Dubai: Gulf Business Machines (GBM) has announced the appointment of Amr Refaat as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for the company’s regional operations.

Refaat joins from IBM, where he was General Manager and Vice President of IBM’s Middle East and Pakistan operations. He is taking over from Martin Tarr, who had made the decision to leave GBM earlier in the year.

“The board is delighted to announce Amr’s appointment,” said Nabil Iskander, GBM Chairman. “His decades of experience in key technologies such as Cloud, Analytics and Artificial Intelligence, combined with his leadership skills make him perfectly suited to lead GBM at this critical time. Having spent the most substantial portion of his career working within the industry in the region, he has a deep understanding of our customers’ profiles and how best to serve them, and he has a proven track record of implementing growth strategies, overseeing employee development and creating value for stakeholders. The Board looks forward to Amr’s contribution to GBM and its customers across the region.”

Prior to joining GBM, Refaat worked with IBM for over 30 years. Under his leadership, IBM expanded its presence in the Middle East region by opening offices in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and Abu Dhabi and launching two client centers in the UAE, as well as IBM's first Digital Design Studio in Dubai. Refaat graduated from Cairo University with a Bachelor’s degree (Hons) in Electrical Engineering. He went on to secure an MBA with distinction in International Business from the Maastricht School of Management in the Netherlands.

“I am delighted to be part of such a transformative organization and I’m looking forward to working with the team here at GBM to build on the success of the past 29 years,” commented Refaat. “GBM has made an impressive evolution over the course of the past few decades to become the digital solutions provider of choice for the region. Together with the team I will continue to focus on supporting our clients’ digital transformation journey and preparing their businesses for tomorrow.”

ENDS

About Gulf Business Machines (GBM)

With more than 29 years of experience, 7 offices and over 1500 employees across the region - Gulf Business Machines (GBM) is a leading end-to-end digital solutions provider, offering the region’s broadest portfolio, including industry-leading digital infrastructure, digital business solutions, security and services. We have nurtured partnerships since 1990 with the world’s leading technology companies and invested in a talented, skilled workforce to implement solutions that cater to customer’s specific, complex and diverse business needs.

Some of our strategic partners in the Gulf include IBM as their sole distributor throughout the GCC (excluding Saudi Arabia and selected IBM product and services), Cisco as a Gold Partner (the highest level of certification at Cisco), and VMware as a Premier Partner (the highest partner status within VMware).

For more information, please visit www.gbmme.com 

For further information, please contact:

Corporate Communications
Gulf Business Machines
Tel: +971 554065803
Email: communications@gbmme.com 
Weber Shandwick
Tel: +971 4 445 2245
Email: gbm@webershandwick.com 

© Press Release 2019

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