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It was just as Egypt’s first cellular network was coming to life that Ayman Amiri decided to join the telecommunications sector. The year was 1998 and France Telecom, Motorola and Orascom Telecom were joining forces to create Mobilin, the pioneering operator that today is known as Orange Egypt.
Leaving behind his roots in the world of oil and gas, Amiri saw great opportunity in the sector. Back when he first joined as an engineer, cell phones were still a fairly new concept.
“I joined at the beginning when the company was still a startup, 28 years ago,” he tells The CEO Magazine.
“I’m lucky. I was one of the first 50 people to work in Egypt’s telecom industry building this huge mobile empire.”
The organization has certainly evolved in that time, first becoming a joint venture under just Orascom and France Telecom and then rebranding as Orange in 2010, with the Paris-headquartered company taking over almost 95 percent of shares in the network. It has also transformed from a 2G network of old to arrive firmly in the 5G era.
“The pandemic was an opportunity for mobile technology to connect all the people around the world.”
Amiri’s role within the company has also dramatically changed. He has worked his way up through the ranks to his current position of Chief Technology and Information Officer (CTIO).
“I really have seen a full story of changes during those 28 years, from 2G to 3G to 4G to 5G and the same on the IT side as well – a full transformation that has helped the company achieve its strategic goal of being a top mobile operator providing services to more than 30 million customers,” he says.
“During this period, I participated a lot in supporting the build-up of many Orange affiliates in the region, as well Orascom affiliates in places like Algeria, Iraq and Asia. So my team and I participated in supporting, starting up or building those mobile operations, too.”
As if that wasn’t enough to keep him busy, Amiri also undertook an MBA from the Rennes School of Business, where he achieved a distinction. That did not mark the end of his learning journey, however.
“I continued to work to try to have my professional doctorate in business from Cardiff University in the United Kingdom as well as Rennes,” he reveals.
“I still haven’t stopped following the path of education. In parallel with my growing technical practical knowledge, this year I finished my diploma with Harvard School of Business in AI leadership and transformation.
“So my journey with Orange has evolved in parallel with my education.”
Indeed, the role of CTIO represented the perfect opportunity for Amiri to apply the skills he learned during his doctorate in a practical context at Orange Egypt.
“It was about how to really transform the IT domain, embedding it with our network,” he explains.
“I needed to build a homogeneous team to really support the transformation not only at the technology level, with IT transmitters, but more holistically, how to support the commercial side of the business to achieve the strategic goals of Orange Egypt.”
Working with leaders in the IT space like MAS Misr is part of Amiri’s plan. Also among his considerations are how to help the commercial growth of revenue through efficient use of capex and the budget, while employing the latest tech to improve the network’s service.
He also occupied himself with creating innovative new products and portfolios for Orange Egypt’s customers that did not yet exist in the market.
“Being the leader in innovation and in transformation was my main target to achieve for the company for the past eight years being CTIO,” he says. “Plus, having studied AI leadership and transformation over the past two years, transformation became my real interest.
“Things were really transforming very quickly over the past five or six years and AI is now on a very fast track.”
Implementing new technology safely and at scale requires a fine balance, however.
“If we are not the first company to correctly utilize the AI to strategically transform the company, then we lose because we have very tough competitors in the market like Vodafone and Etisalat. We have even the governmental operator, so really the competition is strict and very tough,” Amiri points out.
“The first to succeed in really understanding the benefits of AI and applying it in the right way to suit customers’ needs will be the winner and the others will really lose a lot if they are not even close.”
For Amiri, youth empowerment is directly connected to sustainable development.
“The future of technology in Egypt depends on people,” he says. “Networks and platforms are important, but the real impact comes when young people have the skills, confidence and tools to innovate.”
By investing in digital skills and workshops, Orange Egypt contributes to a stronger talent pipeline and supports the national goal of preparing youth for the jobs of the future.
It’s a determination that was also borne out during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Orange Egypt’s future hung in the balance due to compromised operating conditions. But the situation came with its opportunities too.
“All these people were at home, creating demand for connectivity,” Amiri recalls. “The pandemic was an opportunity for mobile technology to connect all the people around the world.”
“Being the leader in innovation and in transformation was my main target to achieve for the company.”
Orange Egypt quickly responded to the crisis by organizing a crisis management center, meeting several times a day to ensure employee wellbeing and deliver rapidly increasing network capacity.
“We were very successful during this time,” he says. “We won the best network from a speed perspective.”
Looking ahead, the company has already established crisis response practices for disruptions including pandemics and regional conflicts. A new dimension that has been added in the years since the pandemic is a focus on information security itself.
“Without the right protection of data and information, this will be a crisis,” Amiri warns.
Because while being the first network in the Egyptian market is an impressive legacy, in his view it is not one that Orange Egypt can become complacent about.
“We need to make sure that we will be the first in the coming years,” he stresses.
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