By Mohamed Alaa El-Din
Yasser Al-Qadi has been appointed Minister of Communications, becoming the sixth one in five years, following in the wake of Magued Osman, Mohamed Salem, Hany Mahmoud, Atef Helmy, and Khaled Negm.
The ministry was first established in 1999 under the prime minister at the time, Atef Ebeid, with the first Minister of Communications named as Ahmed Nazif.
Al-Qadi was previously CEO of the Egyptian Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) between 2010 until early 2014. In August 2014, he was appointed as Regional Director for HPN Middle East, Mediterranean and Africa (MEMA) and Managing Director Egypt at HP. He became managing director of the company’s Egypt branch, as he carried out his duties from the company’s office in the country.
Al-Qadi also served as CEO for the Middle East and Africa at Cisco Systems, working there for several years before moving to ITIDA.
Outside of his work in the telecommunications sector, Al-Qadi was appointed as the first Assistant to former Minister of Investment, Mahmoud Mohieldin, remaining there until 2009. During his time at the Ministry of Investment, Al-Qadi gained much experience in business planning, and management of development projects and institutions.
Al-Qadi graduated from Cairo University’s Faculty of Engineering in 1984, and received a master’s degree in computer software design from the University of Southern California in 1987.
A former minister of communications, who preferred to remain anonymous, told Daily New Egypt that the ministry now needs a head who has extensive awareness of the telecommunications sector, rather than just information technology (IT). This is due to the telecommunications sector needing the most reforms, in addition to being the largest sector in terms of investment value, compared to IT.
The former minister noted that this is not the case with Al-Qadi, who has extensive experience in the IT field, but has not previously been assigned any position related to the telecommunications sector.
