Khaled Bichara

Khaled Bichara (Arabic: خالد بشارة‎‎, IPA: [ˈxæːled bɪˈʃɑːɾˤɑ]) (born July, 1971) currently serves as the Chairman of Dada.it, and the Co Chief Executive Officer of Accelero Capital. Prior to joining Accelero Capital, Bichara was Chief Executive Officer of Orascom Telecom Media and Technology OTMT, Group President and Chief Operating Officer of VimpelCom Ltd. as well as Group Executive Chairman of Orascom Telecom Holding. Bichara played a pivotal role in the 6.6 billion merger of VimpelCom with Wind Telecom S.p.A, to create the worlds sixth telecommunications carrier. Before joining VimpelCom, Bichara was the Group Chief Executive Officer of OTH S.A.E. He sits on the board of OTH since 2003.
Khaled Bichara was appointed Chief Operating Officer of OTH in April 2009. He was previously Chief Operating Officer of Wind Telecomunicazioni S.p.A. He brought a wealth of experience in both telecommunication and information technology with a strong management and entrepreneurial experience.
Khaled Bichara headed the fixed line and portal business unit at Wind 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. ln 2001, following successful negotiations, Microsoft chose to partner with LDN headed by Bichara to launch MSN Arabia, the Middle East's first global portal, bringing full internet experience of MSN to users in the region.
ln December 2003, Business Today Egypt chose Bichara as the Young Executive of the Year for executives under the age of 40.
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 WlND Italy and various telecom and IT companies.

Khaled Bichara earned his B.Sc degree from the American University of Cairo in 1993 with a major in Computer Science and a Minor in Business Administration. He has also attended a number of professional and postgraduate courses some of which includes the Executive Program for Growing Companies (EPGC) conducted at Stanford University and the American University of Cairo, Institute of Banking and Finance.

In 1996, after a short experience with Microlab, a software company, he co-founded LINKdotNET (at the time called LINK Egypt) an Internet Service Provider (ISP) company in Egypt. In, 2000 he was appointed by Orascom Telecom Holding as the company’s Chief Internet Strategist. In 2002, Khaled Bichara was involved in a partnership between Microsoft and LINKdotNET which resulted in the launching of MSN Arabia, the very first global portal of its kind in the region.

LINKdotNET, under Khaled Bichara’s leadership, acquired eight other reputable internet companies in one of the most important mergers of the year. This acquisition increased the workforce to more than 1,500 making the company the largest private ISP in the region.

Khaled Bichara became a member of the board of directors at Orascom Telecom Holding in 2003. He was also recognized as the “Young Executive of the Year” by the "Business Today Egypt" in an award designed to commend executives under the age of 40.

Khaled Bichara was appointed to head the fixed line and portal business unit at Wind Telecomunicazioni S.p.A, a subsidiary company of Wind Telecom S.p.A. located in Italy, in 2005. He was promoted in 2006 to the position of Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the company. During this period he was responsible for the transformation of Wind Telecomunicazioni S.P.A, initially a company on the downturn, in just three years, into one of the best performing mobile, fixed line and broadband integrated operators in the continent.

Orascom Telecom Holding became the largest investor in LINKdotNET in 1999 with a 54% stake in the company. In 2000, Khaled Bichara was appointed its Chief Internet Strategist before joining the board 3 years later. In April 2009, Khaled Bichara was appointed the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Orascom Telecom Holding, replacing the former officer Emad Farid.

In November 2009, the company announced Khaled Bichara's appointment as the new Group Chief Executive Officer of Orascom Telecom Holding saying “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.”

Khaled Bichara is a supporter of information technology societies in Egypt and the Middle East region and currently maintains a member position on the Advisory Board for the Computer Science and Engineering Department at the American University of Cairo from where he graduated. Khaled Bichara is also a founding member of the Egyptian Software Association and the Internet Society of Egypt as well as being an active member of the software community in the Middle East.

Bichara also serves on the Board of Directors for Endeavor Egypt. Endeavor, an international non-profit development organization that finds and supports high-impact entrepreneurs in emerging markets.

Khaled Galal Bichara born on 27 July 1971 is a national of Egypt. He is married to Marianne Bichara and has two children, Sherif Bichara and Galal Bichara.

• Awarded the “Young Person of the year award” by the Business Today, Egypt 2003
• Earned the Microsoft Gold Certified Partner as Chief Executive Officer of LINKdotNET