Business Consultant - Internship
Tarco International
Total years of experience :12 years, 5 months
The Main Achievement: Introduce (AgAu) cryptocurrency as a new crypto gold standard.
My Story: TARCO is a trade, consulting, and blockchain technology startup in the "Crypto Valley" Zug, Switzerland. Their genesis project is AgAu.io. (AgAu) created as a real alternative to fiat, peer-to-peer, decentralized electronic money system backed by silver (Ag) and gold (Au) in Switzerland. My main contribution to this project was a research paper called "AGAU and the new taxonomy of money, " which presented by the CEO Mr. Thierry ARYS RUIZ in Davos in 2019.
My Tasks:
Business Development Tasks:
• Identification of business strategy, through conducting an ongoing market analysis.
• Drive and manage the projects throughout the entire projects' lifecycle.
• Developing partnerships & relationships with external parties.
• Identifying niche industries and new market trends.
• Review third-party solutions in the market.
• Ensure legal compliance.
Client-side Tasks:
• Ensure deliverables are meeting the highest quality standards and best execution practices.
• Share information with the community and stakeholders.
• Mentoring blog posts.
• Maintain clients' records.
Product-side Tasks:
• Analyzing and developing new product's features.
• Assist in preparing procedures, training manuals, and documentation.
• Testing the prototypes and manual user.
• Copy-editing of documents, case descriptions, and marketing materials.
• Coordinating with in/out house developers.
R & D Tasks:
• Work with management and technical team to set and execute the research agenda.
• Perform ad-hoc researches in blockchain technology and crypto-economics areas.
• Conduct researches theoretically and developing research collaborations.
• Searching for scalable products and services.
Finance and Administration Tasks:
• Ensure the smooth operation of the offices.
• Support the daily running workflow between the different offices.
• Willingness to travel and represent the company.
The Main Achievement: Introduce a new sound insulation system for the industrial sector.
My Story: ZCC (now known as Noize-Kontrol) is a micro Swiss family company offering noise control solutions to the industrial sector to cut noise emissions and sound propagation. From the market research, I did on the local market; I concluded that there is a shortage in the Swiss market for a product that is durable, easy to install and disassemble, and can be used multiple times in all climatic conditions. I was able to build a business relationship with a Swedish company called Järvin to offer such a totally new system to the Swiss market. Now ZCC is focusing mainly on its business on this system.
My Tasks:
Business Development Tasks:
• Develop business and marketing plans to achieve revenue goals.
• Research the market for identifying new business opportunities and industry trends.
• Participate in industry forums, client discussions, trade shows, and conferences.
• Assist in the company’s media communication activities such as press releases, advertisements, marketing, social media, and website.
Client-side Tasks:
• Explain to prospective clients about the advantages of the products or services offered.
• Follow up with clients to close the business deals.
• Develop strategies to retain the clients, including interviewing them to take their feedback.
• Manage client calls and inquiries.
• Manage client contacts and mailing lists.
• Travel to client sites.
Finance and Administration Tasks:
• Analyze the current and past budgets, expenses, sales, revenues, and product deficiencies to provide recommendations for business growth and problem resolution.
• Assist in the writing of quotations, bids, proposals, brochures, and various other business informational letters.
• Maintain the records and filing system.
The Main Achievement: Assist to establish the company from scratch.
My Story: Advansoft is an SME company, and I had the opportunity to assist the CEO in establishing the company from scratch. The CEO, Mr. Al Ansari, is one of the UAE VIPs and a co-owner of the biggest exchange house in the UAE. Today Advansoft is considered as a market leader in mobile application development in the UAE. The main turning point of the company was when we obtained a contract from General Motors. For four years, I was the stand manager in Gitex, the biggest IT event in the ME.
My Tasks:
Business Development Tasks:
• Assisting the GM in the management of new projects.
• Researching present and future market opportunities and trends.
• Keeping open eyes on market dynamics and competitor activities.
• Evaluating the strength and weaknesses points.
• Actively involved in the development of work by suggesting improvements and new ideas.
• Formulating communication strategies, PR plans, marketing plans, advertising campaigns, and promotions to develop and promote the company’s public image.
• Actively participated in trade shows, conferences, and sales meetings.
• Managing a strong business relationship with existing and new clients.
Finance and Administration Tasks:
• Coordinate the preparation of the annual plan, including budgeting and cash flow, and report the financial performance.
• Ensure that the set targets in the monthly report are met.
• Monitor deviations from budget and take corrective actions to meet established goals.
• Coordinate loan proposals and negotiate with banks for favorable terms.
• Assisting with the procurement process.
• Assisting with recruiting new staff.
• Assuring smooth and error-free business performance.
• Ensure a safe and healthy office environment.
• Perform other tasks assigned by management.
Projects I assisted to handover:
• 1- General Motors
• 2- Dubai Police.
• 3- Dubai Islamic Bank.
• 4- Mohammed Bin Rashid School of Government.
• 5- Coca Cola
The Main Achievement: Handing over The Dubai Mall, the biggest mall in the world.
My Story: Juma Al Majid Group, is one of the most famous family companies in Dubai, and its owner, Mr. Juma Al Majid, is an advisor to the ruler of Dubai. The company has accomplished many of the most prestigious UAE projects, led by The Dubai Mall.
My Tasks:
Finance and Procurement Tasks:
• Monitoring financial reports: bank borrowing, collections, stock aging, customer aging, receivables, unbilled receivable, PSI, expenses, cash flow, monthly payment claims, bank guarantees, open purchase orders, tenders, and inquiries.
• Preparing the monthly financial report for division director and top management.
• Collections control.
• Posting invoices, checks, and cash money on the system (Oracle + POS).
• Submission of invoices to the Finance Department.
• Making reconciliation for suppliers and preparing payments.
• Coordinate L/C documents with suppliers and stores.
• Handle petty cash + cash salaries.
• Preparing timesheet and overtime statement.
• Working as a requestor in Oracle for materials as required by various projects.
• Obtain quotations; prepare bid analysis/comparative statements.
• Prepare purchase orders.
• Responsible for projects creation, activation, completion, and closing in Oracle.
• Making all running projects invoices in Oracle.
• Making monthly reports for all running projects for the monthly progress meeting.
• Making projects schedule and retention bills in Oracle.
• Coordinate with all parties to close the handing over projects.
Administration and HR tasks:
• Assist division director in day to day management of the office.
• Maintain administrative and personnel filling system.
• Responsible for new recruitment.
• Assist in updating of employees’ policies and procedures.
• Interact closely with employees at construction sites.
• Ensure employees are receiving all entitled benefits.
• Ensure timely and regular updating of data entries into the HR system.
The Main Achievement: Member of the first teaching staff.
My story: When I joined the Damascus University, Syria was in transition. The leadership pinned its hopes on the university’s contribution to the modernization process, and many professors of the faculty of economics appointed as ministers. So, I had the opportunity to be in direct contact with first-class civil servants such as the governor of the Central Bank, the Minister of Finance, the Minister of Economy, and the Ambassador of Syria to France. The academic life was a new experience for me, and I was heavily involved in the outside activities organized by the college. Where we managed to organize the first graduation ceremony at the Faculty of Economics, and the first scientific trip to Amman Stock Exchange and Beirut Stock Exchange, and we also coordinated to host many public figures from Syria and Lebanon.
At the end of my study at Damascus University, Al-Baath University was planning to expand and open a new college for economics, so they asked the University of Damascus to nominate some names to work as assistant lecturers. My name was nominated, and I was appointed as an assistant lecturer in Microeconomics. It was a great and wonderful experience that lasted for one semester. Due to family obligations, I had to leave Syria and move back to the UAE.
Activities and Societies: During the master's program, we studied the economic policy, as it involves economic actors and local political authorities, and the issues we address in our master: how do the human societies develop by selecting the best project, and what are the keys to success. We studied many national and international examples and tried to find possibly some solutions. The master is mainly driven by applied econometric studies. https://www.unine.ch/mscecon/home.html My thesis " An Empirical Analysis of the Heterogeneous Rebound Effect on Swiss Households' Driving Demand" is about the rebound effect, a topic related to energy economics. I studied this effect for Switzerland, and I got impressive results about how Swiss households adjust their driving behaviour as a result of fuel efficiency improvement, and I worked under the guidance of Professor Mehdi Farsi a former ETH professor. This master program provided me with good knowledge about basic economic models such as OLS, QR, IV, DID, Pooled OLS, FE, RE and Interaction Terms. So, I have a basic background in data modelling. Furthermore, this program equips me with various tools used in economic analysis. My next step will be to continue my research interest in the field of Fiscal and Monetary Policy, Behavioral Economics, Energy Economics, Global Public Goods, Innovation Management, Blockchain Technology, Political Economics and Negotiation and Conflicts Management.
Pre master program.
I did only the first semester.
IELTS - Band 6
ACPA : Arabic Certified Public Accountant
Post Graduate Diploma in Financial and Monetary Economics (one year after bachelor) Damascus University – Syria – 2005 - with very good degree
Bachelor in economy. Damascus University – Syria - 2004 - with good degree
