The accomplishments of women executives in the technology industry and the TechWadi community in particular have long gone unnoticed. Well, TechWadi wants to change that - so we’ve put together our first in a series of “Women in Technology” events.

This edition of the event will address the unique challenges that women face in the technology, science and medical industries. We’ll address topics such as how senior executives achieve their professional success, cultural/gender biases in the workforce, advice for female entrepreneurs etc.

We’ve assembled a stellar panel made up of successful women from several disciplines in technology and its eco-system:

    •    Ghada Saliba-Malouf, Managing Counsel at Wells Fargo Bank

    •    Dania Ghantous, CTO at Lion Cells

    •    Maha Ibrahim, General Partner at Canaan Partners

    •    Nadia Mansour, VP Sales of The Americas at Turin Networks

    •    Susan Lucas-Conwell, CEO, SDF Forum

 
We hope you will join us for this worthy event.

Event Sponsors: WilmerHale

Date: Thursday July 10, 2008

Time:


Networking at 6:00 PM (registration starts at 5:30)
Program starts at 7:00 PM

Location:
1117 S California Ave
Palo Alto, CA 94304
(650) 813-1601

Registration: $20 for professionals - $10 for students


https://web.memberclicks.com/mc/quickForm/viewForm.do?orgId=tec&formId=20920

 
TechWadi is delighted to welcome EastNets, a technology company based in the UAE, as the latest TechWadi Sponsor.

EastNets is indicative of the emerging Arab technology companies which are developing technologies and solutions and selling them in the Middle East, Europe and North America.

In particular, we want to thank Hazem Mulhim, Chairman of the Board and CEO of EastNets, for his support of TechWadi and our mission.
 

  Hazem Mulhim – Chairman of the Board and CEO

Having held senior management positions for the past 17 years, Hazem has proven his ability to establish and expand a business structure according to market needs. He has demonstrated the ability to build a new business, introduce new products, penetrate new markets, build various alliances and partnerships in the area, and has successfully implemented projects in various countries.
Hazem was educated in Sofia, Bulgaria, at the Higher Institute for Mechanical & Electronic Engineering. There, he earned his Masters of Science in Electronics Engineering and Medical Electronics. He also earned a Certificate of Advanced Management Program (AMP) from INSEAD, Fontainebleau in France.
 

EastNets Background:

Founded in 1984, EastNets is engaged in the provision of payment and security solutions primarily for the financial, corporate and government sectors. EastNets has strategic presence in the Middle East, Europe and North America providing services to customers across 120 countries. It is a business partner of SWIFT maintaining all five spectrums of SWIFT partnerships (SWIFT Business Partner, SWIFT Service Partner, SWIFT Business Partner Service Bureau, SWIFT Solution Partner, and SWIFT Education Partner). EastNets has other strategic global alliances offering value added payment solutions. It also develops Business Software Solutions, such as Enterprise Application Integration (EAI), Anti Money Laundering Applications, SWIFT Empowerment applications, and card Issuing Software.

In the current trends of outsourcing, EastNets has a well established service bureau offering outsourced payment and financial payment solutions and services globally. In 2004 IFIC Kuwait acquired 25% of Eastern Networks BVI. Today IFIC holds board positions along with CEO Hazem Mulhim. As a strategic partner IFIC provides ongoing support to the EastNets executive team.

We are very proud to announce that EastNets Group has acquired SIDE International in 2007. The two companies had been business partners since 2002 reflecting a successful partnership which lead to strategic acquisition.

EastNets Solutions:

Business Software Solutions
EastNets™ has developed a number of business software solutions to cater for different market segments. The product lines include: AML Profiling & Filtering suits, Integration solutions, Kiosk solutions, SWIFT Empowerment with reporting, duplicate detection, recovery solutions, etc. More than 400 established customer references are using these products.
 
Partner Solutions
EastNets™ has established global valued business partnerships such as, SWIFT for financial applications, DoubleTake for high availability and Disaster Recovery solutions, and CheckFree for Reconciliation and Electronic Bill Payment and Presentment Solutions.
 
Integration Services
EastNets™ has developed integration Solutions such as en.finmeX and en.PayGate and other services pertaining to confidential transactions with process efficiency.
 
Portal Services (en.SB)
EastNets™ has established a service bureau offering SWIFT connectivity and application services, Reconciliation and AML Filtering solutions. It has also established portal services as low cost outsourced solutions for the financial and corporate industry.

Contacting EastNets:
 

 
 
http://www.eastnets.com/ 

EastNets - UAE
Tel: +971 4 391-2888
Fax: +971 4 391-8652
uae@eastnets.com
Building 2, Office G02/G03
Dubai Internet City
Dubai, UAE
P.O. Box: 500135 

Youssri Helmy, Bryce Murray, Anwar Imam, Rami Elkhatib, Ralph Rabbat
and surprise guest: Amr Awadallah !

 TechWadi held the second edition of its Startup Boot Camp at the offices of Weil Gotshal. The panelists discussed the different aspects of startup creation from business plan, to recruiting, to fundraising …

Again thank you to our event sponsors: Weil Gotshal

And here are some photos from the event:

Latest edition of the “Business Plan to IPO” event is around the corner. 

Saturday June 14, 2008 - Redwood Shores, CA

LEADING SPEAKERS FROM OUR COMMUNITY HAVE
BEEN ADDED TO THE PANEL !

This is a unique event tailored to educating up and coming entrepeneurs on all of the aspects of creating a technology startups and running it successfully. All of the different phases of the life of a startup (from Business plan to IPO) will be discussed.

We  have assembled a world-class panel of experts that will offer entrepreneurs a detailed view of what it takes to build a successful startup. Our panel of experts represents tens of years of expertise and hundreds of millions of raised capital:

• Ralph Rabbat - Chief Architect @ SearchMe, a startup backed by legendary VC firm Sequoia Capital
  
  

• Youssri Helmy - CEO and co-founder @ Ideal Ratings, a startup in the financial services for Islamic Finance
  
  

• Rami Elkhatib - General Partner @ SouthEast Interactive Funds, a VC firm with offices on both coasts
  
  

• Anwar Imam - Attorney @ Weil Gotshal, a leading tech-focused law firm in Silicon Valley
  
  

• Bryce Murray - Executive recruiter @ Walker Talent Group, a leading recruiting companies based in Silicon Valley
  

Event Details:

 
Registration: 

• Paid TechWadi members - $40 click here 
  
  
• Non-members - $65 click here  (be sure to check out our discount on a 12-month membership) 
  
  
• Students -  $25 click here
  

Breakfast & lunch will be served at the event.

Date: 
Saturday June 14, 2008

Time:
Registration starts  at 8:30 AM. Conference proceedings start at 9:00 AM and should end around 2:00 PM

Location:
Redwood Shores Parkway,
Redwood Shores, CA

Detailed Agenda:

• 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM: “Business Plan Development”
  What goes into a successful business plan ? How do you develop financial projections ? How much information do you divulge ? …
  
  
• 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM: “Building out your team”
  How do you find co-founders ? What if you need to hire a CEO ? How do you split the ownership ? What about outsourcing ? …
  
  
• 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM: “Deal Structuring”
  How much equity should you give up ? Who should be on your board ? What are standard deal terms these days ? …
  
  
• 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM: “Fundraising for your startup”
  What types of investors should you go after ? How do you contact investors ? What are investors looking for ? …
  
  
• 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM: Lunch & Networking
  Network with your fellow entrepreneurs

 
The last Startup Boot Camp event was very much appreciated by attendees - you can see what it looked like here: http://www.techwadi.org/photo-gallery/business-plan-to-ipo-2007/

TechWadi held its first semi-annual technology career
fair on Thursday May 15, 2008.

In Silicon Valley, the best companies succeed because they have the best human capital. TechWadi wants to work with the various technology companies (small and large) in our community to help them connect with the best talent out there. We expect this to be an ongoing and regular effort on the part of our association.

To that end, TechWadi will be developing two programs for job seeking candidates and companies:

1. Career Fairs - to be held twice a year
2. Online career center - that can help candidates and companies connect on an ongoing basis 

 The TechWadi team will be working with recruiting companies throughout 2008 to fine tune and improve these programs.

 In the mean time, we would like to thank the recruiters and companies who attended the last TechWadi Career Fair - Thank You !

• Arastra

• calisolar

• Cisco

• Cortina Systems

• Eatlime

• elixirmedical

• Faculte

• Google

• KAUST

• Santur

• Symmetricom

• Tessera

• Vusion

Here are a few snapshots from the event:

We hope to see you at the next event - June 14, 2008 - TechWadi Startup Boot Camp !

Company: Questler

Sector: Internet

Country: Jordan

Website: www.questler.com

Contact: Razan Khatib

Questler is an informal learning network with a focus on individuals’ experiences and conversations as the information content from which personal and collective connections are created based on shared interests within diverse contexts.

Each quest in Questler is a mini-blog, where text, links and multi-media files can be put around several types of an informal learning experience be it a query, a discovery, an observation, research, a story or media.

Questler was founded by Razan Khatib, a web technologist & strategist, shortly after Eyad Makhoul, a technologist, Alma Khasawneh whose graduate work at RISD focused on informal learning and social change and Hassan Shahin joined forces. Questler is incubated at Spring Web Technologies and will be spun off into its own company early April 2008.

 TechWadi held its second Business Plan Competition on April 17, 2008  in San Jose.  The event was held behind closed doors to provide entrepreneurs with the required confidentiality.

We were delighted to have received 12 great business plans addressing different areas of the technology industry. Out of those, our panelists selected the following 6 startups to pitch their plans:

• WhoHu (mobile)
• Luxint (hardware)
• Yamli (mobile)
• Mazuma (web 2.0)
• ISQ Online (web 2.0)
• SureCircle (services)
  

We’d like to thank our panelists who spent two hours (with little food or drink) providing feedback and advice to our entrepreneurs:

• Jack Young: Qualcomm Ventures   [VC]
• Karim Fahmy: Intel Capital            [VC]
  
• Joe Ayyoub: Siperian                   [Moderator]
• Motasim Sirhan: Elixir                   [Entrepreneur]
• Basil Hashem: Mozilla                   [Entrepreneur]
• Khaled Shami: Thelen Reid            [Lawyer]
  

Their involvement was essential in helping entrepreneurs fine tune their business plans.

We’d also like to thank Khaled Shami, an attorney at Thelen Reid in San Jose for hosting us at their very nice offices:

If you couldn’t participate in this edition of the Business Plan Competition - it’s not too late. The next edition of the Business Plan Competition will be held in Silicon Valley in September 2008. It’s never too late to get started on that business plan. 

If you need to contact the two speakers, here are their LinkedIn profiles:

• Joe Ayyoub, Siperian
• Chris Murdock, Yahoo 

For those who couldn’t make it, the pictures gallery can be found here:

Studies show that 90-95% of all jobs are filled through word of mouth!

New Speaker Added: Cortney Hesz, Director of Talent Acquisition at Yahoo!

Whether you’re looking for a job or just some sound expert advise, networking is your key asset to getting the information you need.  Come learn expert tips from Cortney Hesz, Director of Talent Acquisition at Yahoo! about the importance of networking in landing your dream job.  Ms. Hesz will also discuss two important aspects of networking, follow-up and follow-through.
 
And of course, as announced earlier, Joe Ayyoub will join Ms. Hesz in leading us in a fun interactive dialogue about how networking is not about making cold calls to people you don’t know but about talking to people you do know.

Have you ever wondered how you could leverage your TechWadi membership to enhance your professional career ?

With more than 800 members covering all of the technology fields, TechWadi should be a key resource to help you find career opportunities, find technology suppliers, find customers, close deals, get funding …

But you can only do that if you know how to leverage the power of the network. To help you do that, TechWadi is proud to host a speaker from our community who has put the “power of the network” to effective use throughout his career.

Joe Ayyoub, Senior Director of Customer Support at Siperian, will be sharing with you his 15-year experience in professional networking. Joe will discuss how to use the latest social network tools like LinkedIn, Plaxo, Facebook etc. to meet new colleagues. Joe will also discuss how to build long-term professional connections to help you with your job search, getting sales etc.

Update: Event Agenda

6:00 - 6:30 PM: Registration

6:30 - 7:10 PM: Networking

7:10 - 8:30 PM: Panel Discussion - Networking to advance your career

8:30 - 9:00 PM: Networking 

Location: WilmerHale Offices - 1117 California Avenue, Palo Alto, CA

Time: Thursday March 20, 2008 - 6:00 PM to 8:30 PM

Registration: registration is required

Free for our paid members / $20 for non-members / $10 for students

Sponsored by: WilmerHale

TechWadi intends to play a key role in bridging the needs of Silicon Valley and the MENA region. And we’re off with a bang …
 

Google is looking to hire the brightest Arabic Fluent experienced Software Engineers and a site Director for the MENA region …

If you are interested or know someone who is, please contact  TechWadi member Nabil Khatib, the recruiter at Google - nabilk at Google

• Google Engineering Site Director (Arabic Fluent) – Middle East Region

Google is looking for a highly technical, hands-on Engineering Site Director to drive software initiatives for the Middle East/Arab World in a location(s) to be determined.  As the most senior engineer for Google in the region, the Engineering Site Director will be the face for Google’s Arabic engineering effort in the Arab World.

The Engineering Site Director will be responsible for the overall planning, execution and success of regionally focused projects (for the Middle East) that will have the potential for global impact. In addition to leading an initially small engineering team, the Engineering Site Director will work closely with Google’s senior management team as well as local officials and Universities and professional organizations.

Required:
•       Exceptional technical competence and accomplishment with a strong coding track record.
•       Software background and deep success developing web-based applications ideally launched in the Arab market.
•       Entrepreneurial drive plus demonstrated ability to achieve goals in an innovative environment.
•       Relevant experience as hands-on manager of a large fast-paced dynamic engineering team.
•       Solid leadership skills and success in building a strong engineering team.
•       Strong project-management skills and proven history in product delivery.
•       Can fit in well within an informal startup environment and quickly establish credibility with engineers.

Education:
•       MS in Computer Science/Computer Engineering or PhD (a plus).
•       An exceptionally strong record of academic achievement.

Language:
Arabic language fluency and familiarity with the Middle Eastern technology market.

Please note that engineering management at Google is technical, i.e., candidates are expected to have a strong track record of technical accomplishments. in addition to management accomplishments. Consequently a candidate must posses a strong and broad background in most aspects of Computer Science. Candidates will be asked technical questions during your interviews.

• Google / (Arabic Fluent) Experienced Software Engineers - Middle East

 The Software Engineering positions require at least  7+ years work experience, experience developing web-based applications, expertise in data structures, algorithms, and complexity analysis, fluency in one or more of C, C++, Java, fluency in one of more of Shell, PHP, Perl or Python, solid working knowledge of Unix, preferably Linux, SQL and MySQL are a plus. Applicants must have BA/BS in Computer Science, MS or PhD.

We are looking for engineers with exceptional programming skills, excellent algorithmic and analytical skills, and a strong aptitude for building high-performance, scalable computer systems. Our recent work encompasses a broad spectrum of computer science research areas, including:Large scale distributed systems design, Information retrieval, Natural language processing, Machine learning and data mining, Algorithms and data structures research and User interface research.

Email your chronological resume