibrance caused by Dr. El Baradei and decided to join the
National Society for change , in a step that many of his close friends considered this move as a suicide. Being a government
head and officially joining not only any SSA manipulated opposition party but joining a figure that was extremely hated and
threatening the Mubarak’s umpire . He started El Baradei e-support group with Wael Ghoneim and others to mobilize the and
drive the efforts for change. Dr. Abdelazim was seriously threatened from SSA that explicitly threatened his family , so he had
to decline during march –Oct 2010. While maintaining his e-activism heavily on Social media
Like many millions Abdelazim participated in Jan25 revolution , and continued his mission as a political activist driving for real change . He
was appointed as a Minister for ICT in July 2011 , and was dismissed quickly before the formal oath through a heavy media campain by a fake
story of his relationship with Israel. A standard practice against many activists in Egypt nowadays . The actual reason was that the X-Regime
is still in control under a SCAF (Supreme Council for Armed Forces) umbrella, also Dr. Abdelazim was forced to resign from his government
job as a deputy minister in Sep 2011 , due to a freedom of expression oppression due to his open criticism of SCAF Ruling and policies.
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