Education Industry Lead and Sales Director
Microsoft
Total years of experience :34 years, 6 Months
Executive account management for top tier Education accounts (Public/Private Primary, Secondary and Higher Education) in Levant and North Africa.
- Orchestration and leadership of a diverse regional education v-team of program managers, technical and industry sellers and experts to drive targeted business growth with strategic education customers in K12 and Higher Education segments and drive the jointly agreed customer multi-year Education and Digital Transformation business strategy.
- Disrupting the mindset of customers and status quo - at CxO level - by bringing innovative ideas that showcase case for change and Microsoft's unique value proposition for Education.
- Articulating the Education Transformation Framework strategic vision, followed by the maturity framework/path for customers to take to enable their Education and Digital Transformation based on their stage and objectives/capabilities they want to achieve and in full alignment with Microsoft cloud platforms; Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365 and Azure (Data & AI, Apps & Infrastructure) and Microsoft/LinkedIn Education Engagement, Skilling and Certification programs targeting students, educators and school/education policy leaders.
- Lead the process of structuring deals and define the negotiation strategies, monitor complex deal performance, and track efficacy relative to expectations post-close. Maintain ongoing relationship with partners to ensure compliance and commitments are fulfilled.
- Provide accurate pipelines forecasts of deals on a weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual basis. Maintain and update comprehensive account plan for strategic customers capturing their digital transformation strategies mapped to Microsoft and partners solutions.
- Providing insight and feedback from customers and partners to the regional and worldwide industry teams to help learning and improvement in industry solutions and digital transformation.
- Acting as industry thought leader and supporting customer engagements such as executive briefings, customer workshops and internal new hire sales team readiness (coaching/mentoring).
- Manage relationships, alliances, go-to-market and business development activities with Microsoft Industry Partners - including ISVs, System Integrators, Publishers & Digital Content Providers and multinational OEMs - in Middle East and Africa.
- Co-own, manage and execute all Microsoft Education partners’ local and regional industry events and exhibitions such as; GITEX, GESS, BETT, Innovation Africa, e-Learning Africa, Microsoft in Education Global Forum.
- Evangelize Microsoft platform (Windows Devices, Office 365 Productivity, Communication & Collaboration Platform and Azure Cloud Platform) to Independent Software Vendors (ISVs). Maintain and develop the MEA Education Partner Ecosystem Guide, a
- Manage the Microsoft Authorized Education Partner (AEP) channel program, which hosts more than 3000 resellers from MEA with close tracking to top 100 solution partners (ISVs) with their key offering supporting Microsoft platform.
- Scale our partners’ business through the Microsoft field v-teams - 60+ in total - comprised from Account Executives, BDMs, Program Managers and Technical Sales in 9 - single country and multiple countries - subsidiaries.
- Act as the main focal point of contact - liaison - between MEA field (Microsoft teams and partners) and Seattle based Corp HQ extended team in charge of the worldwide Education partner ecosystem (ISV, SI, Publishers, OEM), report back on status of business through MBU and QBU connection calls.
- Co-own and develop with Intel the Microsoft/Intel Education business and GTM framework for Middle East, Turkey and North Africa region.
- Engage with sales teams in 9 subsidiaries - representing total of 79 countries across MEA - in identifying, developing and closing industry solutions business opportunities.
- Contribute to the overall account planning process for large public sector accounts and large-scale opportunities.
- Industry Speaker and presenter in Microsoft customers and partners public/private events, in addition to pitching Microsoft Education vision, mission and education technologies in local, regional and international events.
- Winner of Share Fighters Compete Award (2012), MEA Tell Customer Story Award (2013) and three years 100% of quota attainment.
With more than 3000 employees, 22 regional offices and $300 ML recorded revenue for the year 2008, International Turnkey Systems (ITS) is the leading provider of cutting-edge integrated information technology solutions.
Within this role capacity I carry three main functions;
(1) Pre-Sales Consultant / Product Manager
- Acting as the Educational Technology/e-Learning/e-Training senior functional consultant advising/guiding ITS Business Development, Marketing and Sales divisions.
- Handling all sector pre-sales activities; customer needs analysis, requirements gathering, demonstrating company strategy and product presentations, drafting proposals, bidding qualification, customer meetings …etc.
- Major contribution in delivering ITS Digital Campus vision, strategy and products offering during on-site presentations attended by customers’ key decision makers.
- Supporting all ITS sales regions; KSA, GCC, Levant, Egypt & North Africa.
(2) Educational Technology Expert;
- Authoring consultation reports/white papers to guide potential customers for the designing and building their e-Learning strategy. (concepts covered; digital campus, e-Learning 2.0, virtual worlds ...etc)
- Documenting the internal content development methodology by adopting the instructional system design process ADDIE, and producing the ITS e-Learning handbook as mandated by the company quality procedure (CMMi Level 5)
- Represented ITS in major regional and international educational technology related conferences.
(3) Technical Team/Group Leader
- Managing a professional team of e-Learning specialists (Instructional Designers, Developers, Content Producers, Graphic Designers & Illustrators, Multimedia Specialists, Quality Assurance and Quality Control). The team is in charge of developing e-Learning bespoke courses (courseware), supporting and customizing ITS e-Learning products portfolio.
eKnowledge is an e-Learning Solutions Provider & Software House, founded in 2001; as an affiliate of IT Investments which funds over 40 IT & Telecom companies in Egypt, Middle East Europe and USA, with an investment value estimate of $ 110 million.
Job Scope Included:
o Sitting up company's objectives and translate them to short, medium and long term action plans.
o Monthly, Quarterly and Annual reporting to BOD business status report which includes current running projects, business opportunities and financials (revenues, expenses, cash flow, quarterly fiscals).
o Managing the business development team and taking active role in pre-sales operations including identifying potential clients, conducting executive level presentations and enrolling in big contracts negotiation and budgeting.
o Daily to Weekly follow up and general supervision to technical and administrative teams (Currently standing in total at 28 employee).
o Management of development and production of all e-Learning product oriented and customized software services that eKnowledge provides (Thus far, 20 client-based projects; including clients like: UN FAO Organization, King Abdel-Aziz University \[Saudi\], Qatar Academy \[Qatar\], Arab Open University \[Bahrain\], Volvo IT \[Sweden\], Middlesex University \[UK\], CDSM Interactive \[UK\] and in Egypt; Future Generation Foundation, RITSEC NGO, Siemens Egypt, Raya Software, Nile Online, Egyptian Medical Syndicate, National Democratic Party, IT Investment, Arab Cyber Education, Naeem Investment, TEA Computers, Informatique, Thebes Integrated Language Schools).
o Management of the Preparatory Business Development Phase for such Projects; Business Objects Definition, Project Proposals, Clients’ feedback and inquiries satisfying, with frequent and regular on-site sessions.
- Successfully managed company's outsourcing activities in Canada and the Middle East Region (Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon, UAE)
- Managed a team of 20 professionals working in outsourcing projects outside company premises
- Developed new Incentive system and HR policies
1995 - 1999
- Managed a team of 75 professional
- Successfully developed and lunched more than 100 new products
- Extensive envolvement in supervising the design, development and quality assurance processess
1992 - 1994 Calligraphy Division Manager
- Produced new technology in Arabic font processing
- Produced more than 120 Arabic fonts
1988 - 1991 Software Developer
- Distinguished member of the development team of the following projects:
- QSP Tools, Desk Top Publishing, Word Processing
Postgrad courses in Educational Technology
Graduated with grade Excellent