Ismael Fikree Bio

Ismael Fikree has more than 22 years of extensive experience in the telecommunication operation at the corporate level and 7 years in consultancy/advisory field. He accomplished many senior executive jobs with a proven track record of year-after-year success. Driven by results and recognized for achieving high revenue, profit and business growth objectives within start up and turn around to a successful operation. He is currently the Founder and Managing Director/ CEO at Inspiring Solutions Consultancy (INSPIRING) based in Bahrain. Ismael was the former Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Zain KSA 2007-2011, where he was responsible to turn the company from EBITDA negative to positive. In addition, he was responsible to position Zain KSA among the most successful 3rd mobile operator in the region. Ismael was a full member of Zain Group Executive Management Board in which he was exposed to the 22 operations in Middle East and Africa. As a wireless pioneer, Ismael launched many mobile networks in Bahrain and KSA. He successfully launched the first HSPA+ network in KSA with more than 3000 Base Stations when he was carrying the duty of CTO in Zain KSA. In addition, he also launched the first LTE trial in KSA. Prior to this launch, Ismael carried the CTO position at MTC-Vodafone and launched the first 3G network in Bahrain in 2003 which was considered the first in the MENA region. He was formerly the Head of Mobile network at Bahrain Telecommunication Company (Batelco) where he launched the First GSM network in Bahrain in 1995. He worked at Batelco for 14 years in the Mobile technical side. Mr. Fikree attained a BSc (with distinction) in Electrical Engineering from the University of Bahrain in 1988. He attended many executive training programs at Harvard Business School, Insead Business School in Singapore and London Business School. He also worked as a part time instructor at Bahrain University in 1990.