Dubai, UAE - In recognition of her pioneering role and remarkable achievements in the Lebanese Telecommunications sector, mtc touch Chief Technical Officer (CTO) Mrs Rula Abou Daher Al Rabih won the "Middle East ICT Woman of the Year" award at the 6th Middle East Businesswomen and Leaders Achievements Awards ceremony. Abu Daher received her award from Mrs Mervat Tallawy, Under-Secretary General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary UN- ESCWA, who was the patron of the ceremony as well as the keynote speaker. The ceremony was held in Madinat Jumeirah Dubai on the 8th of March on the international woman's day.
The annual awards, organized by the Middle East Excellence Awards Institute, recognize notable achievements of women professionals in Middle East business and government organizations. A great number of professionals from various Middle East organizations, from diverse professions nominate for this prestigious awards.
Commenting on the prestigious award, MTC Group CEO Dr. Saad Al Barrak said: "To receive this award is certainly a great achievement for mtc touch as well as for MTC Group. We consider our employees as the most valuable asset and this award is the proof." He added that "with the backing of a dedicated and dynamic team, Rula Abu Daher achieved a lot. It is truly an honor that her efforts have been recognized and rewarded not only within mtc touch and MTC Group, but collectively, by the industry in the region as well. "
From his end, mtc touch General Manager Mr. Mohammad Shabib attributed this achievement to the collective efforts of both Mrs. Daher and her team. "When Rula was appointed as the CTO at mtc touch, this young and energetic senior engineer, with minimum guidance, spearheaded the engineering team to bring the department to the level of expectation exceeding the MTC Group requirements," said Shabib.
"For Rula, the list of achievements is long especially after joining mtc touch, where she became known for her skills in improvising necessary changes on the spot. During the aggression on Lebanon in July 2006, Rula guided her heroic team and demonstrated unmatched leadership under crisis. She and her team managed to put back in service some major network elements in record time and restoring on spot a complete loss of coverage in vast areas to ensure communications availability to Lebanese citizens. We congratulate ourselves with Rula and wish her continuous success." Shabib added.
Upon receiving her award, Mrs. Abu Daher, who's one of the very few female CTO across the globe, expressed her gratitude to all the contributors and supporters of her professional career. "I am honored to be selected among all the Middle East winning business women leaders who proved each in her category, that hard work and perseverance, but most of all faith in one's convictions and principles, will inevitably lead to achieving the set objectives and reaching the desired goals and ambitions," Abu Daher said, adding that "this award means a lot to me, as I consider it a reward not to my efforts, but to my whole team who is exerting great efforts and is being very creative to introduce state of the art services in the field of mobile telecommunications".
Abu Daher concluded by addressing an emotional word for her mother country, Lebanon "which defies all circumstances, and rises each time stronger just like the phoenix bird". Adding that "Lebanon gains power each time it witnesses difficult situations like summer 2006 crisis. It proves again and again that it has been and still is and will always be the cradle of cultures, and home for very unique human resources which are considered to be its main asset".
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About MTC touch
On June 1, 2004, MTC Group was tendered a 4-year management agreement by the Lebanese government to operate one of the country's two existing mobile telecommunications networks. In November 2004, the operation was branded as mtc touch.
In collaboration with the Lebanese Ministry of Telecommunications, mtc touch continues to enhance its network capacity while consistently providing its customers with cutting-edge products and services. It also seeks to improve the quality and variety of its services, without compromising on cost-effective pricing modules. mtc touch will, thus, continue to focus its efforts on updating its technology to deliver at its highest potential while offering a greater variety of services.
mtc touch is a fully owned subsidiary of MTC, the pioneer of mobile telecommunications in the Middle East and now a major player on the African continent. The company began life in 1983 in Kuwait as the region's first mobile operator, and since the initiation of our "3x3x3" expansion strategy in 2003, we have expanded rapidly.
As a leading mobile operator in 6 Middle Eastern and 14 sub-Saharan African countries with over12,700 employees, we provide a comprehensive range of mobile voice and data services to over 27 million active individual and business customers (as of December 31, 2006).
The company operates in Kuwait and Bahrain as mtc-vodafone, in Jordan as Fastlink, in Iraq as mtc atheer, in Lebanon as mtc touch, in Sudan as Mobitel and in 14 sub-Saharan countries in Africa as Celtel: Burkina Faso, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Kenya, Malawi, Madagascar, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
Listed on the Kuwait Stock Exchange (Code: Tele), MTC's market capitalization exceeded US$18 billion as of February 28, 2007.
For more information please visit www.mtctelecom.com & www.mtctouch.com.lb
Media contacts:
Ms Ghada Barakat
Tel: + 9613774202
E-mail: g.barakat@mtc.com.lb
Bouchra Tannous
Asda'a
Tel: +961 3 320857
E-mail: b.tannous@asdaa.com
© Press Release 2007
