Management Team
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Co-Founders Laurent Delifer As the Co-Founder, President and CEO of NavLink, Laurent brings 30 years of experience in IT Technologies and marketing. Before assuming his role as President and CEO of NavLink Laurent was Co-President & Chief Operating Officer until April 2010. Laurent established NavLink in 1996, with a goal to improve Telecom services and introduce internet services in emerging countries which evolved to include the establishment of data centers to offer managed services to the enterprise market. NavLink is currently positioned as a leader in Cloud services provisioning. Prior to founding NavLink, Laurent developed internet infrastructures with AT&T in Central and Eastern Europe. He held the position of Worldwide Director of Enterprise Networks for Digital Corporation, after having served as Manager of European Networks and Communications. Laurent received his graduate degree from the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Telecommunications of Paris in 1981, and his Executive Training from Harvard Business School George Chammas A co-founder of NavLink Inc, George Chammas was Co-President and Chief Financial Officer until April 2010, and is currently Vice Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer of the Company. Prior to founding NavLink, George served as Executive Vice President and Director of Niray International, an investment vehicle for a multinational corporation. He held senior management functions for Niray's investments. In 1979, he co-founded CIS, a leading distributor for HP in over 40 ME countries. He started the first ISP in the ME in 1995. George served as president of the San Francisco French American Chamber of Commerce from 1989 to 1993 and currently serves on the advisory board of the Center for Middle East Public Policy of RAND. He is a Director of Inconet Data Management, a leading ME ISP, and the Chammas Group, which has diversified interests in petroleum, manufacturing and ICT. George received a Bachelor of Science in Engineering (Mechanical Engineering) Cum Laude from the University of Michigan in 1976 and an MBA from Stanford University in 1978. Management Team Profiles Richard Giugno Richard has experienced board level finance with AT&T. He is able to represent the needs of the firm both internally and externally at the most senior levels, to deliver results from automating financial processes in a shared service environment, to improving corporate cash flow and ensuring governance and integrity underpin the financial reporting environment. He has experience in working with different financial reporting regimes, namely IFRS and US GAAP. Richard holds a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Accounting and Finance from Nottingham Trent University and is a Chartered Management Accountant (CMA). Bassel Dbaibo Bassel joined NavLink in early 1997 as NavLink's first employee. As Business Development Manager, he played a key role in turning the NavLink Middle East business into a multi-million dollar operation. Bassel has over 19 years of experience in Sales and Business development of Information and Communication technology. Bassel is in charge of Sales, Presales & Sales Operations for the various NavLink countries of presence. Prior to joining NavLink, Bassel led the SAS Institute Inc. sales team for the US Northeast region, covering the banking, finance, wholesale, retail, and utility industries. For two consecutive years, he generated the most new licensing fees. Bassel developed some major references for SAS like State Street Bank, Marine Midland Bank, and Talbots. An active member of civil society, Bassel served on the Board of Directors of the American Youth Hostels. He is a graduate of the American University of Beirut Engineering School with a BE in Computers and Communications. He also holds an MBA from the University of Massachusetts. Antoine El-Am As CIO, Antoine is responsible for customer support, Information Technology, New Products Introductions and Technical Operations. He joined NavLink in 1999 as Director of System and Network Integration, and was subsequently promoted to the I&MS Business Unit Director and then to Vice President Operations before being promoted to CIO. Antoine grew very successfully and efficiently, and to very high standard and customer satisfaction levels, the NavLink services and required I&MS organization from system and network integration projects delivery to enterprise networking, customer support, and in-country managed services. Boasting over 24 years of experience, Antoine was Technical director at GlobalCom, the leading data and internet service provider in Lebanon. He started his career at Nortel Networks in Canada, as Transmission & Access Networks Engineer, where he was later promoted to Product Line Manager and was responsible for evaluating Original Equipment Manufacturer suppliers and defining Nortel's Synchronous Digital Hierarchy and Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy wireless radio products and their integration with Nortel's network management and fiber-optic transmission products. Antoine holds a Bachelor's degree and a Master's degree in Electrical and Telecommunications Engineering from the Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal (University of Montreal) Canada. In addition, he was selected by Nortel for its Network Engineering Program at the University of Toronto. He holds two awards from Nortel for Technical achievements and one award for Best project at the 1991 Network Engineering Program. Bassem Soubra During his 10-year tenure at NavLink, Bassem pioneered projects that were in line with the Company's strategy and direction, closed major contracts, and built relationships with major accounts such as Al Jazeera, Qatar Telecom, Qatar Ministry of Foreign Affairs, QualityNet Kuwait, Batelco Bahrain and Energy City Qatar. Bassem also played a pivotal role in signing several AT&T AGN node deployments in the Gulf region, including Qatar and Kuwait. Today, he is working closely with Qatar Telecom and its operating companies on expanding their business in the Managed Services market. Bassem joined NavLink in 2000 as Business Development Manager, and later served as Sales Manager. Prior to that he held the positions of IT Manager at the Port of Beirut, Sales Manager at PC Group and then at Mideast Data Systems in Lebanon. Bassem holds a Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) in Computer Science from the Lebanese American University (LAU), Lebanon in 1984. Dany Naufal By holding several key positions in a number of companies working in the field, Dany combined 16 years of experience in the ICT industry, including technical and business consultancy, customer service, financial management and enterprise networking solutions. He served a four-year stint as Technical Manager at Inconet (today IDM), one of the leading ISPs in Lebanon. Since joining NavLink in 1999 as one of the core team members, he's held several senior positions including Senior Consultant, Customer Services Manager, Business Unit Manager, Director and finally Vice President. Dany continues to successfully lead the Enterprise Networking Service Business Unit and has contributed to NavLink's track record in ENS in the MENA region. Dany holds a degree in Engineering from the Ecole Supérieure des Ingénieurs de Beyrouth (ESIB), Lebanon, a Masters degree in networking and multimedia from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications (ENST) de Bretagne, France and an Executive degree in General Management from INSEAD, France. Mansour Naufal Mansour joined NavLink in 2000 as Business Development Manager for the UAE and Oman, and has since positively contributed to the growth of the company. With 17 years of experience in such fields as business development, project management, quality assurance, computer system hardware, public key encryption, Intranet and Extranet implementation and datacenter design, he's now the VP of Product Development and Service Enablement, and is responsible for ensuring the continuous evolution of NavLink's current portfolio of services and the development and implementation of new products and services. Before joining the NavLink team, Mansour assumed different responsibilities with reputed companies as Motorola, Microprocessor Division, Texas (USA) and local and regional Internet Service Providers. Manour holds a BS in Computer Science, with an emphasis on computer architecture from Texas State University. Naji Chakhtoura Naji brings more than 15 years of experience in Information and Communication Technologies, Project Management, Marketing, Sales, Strategy and Business Development to NavLink. As Vice President of Strategy & Planning, he is responsible for strategy formulation and alignment with all stakeholders, strategic planning, corporate development and other strategic initiatives. He also oversees the Marketing Communications department. Previously, Naji was responsible for developing NavLink's Real Estate and Media vertical markets. He joined NavLink's Systems & Network Integration team in 2000, and later led the Pre-Sales effort in the Middle East for 2 years before moving to Product Management & Marketing. Naji received his B.Sc. in Computer Science from the Lebanese American University (LAU), Lebanon, in 1996, and his Executive Education in General Management from INSEAD Business School, France, in 2004 and in Entrepreneurship form the Rady School of Management - University of California, San Diego, USA in 2005. Suzanne Nehme With over 12 years of experience, Suzanne joined NavLink as financial controller in 2000. She currently holds the position of Senior Director of Accounting, and is responsible for implementing and maintaining a system of internal controls to ensure that company’s assets are adequately safeguarded and that all financial reporting are prepared in compliance with the general financial policies. Prior to that, she held the position of internal auditor at ATG Holding in 1996, one of the largest groups in Lebanon. In 1998, she held the role of financial manager in GlobalCom, the leading data and internet service provider in Lebanon. Suzanne holds a Technical diploma in Accounting Expertise from Centre Supérieur d’Etudes Commerciales (Centre Belge) - Lebanon. Ziad Dib With over 12 years of experience including auditing IFRS/USGAAP/French GAAP financial statements for large telecom operators and groups as well as audits in compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley's internal control standards, Ziad serves as Senior Director of HR & Business operations, and is responsible for Human Resources, Contractual and Legal Operations, Financial Analysis as well as Business Intelligence and ERP. Ziad joined NavLink as Director of Financial & Legal Operations in 2009 to assist in implementing the Company's financial plans and policies, and evaluating project feasibility. Ziad has held several key financial positions with Deloitte France (Audit and Transaction Services) and Nestlé Waters France. In his most recent role with Nestlé Waters as Finance and Control Director, Ziad was responsible for building the financial department in Algeria according to the operational needs of the company and in line with good practices of internal control and corporate governance. He was also responsible for internal control ensuring that all legal, accounting and tax obligations were conducted properly and according to local and corporate rules. Ziad holds a BBA from Saint Joseph University (USJ), Lebanon and an MBA from the Lebanese American University (LAU), Lebanon. Linda Elawar Linda rejoined NavLink in 2008 as Manager of Human Resources focusing on recruiting, developing and retaining employees, as well as setting up NavLink's talent management framework and policies in support of its growth. She was later promoted to Director, Corporate HR. After assuming different positions in the company, Linda is currently leading special corporate projects and initiatives working closely with the CEO Linda brings over 24 years of experience, through key technical and managerial positions with global US organizations such as Avaya, BRITE, HRsmart, GTE as well as France Telecom Mobile Liban. As a Product Manager in Avaya's Voice Self Service division, she managed a number of products throughout their lifecycle. Linda worked closely with global Avaya divisions to ensure successful regional product positioning as well as enhancing regional processes and communications. Prior to Avaya, Linda was the Product Development Manager at the Qatar Data Center in Doha, and was responsible for creating promotional marketing activities in Qatar and the GCC. Linda held other positions mainly in Product Development, Talent Management and Human Capital solutions and was responsible for driving and coordinating all product management initiatives and activities. Linda holds a B.Sc. CS from Penn State University, USA. |
