A Little Bit More About Me - Professional Experience

The non-academic part of my career initially progressed in parallel with my academic career. I started in the non-government sector where I served two terms as a board member in a regional higher education non-government organization (NGO). My main responsibilities consisted of steering and managing the organizational structure, coordinating activities with the existing partners and establishing partnerships with new organizations. As a result of my performances I was appointed to serve as a board member in the parent NGO which had operated on the national level. The most important achievements as a board member on the national level include creating the framework for cooperation between academia and corporate sector, as well as organization wide statutory reforms designed to better align the organization with the external conditions. A steady and proven track record created the momentum which led me to the Chairman position. As Chairman I managed to successfully fine-tune the reforms I had started, influence the content of the Higher Education Law and participate in the creation of the National Youth Strategy for the coming decade. During my board and Chairman terms I actively managed multiple projects that were being implemented by the organizations in which I served, in addition to working on project manager roles as a freelancer. Coincidentally, my term in the organization ended just as I was finishing my undergraduate studies. Guided by the need to learn more, I decided to continue my studies abroad and to steer my career towards research. This decision created an opportunity to implement my expertise and research ideas in an environment that consisted of major German consulting and logistics companies. The project was realized under the institutional support of the head research organization for the Information Systems in Europe. As a coordinator of that research oriented project I managed a team which successfully assessed the maturity of the organizational Enterprise Architecture (EA) activities, created a custom tailored set of metrics based on the widely used EA frameworks and delivered a complete strategic roadmap for achieving the desired organizational goals for the stakeholder company. After I had completed my Master studies in Germany, I accepted the offer to join the Ph.D. program in Information Systems at a well known institution in the Northern America. Upon the completion of all departmental requirements, I was promoted to the role of Doctoral Candidate. During my Ph.D. studies I worked as a Research Assistant and as Teacher of Records.When my doctoral studies were completed a very fortunate opportunity presented itself to me - an Assistant Professor track at the very best business school in the entire Arab World was waiting for me! Needless to say, I was delighted to take that opportunity. And I am really happy that I did, as enjoy living and working in the UAE.

A Little Bit More About Me - Personal interests

In general, I am drawn to the activities which inspire me to be inventive and creative. Resultantly I have lots of hobbies, which I elaborate below. Let’s start with the hobby of exploring the world and recording it with a camera. Multicultural environment in which I grew up inspired me to explore the world and to meet with different cultures and ways of life. In addition to travelling and sightseeing the well-known routes, I also love to hike around the less-known places and to document my adventures with a DSLR camera. Apart from understanding the world better, I believe that a multicultural perspective allows me to interact better with the increasingly diverse students and faculty members. This hobby is followed by digital design. It is worth noting that this website was adapted by me from scratch. The same holds for the presentations accompanying MIS Quarterly Executive journals. I also enjoy designing and printing 3D objects. During my summers, I like to replicate dozens of sculptures from the Getty Villa Collection for my personal collection. I am also very interested in collecting watches, LEGOs, cars and antiques. Specifically, collecting pieces of haute horlogerie ranks very high among my interests. My favorite complications are moon phases, mechanical chronographs, tourbillions and minute repeaters. In addition to the horology hobby, I recently got interested in the automotive engineering as well. Unfortunately, I am still not any good at it. One summer I had spent 6 hours replacing a regular aux glove box cable with gold plated one on one of my cars. Thus, whenever my cars need a regular service I drive it to the authorized mechanic... For now! And finally, I am happy to report that my pets (two cats and a dog) also rank highly among my personal interests.